“Hold on,” Riley said.
Nell stopped, knowing she should keep on going, but curiosity was always a demanding thing. And it always seemed to get the better of her at all the wrong times.
“Nell.” Riley pushed away from the counter. “I didn’t say no.”
Nell’s breath caught in her throat. “No, I guess you didn’t.” He looked so big and solid and his mouth was so soft and inviting. She tried to imagine being kissed by Riley, but all she could remember was Jeremy Hill who’d cornered her in seventh grade and tried to kiss her. His kiss had been wet and totally unromantic.
“No, I didn’t.” He took a step toward her.
Her head said leave one more time, but her feet ignored the command. “Riley, may I ask you a question?”
He hovered over her. “You can ask me anything.” His voice had taken on a tone that sent a shiver through Nell.
She looked him straight in the eye. “Why did you ask me to the Sadie Hawkins dance?”
The corner of his mouth tilted up. “Let’s call it the lure of the forbidden.”
She wasn’t sure exactly what he meant, but she certainly wanted to know, if for no other reason than because she got a warm tingly feeling inside her, as if she was doing something really naughty. “I don’t understand.”
Riley closed the distance between them. “You are the eternal good girl with the hot, sex-kitten body. Why wouldn’t I want to go out with you?”
“I’m chubby.” She interrupted him. Her grandmother had told her so often enough.
His nostrils flared as his gaze traveled over her body. “Never. Voluptuous, stacked, loaded if you want to get crude. Everything is in all the right places and in the right amounts. But then again, girls like you were always off-limits to bad boys like me.”
And he had been a bad boy, riding his old motorcycle around town at all hours of the night with his black leather jacket and that sardonic grin all the girls used to squeal about.
Nell thrilled at his compliment. No one had ever told her such things before. For the first time she felt, well, almost pretty. “My grandmother used to say you’d end up in prison or in a trailer park.”
He grinned. “I was pretty bad, wasn’t I?” A look of pride filled his eyes.
She touched his forearm. His dark skin was corded with the structure of the muscles underneath. Tingles rushed up her fingers. She liked how it felt to connect with him. He was strong, powerful and sturdy, as though he could withstand anything. She hadn’t thought physical contact with a man could be so exciting. The hair on the back of her neck rose as a current of electricity danced through her.
“Was, but not anymore.” The words came out in a breathy tone she didn’t even know she was capable of.
“Well,” he said, “I haven’t taken a joyride in Mr. Anderson’s Pontiac in about ten years.”
She felt a laugh struggle to break free. Mr. Anderson had prized his old Pontiac so highly that every high-school boy tried to steal it for a backcountry joyride. Riley had been one of the few to succeed.
In a strange way she wanted to reassure him that as far as she was concerned he’d proven everyone wrong and she was proud of him. He’d become a nationally respected historical restorationist and had been featured on several PBS shows on historic preservation. The houses he restored were featured in magazines. “But you did something with your life. Something real special.”
“Yes, I did.”
“And you made some very important contributions to preserving this town’s history.” Not that she cared about Wayloo’s history, but some of the houses were just too pretty to let rot.
“You didn’t come here to talk about town history.”
“No,” she said in a breathless tone. “You’re right, I didn’t.”
His deep velvety voice was doing strange things to her. Things she shouldn’t let herself admit. After all, she had been talking to him almost every day for the last few years. Of course, they rarely had conversations outside of the diner. Maybe her grandmother was right. Just the mere mention of the word sex made a woman think strange things and want to throw caution to the wind.
“You came to talk about sex.” His eyebrows jiggled. “With me.”
She wanted to cover her flushed cheeks. She wanted to splash the cool tea all over her face. Focus, she admonished herself. Focus on what you came for, Nell. “Um, yes.”
“Why do you want to know about sex?”
She’d spent her entire life looking at life from the outside. She wasn’t going to be the same little mouse in New York she was in Wayloo. She’d be like those women she saw on television and read about in books. In charge of her life, sophisticated and free. “I want to fit in. When I live in the city.”
“What else do you want to know?”
His question surprised her. She’d already told him what she wanted.
He moved closer. “Do you want to learn how it feels to touch a man?”
She was tired of reading romances, of reading about women who knew so much more than she did. “Yes.”
Riley took another step toward her. “About how it is to kiss a man?”
She could almost feel his body heat. “Yes.” Every nerve ached. Despite the air-conditioning her body temperature rose and one side of her brain wondered why and the other side told her to go along with it.
He took another step closer. “And about how to please a man?”
Nell clasped her hands behind her back lest they stray toward him. “Yes.”
“Do you know what’s going to happen between us?”
She’d watched her share of episodes of Sex and the City. She’d read plenty of books. She wasn’t totally uneducated. In theory she knew what went on between men and woman. The practical part she understood, she just lacked the experience. “I know the basics.” Don’t I sound all worldly and wise?
He hooked his finger in between two buttons of her uniform at the gap that sometimes showed between her breasts. “Book-learnin’is only going to take a girl so far. We’re going to have to sleep together.”
She glanced down at his finger. At this moment the polyester was choking her entire body. “I think I can do that.” Maybe not. She felt as though she should run away and never come back.
He moved her backward until she felt the edge of the counter pushing against her hips. “Just wanted you to know how it’s going to be.”
“You’ll do it?” A thousand different emotions pushed through her until her breath seemed to stall inside and she grew light-headed.
“Yeah,” he replied, “I’ll do it.”
The way he emphasized the word it curled her toes. Nell let out a long breath. The last thing on her list completed. “Well, thank you, Riley.” She slipped sideways and turned to leave. Not that leave was the right word, escape was closer in meaning.
Riley grabbed her arm and spun her to face him. “We haven’t hashed out the details yet.”
Nell bit her lip. “Details?”
Something strange appeared in his eyes that sent a spiral of fire down to her belly so strong she bit her bottom lip. Her breath came in shallow gasps. Her body was so hot she wanted to pour the whole pitcher of cold tea over her head.
Riley pushed her tight against the counter, and she was powerless to stop him, even