a noise that made him want to push her back on the bed and, friends or not, taste her all over again.
Perhaps she’d prefer it if he told her how much he was enjoying how she’d just licked crumbs from her pretty pink lips? How much, now that he knew disentangling himself from their impromptu marriage wasn’t going to be a problem, he was anticipating making love to her again, because for all her blustering he wasn’t blind. She’d looked at him with more hunger than she had the toast. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was as affected by him as he was her. They had phenomenal chemistry.
She leaned toward the tray, got a knife and a packet of strawberry jam, then nodded while she spread the pink mixture on what was left of her toast. Not an easy task because she refused to let go of where she clutched the bed covers, which seemed a bit ridiculous to him since he’d seen every inch of her. Seen, touched, tasted.
Slade swallowed the lump forming in his throat and mentally ordered one not to form beneath his towel. “In case you need reminding, we had a good time last night.”
“I didn’t.”
“Don’t lie.” He’d been there. She hadn’t faked that, couldn’t have faked her responses, and he wouldn’t let her pretend she had. “Yes, you did.”
“Okay,” she conceded with a great deal of sarcasm. “You’re good in bed. Anyone can be good if they get lots of practice and we both know you’ve had lots of practice.”
“Lots of practice?” He hadn’t lived the life of a monk, but he didn’t go around picking up random women every night either. Sure, he never committed, but the women he spent time with knew the score. He wasn’t the marrying kind and avoided women who were. “You want to discuss my past sex life?”
“Not really.” Her face squished, then paled. “Although I guess we should discuss diseases and such.”
He arched his brow. “You have a disease?”
“No.” She sounded horrified enough that he knew she was telling the truth. They should have discussed all this the night before. And birth control. Because for the first time in his life he hadn’t used a condom. Because for the first time in his life he’d been making love to his wife.
Slade’s throat tightened. He’d not only gotten married the night before but he’d had sex without a condom. How stupid could he have been?
Was that why the sex had been so good? Because they’d not had a rubber barrier between them? Because they’d been flesh to flesh? He didn’t think so. There had been something more, something special about kissing Taylor.
Besides, they’d used a condom the first time. It had been their subsequent trips to heaven that had been without one. He’d only had the one condom in his wallet and they’d still been high under the Las Vegas night air—or whatever foolishness had lowered their inhibitions.
“Do you?” she asked, sounding somewhere between terrified and hopeful his answer would be the right one.
“I haven’t specifically gone for testing recently.” There hadn’t been a need. He had never had sex without protection before her and didn’t engage in any other high-risk behaviors. “It’s been a year or so since my last checkup, but I do donate blood routinely and have always checked normal.”
His answer didn’t appease her and she eyed him suspiciously. “When was the last time you donated?”
“About two months ago.”
Relief washed over her face. “No letter telling you about any abnormal findings?”
He shook his head. “No such letter. What about you?”
Her gaze didn’t quite meet his. “I’ve only been with one man and that was years ago during medical school. I’ve been checked a couple of times since then. I’m clean.”
As unreasonable as it was since he was no saint and they were going to end their marriage as soon as possible, the thought of Taylor being with anyone else irked him. A surge of jealousy had his fingers flexing and his brain going on hiatus.
“He didn’t have to marry you to have sex with you?”
SLADE INSTANTLY REGRETTED his sarcastic question, especially when, with a pale face and watery eyes, Taylor glanced down at the plain gold band he’d put on her hand the night before.
“No, Kyle didn’t marry me, but I did believe he was going to spend the rest of his life loving me. Silly me.”
The fact that she’d been heartbroken by the jerk rankled Slade. Good thing she didn’t want this marriage any more than he did. He’d hate to think he’d hurt her like that fool had. Regardless of what the future held for them, he didn’t want to cause Taylor any pain. That much he knew. “What happened?”
She shrugged and the sheet slipped off one shoulder to drape mid-upper-arm. “He didn’t marry me or spend the rest of his life loving me. End of story.”
Hardly, but he wouldn’t push. Such sorrow laced her words that his chest squeezed tighter. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.” Masking her emotions behind an indifferent expression he suspected she’d perfected over the years since her breakup with the guy, Taylor picked up a spoon and scooped up a mouthful of eggs. “He was an arrogant jerk.”
Her lips were wrapped around the spoon and another jolt of jealousy hit him as she slowly pulled the utensil from her mouth.
She picked up a strawberry and bit into the juicy fruit. “Mmm. That’s good.”
“Speaking of good...” He watched her pop the rest of the berry into her mouth and lick the juice from her fingers, and struggled with the desire to do some licking of his own. “Last night really was spectacular, apart from the whole getting-married thing.”
She met his gaze, nodded, then deflated. “Oh, Slade, what have we done?”
Hearing her say his name caused flashbacks from the night before. Until then, he’d never heard her say his first name. He liked the sound. “We got married, but we can correct that. We will correct that. As soon as legally possible.”
“It’s crazy that we got married. Why did we do that? We aren’t in love, barely know each other and I don’t even like you.”
He gave a wry grin. “All this time I just thought you were waiting on me to win you over to my way of thinking.”
“Professionally maybe, but not romantically.”
“Professionally, I’m a good oncologist.”
“You are.” She winced. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“Just that I always thought you were a flirt and didn’t take life seriously.”
“I take my job very seriously.” His work was the most important thing in his life and always would be. “I care a great deal
