Something wasn’t right. Granted, it wasn’t entirely wrong, but as Ted walked up the stairs to Laura’s apartment, the itch at the back of his neck told him to proceed with caution.

“Well, this is it,” Laura said when they reached the top of the stairs. She flicked on the lights. “This is home. Don’t laugh.”

“Why would I laugh?” He said it with a smile, but as soon as he looked around the apartment’s spacious living room, he knew what she meant.

The whole thing was decorated with shelf after shelf of dinosaur toys. Some of them were positioned in actions scenes and some were displayed in covered glass cases. There were a few framed prints of dinosaurs on the walls too. The rest of the furniture was shades of green to match the toys.

“Wow.” Ted’s mouth twitched as he fought to react the way a gentleman should. It helped that he remembered where all the toys must have come from. “Are these your brother’s?” He stepped over to the nearest shelf and picked up a plastic stegosaurus.

“Yes,” Laura said with a relieved breath. She came to stand beside him, brushing her fingers down the back of a brontosaurus. “This shelf has a lot of the first toys we collected. They got more expensive and more complex as, well, as Blake got sicker.” She pivoted and gestured to the dinos under glass on the other side of the room. Then she turned back to him. “You don’t think I’m a total dork for displaying them like this, do you?”

“Not at all.” He meant it too. “Keeping everything like this just goes to show that you have a big heart and that you’re loyal.”

She blinked, glancing from him to her collection. Then her shoulders loosened. “Yeah, I guess that’s one way to look at it.” She paused, then relaxed further into a smile. “Thanks.”

“For what?” Ted turned his full attention to her.

“For thinking I’m loyal. For not thinking I’m a loser.”

Ted let out a tight breath. “For the last time, Laura, you’re not a loser, you’re a fascinating person. You’re beautiful inside and out, and—” He took a step closer to her, sliding his hands up her bare arms. “—you’re the one I want to be with tonight.”

Goose flesh broke out on her arms where he’d touched her, but whether from the chill of the air conditioning in her apartment or his touch or his words, he couldn’t tell. The anxious look popped back into her eyes.

“Oh…um…I…I want to be with you tonight too.” Her brow twitched, and she looked downright confused as she spoke.

Ted held back his instinct to kiss her, studying her as she gazed up at him instead. She wasn’t pulling away from his touch, but she wasn’t throwing herself at him either. She’d invited him up to her apartment when he’d asked. She did know what that generally meant, right? His awareness of the condom in his pocket grew with each second that passed. Maybe if he tried to kiss her, he’d have a better idea of her expectations.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked, just to be sure.

Her brow shot up. She took a breath, and said, “Yeah,” in a shaky voice.

He smiled and slid his arms around her waist, drawing her flush against him. Hesitantly, she raised her hands to his shoulders, tilted her head up to him, and closed her eyes. It was the most darling thing he’d ever seen—like a girl about to get her first kiss. Laughter caught in his throat before he leaned into her, bringing his lips to hers.

She sucked in a breath and her eyes popped open.

Ted pulled back. “Something wrong?”

“I shouldn’t have closed my eyes,” she whispered. “You surprised me.”

“And you don’t like surprises.” He couldn’t help but laugh at that. He just hoped it sounded affectionate instead of teasing. “Okay, this time, keep your eyes open.”

“Right.”

“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” There was a hint of caginess in her voice.

“Okay, here I come.”

He leaned into her again, then pulled back.

“Are you sure you’re ready?”

She let out a breath that was half snort and rolled her eyes. “Ted.”

“I just don’t want to surprise you again.” What he wanted to do was put her at ease, and it appeared to be working.

She relaxed in his arms, shaking her head. “How about you just go ahead and kiss me already, m-kay?”

“Whatever you say.”

He pulled her closer, and this time she didn’t flinch when their lips met. He kissed her softly at first, barely tasting her. As soon as he felt her return the kiss, putting energy into it, he turned up the heat, nibbling her lip and urging her to open up so he could taste her. She accepted that with a sigh, and moved her arms to hold him closer.

