He didn’t smile when he looked into her eyes. “I like you, so your bra size wouldn’t matter.”
“I see. So…” Natalie tried not to grin at him as she shimmied her shoulders, making her breasts jiggle. “These aren’t something you noticed right off?”
Still too serious, he said, “I did, sure. You, Natalie Alexander, are extraordinarily stacked.” He toyed with her hair, letting one long ringlet twine around his finger. “But I also noticed your reserve and the way your incredible hair sort of dances when you walk.”
Her hair was like dandelion fluff on humid days, but she enjoyed the compliment all the same.
“I noticed your smile and your pretty brown eyes that are always so sincere. How you greet every neighbor in the building and how you talk to yourself when you’re trying to remember things.”
Wow, that sounded as though he’d been plenty observant. “I talk to myself?”
He traced her lips with a fingertip. “You do, usually when you first get home. You come across the parking lot, arms loaded down with books and bags, and you say things to yourself, like Check the mail, get the chicken out of the freezer, call Molly, sort the tests.” As if he couldn’t resist, he bent to her mouth for a soft but sensual kiss. “Things like that. Mental note-taking, I guess.”
“I had no idea.” But it sounded like the things she worked to remember each and every day.
“Molly is your sister, right?”
He’d admitted to snooping into her background, and now she knew he’d listened to her inane mumblings. Her defensiveness came crawling back in on her, but she tried to sound playful rather than offended. “You mean a supersleuth like you doesn’t already know the answer to that?”
Sighing, he eased away from her and sat up.
Natalie realized that, without the use of a condom, she was on the…messy side. It was a novel thing for her. She’d never had sex without a rubber. She’d never before wanted to.
Being a sensible woman, she took responsibility seriously, and from the day she’d wanted to become sexually active, she’d been very cautious.
It went beyond that, though.
Jett was the first man she’d been with long enough, and trusted enough, to want to forgo condoms. Other men had asked, but her answer was always a resounding “no.” Without the use of a condom, she didn’t have sex.
Until now. Until Jett.
With his back to her, Jett asked, “Are you going to keep taking jabs at my profession?”
“What? No!” She hadn’t meant it that way at all. “I wasn’t ridiculing your work.”
“Yeah, you were.”
That annoyed her. “Wrong, Sherlock.”
He eyed her.
“Sorry. Figure of speech.” Natalie sighed. “I just don’t like having anyone snoop into my business without permission.” She looked beyond him to the open bathroom door. This was going to be tricky.
Why had no one ever told her about cleanup?
His gaze turned speculative, intent. “Hang around awhile and I’ll explain about that.”
Hang around—to be with Jett, to just talk, to learn more about him.
Oh, she wanted to, she really did.
But before she could even think about that… “Jett, I, ah…need to make a dash into the bathroom.”
As her meaning sank in, his expression lightened. He smiled at her. “Stay put, honey. I’ll take care of it.”
Appalled, Natalie watched as he went into the bathroom. Through the open door she saw him dampen a washcloth under running water.
No way.
When he came back to her side of the bed, Natalie snatched up the sheet to cover herself. “What do you think you’re going to do?”
“Clean you.”
“Oh no, you are not.”
As if she hadn’t spoken at all he sat beside her, one hand on her thigh, his demeanor one of pure masculine possession. “I don’t skip condoms, Natalie. Ever.”
They had that in common. “Me, either.”
He coasted his hand up and down her thigh. “Even though you’re on the pill?”
With the washcloth held in his free hand, concentrating on the conversation took effort. “Doubling up is safer, and besides, pregnancy is only one concern these days.”
“True enough.”
And honestly, she hadn’t been with that many men. For a twenty-seven-year-old woman, her sexual experiences were few and far between.
He studied her with lowered brows and grave intensity. “But you let me.”
They both knew they’d just crossed some boundaries into new intimacy. Very softly she replied, “Yes.”
Still holding her captive in his gaze, Jett whipped the sheet away from her, causing her to yelp. “I think you and I are going to share a lot of firsts together.”
She tried to block his hands, but he laughed until he got her pinned down then coaxed her, saying softly, “Let me.”
And she caved.
Jett didn’t realize it, but he’d already been her first in many ways. Her first fling. Her first orgasm—at least through intercourse. Her first spontaneous encounter. Her first time being tied.
And now this.
It unnerved her, the complete and varied ways she enjoyed him. But it also felt so right.
She didn’t fight him as he cleaned her body. She didn’t look away from him either. What she’d expected to be horribly awkward just…wasn’t.
Not with Jett.
He was so earthy, so comfortable with all things sexual, that he put her at ease with his attitude alone.
When he finished, he kissed the inside of her thigh then cupped his hand over her. “I like taking care of you.”
Natalie wanted to touch him, to go to her knees and kiss him.
To have him again.
She started to move and he said, “Be right back.” He returned to the bathroom but was gone only a few minutes.
Natalie stared at the ceiling, attempting to sort her thoughts, to order her priorities.
He returned to his side of the bed, sitting with one leg bent on the mattress, his gaze all over her body again. Neither of them could ever deny the physical attraction—it showed whenever they were together, in the way they watched each other, how they touched and that sharp level of awareness.
“Before we get sidetracked again, tell me that you’re going to stay.”
She wanted to pull him down to her, but she held herself in check. “How long?”
At her reply, his shoulders stiffened. “Is it really asking so much?”
Of course it wasn’t. She felt like a heel. “Sorry. As you said earlier, old habits die hard.”
One brow rose up. “Meaning you’re used to deflecting guys in bed after they’ve just had sex with you?”
That brought her to her knees. She poked a finger at his chest. “Don’t you dare judge me, Jett Sutter! You can’t very well claim inexperience.”
He eyed her breasts. “No.” Catching her finger, he tugged her closer. “But you’re different from every other woman