Follow Your Heart (Catalina Cove #4) - Brenda Jackson Page 0,72
had gotten what he’d set out to get from her, and he definitely had no reason to feel guilty about that since he’d done her a favor and had introduced her to oral sex. And he could tell from the number of orgasms she’d experienced that she had liked it. However, seeing her in his bed had made him groan in raw appreciation, and the next thing he knew, he’d removed his jeans and gotten back in bed with her to hold her while she slept. Eventually, he had fallen back to sleep, as well.
“Thanks for today, Tanner.”
He looked over at Lyric. She was awake. At the sound of her voice, his shaft sprang to life, hard as a rock, and he was back to being greedy as hell.
“You’re welcome, Lyric.”
He knew she had thanked him for more than just the picnic on the beach. That made him want to press for answers to something that bothered him. “There is something I need to know, though.”
“What?” she asked.
“How long were you with your last boyfriend?”
She had to be wondering why he was bringing the man up. “Why do you want to know?”
“Curious.”
She held his gaze for a moment and then said, “Almost a year.”
He nodded. “And during all that time he never...?”
She evidently knew where he was going with his line of questioning and quickly said, “No, he never.”
He rolled his eyes. “What an idiot.”
That made her smile and she laughed, agreeing with him. “Yes, what an idiot.”
They suddenly burst out laughing and it felt so damn good. Then he asked, “Why did you waste your time with him?”
She broke eye contact to look at an abstract picture on the wall behind him. For a moment he wasn’t sure she would answer, then she looked at him and said, “I really liked him initially, and he was fun to be around. He made me feel special.”
“Except in the bedroom.”
She released a deep sigh. “I honestly didn’t think anything was wrong in the bedroom, Tanner. At least not at first. It wasn’t until I would overhear women whispering at the gym, comparing notes of their bedroom experiences, that I realized some of what they were saying were things I had never felt to the degree they had, or stuff I had never done with Westley. Oral sex was one of them.”
“Didn’t you ask him about it?”
She shrugged. “At first I honestly didn’t feel comfortable discussing it with him because I didn’t want to come across as being unsatisfied with what we were doing in the bedroom.”
She paused a moment and then said, “When I finally felt the need to ask him about it, he said oral sex wasn’t a big deal, was really overrated and that I wouldn’t like it. And as for why my orgasms weren’t as powerful as his, he said it was due to our sexual experience levels.”
Then, as if deciding she might have shared too much with him, she said, “It doesn’t matter anymore because I know better now.”
He nodded. “Moving forward you will know what to expect,” he said, although the thought of her letting another man go down on her like he had was annoying as hell.
“You’re right, I’ll know what to expect.” She made a move to ease off the bed, but he reached out and touched her arm. Lyric glanced over her shoulder at him.
He suddenly realized that there was something about Lyric that had made him let down his guard. Somehow during the course of the day it had slipped, and it was time to take control of the situation again. He had to remember that she was an OD—one and done. Anything else would spell trouble for him. She was the kind of a woman who could get under a man’s skin—if he let her—and there was no way Tanner would let that happen.
“Let’s get dressed,” he said. Then he added, “And just so you know, I won’t be coming back to the gym after today.”
“I knew you wouldn’t, Tanner, and I think it would be for the best if you didn’t, anyway. I told you that before leaving New Orleans.”
Yes, she had, so he should be feeling great. So why did the thought of never seeing her again begin to bother him in a way that it shouldn’t have?
PART 3
When in doubt, follow your heart and be led down the path of true love.
—Felicia Laverne Madaris I (Mama Laverne)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ROMAN HEARD THE sound of Victoria’s footsteps when she entered her