was coursing through her.
“I want to try,” she whispered.
He nodded, his forehead still pressed against hers. “Slowly, then,” he said. “Tell me if it hurts you.”
She closed her eyes and gave in to her desire, digging her fingers into his strong shoulders.
And it did hurt a little, at first, as he pressed into her, but it was bearable, she could take it, she didn’t want to stop—
“Oh, God, Annalise,” Curt moaned.
She tilted her head back, arching her neck to capture his lips with hers once more as he began to move slowly within her.
The pain faded and gave way to pleasure like nothing she had ever felt before, unfamiliar and intense and building in a way that she didn’t know how to understand. She wrapped her arms around his body and held on, filled with wonder and joy that this was possible for her, after all.
Her orgasm washed over her like a rising tide, and she clung to Curt, wondering how she could have wasted so many years, determined to begin making up for lost time.
Chapter 9
“Annalise!”
“Hmm?” Annalise looked up from the stack of papers she had been grading on her desk.
“I called your name three times.” Her fellow sixth-grade teacher, Maggie, was standing in the doorway looking perturbed. “I thought you must be wearing earbuds, but you’re not. You’re a million miles away. What’s going on with you?”
“I’m sorry,” Annalise said, getting to her feet. “We said we were going to have lunch, didn’t we?”
“Well, we said we were,” Maggie said. “Are you still up for it? Or are you too lost in the clouds?”
“I’m fine,” Annalise said, laughing. “I was just grading papers.”
“If I was to go through those papers, would I see that you gave every one of them an A minus?”
“Bite your tongue,” Annalise said. “I would never let my teaching suffer just because I’m a little distracted. You know that.”
“Is it still the mystery man?” Maggie asked.
Annalise’s eyes widened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You most certainly do too know what I’m talking about,” Maggie said. “Denise from the PTA told me that she saw you with a guy who looked like a movie star the night of the class play. Who is he?”
Annalise groaned. “I should have known better than to bring him around. Parents are the biggest gossips in the world.”
“No,” Maggie said without shame. “Teachers are much bigger gossips. I heard the same story again from Lenora just this morning.”
“The second-grade teachers know about it?” Annalise shook her head. “They weren’t even there that night.”
“Everyone knows about it,” Maggie said. “Apparently the guy looks exactly like Chris Sellers.”
Annalise bit back a laugh. Chris Sellers was a movie star famous for his work in superhero movies, and while he was extremely attractive, he didn’t look anything like Curt.
“I guess,” she said.
“So?” Maggie said, taking a seat across from Annalise as Annalise settled back into her own chair and shifted papers to make room for their lunches. “Who is he?”
“He’s just a guy!” Annalise said. “I found him on LoveFindr. We’ve been on a few dates. It’s no big deal.”
“Uh-huh,” Maggie said skeptically. “That’s why you’ve been acting like you can hardly remember your own name.”
The truth was that her relationship with Curt was the biggest thing that had ever happened to Annalise, and it was going great. After that first night, he’d hardly left her house. They’d spend most of the subsequent three days naked, when they didn’t have to be dressed and at work. Every time they were together, Annalise could hardly believe her good luck.
The doctors were wrong. All those years believing that sex would be too painful—but it isn’t at all.
In fact, after that first time, it hadn’t hurt at all anymore. She had to imagine that what she was experiencing was what was normal for women who had sex for the first time.
She couldn’t get enough.
Unfortunately, Curt had been away in Costa Rica for the past week, shooting on location for his film. She missed him intensely.
But she would be seeing him again soon.
Maggie wanted some gossip? Annalise would give it to her.
“Actually,” she said, “I’m flying out to see him in a couple of days, so there will be a sub in my room.”
“Flying out?” Maggie asked. “You mean he doesn’t live around here?”
“No, he does,” Annalise said. “But he’s out of the country for work, and he’s asked me to come stay with him for a little while.”
“Are you serious?” Maggie’s jaw dropped. “Out of the