An Act of Persuasion - By Stephanie Doyle Page 0,33

soup and some lo mein if you’re hungry.”

“My breasts are none of your business!”

“Okay.”

He set the bowls on the small table she had next to the kitchen. A table she never ate at when she was home. It was mostly used for setting down her grocery bags and the mail before things were sorted and put away.

He’d even managed to find the one serving dish she owned and had filled it with the lo mein he’d recently microwaved to reheat. It was odd to watch him doing these things. These simple tasks she’d done for him for so long that he was doing for her.

She sat at the table squirming a bit because of her breast declaration. He hadn’t known she’d been looking at the picture in the book when she said it. Heck, maybe he hadn’t even meant anything by the question. Maybe he was curious in a nonsexual way if her breasts were more sensitive.

Yeah, right.

He handed her a spoon and a paper towel to use as a napkin—because, really, what was the purpose of buying both—then he sat across from her.

Not counting last night’s disaster, this was the first time they were sharing a meal together since she’d left him. It was exactly the thing she didn’t want to do because if she fell back into this pattern, she was afraid she would never break out of it.

But she was feeling tired and the soup did smell really good. She took a few cautious sips and waited for junior to approve or disapprove. After a couple of minutes, she could tell the kid seemed satisfied with the selection. She had a suspicion the kid might even let her have the lo mein.

“Are you angry I’m here?” he finally said after a few long moments of them silently eating.

“I should be. I told you that there can’t be anything between us. Sitting here and having dinner after a long day is not exactly helping the situation.”

“I brought books on the baby. That’s perfectly within the boundaries. Besides, you didn’t say there couldn’t be anything between us. You said you weren’t going to marry me or live with me.”

“Yeah, so that basically covers a relationship.”

“Not quite,” he said slowly. “There’s something you left out.”

“What?”

“Sex.”

Anna’s stomach flipped over like fish on land and because she had just read it in the book he gave her, she knew it was too soon to blame the sensation on the baby moving.

“Anna, I’m not sure how to say this but...I guess, I would like to make your breasts my business.”

Oh, my. It probably wasn’t a good sign that her nipples suddenly got hard.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“DID YOU JUST SAY SEX?”

“I did. I would like to have it,” he said, then added, “With you.” In case that wasn’t clear.

She dropped the spoon into the bowl and sat back staring at him. “Are you crazy?”

Maybe, he wasn’t sure. He only knew he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Couldn’t stop fantasizing about her. He didn’t only want to have sex with her. He wanted to have sex with her as many times as his body was able. He wanted to sink into her until it became a common event. So that some night in the future, thoughts of it wouldn’t play in a continual loop in his mind, driving him to the brink of insanity.

“Anna, I can’t be the first man to say he desired you sexually. I don’t see anything wrong with being honest about what I want.”

“No. I mean, yes. I mean, we are so not there. You walk in here with Chinese food and a book with a picture of a breast highlighted and suddenly it’s okay to talk about sex? That you want it. What the hell am I supposed to do with that bombshell?”

Suddenly irritated, he threw his napkin on the table. “What? You don’t care for surprising news being dropped in your lap? You told me last night that you loved me. Did you think I wouldn’t consider what you said, that I wouldn’t think about what it meant to me?”

“I...uh...I don’t know.”

“Well, I did. I thought it about it all night. What you said weren’t just words, Anna. Or were they?”

“No. I was as honest with you as I could be.”

“Then let me be honest with you. I don’t know if I love you. Hell, I can’t say for sure I know what love is. I’ve certainly never been so overcome with emotion or feeling for another person that it changed