should send her away. Yes, that would be the right thing to do but where would he be sending her? He could see in his mind the faces of the men in the bar as they had watched her walk across the lobby. He cleared his throat. “I was wondering. Are you familiar with the procedure?”
She lifted her head and searched his face. “Kissing?”
“Er, no. I was referring to the seducing-of-men.”
Putting a hand on each of his arms, she pushed away from him and spun around with her back to him and instantly became aware of the room beyond the living room, a square bedroom with dark-wood floors, walls covered with a wall paper the green of poplar leaves above a wainscoting of dark walnut paneling, and a ceiling paneled in thin strips of white maple with a tongue-and-groove pattern. A tree-house room, she thought giddily. In the center of the room was a solid looking double-sized bed with a slatted walnut headboard. The white sheets and comforter had been folded back and the square white pillows were arranged temptingly against the head of the bed.
“I am not seducing you,” she gasped as she whirled around, turning her back on the room.
“Well, no. Not right now of course,” he said soothingly. “But you did say that you wanted it all.”
“Perhaps I spoke too hastily.” She moved to the other side of the living room, away from the open door to the bedroom. “Birthdays stir you up. Make you want to do crazy things. Don’t you agree?”
“No. On the contrary,” he drawled. “I‘ve never found that they change a thing. When I was twenty-eight I was living with my mother, and now, when I am thirty-eight, I’m still living with my mother.” Although his words were lighthearted, the expression on his face revealed self-disgust.
“Why are you still living at home if you don’t want to?”
“I am unmarried, the middle son, the one my widowed mother depends on,” he answered grimly.
“Haven’t you ever wanted to get married? To have your own home, your own family?”
There was a long pause as her question hung between them. His eyebrows had drawn together in a black scowl that made him seem unapproachable. “I was engaged . . . once,” he finally said.
“Was she beautiful?” The question slipped out before she could stop herself.
“No. Not beautiful. Pretty, as so many young Dutch women are. You know, fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes.”
“She sounds lovely,” Janan forced herself to say as she shriveled inside. His fiancée had been the total opposite of her. “What happened?”
“What happened?” He tossed the question back at her with a cynical smile. “How could anything go wrong? Her mother was delighted with the engagement. My mother was pleased, and, at first, I believed that Francisca was happy.”
“And then?” Janan moved closer instinctively.
“Then she told me that she did not want to marry me because of the chance that our children might have a birthmark like mine.”
“What stupidity!” Janan cried, slipping her arm through his and leaning against his shoulder. “Birthmarks like yours are not inherited. The mutation of the gene that causes port-wine birthmarks occurs after conception. Everyone knows that.”
“I said she was pretty. I didn’t say she was erudite,” Pieter said with a quick grin.
Janan frowned. “I don’t see how she could have made such a decision.”
“Well, that was in the past and I suppose I have been too lazy to change. Or perhaps I never found a reason to change.”
“Oh.” She licked her lips and glanced nervously around the room.
“To get back to the business at hand, you just gave me a lovely kiss, an introductory kiss.”
“An introductory kiss?” she stammered. “I didn’t know kisses had names.”
“Well, there are lots of different kinds of kisses and names help to keep them straight in one’s mind.”
“Is that important? Keeping them straight?”
“Oh, yes. Each kiss has a definite purpose . . . and outcome.”
“Outcome?” she squeaked.
He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him and, when she did not resist, he brought her closer. “I am going to acknowledge your introduction kiss.” He moved his hands to cup her face as he lowered his lips until they rested firmly against hers and then they began to move gently. Lifting his head, his breathing rapid, he said, “Now we are getting to know each other better, don’t you agree?”
Touching her lips with her finger tips, she nodded. “After the acknowledging kiss?”
“Then we will use our hands and tiny