“The way you made me climax—I had no idea peopledidthat,” she said.
He traced a finger down her arm. “You don’t sound altogether pleased.”
“Extremely pleased,” she said quickly, wanting to leave no doubt there. “I just hate not knowing things.”
His chuckle rumbled through her.
“It’s not funny,Omnimancer.”
“Peter.” He reached for a gorgeous scrap quilt at the foot of the bed and pulled it over them. “And I’m not laughing at you, Beatrix, I was simply thinking it’s veryyouof you.”
She slipped a hand into his. “How could you do that with such skill if you’re a virgin? And, for that matter, how is it you’re a virgin at all? You’re a wizard. It couldn’t have been for lack of opportunity.”
“To be clear,” he said, lips quirking, “I’m not saying I’ve lived like a monk.”
The thought of what else he might know how to do brought on a rush of heat. A bit breathlessly, she asked, “Then why not …?”
“I don’t want to leave any woman in the position my mother found herself in.”
She pushed herself up on one elbow, the better to see his face. “Surely there’s a black market for rubbers in D.C.”
“They’re a lot less effective than you might think.”
When she’d kissed him before, she’d been spurred on by lust. This time, affection drove her to it. He slid his fingers into her hair and kissed her back, unhurried.
After they finally separated, he smiled up at her. It transformed his face. He looked so happy.
She didn’t intend to ask the question, but it popped out the instant after it came to mind. “You’re not bothered by my lack of maidenly virtue?”
He snorted. “Who do you think I am—Mrs. Price?”
She kissed him again, luxuriating in the feeling of his lips and the contour of his chest against her palm. Then she settled back into the crook of his arm.
He cleared his throat. “As long as we’re being nosy ... Garrett?”
She guessed by the slightly reluctant tone of his voice that he thought the man who’d proposed to her had also slept with her.
“No,” she said firmly. “It was Evan Zeiler at the end of twelfth grade. Only Evan Zeiler. And just the once.”
He digested this for a moment. “Is he the one who always went on about how he would leave town at the first opportunity?”
“That’s him.”
“Did he? Leave at the first opportunity, I mean?”
“Yes.”
He winced. “I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t like that.” She pressed closer. “I slept with himbecausehe was leaving.”
His surprised laughter sent tingles down her spine. “Intriguing choice. Go on.”
“It makes perfect sense if you think about it,” she said. “I knew I wasn’t going to marry and I didn’t want to die a virgin, but I also couldn’t have it spread around town that I was that kind of girl.”
“At the advanced age of seventeen, you’d already decided there was no one in the world you’d ever care to marry?”
“What man would pay for Lydia’s education or let me work so I could?” She thought of being married to Garrett—losing her legal status as an individual to a man whose character she’d misjudged—and shuddered. “Besides, when you have few rights to begin with, you’re not eager to give any of them up.”