“Right,” she whispered as he shifted his embrace. “I remember this. This is good. I like this.”

A sultry chuckle rose up through Ted’s throat, and he kissed her harder. There was something uncertain and yet beautiful in the way she kissed. A fleeting thought in the back of his mind that she probably hadn’t done much kissing before occurred to him, but it was quickly forgotten as instinct pushed him deeper and deeper into the moment. Her arms felt amazing around him. The softness of her lips as she let him explore her, venturing a few tentative explorations of her own, ratcheted up his pulse. He lowered a hand from her back to her backside, his jeans getting tighter by the second. The fabric of the dress she wore begged him to run his hands all over her.

No sooner had he squeezed a handful of her backside then she mirrored his gesture and did the same. The jolt of need that hit him at her bold gesture threw a serious wrench in the works of his plan to go slowly with her. Forget the silky dress, he wanted her naked. Naked and under him. He was willing to bet her skin was just as smooth and touchable as her dress anyhow.

It took all of his will-power not to scoop her into his arms and carry her to the bedroom. He continued to kiss her, encouraged by her breathless response, and traced a hand up over her side to cradle her breast. Her breath hitched in her throat, and when he stroked his thumb lazily over her hardening nipple, she made a pleasured sound that pushed him close to the edge.

He wanted her. He needed her. All he could think about was peeling her dress off and touching every inch of her, making her come. The thought of Laura crying out in orgasm caused his cock to jerk in the confines of his jeans. He would bet that she was uninhibited enough to be loud when she came.

“I want you, Laura,” he whispered against her ear, kissing the hot skin of her neck as she tilted her head back. He gathered handfuls of her dress, inching it up to bare her legs, revealing the scars that he wanted to explore as much as the rest of her. “I want to do things to you that will make you scream.”

She gasped. Her chest heaved against his as her breathing grew fast and shallow. She didn’t manage words, but a long moan was enough of an answer for him. He continued to gather her skirt up in one hand, balancing her against him with his other arm, until the fabric was up over her hip. Then he slid his fingers along the leg of her panties reaching in to touch her bare backside. He wanted to reach for more, but that would require her lifting her leg over his hip, and at the moment, she seemed too stunned to move.

He kissed her neck and jaw, returning to her lips, hoping she would catch on and wrap her legs around him. Heck, he hoped she would shimmy out of her dress and make a run for the bedroom.

“What do you say?” he murmured against her other ear, nibbling on her earlobe. “Should we move to your bedroom?”

* * *

There was a decided difference between being turned on by a movie or a book or even her imagination and having a hot and randy man touching her all over and telling her he wanted to have sex with her. The latter completely short-circuited Laura’s otherwise rational brain. And as soon as Ted asked about her bedroom, every inch of her skin pulsed with pleasure and the need to be touched.

This is it, this is not a drill! Even her inner thoughts were whipped into a frenzy. It’s time to lose your virginity at last!

But is that what I really want to do? another part of her asked.

Hell yes, the rest of her shouted.

That still didn’t mean she had half a clue what she was supposed to do next. Not to mention it was impossible to think with Ted’s fingers inching closer to the cleft in her backside. Down low. Near stuff. She never would have guessed she’d be so turned on by a man fingering her butt. His tongue raked against the pulse in her neck, making logic even more impossible.

“Bedroom?” he asked again, gruffer than he’d been a minute ago.

This was it. This was the ultimate decision. It was the moment of consent, and if there was one thing that had been drilled into her about guys and dating and sex, it was consent. You couldn’t do it without consent and—

Oh, stop it!

“Yep,” she squeaked. “Bedroom.”

With a deep growl, Ted lifted her from her backside. She gasped and wrapped her legs around him on instinct. That only meant that his hand slipped right to where she wanted it as he carried her. She yelped in surprise, and something that might just have been passion, as his fingers pressed into her wetness. It felt so good that all of the inner muscles that she’d gotten used to working out on her own—with the help of her battery-operated-boyfriend—tensed and throbbed in expectation.

