‘Look, last night happened and I’m not trying to pretend it didn’t,’ she said. The second time they had made love had been even more intense than the first as he had encouraged her to explore his body while he had tutored her in how to please him in a voice that embodied sin. ‘But—’
‘You regret it?’ His tone was sharp.
‘No, but today is another day.’
He loosed a long whistle through his teeth ‘Wow, now that really is profound.’
Responding to his aggravating sarcasm—only aggravating if you let him get to you, Eve—she turned her head sharply, intending to deliver an acid response. At the same moment, like a lazy big cat, he stretched. Disastrously distracted by the ripple of taut muscle in his ribbed belly and perfectly defined chest, she almost dropped the quilt.
‘You still haven’t explained how I’m your first lover.’ How a woman who was as innately sensual as Eve had reached this point without having taken a man to her bed defied logic and his powers of deduction, but he wasn’t going to complain as it was to his benefit. ‘Did it not occur to you that it is the sort of thing a man might like to know upfront?’
‘I didn’t think you’d notice.’ Keeping one hand on the quilt, she stalked back to the bed. ‘What’s so funny?’
He looped his hands behind his neck, drawing her eyes back to the muscles of his lean torso. ‘You are…’
Her scowl refused to stay in place, he was so incredibly gorgeous.
‘But deflections aside—’
‘I was not trying to deflect anything.’
‘It’s a simple question, Eve.’ He grabbed her arm and Eve sat down on the bed. ‘Better,’ he murmured, easing closer until their faces were close. ‘Nobody is a virgin at your age by accident.’ He tugged the quilt, holding her eyes as it slid down to her waist.
‘I’ve not had time for r-romance.’
‘Last night wasn’t romance, it was sex, Eve.’ The best sex he had ever had.
She lowered her chin to hide the hurt anger she knew was written on her face. When she lifted it again she was smiling. ‘You really don’t have to spell it out to me, Draco. I hardly thought it was the start of a deep and meaningful relationship.’
Her laugh grated on him. Her entire attitude grated on him; it wasn’t as though he was looking for deep and meaningful any more than he’d been looking for a virgin to take to his bed. A virgin…! Eyes half closed, he relived that moment when he had known…and felt again the equally powerful surge of possessiveness that had been too primal to deny and still was—he was her first.
‘You’re a passionate woman, Eve.’
She shook her head, not able to admit even to herself her secret fear of losing control with a man, that she might lose some of herself at the same time… Her eyes lifted, a furrow appearing between her brows as she wondered what it was about him that made it all right to lose control.
‘I’ve been b-building a b-business.’
His dark brows lifted. ‘That is a reason?’
She nodded.
‘It is possible to have sex and run a business at the same time, I promise you, cara.’