Chapter 16
“When are we going to do this?”
Krissa smiled as she folded the towels she’d taken out of the dryer. The towels they’d all used last night after emerging from the hot tub, warm and wet and…hot.
She turned to Nate. His shaggy curls were rumpled, glasses shielding his eyes, as usual, from close scrutiny. He thrust his hands into the pockets of baggy cargo shorts, big shoulders hunched.
“Do what?”
He growled.
“I’m teasing.” She set down the folded towel on the stack, and laid her hand there. “I’m using an ovulation kit to tell me when.”
“Oh.” Discomfort flitted across his face. It was almost fun to tease him with all these personal details. She’d gotten so used to revealing every intimate particular of her menstrual cycles to Derek and about a hundred health care professionals, it no longer bothered her.
“I’m going to test this morning, and tonight. If it’s positive I’ll be ovulating in twenty-four hours. My periods have always been kind of wacky so I start testing a few days before I expect to be ovulating.”
“So if it’s positive today we don’t have sex until…when? Tuesday?”
“Monday night. And Tuesday. And maybe Wednesday.”
“Jesus.”
She laughed, moved closer to him. “You can handle it, big boy.”
She slid her hands up his chest to his shoulders. His body tightened beneath her palms. She wished she knew if it was a good tightening or a bad tightening. She wanted those glasses gone so she could see what he was thinking.
“Krissa…” He put his hands on her waist and set her away from him. She sighed. Okay, it was a bad tightening.
“Nate, if you don’t want to do this, please say so now.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to do it.”
“We have to talk about this. Derek’s downstairs working out. It’s just you and me, so be honest. Things are going to get very weird if we’re not honest with each other.”
“Have you done this before?”
She blinked. “Done what? Slept with another man?”
“Yes.”
“No.” She frowned. “Of course not.”
“There’s no ‘of course’ about it. You invited friends over last night and practically had an orgy in your hot tub. Why wouldn’t I think that maybe you guys have all…”
“I haven’t had sex with another man.” She looked down at her hands. “But I have with another woman.”
She heard his sharp intake of air.
“With Kim?”
Krissa nodded. “Does that disgust you?”
“Christ, no! But…”
“I’m not a lesbian.” She smiled faintly. “Or bisexual. Derek’s your friend. You figure it out.”
“He wanted you to do it.” She watched his face, below the glasses, the square shape of his jaw, the way the firm curve of his lips moved as e talked, his smooth skin.
