Jamie did, awkwardly, after he closed the door behind him. She was shaking. Which was stupid. She’d already had sex with him. But she had no idea what he intended to do now.

She didn’t...take baths.

They seemed silly. A waste of time. Just as well to rinse off.

Still, she couldn’t deny that when she sank into the warm water, which went all the way up over her shoulders, she couldn’t deny that it felt good.

There was a slight knock on the door.

“Come in,” she said, sinking down a little bit in the water.

Gabe did. He was shirtless, wearing his jeans, belt and cowboy boots still. He had a couple of condom packets in his hand, but he set them on the counter. Then he walked over to the edge of the tub, and crouched down beside her, those blue eyes making no secret of the fact that they were looking down through the water.

“Is that all right?”

“I’m fine,” she said.

“You’re not fine. I upset you. And I didn’t mean to.” He sighed heavily. “My dad... I don’t think he takes advantage of women. I think they throw themselves at him. I think they throw themselves at him because he’s famous and rich. And for women who are into that kind of thing...it doesn’t matter how old he is. Doesn’t matter if he’s married, has kids. But I think... I don’t want to be like that. The kind of person who doesn’t think. I don’t think a man is any kind of man if he can’t control himself. That’s part of what it means to be a man. To be strong, and to never use it against anyone. To be able to take advantage of people if you wanted to, but to choose instead to care about their feelings.”

“I think you do... I think you do a pretty good job of that, Gabe. Wyatt definitely has you wrong.”

“Yeah, he thought I would take advantage of you.” Gabe’s mouth pulled down into a rueful frown. “I pretty much did.”

“I think I took advantage of you. I purposefully withheld information about my virginity. Mostly because I was hoping it wouldn’t matter.”

“Have you ever not charged into things full on?”

He grabbed a bar of soap and worked it to lather over his hands, and then Jamie jolted when he stuck those hands into the water, rubbing them over her shoulders. She relaxed against him then, because his touch felt good, soothing to her aching muscles.

No one had ever done this for her before.

“Good?” he asked, his voice husky.

“Yes,” she said.

He took his hands away for a moment, then took hold of the bar of soap again, slicking them up, before he returned his attention to her. This time he slid his hands down over her breasts, touching them, cupping them and teasing her nipples before sliding down her stomach and grazing that place between her legs.

She shifted, whimpering slightly and turning her head, burying her face against his forearm.