“Yeah?” he asked. “Yeah?”

What followed was a series of guttural grunts and groans and moans and cries, but the important thing was that he felt her tighten around him, heard her lose control, felt her nails dig into his butt, and just about nothing had ever been better. It was so good, he exploded like a maniac, just losing his mind while she lost hers. All these times he thought being with a woman who got off easy was such a big deal, because no question, a guy didn’t need a whole lot. Shit. This was a big deal.

He kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her neck, her breasts, her eyes again. “Okay?” he asked.

“Oh, God,” she said weakly. All the tension in her body seemed to melt into a heap of soft, useless muscle. Then, unbelievably, she laughed. Her green eyes twinkled into his green eyes.

“So, Miss Foley, what did you do on your summer vacation?”

Aiden held her for a little while, softly laughing in conspiratorial success. Then he excused himself to the bathroom, grabbing his shorts off the floor as he went. When she heard the door to the cabin open, she sat straight up in bed like a shot, her mouth open in shock. Was he leaving her? She heard the door to his SUV open and close and she thought, My God, is he actually leaving?

Then the cabin door closed and he was back, smiling. In his hand he had a box of condoms. She fell back against the pillows with an oomph.

“What?” he asked, shedding his shorts, leaving them again on the floor.

She stared straight up at the ceiling. “I thought you were going.”

“Without my shirt and shoes?” he asked, dropping the box of condoms on the bedside table. He slipped in beside her, taking her in his arms. “We better talk about this. Have you actually been left, na**d and postcoital, because you didn’t orgasm quickly enough?”

She pulled back just enough to peer at him. “Okay, medics are probably brilliant these days, but do they use terms like ‘postcoital’?”

“I wouldn’t think so. I’m not a medic. I’m a gynecologist. M.D., not novice. I was attempting to tell you earlier.”

“Shouldn’t you have told me a couple of weeks ago? Like, with that first beer?”

“Maybe,” he said with a shrug. “If you’d asked me one straightforward question about my job or education or what I was actually looking for on the outside, I wouldn’t have misled you, but I liked that you liked me even as a vagrant.” He smiled widely. “But can we talk about this other thing?”

She took a breath. “I have never actually been abandoned na**d and sweaty because I failed to…orgasm. But it has happened that there wasn’t another date.” Again the shrug, the glance away. “I guess a woman can be too much trouble.”

“You’re not too much trouble,” he said, pulling her tighter against him. “This isn’t as big a problem as you think. This can be worked out. Probably easily.”

She lifted one blond brow. “Oh, yeah?”

“Have you talked to your doctor about it?”

“No. I mean, not before today.” She smiled sheepishly.

“The first thing a doctor wants to know, if the patient is able to talk about it, is whether there’s any history of early-childhood sexual abuse.”

She gasped. “No!”

“Lucky you,” he said. “It’s a monster. Happens too often. The next thing—can you get your own orgasm?”

“I believe I answered that already, counselor….”

He chuckled. “You’re the counselor, I’m the doc. Oh my God, a doctor and a lawyer in bed trying to figure out orgasms. What a riot.”

“I fully intended to have sex with a medic, so don’t blame me! Are you sure you’re a gynecologist? Because I think that line’s been used on me before…”

“Card-carrying,” he said. “Are you angry?”

“Not angry. Actually, this usually happens the other way.”

“The other way?” he asked, his brows knitting together.

“Where he tells me he’s a gynecologist and really, he’s a medic. Or rather, tells me he’s a lawyer when really, he needs a lawyer.” Then she smiled. “If you have any other serious secrets, can you please tell me now?”

“That’s it—I have very little to hide. Back to us,” Aiden said. “So basically, you know how to do it, you just haven’t been with a guy willing to invest the time?”

She sighed. “As I understand it, men have a limited amount of time to invest….”

His mouth took on an evil little grin. “Now, honey, if you want your woman to be happy, there are sacrifices that are worth the effort. Like pull out till she’s ready. Like focus on her for a while and don’t let her touch you if you’re too hot. It’s like I said, once you figure out what works, this can be done.” He grinned again. “And done and done and done.”

Her eyes lit up. “Are we going to do it again?”

“And again and again and again…”

“Are we going to eat?” she asked.

“Eventually,” he said. “I have some things I think we should try. Fun things. Crazy things. Before the Fourth of July weekend keeps us from f**king our brains out.”

“Ohhhhh…Would it be rude of me to call Marcie and ask her to come another time? Like next year? And exactly how much do you like your family? Because I think they’re starting to rain on my parade…”

“No talking,” he said, coming down on her mouth with his.

Nine

If there was one thing Erin never expected when a bushy-bearded maniac cut his way through her trees with a three-foot-long knife, it was a long afternoon and evening of the purest carnal pleasure she’d ever experienced. Aiden wanted to experiment, trying out a lot of different positions with her to see what made her feel best. She came apart explosively when she discovered that being on top, controlling his movements and the position of his hands and fingers, was special. Very special. She loved the naughty and deep way he laughed when she made discoveries like that.

Of course, there were some things that worked better for him than her—standing up in the shower being one. It was a bit scary. She was all slippery and afraid he was going to drop her, so it was not mutually successful. But it left him smiling. “That was selfish,” she muttered to him.

“I’m a selfish bastard,” he said, dropping to one knee in the shower. “Let’s see if we can even the score.” He pulled one of her legs over his shoulder while she leaned against the shower wall, and while a couple of fingers moved rhythmically inside her, he covered her clitoris with his mouth.

