Educating Gina by Debbi Rawlins Page B

did not blame me.”
    “I don’t.” He shoved a hand through his hair. It was still messy from the fight. She liked the way it looked. “But from now on, we don’t go anywhere unless I’ve checked the place out first.”
    She nodded and snuggled up to him. “I have never seen anything like that before. My friends will not believe it.”
    “Oh, man. Don’t tell anybody about the place, or about us being there.”
    She swallowed and looked down at her hands. “You are right. I am ashamed.”
    “That’s not what I meant.” He forced her chin up. “The reason no charges were pressed against us was because the desk sergeant remembered that Darin had pulled the same thing on two tourists last year. Who knows how many other people he’s conned out of money? If we’d had the cash on us, we’d have paid him just to get out of there pronto.”
    “Then he should be in jail.”
    “You get no argument from me.”
    “How did you know how to flip him in the air like that?”
    Mike made a face as if he was not happy about what he had done. “I took karate and judo when I was a kid.”
    “For a long time?”
    He shrugged. “My mother worked two jobs and she didn’t want me hanging around the apartment after school by myself. It was karate or piano lessons.” He rolled his eyes. “I ended up getting a black belt.”
    “That is good?”
    He smiled. “Depends on who you ask.”
    She liked him in this mood. “Tell me about when you were a child.”
    “Nothing to tell. I went to school and then to karate. When I got older, I got a job after school. That’s it.”
    “Did you have a girlfriend?”
    “Only two, one in tenth grade, and then Stacy and I went together for half our senior year.”
    “What happened?”
    “I had to work to pay for college. That didn’t leave much time for a social life. Look, enough about the past. Your uncle is going to be home at any minute.”
    She shook her head. “He comes home very late every night and I smell too much wine on his breath. I am worried he does not take care of himself.” Before she left, she would have a talk with him.
    “I’m sure he’s okay.” Mike’s worried frown said something different. “He never gets to work late.”
    “Perhaps I am like my mama.” The sudden thought terrified her. “I worry too much.”
    “This is a vacation.” His lips stretched into a beautiful smile. “The only thing you need to worry about is staying out of trouble.”
    She sighed. Michael did not understand. She did not look for trouble. Tonight had been a mistake. But now, she kept thinking about the blond man’s aroused body. She wondered what Michael’s nude body looked like. It frightened her to have so many obsessive thoughts about sex. The nuns had warned all the girls that such ideas would lead to trouble.
    Gina touched his arm and used the tip of her finger to draw a swirly pattern in the light-brown hair. How much of him was covered with this fine hair? He had a little on his chest, she knew, and around the waistband of his shorts. Did the trail stop or go all the way down…
    “I’m heading home now, and you go to bed. Tomorrow we’ll visit a nice safe museum.”
    “You forgot something.”
    He had a cute frown. “What?”
    She cupped his face as he had done with her and kissed him on the mouth. He sank back against the couch cushions and she took advantage of his mouth opening in surprise. She forced herself to make the kiss more leisurely, using her tongue to explore inside his mouth.
    She had made the mistake of being too feverish the other times she had kissed him. Slow was better. The way he kissed her. Slow. Deep. Thorough.
    “Gina…” he moved his head back so that their lips barely touched “—your uncle…”
    She liked the way his lids lowered to hood his eyes. “We will hear him unlock the door.”
    He tried to straighten, but she sat on his lap and put her arms around his neck. His gaze touched her cleavage, but he quickly raised his eyes