"So it's just you and me, then?" She asked, wanting no question unanswered in her heart.
"Hell, yes. I can't take being separated anymore. Not going to happen," he gritted out.
She took another breath and carried on, his answer satisfying her, pleasing her down to her bones. "So, I don't want to have to use a condom, at least, not this first time. Will that be possible?" Thankfully, her voice was steady.
His eyes sharpened as he began to walk the few feet it took to reach her. Taking her bag from her arm, he tossed it aside. While staring at her, his palms wrapped around her bare shoulders. "Why wouldn't it be?"
Her heart rate picked up and it took everything she had to continue to breathe evenly. "Are you going to make me ask about your personal health, Nick?"
Very subtly, his fingers clenched on her skin and his voice dropped an octave. "I can't believe you think you need to ask, but go ahead."
Maybe he didn't care that she doubted him, but she had her own health to consider; she wasn't stupid. "Is it safe? Do you know for sure that you won't . . . won't give me anything?"
His gaze became pointed and his mouth flattened, but he gave her the answer she sought. "Yeah, it's safe, and yeah, I know for sure."
Courtney breathed a sigh of relief. Not only for his answer, but for the fact that she'd been brave enough to confront him about the issue. She didn't want to lose her virginity with a condom between them; it seemed less than romantic somehow.
She dampened her lips as he wrapped an arm around her waist and she raised her eyes to his.
"Does that make you feel better, sweetheart?" he asked in a more gentle tone.
She felt color hit her cheeks. "Yes."
"I'd never do anything to hurt you or to put your health at risk. I'd cut off my right arm first."
At her silence, he asked, "Okay?"
She breathed in slowly. "Okay," she managed, but it was little more than a whisper. It was as if she'd used all of her strength even asking the question, and now her mind turned to the act itself, what was about to happen. She wasn't taking this lightly; she'd waited too long for it to be less than a monumental decision and moment in her life.
As his beautiful brown eyes stared into hers, he slid one strap of her sundress off her shoulder, and then the other. Her blood heated and she felt her eyes flare. At her reaction, he glanced down to the heart-shaped bodice of her dress held it in place by her breasts, and then slowly, he reached around and slid her zipper all the way down.
When her bodice loosened she let out a small gasp; the dress was lined so the only thing she had left underneath was a pair of abbreviated satin panties.
She glanced down and watched as Nick fisted the material of her dress in both hands. All it took was a small tug and then the garment lay pooled around her feet. She continued to stare down between them, a small memory, a frisson of déjà vu tickling along her nerve-endings and blending with the sexual awareness beating through her blood. She'd stood in this same place before him, looking at the floor, trying to contain the raw emotion she felt for him.
As she stood almost completely nude in front of him, sexual tension seemed to fill his large frame and she knew, without actually looking, that he was staring at her bare breasts. She tried to stand straight and tall while she fisted her hands at her sides to keep them from reaching up and covering her naked chest. Dreaming about this had been one thing, being almost naked before him was an entirely different matter.
His hands found hers and clenched around them, holding them to her sides, but his touch was gentle, his thumbs running back and forth over her skin in a soothing manner. He cleared his throat and spoke. "I want to make sure you know something--just for the record." As she continued to look down at the floor, he released one of her hands and a masculine finger put pressure on her chin until she was forced to lift her face to his.
Her eyes locked with his as his thumb ran back and forth along her bottom lip in a caress so soft and gentle that her knees almost gave away. As she waited for him to continue, her pulse jumped erratically. He watched her in silence, their breaths coming in tandem, his face set in lines of gentle homage. His eyes reflected something she'd only caught bare glimpses of in the past; now it was there, unhidden, out in the open between them.