Sighing softly, Lara cuddles against my chest. I drape my arm over her waist, my thumb tracing lazy figure eights on the small of her back as the last of the shivers ease from her body and she relaxes.

Sleep flirts with my senses, sending me in and out of consciousness while the events of the past half hour flit through my mind. The rich music mingling with the sound of Lara’s stockinged feet sliding across the dance floor as her body swayed against mine. The sweet taste of that first kiss. The sound of her surprised gasp when I entered her. The way her body gripped my cock. Her cries as the orgasm ripped through her.

Each memory is more delicious than the last, yet something feels wrong.

She matched me move for move, a willing and eager partner, my sexual equal, but the entire time, something bothered me, though I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to stop and investigate.

But now, as my heartrate slows and sanity returns, I can’t help poking and prodding at the memories, seeking out whatever it was.

Like one of Zeus’ lightning bolts, the truth blasts through me.

The whispered half phrase on the dance floor. The hesitation in some of her touches. The way she stiffened when I was about to enter her. The sharp gasp and momentary dimming of desire I sensed but didn’t understand.

“You’re a virgin.” The words burst from me almost before I fully comprehend their meaning.

“Not anymore,” Lara whispers, her voice thick with sleep.

“Why…” I swallow, still trying to grasp the fact that the beautiful, responsive woman in my arms is … was, mostly likely one of Chicago’s last adult virgins.

“Why?” Lara repeats. “I don’t understand the question. Are you asking why I was a virgin? Or something else?”

Yes, I wanted to know why someone as beautiful as her had clung to their innocence, but that wasn’t my only question.

“Why me?”

Grumbling under her breath, Lara sits up. She tucks her sex-tangled hair behind her ears. “Because I liked the look of you. Because you have kind eyes and you’re a good dancer.”

“But you don’t know me!”

I’ve been given someone’s most precious gift, but I didn’t want it, and don’t have any idea what to do with it.

“I’m leaving—” I squint at my watch. “—in about twelve hours.”

“You appealed to me more than any other man I’ve ever encountered.”

“But you must have dated. You’re too beautiful not to.”

Delighted, Lara laughs, the faint traces of sleep drifting from her face. She leans down and kisses my cheek. “You’re such a sweetie.” She takes my hand in hers, threading her fingers through mine. “Yes, I’ve dated before. Several guys in fact, but for one reason or another I never wanted to sleep with any of them. You’re different. You lit my fire the moment you walked through the door of my bar.”

Pride, mixed with a little bit of ego, blooms in my chest. Okay, a lot of ego.

“I’ll tell you something else,” Lara continues. She leans close, her mouth hovering just above my ear. The feel of her hot breath against my skin is one of the sexiest things I’ve ever experienced. My dick agrees as it starts rising to attention.

I swallow and order myself to stop thinking about her body, about sex, and to focus on what she’s saying.

“You’re still lighting me up in ways I never imagined possible.”

Her words, the proximity of her mouth, the feel of her warmth mingling with mine. It’s too much. It sends me crashing over the edge.

With a low growl, I cup my hands around her hips and tug, sliding her glorious ass across the slick leather upholstery. Unprepared for the sudden movement, Lara doesn’t have time to counter balance herself and falls backwards, her shoulders striking the cushion a split second before I cover her with my body.

I cup her face between my hands, holding her head still as my mouth finds hers, my tongue sliding between her parted lips to tangle with hers in a dance that causes my blood to boil and all rational thought to flee. Nothing matters except Lara.

She wiggles beneath me and lets her thighs part, bending her knees until her legs grip my hips with as much force and expertise as a champion equestrian. I shudder as one of her hands slides along the side of my torso, lightly tracing the hills and valleys created by my muscles before wedging itself between our straining bodies.

I nearly lose it when that same hand wraps itself around my cock. I moan against her mouth and drop my hands. I’ve never been with a woman who has this kind of effect on me, I don’t want it to end, I want it to make it last as long as possible, but with her sweet fingers stroking me, squeezing me, I’m not going to be able to control myself much longer.

I reach down, intent on removing her hand, but before I can manage that, she adjusts it, moving my cock so that the tip probes her secret entrance. I tense and make some sort of mindless, silent prayer, though I don’t know if I’m praying for her to continue what she’s started or to end it before the last shards of my self-control rip apart.

Lifting her head, Lara captures mine with a kiss I feel all the way to the soles of my feet. With a quick thrust of her hips, she takes my entire length within her and we both gasp.

The feel of her surrounding me is more than I can resist. I roll my hips, reveling in how she matches me, thrust for thrust, our bodies moving together perfectly.

Closing my eyes, I bury my face in the space created by the joining of her neck and shoulder. Her short, painted nails rake across my back, the pain mingling with pleasure as pressure builds, until with twin cries, we both explode.

Shaking with the force of my release, I collapse against her, pressing her down into the couch cushions. Being with Lara is different from being with any other woman.

Moving slowly, I disengage myself from her, regretting the move even as I change her positions so we’re lying back to front on the couch.

Lara, already more asleep than awake, grumbles something that sounds like a protest, though I can’t make out any actual words.

“I’m crushing you,” I explain.

“There are worse ways to go.” Her words slur together.

I chuckle. “I can think of a few things I’d rather do to your body besides crush it.”

Lara grunts something else unintelligible. I gather her close and listen as her breathing evens.

It hardly seems possible, but our second bout of lovemaking was even better than the first.

It’s like we’re both dialed into the same station, able to read one another’s thoughts, our bodies in perfect sync. None of the awkwardness or strange learning curve that usually accompanies the first few times.

If it’s this good now, I think, how much better will it be in a few years from now, when we really understand one another’s rhythms?

An ice cold knife pierces my chest, making me flinch. Where the hell did that thought come from? Not once in my life have I ever thought of terms of forever, not when it involved a woman, and certainly not a woman I’ve only known for a handful of hours.

So why am I doing so now?