Free Love for Beginners: An Under the Hood Novella by Sally Clements Page A

fearful of the consequences that she’d persuaded herself that she never, ever felt sexual. And now she was wrapped around Alice’s brother, pushing her hands under the hem of his shirt…devouring him like a lioness making short work of a gazelle.
    The red mist of lust thinned. Mel pulled back.
    “What?” Heath murmured against her lips.
    “You must think…”
    Heath’s hand clasped her nape. His lips trailed across her cheek to her ear. “Don’t tell.” His lips returned to hers. “Me.” He punctuated his word with a kiss, then his lips trailed to her other ear. “What I think.” He nipped at her earlobe, sending a shivery flash of heat down Mel’s spine.
    The moan was half sigh, and as impossible to hold back as water leaking through a hole in a dam.
    For the first time, he initiated. His kiss was wild—abandoned. His hands cupped her breasts through the soft fabric of her shirt. Every time she’d been touched there before, she’d felt awkward and embarrassed. Now, embarrassment was merely a memory as she flattened her palm to his back.
    She was glad his eyes were closed, because she would have hated him to see her eyes at the moment—she wasn’t sure, but it felt like they’d rolled all the way back in ecstasy.
    Could making love be this easy—this enjoyable? Mel’s preconceived notions tilted and shifted.
    Her hand crept to Heath’s stomach again, trailing lower to find the arousal pressing against his fly.
    She undid the top button.
    Heath’s hand covered hers. “Mel.”
    Mel’s gaze lifted to his.
    “If we don’t stop now, we’ll be in bed for the entire weekend.” He rested his forehead against hers. “And I don’t think that’s what you want.”
    If she went to bed with Heath, slaked this need that held her so tightly in its grip, she could be sure once and for all that she would be able to go through with sex without freezing up and destroying a relationship.
    Her fingers traced the silky trail on Heath’s lower stomach. He was so damned sexy, and she wanted him, just as all the women he’d known before had. It was a physical thing. A pheromone-driven animal attraction. Surrendering to it should be no more wrong than gorging on chocolate cake, or getting drunk, once in a while. She could indulge without adding her heart into the mix. Know he’d leave, without wanting him to stay.
    He was never going to be her “always” guy, and being with him would ensure that she could act naturally when she found the perfect guy, and keep him. That man wouldn’t make her heart beat faster when he touched her. Wouldn’t force logical thought from her mind when he kissed her neck. There’d be no threat of her losing herself when she looked into the depths of his eyes. He’d be safe. Reliable. Their relationship wouldn’t be built on the shaky pillars of physical attraction and passion—it would be built on compatibility and shared goals.
    She tilted Heath’s face to the side and trailed her lips from his mouth to his left ear. “Don’t tell.” Her lips returned to his. “Me.” She followed the rising curve of his mouth with her lips, then continued to his other ear. “What I want.”
    Her back arched, pressing her chest into his in unself-conscious abandon—so different from the woman she had been that her blood sang with it.
    “I hope you have condoms, because I know what I want.”
    She couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mouth. Never before had the thought of knowing, asking, demanding what she wanted from a man…well, she’d never wanted anything from a man before. Had never found the brush of anyone’s hands over her chest so incredibly arousing that all she wanted was for there to be nothing between their bodies.
    She shivered as Heath’s mouth trailed down her neck. His warm lips felt wonderful. If Heath could teach her to fake this with Mr. Right, all her worries would be over.
    What do men like?
    She stroked his dark hair with tentative fingers. “Take