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A bleeding heart was what she was. But Henry couldn’t help but admire her ambition and philanthropic spirit. “And how do you think this will fit in with your plan to date and—I imagine—marry the great Luke Seeley? Wouldn’t a year apart be kind of difficult, especially if you two had any…kids.” He nearly choked saying it out loud. Not because he had a problem with kids, but because the thought of Benny having them with Luke didn’t sit well.

“I imagine, should the two of us be so entwined in the future,” she said coyly, swirling the wine in her glass, “that he’ll be perfectly fine coming with me. He actually served two years in Sudan with Doctors Without Borders.”

Of course he did. Saint freaking Luke Seeley.

The episode ended, and Benny grabbed the remote sitting between them and flipped the television off before setting her wine on the coffee table. She reached down to undo the clasp on her shoes, giving him a dangerous glimpse of her full breasts pushed up against the delicate fabric of her dress.

Good God. This was too much.

He jumped to his feet. “I think I’ll have a glass of that wine after all.”

“Help yourself,” Benny said, preoccupied with the other shoe now.

By the time he’d returned, both shoes were resting on the floor and Benny’s feet were tucked beneath her while she sipped from her glass. “Here,” he offered, topping off her drink, having brought the bottle with him. He took a seat on the other end of the couch, needing to ensure the maximum amount of space between them.

Benny seemed to be mulling over something as she stared into her glass. “Henry? Can I ask you something?”

He took a taste of the wine, nodding at her to continue.

“And I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me—no holding back. How much attention do men give to a woman’s…experience? In bed, I mean.”

He nearly spewed his mouthful of wine out. Henry hadn’t known what question Benny had been about to ask him, but a discussion about sex was the absolute last thing he’d expected.

“What are we talking about here, Benny? Are you meaning…sex?” Good God almighty. She wasn’t saying she was a virgin, was she? Trying to keep the shock from his tone, he asked her, “You’ve had sex before, haven’t you?”

This was the twenty-first century, for crying out loud. Girls were having sex before they had their driver’s license these days. He didn’t even want to think about the appallingly young age he’d been his first time, but Candy Leland had been sixteen and curious and—

Back on track, Henry.

Benny’s face was a furious red, a depth of red he hadn’t thought possible. “Of course I’ve had sex before.”

He took a breath in again, as he hadn’t been sure if he could handle a discussion about the first time with anyone—least of all Benny Sorensen.

“It’s just that…well. I would never bring this up in a million years, but I’m a little nervous. And here you are, a man with a lot of experience when it comes to women and knowing what men prefer.”

Hell, she made him sound like some kind of gigolo or something. “I wouldn’t say a lot of experience. It’s not like my place is a Motel 6 or something.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “I just mean that you know a thing or two about women. About…intimacy. And I wonder if someone’s knowledge, or lack of knowledge, has ever been sort of a turnoff.”

“I don’t think I understand, Benny. Because, men? We’re beasts. Sex with any woman is great; sex with a beautiful woman is fantastic. I don’t think we give it much thought beyond that. Where’s this coming from?”

She studied her fingernails now. “Nowhere. Forget I said anything.”

“Not likely. Come on. You can tell me.”

“I don’t know. I think sometimes I waited so long to finally…do it that I might have lost some of the natural excitement that one has for the whole thing. You know? That whole young ineptitude that probably goes unnoticed when you’re sixteen and with an equally horny sixteen-year-old. You learn stuff then. Get better. But I didn’t really date much in high school.”

Now he was beyond curious. “How old were you when you were…deflowered?” he asked in a teasing tone.

“Twenty-two.” She still hadn’t looked up at him, instead reaching over to top off her glass.

He let that sink in for a moment. She’d gone twenty-two years of her life without sex. It seemed…impossible.

“Jake was nice, he was in my organic chemistry class, and we’d been study partners all year.”

“Jake was…nice? Benny, did you even like the guy?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, he was a really good friend. And since I’d been carrying this V card around for so long to the point I felt like I was a freak, I decided it was time to do something about it. Jake was more than happy to relieve me of that.”


Tags: Ashlee Mallory The Sorensen Family Romance