“You might have to. I don’t orgasm super easily. Takes a bit of doing.”

“Did it take a long time for Søren to figure out how to…you know…make you come?”

Nora turned her face up to the ceiling.

“Why do you ask?” Her response was casual, annoyingly casual.

“I don’t know. He was—is—a priest. You told me that before you and him…well, you said he hadn’t had sex in a long time.”

“He hadn’t. He beat people—consensually—but no sex. He was celibate from age eighteen to thirty-four.”

“I guess he was as bad at this as I am, right?”

Nora didn’t say anything. Her silence said it all.

“Damn,” Wesley breathed. “Didn’t think I could hate that guy any more than I already do.”

“Wes, you don’t want me to talk about this.”

“No, I do. Tell me. He was celibate for sixteen years and he could make you orgasm? Even at the beginning?”

Nora nodded slowly. “Even then. The first time. The first night together…” Her voice trailed off and her eyes turned black, and he knew he’d lost her to Søren again.

“I haven’t made you come once in ten times. How many times did he the first night?” Wesley pulled his hand away from her, suddenly not wanting to touch her, not with Søren between them.

“I don’t remember.”

“Nora, don’t lie to me, please. You have the best memory of anybody I know. Just tell me.”

“You sure you’re not a masochist, kid? I told you, I don’t remember how many.” Nora sat up again and grabbed her shirt and panties off the floor.

“That’s not true and you know it. You—”

“It is true. I don’t remember how many orgasms Søren gave me the first night he f**ked me. I don’t remember because after the fourth orgasm, I lost count.”

I lost count.

Three little words that hit him harder than a riding crop on the flank of a racehorse.

“That’s why I don’t remember,” Nora continued, yanking her clothes on. “And that’s why you should finally learn not to ask questions you don’t want the answer to.”

Nora left the bedroom, and Wesley threw on his jeans and followed her. Damn, the girl could walk fast when she was in a mood. She’d already disappeared from the hallway. Wesley checked the guest bedrooms. No Nora. The bathroom door was open. No Nora there, either. She tended to be an emotional eater. Kitchen. Of course.

In the guesthouse kitchen, he found Nora sitting on the edge of the table in front of the stone fireplace. Without a word he came to her, threw a couple logs in the fire and set them alight.

“Wes, it’s August.”

“It’s cold in here and you don’t have much on.”

Nora laughed tiredly and shook her head. “Goddammit, Wes Railey, will you stop being sweet to me for just one second?”

Wesley stood in front of her and she rested the top of her head on his chest.

“Nope.”

She pulled back and looked up at him.

“This is a good look for you, by the way. Shirtless and wearing only jeans? You’ll pull it off better than any man on the planet.”

“Finally, I’ve got something up on Søren.”

Slowly, Nora ran her hands up and down Wesley’s chest and sides. He shivered, but not from the cool night air.

“You remember that night in the kitchen at our house? That day you got so mad at me for flirting with Zach?”

“That was not flirting. That was seducing. Which I know you’re really good at. I just never had to watch it in our own house before.”

The smile left Nora’s face and she nodded.

“I never thought about it like that. I didn’t know you were in love with me then. Seriously. No clue. Otherwise I would never have done that to you. You have to believe that.”

“I do. At least I want to.”

Nora sighed. “I was so pissed at you that night. The thoughts I had about you, Wesley Railey, would have made Søren blush. The fantasies, the desires…the things I wanted to do to you...I even had this mantra about you I’d repeat to myself when my hormones started to run away with my better judgment.”

“You had a mantra?”

“Look but don’t touch.”

“Nice.”

“So that night you were all mad at me for flirting with Zach…I don’t know. I just wanted payback. You never even hit on me, barely flirted, and yet the second I had another man in my life you acted like I’d punched your puppy.”

“Don’t punch my puppy.”

Nora giggled as she took his hands in hers. The entire kitchen brightened with the sound of her laughter and the low fire in the hearth.

“That’s why I hit on you so hard that night. I wanted to get a reaction from you. That’s all. Just for my sake. Just to prove to myself I wasn’t the only one walking around dreaming of you tied to my headboard while I gave you the sort of blow job most men have to hire out for.”

A blush suffused Wesley from chest to head. “Well, I was the one who had to deal with wall-sex fantasies every time you wore a skirt or dress around the house.”

“Wall sex? You’re into wall sex?”

“I was very into it in my mind.” Wesley’s heart started to beat harder as his whole body remembered his favorite fantasy about Nora. “I thought it would be so hot holding you up with your skirt around your waist and your legs around mine and…damn.”