It was a good thing she’d left her bedroom door open. Ted knew just where to go. He marched her straight to the bed, tipping her backwards onto it. She sighed in disappointment as his hand moved away from her important bits, but continued to throb as he grabbed the bunched fabric of Mrs. Clutterbuck’s dress and swept it up over her torso, arms, and head. The fabric was slippery enough that he whisked it off with a minimal amount of snags. That left her lying on the bed with her arms spread to the side and her legs hanging off the edge, on either side of his hips, in nothing but her underwear and loafers.

He didn’t stop. With a quickness that showed he knew exactly what he was doing, he unclasped her bra and pulled it off. That left her exposed to him, and he was definitely looking. She fought the urge to cover herself. This was what people did when they had sex, right? They looked at each other.

And apparently touched each other too.

“You’ve got great breasts,” Ted said, his voice so rough it was sexy. He ran his hands over her stomach and up to cup both of her breasts.

It felt incredibly good. Even better when he played with them, squeezing and rubbing her nipples until they were hard and sensitive. So many things about why girls let their boyfriends play with their breasts suddenly made sense. And when he leaned down to flick his tongue over her nipple, then took the whole thing into his mouth to tease and suckle, the ache in her core flared to epic proportions.

“Wow,” she gasped as he did things to her that no one ever had before. “Oh, wow.” How was it that Ted kneading her breasts and gently biting her nipple could make her want him to do things to her in a much lower location? It seemed like such romance novel cheese, but the way he was teasing her breasts made her want to beg him to just stick it in her already and take her like a pirate plundering treasure.

She was pretty sure she was losing her mind by the time Ted pulled back, drawing in a shaky breath. He met her eyes, and whatever he saw there made him smile with lips red from kissing her. She almost protested when he rocked back to a crouch, but when he smoothed his hands along her legs, his fingers tracing a few of her scars, to take off her stupid shoes, then reached up to tug her panties down, the last possibility of thought flew out the window. She didn’t even have the focus to worry what he would think of her scars.

He nudged her knees apart, and there she was, naked, on her back, hot and wet and open so that he could see everything. Everything. She was so overwhelmed with emotion and sensation that she couldn’t move. Not even to close her legs, which a part of her thought might be a good idea. The rest of her not only wanted him to look at her, it wanted him to touch her and, heck, get naked himself already and pop her cherry, for gosh sakes.

Ted apparently heard that part of her thoughts. With a low rumble in his throat, he stroked his fingertips across her belly a few times before sweeping down over the curls between her legs—should she have shaved all that off before the date?—tickling the part of her that most wanted to be touched at last. She whimpered as he circled her clitoris, biting her lip and pressing her head back into the bed. But no, she wanted to watch what he was doing.

She lifted her head just as he slid a finger inside of her. “Oh,” she gasped. Would he be able to tell she was a virgin? Did she still have virginal membranes and…and things down there? Would he stop if he found them?

“Oh my gosh!” That panic vanished as he slid a second finger inside of her and brought his mouth down to her. He stroked from the inside, and licked and circled her clitoris with his tongue on the outside. The combination was so potent that there was no way she could hold her head up.

She closed her eyes and gripped the coverlet for all she was worth as orgasm rushed at her faster than a freight train. It hit her like one too, and she cried out loudly enough to be embarrassing. Her inner muscles squeezed around his fingers, which he moved in and out of her enough to keep the orgasm going longer. Unbearable heat flooded her body, even after the intensity began to fade.

“My turn,” Ted murmured as she dissolved into a post-orgasmic pool. He pulled his fingers out of her and stood to undress.

Giddy, sexy panic flooded her as he tossed his blazer aside and unbuttoned his shirt. He looked at her the whole time he undressed, a cocky smirk on his face that she would have hated at any other time, but which left her shaking with anticipation now. He wasn’t wearing a t-shirt under his button down, so when it came off, she was treated to the sight of his firm, slightly hairy, gorgeous chest. He took something out of the pocket of his jeans, then undid his belt and jeans.

