Collin looked rather pale today. And pale for Collin’s blond-haired, fair-skinned complexion was just about as white as a sheet.
The only plus to this particular shade of ghost-white was that it made his eyes look very blue, rather than their normal washed-out sort of grayish-blue.
Maybe Ari was just being exceptionally dense today, but she didn’t have a clue what Collin was talking about.
They were sitting on a bench in a quiet corner of Penn’s Campus. It would have been more convenient to sit right outside Penn Hospital, but the view would have consisted of Philadelphia traffic. The green space in the center of the campus was much prettier to look at and worth the short walk.
They often shared lunches here, but Collin had never just blurted out doing it statements before.
Now, if it were any other man, she might think he was talking about sex.
Hey, babe, let’s just do it.
She felt a bit hot and tingly at the thought.
Not that Ari was the type of person who would want to do it in a public place. But it might be nice to have someone want her bad enough to want to do it in a public place.
But Collin would never suggest doing it on a park bench. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t overly prone to doing it at all.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t. But his sex drive rode a few notches below her own.
Not that she was a nympho.
But Ari liked sex.
Hot, wild, abandoned sex. Fast and hard. Slow and soft. She just liked it.
Collin blamed his less than lustful sex drive on his stress-filled career as a surgeon. Ari sometimes worried that maybe it was something more. Maybe they just didn’t click.
No, of course she clicked with Collin. They were perfect for each other. He just worked too hard.
Collin interrupted her wild musing and repeated, “A date.”
She must have still looked puzzled, because he said, with exasperation tingeing his voice, “Don’t play coy with me, Adrienne.”
Coy?
That was the description of someone who promised sex, but didn’t follow through.
Coy didn’t describe Ari at all. She’d follow through in a New York minute…a Philadelphia minute, to be more exact. She’d gotten herself quite worked up thinking about hot sex in a public place.
Of course, unless Collin had become psychic or suddenly much more perceptive than he normally was, he didn’t know that she’d been thinking about doing it right here, right now, so what was he talking about?
“Coy?” she repeated, knowing she sounded as confused as she felt.
“You’ve been nagging about setting a wedding date since the day we got engaged.”
Ah, wedding dates.
No nooky on a park bench.
A wedding date.
That’s what this was all about. Just then his statement fully hit her.
“Nagging?” She was sure that even Collin couldn’t miss what was her annoyance this time.
He raked his fingers through his blond-to-the-point-of-being-white hair. With a normal, mortal being, this would result in someone’s hairstyle un-styling.
But not Collin’s.
He was the kind of man whose perfection couldn’t be messed with.
Ari assured herself that she liked that quality about him. It’s just that sometimes—like at this particular moment—she forgot she liked it.
“Adrienne, why are you being difficult? This is what you wanted. We’re going to choose a date and move ahead with our plans.”
“Why now?”
“It’s a perfect time.”
Perfect.
Perfect like everything else about Collin.
He came from the perfect, nondysfunctional, upper-class family.
He’d been a perfect trouble-free teen, gone to his father’s ivy league alma mater and followed in his father’s footsteps and become a surgeon.
He’d even joined his father’s practice. He was the perfect son, his parents reminded her…frequently.
She’d noted they’d never referred to her as the perfect potential daughter-in-law.
She realized that Collin was reciting all the reasons that now was the time to set a wedding date. “…you’ve not only finished your thesis, but you’ve had it published. You’ll be starting a great new job. And my career is quite solid now. We’ll plan a small Friday night ceremony and a weekend getaway, so we won’t interfere with your work schedule.”
“I’m sure they’d give me time off for a honeymoon.”
A tropical beach honeymoon.
Just her and Collin. With no outside demands. Totally alone and stress-free.
Lolling around in the sun. Having sex.
Going out to eat. Having sex.
Sleeping late. Having sex.
What was up with her today? She had sex on the brain. Maybe because she hadn’t had sex on anything else for quite a while.
A very long while.
Just when was the last time she and Collin had done it? She couldn’t remember.
“A nice, long, stress-free honeymoon,” she added with what she hoped was a suggestive lilt to her voice.
Maybe if she could get him away from the hospital long enough, Collin would rediscover his sex drive.
Maybe rather than neutral, it would kick into overdrive.
They’d really click then.
She bet they had park benches on tropical beaches. She felt a bit more overheated at the thought.
He shook his head. “Taking time off for a long honeymoon wouldn’t be responsible. You’ve just taken the position at the institute. You don’t have any vacation time built up. You can’t just take days off whenever it suits you.”
Ari sighed.
Collin had a point.
Collin always had a point. And his point was perfectly correct, but no surprise there, either, because Collin was always correct.
Sometimes living with perfection was…taxing.
“So when were you thinking about setting the date?” she asked.
She thought, but didn’t add, because you’ve obviously already worked this all out already.
She should appreciate his thoughtfulness, his attention to detail, she chided herself.
“How about three months from now? Since we’re not planning anything big and elaborate, that should allow a sufficient amount of time to pull it all together.”
“But I want big and elaborate. A huge wedding and reception with all our friends and family there. Music. The bouquet and the garter. Dancing. You and me—”
“Ari, we’ve talked about this. It doesn’t make sense. I’m an only child of two only children. You’ve got one unmarried brother. And your extended family consists of your grandmother. We don’t have big families.”
“Friends. We’ve got lots of friends.”
“Colleagues. We both have many colleagues.”
Collin