“David.”
“David’s a lucky man to have a chance with you.”
Tessa felt her face flush.
“You do blush easily. Am I going to be treated to a lot of that later?” His blue eyes were full of mischief.
“I hope so.”
They both laughed.
They strolled along the harbor for a while, hand in hand. Tessa wondered why Ben was spending so much more time ‘bonding’ than Jason had. She finally got the courage to ask.
Ben wrapped his arms around her and leaned into her, so close she felt his lips brush against her ear. “Because we increase the intimacy level today, Tessa, and it’ll be easier for you if you’re more comfortable with me. Feel like you know me, a little bit anyway.”
Tessa realized the note Jason had slid under her door hadn’t said what Ben’s therapeutic goal was. So she asked him.
“The first rule, the one you practiced with Jason, is to ask for what you need.”
Tessa nodded.
“The second rule, and I think you and Carmen have had some long conversations about this, is to give what you can.”
“Yes, I know that. But I don’t know what that means, exactly, in terms of what you…” Tessa blushed again.
“It means that we’re going back to your hotel. I’m going to ask you to give me what you can, and together, we’ll discover what some of your limits are.”
Asking a man to do things to her, things that she wanted, was hard, yet Jason had opened her up to it. But that sounded like a walk in the park compared to the flip side: being asked to do something she might not really want to do. Apparently her thoughts were displayed on her face, just like the newsfeed crawler at the bottom of a CNN news story.
Ben said, “You won’t have to do anything you absolutely don’t want to. But I will try every trick in my considerable bag of tricks to expand your sexual repertoire.”
“Expanding my sexual repertoire shouldn’t be hard, since I have none.” Tessa didn’t laugh because it was true.
Ben hugged her. “If you really want to be ready for a new relationship, whether it’s with David or someone else, you have a lot of work to do.” His eyes began to twinkle. “Our work is cut out for us, so let’s get going.”
All the way back to the hotel, Tessa wondered if she’d lost her ever-loving mind.
-18-
They were barely inside the room when Ben took Tessa into his arms. “Take a deep breath. It’s just me, Ben, the Aussie goofball with a special talent for sexually empowering women.”
Tessa’s heart was racing, and Ben held her without moving for several minutes. When he did move, it was not subtle. Before she knew it, her sunny knit top was over her head and lying on the floor.
“Don’t think, Tessa. Just stay with me. Only stop me if it truly violates your morals or is painful. If you tell me to stop, I will. Are you with me?”
Tessa said she was, though she wasn’t sure how he could hear her over her pounding heart.