Too Wilde to Tame by Janelle Denison Read Free Book Online Page B

protect herself—without even realizing she was doing so.
     
    Finally, her lashes fluttered open and she slowly glanced his way. Her gaze was guarded and her expression was tentative, even a bit uncertain. She looked so damn vulnerable, and that was a term he never would have equated to this woman beside him. No, the sassy, impudent Mia he was familiar with would have shattered the silence with a smartass remark and brushed off the encounter as just another casual, one-night-stand affair.
     
    But this Mia staring at him… oh, Lord, she had the ability to cripple his emotions and make him care. At the moment he had the strong urge to reach out and touch her, gently this time. To smooth away the silky strands of hair that had fallen across her soft cheek. To lean down and kiss her slowly, leisurely, and make love to her with only her needs in mind this time.
     
    That thought reminded him once again of what a self-absorbed lover he'd been, fueling the need to make amends for being so thoughtless with her.
     
    "Mia… I'm sorry," he said, his tone low and rough, though the words alone seemed inadequate.
     
    She stiffened, her gaze suddenly flaring with rebellion. Abruptly, she sat up and tugged the hem of her skirt down her thighs and readjusted her bra so her breasts were covered again. That quickly, her entire demeanor shifted and changed. Gone was that glimpse of insecurity he'd witnessed, and in its place was a spark of defiance that put a wall between them and shut him out.
     
    "You don't owe me an apology, or anything else for that matter," she said, her tone infused with a thread of sarcasm he immediately recognized as a defense tactic. "I'm a big girl, and what we just did was completely consensual."
     
    She thought he was apologizing because he was feeling guilty about what just happened. Oddly enough, he had no regrets—and that was something he refused to analyze too closely at the moment, although he knew he'd eventually have to face that issue at some point. She'd also made it very clear in her comment that she wasn't the type of woman to develop expectations about them, or him, just because they'd slept together.
     
    Now this was the Mia he'd come to know. He found it ironic that he was beginning to realize that her stubborn, too-confident attitude was an act of some kind—a possible way to protect herself and emotions when a situation became too intimate or personal.
     
    As it just had with them.
     
    Exhaling a deep, frustrating breath, he stood up, went to his dresser, and pulled out a clean T-shirt, which he handed to Mia so she didn't have to put her wet top back on. She slipped the shirt over her head and let it fall to her thighs, dwarfing her petite frame. He was just damn grateful it covered her adequately so he didn't have to look at her bare skin and lush curves, which had the potential to distract him from the conversation they needed to have.
     
    She glanced up at him in silent thanks, and as soon as she met his gaze and he had her attention, he spoke what was on his mind. "I'm not apologizing because we had sex," he said, wanting to be sure she understood his stand on that score.
     
    Her expression turned wary and confused. "Then what are you sorry for?"
     
    There was no sugar-coating what he had to say, so he didn't even try. "I didn't exactly give you the chance to come."
     
    Her brows rose in surprise and then the corner of her kiss-swollen mouth quirked in amusement. "I'll spare you your male pride," she said as she stepped around him to the other side of the bed. "I'm not one of those orgasmic kind of women, so don't let it keep you up tonight worrying and wondering. The fact that I didn't have an orgasm wasn't something you did or didn't do."
     
    Stunned by her admission, he turned to stare at her as she picked up The Electric Blue T-shirt she'd worn earlier. "You mean to tell me you've never had an orgasm?"
     
    "Oh, I've had plenty of orgasms, sugar," she drawled, resorting