She gasped, then she moaned, then she almost collapsed on top of him. “Even,” she rasped in a coarse whisper. And then, “I’m starving….”

He let go a sinister laugh. “Because it’s almost ten o’clock and I’ve been working on you for hours. You’re coming right along, too. Pun intended.”

“Found the clutch,” she said weakly.

“Every time,” he agreed. He turned off the shower, wrapped a towel around her and himself. “I’ll feed you. You need to keep up your strength.”

Aiden heated the roasted chicken and fries in the oven while Erin tossed a salad. “Can I ask you something personal?” she began, her gaze concentrated on the salad. “I mean, I think it’s personal…”

“Shoot,” he said.

“What’s it like being a gynecologist? I mean, being a man and a gynecologist.”

He smiled and with a finger under her chin, lifted her gaze. “Ask me what you really want to ask me.”

“A man, looking at the object of a man’s desire all day long…”

“I don’t get to do that,” he said. “The object of my desire is right here.” And he gave her a little kiss. “What I examine is medical—my concern is the female reproductive system. Which rocks, by the way. It’s simple yet complex. And while ordinary exams might get a little boring, there just isn’t anything to compare to helping new life into the world.”

“Male doctors—I mean, it doesn’t…”

He laughed at her. “My brothers ask me this all the time, but it usually takes a little more alcohol. No, male doctors no more get turned on by female anatomy than female doctors and nurses get turned on when caring for male patients. Now, you,” he said, running a hand down her towel-covered back and slipping underneath to caress her butt, “seriously turn me on. And we need to eat a quick dinner.”

“How long are you planning to stay?”

“Till you throw me out.”

“Are you thinking of staying the night?”

He shrugged. “Unless you’re uncomfortable sharing a bed through the night. It’s up to you. But if you say yes, I’m not leaving before morning.” He gave her another kiss. “Late morning.”

“You’re sure your family won’t be looking for you?”

“I gave Luke the number in case Shelby goes into labor. She really needs to give me a break here and let me have a night alone with you before your family descends for the weekend.” He grew serious. “If you’d prefer to spend the night alone, it’s all right, Erin. Just tell me.”

She shook her head; she wanted him to stay. “Have you ever been in love?” she asked him. “Maybe I should say, how many times have you been in love?”

It was his turn to shake his head. “I had some serious lust that I mistook for love as a young man.”

“Not even your wife?”

“Especially not my wife…”

“But you married her!”

He took a deep breath. “I’m not proud of that. The fact is, I got off a ship after a really long dry spell and got thoroughly seduced by an enlisted navy medical secretary—I have no trouble believing she was far more sexually experienced than I was, and I admit, with a great deal of embarrassment, that I went into a trance. In the military, you just don’t go boinking your subordinates, and I was facing serious trouble, so we got married and she was discharged, which turned out to be exactly what she wanted. I was set up from the beginning—I was a discharge chit and some pocket change. Three months later, we were divorced. It was a horrible experience.”

“Was it a horrible experience for her, too?”

“I don’t think so. I think she got exactly what she was after. And I think the experience goes a long way toward explaining why I found it difficult to have a trusting relationship after that. So. You? In love?”

She shook her head. “Never. Not even as a young woman. There were a couple of men I dated more than twice, but nothing much happened. We’re still friends.” Then she laughed. “Not really friends. They’re clients.”

He grinned largely. “Now, that’s something that never happens to me,” he said. “Former girlfriends never want to be my patients.”

The timer buzzed and he pulled the chicken and fries out of the oven. She tossed and dressed the salad. He carved the chicken; she pulled out plates. She had to retuck her towel around her several times. “Are we really going to eat dinner in towels? Naked, in towels?”

“You want to ditch the towels?” he asked with a smile.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” she admitted. “Nothing even close. In fact, I haven’t done most of what we’ve done today.”

He held out her chair for her. “Will you tell me something?”

“I’ll try,” she said.

“That first day—I caught you crying. Don’t deny it—I caught you crying. Why?”

She laughed uncomfortably. “It’s pretty silly.”

“Try me.”

“Oh—I was feeling kind of lonely, like maybe the dumbest thing I’d ever talked myself into was a whole summer alone on a mountaintop. I did something I don’t usually allow myself to do—I was having a pity party. Somehow I started listing all the cheats of my life—including the fact that I never went to a prom.”

“You asked me that—about the prom,” he recalled. “What is it with girls and proms?”

“We never get over them,” she said, shaking her head. “We say they’re stupid and meaningless, but if we never got asked, or if we’re stood up or have a disastrous time, the misery can last a lifetime. I haven’t done that since, by the way. I’m completely over it.” She lifted one eyebrow. “The loneliness. And the prom.”

He carved off a slice of chicken breast and put it on her plate. “Eat. I’m going to take you back to bed and show you something more fun than prom.”

Aiden found it difficult to get a good night’s sleep while lying beside the sweet, beautiful, na**d body of Erin. But he didn’t begrudge the lack of sleep at all. In fact, he felt as though he could run ten miles. When the morning sun finally flooded her bedroom, he started nuzzling her neck again. “I think I just spent the best night of my life,” he whispered to her.

“Mmm. Me, too. And I’m completely exhausted,” she replied.

And he thought she might be just a little sore, too. “I’d be glad to make you breakfast,” he said. “I’d be happy to roll you around in the sheets some more. But, honey, I bet you’ve had about enough. And you need sleep before your family arrives.”

“I hope you like me a lot,” she said through a yawn. “Because if you don’t, I’ll have to give this up. And I like this.”