If You Believe

"It gets better," he answered almost distractedly.

Wiggling up to a half sit beside him, she rested her chin on the smooth curve of his shoulder and looked up at him. "I think it would help if we did it again. " She kissed his shoulder, tasting the warm, salty tang of his skin.

He turned and looked down at her. Surprise widened his eyes. "You want to do it again? Now?"

Mariah knew she should feel shy and hesitant and afraid—a "nice" girl would—but she didnt feel any of those familiar emotions.

She felt. . . . free. And giddy with anticipation.

She smiled at that, almost laughing out loud. Imagine her—her!—feeling giddy. It was an incredible, heady sensation that made her bold. Shed just opened the door on a whol& new side of herself, a side she liked, and she didnt want to close it yet.

It had been shut for far too long.

She peeled back the sheets to expose his naked, aroused body. "I dont think Im alone in wanting it___"

Mad Dog laughed. "It would appear not. " Sliding down beside her, he took her in his arms. "So, Mariah, tell me this: How does someone who is not precisely a virgin manage to get so horny?"

She blushed at the crude word, but didnt look away. "You do it to me. "

"Only me?" he teased.

She sobered. It was suddenly important to her that he know the truth, that he understand the gift hed given her tonight. "Only you. "

He frowned, and she knew instantly shed said something wrong. "Mariah . . . "

Fear brushed through her. She didnt want to hear what he had to say. Tightening her arms around him, she rolled on top of him. Her legs slid around his hips, her ankles locked around his. The hard evidence of his desire pressed against her thigh.

"Lets do something different this time. "

He slipped his arms around her, letting his fingers splay across her naked fanny.

"What would you recommend?"

She pulled back in surprise. "Me?"

He gave her a crooked grin. "You must have learned something interesting when you lost your virginity. "

Incredibly, she laughed. She knew then, without a doubt, that shed made the right decision tonight. In all the years since Stephen, shed never been able to remember their physical relationship without a searing sense of shame and humiliation. Now all that was gone.

"Whats so funny?"

She shook her head, feeling totally, deliciously liberated. For once, the past was in perspective. "Lets just say this. A two-minute egg takes longer than my . . .

experience did. "

He grinned. "Thats your big Im not a virgin. Two minutes?"

"Maybe less. It was too dark to look at my watch. "

"Did you want to?"

"Have sex?"

He laughed. "Look at your watch. "

"Oh, that. " She smiled broadly. "I believe I counted seconds instead. "

"How many?"