His hands roved up and down her spine. "I've never made love in the back of a truck."
"Me, either." Nor had she made love anywhere else for that matter.
A fact she now knew for certain.
She'd been almost sure nothing happened with Gary. The doctor in the emergency room had reassured her there were no signs of penetration, and she'd believed intellectually, but her mind had felt so violated it had been difficult to look beyond that. Now at least she had physical reassurance that she had not slept with Gary Owens—or any man for that matter. Because making love in the back of a truck had been a first for her in more ways than one.
Chapter 10
Nikki was a virgin.
Past tense now.
Carson still couldn't wrap his brain around the fact, even as they sprawled in bed—at her apartment, not the garage place at her parents. After they'd untangled themselves from the sleeping bag in the back of his truck, he'd hesitated to take her to his house because of the bad memories it might hold for her, so he'd suggested her empty apartment. Since it was now common knowledge she'd moved out, there was no reason to fear hanging out in the place for a few hours.
An arm tucked under his head, the other curved around Nikki while she slept curled against his side, he stared up at her ceiling fan clicking overhead, circulating the heat. A tiny soccer ball dangled from the chain, spinning lazy rings in the air. Her room surprised him. She was such a no frills and leanly honed person he hadn't expected something so…froufrou. From her ruffly curtains to the poufy spread, patterned with tiny pink flowers and little green leaves.
Then there was that soccer ball chain pull overhead.
The dichotomy was somehow so totally Nikki the image settled in his brain as he grew even closer to this woman he'd fought hard to resist. How many other facets to her personality had he missed because of preconceived notions?
And the biggest mistaken notion of all... Damn it, he should have figured out she'd never made love before he came up against the hint of a barrier. Which shocked the hell out of him.
Although she was a quick study.
Still, if he'd known he would have.. .what? Turned away? Probably not, but at least he could have offered her a gentler, more romantic first time. Being with her blew his mind beyond anything he'd ever experienced. He knew now there wasn't a chance he could have been with her seven months ago and forgotten.
However now he wondered what had happened between them. When he reexamined their conversations about that night, never once did she say they had sex, only that they'd gone to his place. Not that they'd discussed it much—his own damn fault.
He remembered waking up n**ed together, so they must have gotten mighty damn close before he passed out. God. He owed her an even bigger apology than he'd thought.
Nikki stirred against his side and sighed over his chest before pressing a kiss to his shoulder, stirring a good morning down south even in the middle of the night. He willed away the erection—okay, it wasn't going down any time soon, but at least he reined himself in and simply rolled toward her for a simple kiss.
Simple? Not for long.
Carson sailed his hand along her n**ed spine. "You're awake."
Her fingers skipped down his chest. Lower. Gliding one finger from tip to base. "So are you."
He clamped a hand around her wrist. "As much as I would really enjoy an encore, again, you need more time to recover."
"Women don't have a recovery time like guys."
"That's not what I meant." He pressed a kiss to the palm of her hand and resisted the urge to taste more instead of talking about what promised to be a sticky subject. "You were still a virgin."
She stilled for six clicks of the ceiling fan overhead before flipping to her back, sheet clutched to her creamy chest. "I was wondering if you noticed that little fact."
Tough to miss. Just the memory of her tight heat had him throbbing all over again.
While he couldn't have all of her just yet, he allowed himself the pleasure of teasing her tangled hair along the pillow and rubbing a dark lock between two fingers. "Twice tonight was probably already one more time than was wise for your body. Tomorrow, though, I'll be more than happy to take you up on that offer."
"So we're done for tonight?"
Her obvious disappointment stirred him as much as any touch. If she was game, he had a few ideas of how they could spend the remaining hours before sunrise and a return to the real world. "Unless I can interest you in a bath?"
"A bath?" She sat up, flowered sheet slithering down to pool around her waist while she studied him with unabashed enthusiasm.
Forget oysters, this woman was a walking, talking, living, breathing aphrodisiac.