“What’re you doin’?” he asked.

“You’re awake,” I pointed out the obvious.

“The neighbors are awake with al your racket. What’re you doin’?”

“I’m leaving.”

Uh… not good.

One second, he looked sleepy, the next second, he looked pissed off.

“What did you say?” he asked.

I looked down, anything not to look at Hank, and pul ed my feet out from under Shamus.

“I’m gonna cal a cab and I’m leaving.”

Deprived of my feet, Shamus got up and pressed his body against my legs again. This was unfortunate as I was trying to put on my jeans, thus hopping around on one leg and avoiding Shamus at the same time. Not exactly graceful but I had nothing left to lose.

I shouldn’t have looked down. Without warning, Hank was there. He jerked my arm pul ing me off balance. I dropped the jeans and col ided with him and Shamus.

Shamus scooted out from between us, then pressed against both of us.

Hank was naked. I hadn’t had a chance to get a good look at him, what with being entirely too tuned into how turned on he was making me. I knew he had a great chest but my quick glance showed me he pretty much had a great everything else as wel .

I ignored his great everything else and snapped. “Hey!” trying to pul my arm away but Hank held on tight. In fact, his free hand came up and grabbed my other arm.

“Get back into bed,” he said, looking down at me.

“I’m going,” I told him.

“You’re not going.”

I was stil trying to pul away. I was stil not succeeding.

“I am.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

“Why?”

Jeez, there was just no shaking this guy.

“Let go,” I was getting kind of desperate. I dropped my gaze to his chest, raised my hands there and began to push.

He shook me gently to get my attention. It worked. I looked back up.

“Tel me why you’re sneakin’ out of my bed in the middle of the night.”

“Hank –”

“Answer me, goddammit!”

Holy cow.

He wasn’t pissed off anymore, he was angry. I couldn’t only see it on his face; I could feel it emanating from his body. For some reason, it didn’t scare me. He had it in check. It was entirely control ed. I knew that like I knew there were no other jeans in the world as good as Lucky jeans.

It did make me talk, however. I didn’t like that he was angry, not at me.

“I’m not a slut,” I blurted out.

His hands on my arms relaxed but didn’t go away and he blinked one of his slow blinks. “Sorry?” he asked.

“I’m not a slut.”

God, I sounded like an idiot. Now, I had to explain. “I’m not a slut. Never have I slept with a guy on a first date.

Never. Never. Never.”

“Roxanne –” he started to say but I forged ahead.

“Bil… the last guy, it took, like, three weeks to get to third base and at least a month before we did it. I swear.”

“Roxie –” Hank began again but I kept talking.

“Before him, there was Derek, and we were dating, like, forever before we did it and it was unfortunate when we did because he wasn’t very good at it. Then there was Kenny and I don’t even remember how long it took before we did it. He was a jerk; once we did, he dumped me.”

“Roxie –” Hank said again and started to pul me against his body but I had my arms up between us and, like the total idiot I was, I was counting down my ex-lovers on my fingers.

“Then there was Troy, he was a good kisser, like you, but it stil took, I don’t know, at least two weeks before I let him get his hands up my shirt. Wait, Troy doesn’t count because we never did it in the end. I saw him making out with my friend Kim and I broke up with him. What a bitch. I forgot about her.”

Hank now had his arms around me, Shamus was sitting beside us, his doggie body resting against our legs and I was oblivious to this because I was on a rol .

“Then, there was Scott, he was my first. We dated for at least a year until we final y did it. He married the prom queen and now they’ve got half a dozen kids, no joke.” I stopped and looked up at Hank.

He was looking down at me, angry gone, pissed off a memory, he was smiling again with only his eyes engaged in the smile.

Shit.

Had I just recited al my lovers to Hank?

I had.

Shit.

“You finished?” Hank asked.

“I’m an idiot.”

Hank bent his head and rubbed his nose against mine.

Then he gave me a light kiss.

That was nice but I stil felt like I was now at least thirty different types of fool.

“I’m a slut and an idiot,” I told him.

“You aren’t a slut and you aren’t an idiot,” he said authoritatively, making me believe that at least he believed it.

Then his hands came up my back and undid my bra.

“No! Don’t do that, I have to go.”

He ignored me, slid the straps down my arms and tossed the bra aside. Then, his hands went down my back, tossed the bra aside. Then, his hands went down my back, he bent, I felt them go over my bottom and he jerked me up.

I threw my arms around him and he turned and deposited me on the bed and he came down on top of me.

His weight felt good on me, too good.

“Whisky, get off me. I need to go.”

His hands were on me and I liked how they made me feel, I liked it a whole lot. His fingers tagged my panties and started to pul them down.

Against my neck, he said, “You stil want to go after I f**k you again, I’l take you back to the hotel.” Holy cow.

My stomach did a dip.

I tried to ignore the dip and the subsequent melty feeling.

I had to be strong. Or, at least, I had to try to be strong.

“No. No more f**king. I’ve got to sort out my problem then, if you’re stil around when it’s done, we’l try this again but we’l take it slow and get to know each other before we, uh… carry on… er, like this.”

His head came up and he looked at me. I could tel right away he thought I was funny.

“Sunshine, I know you’re crazy, and I have to admit it’s sweet, but you’re al kinds of crazy if you think I’m waitin’ to get inside you again.”

Holy cow. The melty feeling graduated to a rol ing boil.

“Hank…”

He’d stopped pul ing down my underwear at my hips, his hand went to cup my pubic bone and he kissed me.