5
ERICK COULDN’T BELIEVE his ears. Mad at her? Mad at her? Why the hell would he be mad at her?
“In what universe would a man be mad at the woman he’d just had incredible sex with?” he asked. “Tell me what universe so I know never to go there.”
“So you aren’t mad?”
“Of course I’m not mad. Surprised? Yes. Not mad.”
Clover sighed, her relief palpable.
“Good. I probably should have told you but I got caught up in the moment. It was a good moment.”
“Yeah, it was, wasn’t it?” He touched her face, traced her smile. He was glad to see that smile. He’d never been with a virgin before and, as he was thirty-eight years old, he really hadn’t expected this situation to come up. He didn’t quite know how to feel about it other than happy he’d left her smiling. “So...any reason you want to share with me why you’ve never had sex before tonight?”
“It wasn’t for lack of trying, I promise. And I’ve had some sex. Just not the big one.”
“I can’t imagine why someone as pretty as you, as smart as you, as together as you, never...unless you didn’t want to.”
“I wanted to. It’s kind of embarrassing.”
“Clover,” he said, shaking his head and laughing softly. “I’m naked. My semen is inside you. And you just had sex for the first time in your life—with me. I think it’s safe to say we are way past being embarrassed with each other right now?”
“I had no idea there would be so much of it.” She glanced under the sheet as if inspecting her wet thighs. “Like...a pint.”
“That’s been building up awhile. Stay there. I’ll get a towel.”
He left her in the bed and went into the bathroom. She had a stack of pretty white washcloths on the towel rack. Probably too nice to use for postcoital cleanup but that’s what washing machines were invented for. He soaked the cloth in warm water, rung it out and brought it back to the bed. He switched on the lamp and found Clover looking sleepy, blissful, adorably rumpled and thoroughly, thoroughly fucked.
“I can do it,” she said.
“You can do it but I want to do it,” he said. “We’re getting to know each other. Let me see you.”
He pulled the covers down her body and he could sense her tensing. Gently he pushed her knees apart and even more gently he wiped his semen off her and out of her.
“No blood,” he said. “That’s good. I was a little rough there. Sorry.”
“I liked it.”
“You liked it rough?”
“I liked it with you,” she said.
“And I liked it with you. I very much like this.” He opened her up with his fingers a little wider and looked at her open body. “You’re beautiful here. But you’re beautiful everywhere.”
“Not exactly,” she said. He tossed the washcloth into her clothes hamper and looked down at her again as she pulled the sheets up to cover herself.
“What do you mean ‘not exactly’?”
“I mean...well...see?”
She lifted her T-shirt up and showed him her breasts. He whistled in appreciation to make her laugh. She didn’t laugh.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you have nice breasts, Clover. I don’t know why you think I wouldn’t agree.”
“You can’t see the scars?” she asked.
“Yeah, I can see them.”