‘No.’
‘Oh, good.’
‘In fact, I’m thinking you should stay the night.’
A wave of warmth rolled over her and she felt a great goofy smile begin to spread across her face. ‘And I’m thinking I’d like that.’
EIGHT
What a night, thought Zoe, gradually coming to and stretching beneath the warm cosy duvet while her brain caught up with her body in the waking-up stakes. And what a morning...
Blinking away the remnants of sleep and rubbing her eyes, she smiled a smile that she was glad no one could see because she was sure it was wide and satisfied and way too smug.
She’d been one hundred per cent right in thinking that sex with Dan would be of the stupendous kind. It had surpassed all her wildest dreams and her dreams had been pretty wild. And even though she didn’t have much to compare it with she was pretty sure that most people didn’t have multiple orgasms all through the night or moan and groan so much that their throat wound up sore. As for her body, well, she ached in places she hadn’t known existed. She’d discovered muscles she didn’t think she’d ever used and she’d learned that she was more supple than she’d ever imagined.
‘Good morning,’ muttered a rough voice from beside her and Zoe pulled down the duvet to look at the cause of her aches, her lethargy and her bonelessness.
‘Is it?’ she mumbled. ‘Morning, I mean.’
Dan twisted back around, all those fabulous muscles flexing and pulling, picked his watch up off the bedside table and squinted at it. ‘Just about. It’s half past eleven.’
‘Heavens, I haven’t slept beyond seven in years,’ she said with a yawn, ‘but then I don’t normally have a night like the one I’ve just had.’
He put his watch back down and rolled over to face her once again. ‘How are you feeling?’
She grinned. ‘Fabulous. Exhausted. Achy.’
‘Me too.’
He propped himself up, then leaned over and bent down to kiss her, and any brief panic about morning breath disappeared beneath a surge of desire. The kiss was lazy and long, and wiped out the aches faster than any hot bath. By the time he lifted his head, Zoe was so hot she was surprised she hadn’t melted.
‘So what happens now?’ she asked breathlessly, kind of hoping he wasn’t going to tell her it was time to go home as she wasn’t sure she was able to walk.
‘I could make you coffee,’ he said with the glimmer of a smile.
‘That sounds nice,’ she said. ‘And then?’
‘Brunch?’
She gave him an exasperated look and batted him on the arm. ‘Ouch,’ he said mildly.
‘Wimp,’ she said, grinning up at him. ‘What I’m trying to ask, a
s you’re well aware, is do you want to do this again?’
‘What do you think?’ he asked, taking her in his arms and rolling her on top of him so she could feel exactly how keen he was to do it again.
Zoe pushed herself up and off him before the desire he whipped up inside her could suck her under again, taking a handful of duvet with her as she sat back on the bed. ‘I don’t mean now,’ she said, clutching the duvet to her chest as if it might provide some sort of defence against his addictiveness. ‘I mean another time.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ he said, his smile fading, and his expression turned serious as he too levered himself up. ‘But there’s something you should know.’
At the gravity of his tone Zoe felt herself pale and her heart dropped. Oh dear, this didn’t sound good. He’d told her that he wasn’t married and he didn’t have a girlfriend, so what could it be? Was he ill? Not who he said he was? Did he have a criminal record?
‘What is it?’ she asked, and braced herself.
‘I have a three-date-only rule.’
Huh? Zoe blinked, wondering for a moment if she’d misheard. ‘A what?’