"Yes, I do."
"Great set of boobs on this broad."
"Fuck you!"
"We've already done that."
"And no, comment about that? You usually have an opinion about everything."
Matt kissed the top of her head.
She raised her head.
"Is that in lieu of a comment?"
He kissed her. It was exquisitely tender. She shifted her body against his, so that her mouth was in his neck.
"The reason I'm curious," Penny said softly, carefully, "is because I really don't know what it's supposed to be like."
"I don't understand."
"There was Kellogg Winters," Penny said softly. "And then Anthony. And now you."
"Kellogg Winters? He's an ass."
Is she telling me I'm the third?
"Yes, he is. But I was seventeen, and I wanted to, so I let him. In the back seat of a car at Rose Tree Hunt Club. It was his birthday."
r /> "KelloggWinters!" he chuckled.
"And I thought, if this is what everybody's so excited about, that's really much ado about nothing."
Without thinking, horrified as he heard his own words, he asked, " And Tony the Zee? What was that like?"
He felt her body tense, and then relax.
"Different. Better."
"And Matthew Payne?"
"It was not like anything else. Is it always like that for you?"
Oh, shit!
Tell her the truth. If you make a four-star ass of yourself, so what?
"It has never been, before, like it was with you."
For a moment she didn't reply or move. Then she raised her head and looked down into his eyes.
"Really? God, please don't try to be charming, Matt!"
"I'm not being charming, I'm trying to figure it out."
She looked into his eyes for a long moment, and then lowered her head into his neck again.
"I'm going to take an enormous chance and believe you," she said. Her arm slowly tightened around him. He held her as tightly as he could.