Page 50 of Perfect Together
“If you’re on the pill, how come you used protection with your ex?” Sam asked.
A valid question but not an easy one. Not now, although it had seemed so simple at the time she’d decided.
“Even though it’s never been said, I don’t think my parents are faithful to one another.” She’d barely admitted this truth to herself over the years. Even when her mother asked her what love had to do with anything, Nicole hadn’t wanted to face what had always been on the edges of her mind.
She swallowed hard. “I was on the pill before Tyler and I started sleeping together, and once we did, he didn’t ask about protection, he just used it, so I didn’t offer the information.”
Because she hadn’t trusted him enough, she realized now. “If my parents weren’t faithful to each other, I didn’t think I should risk it for myself.”
Yet she’d taken that risk with Sam. Nicole was afraid to question what that leap of faith could mean. And from his silence, she took it to mean he had no interest in finding out either.
Chapter Nine
Nicole soaked ina hot bath in her new claw-footed tub. After her night with Sam, her body ached in the best possible way. She leaned her head back and let her mind drift to the many aspects of the man she was coming to know. He could be tender and sweet one minute, hard and demanding the next. She hoped he’d stick with her long enough for her to learn more.
Her eyes drifted shut, and she thanked her lucky stars she’d met him before her wedding and was grateful she’d found the strength to end her engagement. If not, she wouldn’t have spent last night in her bed. With Sam. She smiled and sank deeper into the bubbled water.
She trailed the loofah over her calves and her knees and up her thighs before picking up the handheld shower massager to clear the soap. The sweet scent of strawberry soap prickled her senses. And as the water teased her clit, arousal swept through her. With thoughts of Sam on her mind, she settled the light spray between her thighs, placing just the right amount of pressure on her sex, creating a delicious friction, before easing one of her fingers between her slick folds.
She moaned at the same time her phone rang, jarring her into awareness. She glanced down and caught sight of Sam’s name, and her stomach flipped in awareness and embarrassment. She dried her hand on a towel and slid the bar across the screen to answer.
“Hey,” she said, hoping her tone didn’t give her away.
“Hi.”
His voice oozed sex and sin, and the heaviness between her thighs increased tenfold. She drew her knees up and squeezed tight.
“What are you up to?” he asked.
She looked down at the shower massager, a reminder of how close she’d been to bringing herself pleasure she’d rather he give her. “Umm... I’m in the tub.”
He expelled a harsh breath. “You shouldn’t have told me that.”
She grinned, glad she wasn’t the only one affected. “Then you shouldn’t have slipped out before I woke up.” But he’d been a gentleman and left a note, which enabled her to fall back to sleep without believing he’d done a one-eighty in his thinking or pulled a guy stunt and carelessly skipped the morning after.
It almost made her trust that he was capable of more than he thought when it came to relationships, but he’d been up front with her. So she knew better.
“I promised my father I’d help him around the house. You were out cold, and I didn’t want to wake you.”
“So what can I do for you now?” she asked.
He laughed, low and deep. “That’s a loaded question while you’re naked in the bathtub, sweetheart.”
Her breath caught at the easily used endearment.
“Actually you can join me for dinner later.”
A flush of happiness rushed through her. “I’d love to.”
“See? I can take you out like a gentleman,” he said, causing her heart to tighten in her chest. “Dress up.”
“Okay.”
“And be good in that bath.”
Her face flushed, and she wondered if he knew just how bad she planned to be.
The rest of the day passed quickly, with a trip to the grocery store, and then she spent the better part of the afternoon doing her favorite thing: baking. Nothing made a house feel more like a home than the fresh smell of homemadeanything, and now that she had her own equipment, this small house was beginning to feel like a real home to her.