"And you want what from me? How am I supposed to educate you?"

"I want a week of sex." She stood, retreating to the bar. Pouring fresh drinks, she used clean glasses, not wanting to walk back near him just yet. From a distance, she watched her words sink into his mind. The space between them allowed her to be bold as she continued. "One week of reckless, all out, pure, unadulterated lust. Just sex, no ties, and no emotions. No backlash of everyday reality to deal with when it's over. No embarrassing breakup or regrets."

"You want what? I thought all these years you hated me? That any attempt to touch you horrified you. Now you want to go slumming, and I'm the first name that came to mind?" His question made her imagination reel at the possibilities, her stomach tightening with a strange static, her nipples budding of their own accord.

"I never knew how to handle you. Is that clear enough? When you kissed me on my sixteenth birthday, you opened a doorway to hell for me. Can you understand? You gave me a taste of something I've never been able to recapture. And when you kissed me on my twenty-first…you made me come with your kiss." This time she didn't look away. She wanted this, though it was obvious Damien's mind was still having trouble wrapping itself around her words. Had he known the kiss was erotic? Had he wondered if she understood the difference?

"Don't let your ego trip on your erection!" She held her chin high, just as she had when she opened the door to him tonight. "I'm just saying this is probably the only time in my life I'll be able to explore that aspect of life, and I wanted it to be with someone I trusted, someone I was…"

"Someone you…?" He was stalling.

"All right, so I'm attracted to you. We both know it. From the first time I saw you at fifteen, I wondered about you. And for the last fifteen years, I've never found anyone who makes me feel like you did with those two kisses. No man ever lived up to them."

"But certainly you have other choices?"

"There are plenty of men who would jump at the chance to come away with me for a week. Some of them would take me in a heartbeat, literally! Damien, I'm not affair material, and we both know it. If I was, the last ten years of my life would have been very different." Stopping to gather what little courage she had left, she added, "I don't want them. I want someone I can trust, someone I can find myself with. I know, under the years of schooling, there's a part of me that got lost or left behind, or hell, probably just repressed and never allowed to surface. I want one week to find her before she dies inside me altogether."

"And you want me to service you for the week, to fulfill your fantasies?"

"Something like that, yes, if you must be so blunt about it. And I never considered it slumming. Never did I see this from that angle. I'm sorry if I've offended you. I never meant to."

"What if I don't live up to the fantasy?"

"I have no expectations to hold you up against, except for two kisses. If it doesn't free me, I suppose I go back to my staid life and know it wasn't meant for me."

"Do you really believe that?"

"Sometimes. What I want to find out is who I could be. And I want to feel safe doing it. Does that make any sense?"

"None of this makes any sense. What about all those highly respectable men who squire you to all your social obligations. Why would you want a scoundrel like me? Your word, not mine, if I remember correctly."

"Maybe because you were the forbidden bad boy of my youth? Maybe because I want to know if the legendary stories about you are true. Maybe I just want to escape and explore the possibilities? Maybe I just want to be able to let my guard down and not be afraid of having it thrown back in my face." Her words startled him; she knew he had trust issues himself. Her reference to his ex-wife was still prominent on her mind. "You wouldn't, would you?" Suddenly this all seemed like a horrible idea as anxiety bubbled up inside her.

"You're going to be thirty in a few months, and you've been married. You know what the possibilities are. In the past, I got the impression you decided I was depraved. Now you're telling me you want me to show you the path. What happens when the week is over?" He ran his fingers through his dark hair, always just a little longer than convention dictated.

"You go back to your life, and I come back to mine. No strings. No emotion, just sex." She swallowed hard, adding, "My opinion of you hasn't changed. I've chosen to accept there are other perspectives to explore. I want to be reckless for just once, no strings, just pure, unadulterated lust, no public acknowledgement. I want this for me."

"Tina, I hate to break this to you, but between us it can never be just sex. If I didn't care for you, maybe, but we have chemistry together and it won't be casual. What happens if you want more? I don't know if I can promise you anything in the long run, and I don't want you to be hurt. I'm trying to be honest with you, I do care about you."

Constance forced herself not to turn away; instead, she let herself get lost in his dark look. "Thank you, but I've thought about this from all angles. I'm only asking for this time in our lives. When it's over, we both go our separate ways. I know I'm not the sort of woman you'd be tempted to be with in your real life. What I'm looking for is the flash of time that holds no day-to-day reality. No chance of retaliation or embarrassment later." She hesitated before adding, "It just seemed like the right time in both of our lives to have this chance to explore each other. First I was too young then attached to Michael. When I was divorced, you were married. It's only in the last year that we've both become completely unattached."

Damien was visible shaken by the turn of events. He'd arrived with a vague invitation. She would bet he’d never have guessed this as the reason behind it.