He leaned closer. “That was raw need,” he explained in a rough voice. “Untamed sex. That was not bad-girl sex.”
“Well, you would know,” she said hoarsely.
His expression changed abruptly. The corners of his mouth dipped and a wariness darkened his eyes. “What does that mean?”
“I’m sure you’re familiar with bad girls,” she said as she rested her spine on the wall and looked away. “An expert, really.”
“Why would you assume that?”
“Because you don’t kiss like a gentleman,” she said with a smile. “You didn’t treat me like a princess. You treated me like a woman, demanding pleasure and giving it in return.”
She felt him withdraw. “If I hurt—”
She turned and looked at Sean. “You didn’t,” she assured him. “You did everything right. But apparently I’m not right for you. Not your type.”
“You have no idea what my type is,” he said as he moved closer.
“You couldn’t have made it any plainer. None of the tactics in the book have tempted you.” She sighed and stared straight ahead. “So why did you have sex with me? Were you curious or were you just being polite and didn’t want to hurt my feelings?”
She’d asked the question, but Isabel wasn’t sure she was ready for the truth. What if the best lovemaking she’d ever had, with the one man whom she had fallen hard for, was just pity sex for him? She wasn’t sure she could recover from that.
Sean was suddenly standing in front of her, his arms on either side of her head, his hands flattened against the wall. “Why did you choose me to practice on?”
Her eyes widened. “Practice?”
“Your book club is all about applying what you’ve learned. So you chose me to try things out on,” he said with a ferocious frown. “Why? Did you think I was a challenge?”
She silently shook her head. Challenge wasn’t the right word, she decided.
“Or that I would be a safe choice? Did you believe I wouldn’t let it go that far because I work for your father?”
She scoffed at the idea. Safe? Sean Hawkins was never the safe choice. He had triggered a cascade of emotions inside her that she would normally have kept her distance from. But she didn’t want to play it safe anymore. She knew that being with him would change her life, change her. She was ready for that. She wanted that.
“I have always been attracted to you,” she admitted.
“Your ex-boyfriends are nothing like me.”
She was surprised that he had noticed the guys she had dated. What he said was true. Those men were the opposite of Sean. She’d felt comfortable with them. Quiet and contained. She didn’t want to be contained anymore. “You don’t think I could be attracted to you?”
He stared at her mouth. “You have a funny way of showing it.”
“I don’t always feel comfortable expressing what I think or feel.” She often urged herself to be cautious, especially because of her mother’s scandalous legacy. “I’m working on that.”
“You express it just fine every Sunday night.”
“So I’ve mastered the cool blonde image. It’s the only shield I have. Much like the way your three-piece suit is your armor,” she said as she motioned at him. “Everyone sees the suit, not the real you underneath it.”
“You’re wrong,” he said as he moved closer. “With me, what you see is what you get.”
Isabel shook her head. “I don’t understand why you want to be the suit. There’s no fun in that.”
“I don’t understand why you want to change,” he said quietly. “You’re perfect the way you are.”
She blushed under his compliment. “I don’t want to be perfect. Or a lady. Or a good girl.” She wanted to be hot, wild and sexy. With Sean. Only him. “I’m tired of hiding what I really feel. What I really want. Aren’t you?”
“I’m not hiding anything.”
“You’re a mystery in a town where there are no secrets,” Isabel said. “There are no rumors swirling around about you.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
He really did seem satisfied by the news. Pleased. “You don’t date anyone in town but I highly doubt you could go without sex.”
“That could explain why it was so explosive when we got together,” he muttered as he rested his forehead against hers.
Isabel closed her eyes. “Do you have a woman in another town?” she whispered. She was sure he didn’t. Sean was honorable and wouldn’t have had sex with her if he was in a committed relationship.