Empire and Honor (Honor Bound 7)

“You’re crazy. Absolutely bonkers.”

“I think you’re supposed to be crazy if you’re in love,” Marjie said, and then asked, “Aren’t you going to kiss me?”

He did so.

When they broke apart, he said, “Jesus H. Christ, Marjie!”

“My God, you stink! What have you been doing, eating garlic?”

“That’s the smell of terror. I get it when I’m flying airplanes—and when people shoot at me.”

“Go take a shower,” she ordered. “Right now. I’ll wait.”

He tried to kiss her again. She avoided him.

“And so will that have to wait,” she said.

—

Jimmy had just finished soaping his armpits for the fourth time and was wondering what was the best way to go back into the bedroom—With a towel around my waist? Or maybe I could open the door a crack, stick my hand out, say my underwear is in the top drawer of the dresser and would she please hand it to me?—when the glass door of the shower opened and Marjie joined him.

“I got tired of waiting,” she said.

She was naked.

—

“I wondered if that was true,” Marjie said about six minutes later.

“You wondered if what was true?”

“They say that when a man takes a virgin to bed, afterward there’s blood on the sheets.”

She pointed and he looked and there was indeed a bloody stain.

“Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head and kissed him as she ran her fingertips down his face.

“No, but thank you for asking.”

And then she had a second thought: “I’ve got to get out of here.”

She slipped out of bed and trotted to the bathroom.

When she came out, she was in her underwear, and thirty seconds after that had her skirt and sweater on and was slipping her feet into her loafers.

She went to the door, and turned.

“Wait a couple of minutes,” she said, blew him a kiss, and then went through the door.

Well, she seems to have taken this in stride.

Won’t people be able to tell, just looking at us?

Jesus Christ, I didn’t use a rubber!

What if I made her pregnant?