Sinful by Carolyn Faulkner Read Free Book Online Page A

hot tubs and/or private pools; twenty-four hour room service; giant flat screen TVs; big, comfortable king sized beds; and in this suite, even a small, fully equipped kitchen area.
    As far as he was concerned, this was going to be the first night he made love to her. How she was going to react to that idea, he wasn’t at all sure.
     

Chapter 4
     
    Not that he necessarily thought she was going to cause a scene, but just in case, he pulled the truck into its assigned space and reached over to draw her against him. “What is this?” she asked, looking around.
    Brandt squeezed her gently, saying, “This is the last part of your birthday surprise. We have a room here for the weekend.”
    Lita swallowed hard, but didn’t say anything, preferring instead to fiddle with her jeans – the first she’d really worn since she’d left her former life. She’d bought several pair, but never actually put them on.
    “I haven’t really talked to you about this because you’re so uncomfortable with it, but I want you, Lita. I want to make love to you. I know you probably think that’s wrong, since we’re not married, but, dammit, it’s how I feel.” He let his frustration get the better of him and kept talking when he probably shouldn’t have. “I’ve been taking it easy, trying to let you decide what you’re comfortable with, intimacy-wise, but I’m near the end of my rope here. I know I’ve done this badly. I should have made you talk to me about this beforehand, but I guess I just hoped it would be okay, somehow. Intellectually, I don’t want you to feel pressured. But physically... ” he trailed off, afraid he’d already said much too much and that he’d screwed it up so badly that she was going to bolt from the truck and rent a car to drive herself home, then never see him again.
    She surprised him to no end by throwing herself at him, wrapping her arms around his chest, and out and out bawling. “No, you’re right. I’m a ninny. It’s not like I’m a virgin. I’ve been married. I just... well, you know all about it. I really don’t mean to hold you at bay...” She wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to say, but she wanted to soothe him somehow. He looked very disgruntled with and upset at himself and not even remotely happy to be there with her.
    It was hardly what she’d pictured when she’d thought of the first time they’d make love, and to her surprise and shame, that was something she had thought quite a bit about. So she took herself – and him – in hand, lacing her fingers with his, and saying, “Why don’t you show me our room?”
    In response, he lifted her onto his lap in the roomy cab. “I do want you, Lita, every bit of me wants to love you in every way, but the last thing I want is for you to feel obligated or forced. Truly. It would break my heart.”
    With the softest smile he’d ever seen on her face, she turned it up to his, saying, “I don’t. You’ve been wonderfully patient with me and I appreciate your willingness to put up with all my weirdness.”
    Brandt leaned down to kiss her – really kiss her – for the first time, knowing he wasn’t going to have to break off in the near future, his lips softly melting onto hers in a manner so undemanding that she actually kissed him back without thinking. As if she didn’t already know, there was going to be absolutely no comparison between being intimate with Brandt and being intimate with her ex. They were two diametrically opposed experiences.
    After very reluctantly leaving her in order to register, he came back out to her and carried her into their room, hefting his lone suitcase in behind them.
    “I don’t have any clothes!” Lita’s hands went to her face – she couldn’t imagine wearing the same outfit for three days.
    “Of course you do,” he said, opening the case. “I know your size, and I bought you all new things.”
    He wasn’t kidding – there was everything from two frilly, matching sets of bras