Lily wrinkled her nose. “I know. I’m still trying to decide what to study. You’ve known since your accident. Are you still going to be a nurse?”
Noelle nodded. “I start summer school on Monday. Calculus.”
“Yuck,” Lily said. “But aren’t you supposed to be on your honeymoon?”
Whoops. Noelle thought fast. “This wasn’t a good time for Dev to be away from work,” she said with a casualness she didn’t feel. “The wedding was a little impulsive, so we couldn’t plan for stuff like that. We’ll go later.”
“Too bad. It would be great to be away on a beach somewhere with a good-looking guy. I wouldn’t say no to that.” She looked at her sister. “Okay, so tell me everything.”
Noelle blinked at her. “About…”
“You know.” Lily lowered her voice, then whispered, “Sex. Mom told us all kinds of things, but that’s just logistics. I want details. Is it scary? Wonderful? Is it like in books? Do you see stars or feel swept away?”
Noelle felt herself blush. “I am not having this conversation with you,” she said sternly. “It’s not appropriate.”
“I’m eighteen, and your sister. Come on. How am I supposed to find out about this if you won’t tell me? You wouldn’t want me experimenting just so I could know for myself,” Lily added slyly.
“You’re manipulating me,” Noelle said. “Forget it. I’m not going to talk about that. It’s too personal.”
In truth it wasn’t personal at all. She simply didn’t have anything to say. Her lone night with Jimmy had been a blur, first of pain, then of uncomfortable intimacy. In the few hours they’d been together, he’d entered her a number of times, but before she could figure out what he was doing or what was expected, it had been over.
Plus, he’d been so heavy when he collapsed on her. She’d felt trapped and embarrassed and frankly, she didn’t get why everyone made such a big deal about it.
Dev stood just inside the family room, the sliding door open, one foot on the patio. He’d been about to go out and greet his new sister-in-law, but given the current topic, he decided a timely retreat was far more intelligent.
“At least tell me if it hurt the first time,” Lily said. “I can’t get a straight answer on that.”
“It did,” Noelle admitted. “It’s a little awkward. I didn’t know where to put my arms and stuff.”
Lily winced. “But Dev made it okay, right? He talked you through everything.”
“Yes, Dev was very patient and…and he made me laugh so I stopped being embarrassed. He made it great.”
If he hadn’t known better, even he would have been convinced by her words. But he did know better. Noelle was saying all the right things to convince her sister.
He stepped back into the house and quietly closed the slider. If Jimmy had been the typical twenty-yearold, Noelle’s first and only night of passion probably hadn’t been anything she remembered fondly. He, Dev, hadn’t been anything great in bed at that age. He found himself wanting to apologize for something that wasn’t his fault.
Later, when Lily left, he found Noelle in the kitchen.
“Did you enjoy having your sister drop by?” he asked.
She looked up from the vegetables she was chopping and smiled. “She’s always fun.”
“I started to come out on the patio to join you, but I heard what you were talking about,” he said.
She frowned for a second, then blushed. “Oh. That.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Her mouth twisted in a half smile. “I had to say something. I couldn’t admit my first time had been with Jimmy.”
“Or that it hadn’t been very good.”
She set down the knife and looked at him. “How did you know?” she asked, sounding shocked. “Did he say anything? Did he tell you I was awful?”
“He didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to.” Dev leaned against the counter. “It comes with the territory. Most young guys aren’t great in bed. They haven’t had the time to develop any skills, nor are they especially interested in anything but getting laid.” He grinned sheepishly. “At twenty, it’s all about getting laid.”
She eyed him. “Even for you?”
“I wasn’t always this smooth.”
That made her smile. “Thanks for telling me. I wasn’t sure what to think…I didn’t hate it, but it was…”
“Fast?” he asked wryly.
“A little. It hurt. I didn’t bleed or anything, but there was a lot of pressure and stretching.” She ducked her head. “I couldn’t figure out where everything went and I wasn’t comfortable asking questions.”
Dev had never made love with a virgin, but he would guess her complete lack of experience would complicate an already difficult situation.
“Next time it will be better,” he told her, refusing to picture the moment with Noelle. “As men get older, they learn a few things.”
“Like?”
He shifted, not sure he wanted to get into this with her. Talking about sex made it too easy to imagine making love with her. He did his best to shut down that part of his brain. Unfortunately his body refused to cooperate.
“It takes longer.”
She made a face. “And that’s a good thing?”
He laughed. “Okay, let me start at the beginning. Once the need for volume fades a little, most men start to get interested in pleasing their partners. There are things a man can do to make a woman excited and passionate about the experience. Once that happens, then yes, lasting longer is a good thing.”
She didn’t look convinced. She opened her mouth, then closed it.
The smart move would be to end the conversation now…before he got too interested. But he liked Noelle too much to shut her down.
“If you can’t ask me, who are you going to ask?” He shrugged. “What do you want to know?”
She looked at him. “So women do really have orgasms?” she asked, as color climbed up her cheeks.
“Sure. There are different ways of making that happen.”
He had a sudden and powerful image of Noelle naked, her knees bent, legs pulled back as he kissed her intimately, his tongue swirling around the very heart of her arousal. He wanted to cross the kitchen, strip off her clothes and touch every part of her. He wanted to taste her and feel her quiver beneath him as she experienced her very first climax.
“How do you know it’s happening?” she asked.
This was the strangest conversation he’d ever had. “If you have to ask, it didn’t happen.”
Despite her obvious embarrassment, she smiled. “That’s not very helpful.” She sighed. “I’ll have to take your word for all this. I don’t want to say anything bad about Jimmy, but that one night wasn’t very thrilling. Given the choice, I’d never do that again. But if it could be different…”
He felt blood swelling in his groin at the thought of showing her the possibilities.
“You’ve been with a lot of women,” she said.
A dangerous statement, he thought as he remained carefully quiet.
“Did they all like the sex part?”
“Yes.”
“You