She nearly squeezed her eyes shut as he pushed his jeans down, stepped out of them, then stood straight. His penis. Wow. There it was. Definitely a penis. A naked, hard, penis. Sticking up and looking very, very ready. She wanted to look at it. No, she wanted to touch it. She definitely wanted to touch it to see how hot it was and how hard and what it felt like. She wanted to know what it tasted like too. Weird. She’d always thought giving blow jobs was gross, but this was Ted, and that was his penis, and she was suddenly really curious, and—

“Laura?”

She blinked, sucking in a breath and dragging her eyes away from his penis and up to his eyes. “Mmm hmm?” she squeaked.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yep.” Her voice was cartoon high.

“Are you sure?” His cocky grin grew, and she swore that his penis grew with it.

Penis, penis, penis. Oh my gosh, it was right there. And she was still lying on the bed with her legs spread apart, probably dripping on her coverlet, she was so turned on.

“Ted?” she squeaked.

“Yeah?” he answered slowly, crawling onto the bed over top of her.

“Could you do me a favor and put your penis in me right now,” she burst in a rush of boldness.

The chuckle that came from deep in his chest only intensified the burning need between her legs. “Are you sure you don’t want to mess around a little longer?”

“Yep.”

He tugged her farther onto the bed so that her legs weren’t dangling over the side. “Sure you don’t want me to kiss you a little more?”

“Nope.”

He sat up, kneeling between her legs, and ripped open the thing he’d taken out of his pocket, a condom. Oh, thank God! She had totally forgotten about basic safety, and would probably have ended up with syphilis and twelve babies if he hadn’t thought of it. And frankly, watching him roll the condom on over his glorious, manly penis literally made her whimper with desire, as much of a doofus as that made her.

“Are you sure you don’t want to cuddle a little or have a drink or—”

“Oh my gosh, Ted, please stick it in me now,” she gasped.

He laughed, his whole face shining with excitement and something that looked a whole lot like love, and surged over top of her. And then he did the most magnificent thing that had ever happened in Laura’s life.

He pressed his hot, hard penis tenderly inside of her, sliding in as far as he could go.

Laura cried out with the amazing sensation his body fitting into hers created. Bye-bye virginity. Better still, it didn’t hurt at all. It just felt full and stretchy and like every single pleasure center inside of her was bursting into operatic swells of victory at finally having a man right where he should be.

And then he started to move.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” she panted as the friction of him sent fire through her veins. She had no idea what to do with her arms or legs, but wrapping them around him seemed like a good idea. She dug her fingertips into the muscles of his back for good measure.

That turned out to be a good idea as he picked up the pace of his thrusts. “Oh my—Oh! Whoa!”

He grunted and tugged her knee up high on one side. She followed suit with the other, then gasped as he entered her harder and deeper. Her position must have looked ridiculous, but holy cow, did it feel amazing as he thrust faster and harder. She couldn’t help but cry out in pleasure with each thrust, almost like she was in pain. But it was about as far away from pain as she’d ever been.

A second, stronger orgasm broke over her, narrowing her entire existence to the throbbing, fiery pleasure inside of her. It took over everything, leaving her aflame. Better still, the noises Ted was freely making reached an incredibly sexy pitch until there was no mistaking his climax. That was almost enough to set her off again, but his thrusts lost all their energy and stopped a moment later.

Ted collapsed to her side, and the two of them lay there, sweaty and panting.

“Wow,” Ted echoed her earlier sentiment, chest rising and falling like he’d run all day.

“That bad, eh?” she managed to get out.

He made a strangled sound, then burst into laughter. He rolled to his side, still catching his breath and radiating heat, and pulled her flush against him. “So good,” he growled, then kissed her. “Best ever,” he said, then kissed her even harder. “I’m furious I only brought one condom,” he finished, flopping to his back with her still nestled against his side.

“Crap,” she panted. She wasn’t gonna lie. She could have done that again a few more times that night. Like discovering a new brand of chocolate that she tried once and just couldn’t get enough of.

But at the same time, that annoying voice in the back of her head that had taken a rest while she was being boned out of her mind woke up enough to say, you do realize, this changes everything.