The Newlyweds by Elizabeth Bevarly Page A

Something other than the usual just being in the same room together. But what else could he be uncomfortable about?
    â€œBecause,” he said softly, “newlyweds are supposed to be, you know, preoccupied.”
    She still wasn’t following him. “Preoccupied? By what?”
    When he lifted his gaze to hers again, it was only long enough to have it bounce away. Then it ricocheted over everything else in the room that wasn’t Bridget. “By, you know, other things.”
    â€œWhat other things? What are you talking about?”
    He emitted a low growl of clear frustration. “I’m talking about other things, ” he repeated. “You know. Newlywed things. Wedding-night things. Honeymoon things.”
    â€œOhh,” she said aloud. “ Those things. Sex things.”
    â€œYeah, those things,” he echoed. But that was all he echoed. His gaze met hers again, and if she hadn’t known better, Bridget would have sworn he was blushing. But men like Sam Jones didn’t blush. Certainly not over something like what traditionally kept newlyweds preoccupied. He seemed less embarrassed,though, than he did irritated. And if he was irritated, it could only be because he thought Bridget was such a blockhead about those things.
    But how was she supposed to know what he was talking about? It wasn’t as if he’d been specific about it. And she’d never been a newlywed, so how was she supposed to know how newlyweds acted? She’d certainly never given any thought to wedding-night or honeymoon behavior, having decided early on that there wouldn’t be a wedding night or honeymoon in her future. Not that she was any stranger to the activity that newlyweds generally engaged in—well, not too big a stranger to it—but she wasn’t preoccupied by thoughts of sex, either. Not just because she hadn’t been intimately involved with anyone for a long time, but because she just didn’t have time to think about sex. Even when she was sexually involved with someone, she didn’t spend that much time thinking about it. She had work to do. Sex had just never been all that preoccupying for her, that was all.
    The few men with whom she had been romantically involved had no more been the forever-after type than she was. Oh, she’d liked them well enough. And they’d liked her well enough, too. One or two she’d liked more than the others, enough to become more intimately involved, but she’d never intended anything to go too far, even with the intimate ones. She hadn’t wanted anything to interfere with the job she had to do.
    â€œOkay, yeah,” she conceded now, “I guess newlyweds do keep a low profile for that. But that’s not all they do.”
    She met Sam’s gaze levelly, and when she saw the way his pupils had expanded, nearly eclipsing the blue of his irises, she began to feel…something. Somethingweird. Something she’d never felt before. She told herself it must be doubt, a reaction with which she was in no way familiar. Funny, though, she’d never figured doubt would generate a fire in her midsection that way…
    â€œIs it?” she added in a very small voice.
    For a minute he said nothing, and she got the impression it was because he was thinking about something very, very hard. Finally, though, he said, “Where I come from, newlyweds tend to disappear for a few weeks after the wedding. And not because they’re on their honeymoon in Hawaii, either. Where I come from, people can’t afford honeymoons in Hawaii. So they honeymoon at home. But they still disappear for a while because they want to…enjoy each other in private. Get to know each other intimately. Discover all the things about each other that they never knew before.”
    His expression hardened as he added, “But in your world, I guess I can see where newlyweds might forgo what you call ‘the sex thing’ to get out