Someone Like Her by Sandra Owens

time-out, needed to think about what he was getting into. What he couldn’t do was give any hint she’d rocked his world to its very core, and now he needed some space to get his bearings back. Thanks to her idiot boyfriend, she would blame herself for doing something wrong.
    “Still think you’re immune to sex?”
    She tilted her head back against his shoulder and gave him a big grin. “I think you’ve proven otherwise.” Her smile slipped and her expression turned shy. “That was my first ever orgasm. Thank you.”
    If he were a peacock, he’d spread his tail and strut. “You’re more than welcome, believe me, but you mean the first you’ve had with a man, right?”
    She shook her head.
    “Haven’t you ever masturbated?” Didn’t everyone?
    Again, her head shook. “You have to understand, growing up with Lovey Dovey and everything with her revolving around sex . . . I don ’t know, I guess I just wanted to be as different from her as possible.”
    “And you are, but it isn’t because you do or don’t have sex, or even whether or not you pleasure yourself.” He pulled her hair away from her neck, wrapped it around his hand, and tugged her head back. Eyes as warm as melted chocolate stared up at him.
    He was in trouble all right, but he kissed her anyway.
    Before this went any further, he’d best take that time-out and decide if the direction he was headed was where he wanted to go. “You know what?”
    She twisted around and sat back on her heels. “What?”
    His gaze strayed down to take in her magnificent breasts clothed in the lacey bra, on down over her trim waist, and then to the jeans, still unzipped and showing a hint of the red panties. He’d bet his retirement fund she tasted as good as she looked, and she was his for the taking. Nothing had ever stopped him before, so why was he hesitating?
    “Do I know what?”
    What the hell had he been going to say? He lifted his eyes to hers. “Let’s go pig out on that ice cream you promised I’d like.”
    She scrunched her eyebrows together. “Now?”
    “Since when have you turned down ice cream?”
    “I did something wrong, didn’t I? And now you—”
    He put a finger over her lips. “Stop it. You did nothing wrong, Chiquita. You were amazing. We didn’t have dinner and didn’t finish our appetizers, and I’m just hungry. That’s all.”
    Her expression said she didn’t believe him. She should because she was, in fact, amazing. He just needed to get his world back in order, but he didn’t know how to explain it to her.
    “Come on, get up,” he said, giving her a light slap on the ass. She reached for the blouse he’d tossed to the other side of the bed. “No, leave it off. I like you just the way you are.”
    That seemed to reassure her, and the light came back into her eyes. She scooted off the bed and held out her hand. “Ice cream it is, then.”
    “You go ahead. I’m just going to the bathroom, and I’ll be right there.”
    After she disappeared down the hall, Jake banged his head against the headboard. There were a thousand reasons he had no business having her in his bed. But damn, he wanted her. He went into the bathroom and cleaned himself up, still marveling that he’d climaxed just from touching her and watching her come.
    When he entered the kitchen, Maria sat at the table, one large bowl of ice cream in front of her. “Don’t I get any?”
    She held out a spoonful of ice cream. “We’re sharing.”
    It would have been a good idea to let her put her blouse back on. He’d still not made a decision, and the red bra and all that exposed golden skin made it impossible to think. Taking a seat next to her, he opened his mouth when she aimed the spoon his way.
    “All right, I concede that’s really good.” It’d been ages since he’d had ice cream.
    “Can’t go wrong with double chocolate fudge brownie.”
    “No, but I might OD on all the sugar.” He obediently opened for her to feed him more.
    She