“Aldo. I want to have sex with you. I don’t know how to be more clear than that. If we don’t have sex tonight, it’s because one of us—you—didn’t want to.”

“Jesus. Of course, I want to!”

“I feel compelled to remind you that we promised to be honest with each other at all times.”

“I am being honest. I want to be with you. I want to make love to you until neither one of us can walk or move or breathe.”

“That sounds like a good start. Let’s do that.” She unbuttoned the first button on her blouse and watched Aldo’s pupils dilate.

“I want it to be right,” he said, wetting his lips again in a gesture she found ridiculously sexy.

“Are you still worried about your…function?” she asked. He’d proven exactly how well his talented cock worked up against the back of Harper’s house. If that hadn’t reassured him, Gloria—with her limited sexual experience—wasn’t sure she could help him with whatever was bothering him. “Or do you just not want to function with me?”

He grabbed his wine and took a fortifying gulp. “I’m making a mess of this. Gloria, I swear I used to be smoother, more confident. I would have walked in here and rocked your world and never had an ounce of self-doubt.”

“What’s different from that Aldo to this one?” she asked.

“I’m terrified of letting you down. Yeah, my cock worked. Yeah, I had a wicked orgasm wrapped in your sexy fist. And yeah, I’ve gotten myself off every fucking night since then thinking about that moment when you came on my fingers.”

Gloria wasn’t sure if she was still seated or if she’d melted into a puddle of gooey lust on her rug. Never had sexier sentences been strung together.

Her eyes were at half-mast imagining him gripping his raging hard cock. Fuck.

“But there’s a lot more to sex than just my dick doing its job.”

“Care to demonstrate?”

“Gloria! Sweetheart, I want everything to be perfect for you. I want you to have the most amazing sexual experience of your life, and I want to be responsible for it.”

She undid another button. Slid another inch closer. “The way I look at it, you already did give me the most amazing sexual experience of my life, and we haven’t even had sex yet.”

“I’m scarred, Gloria. Hideous, ugly scars. How are you supposed to look at my fucking leg and stay in the goddamn mood?”

“Oh, baby,” Gloria breathed at the vulnerability, the pain, laced in his words. “Is that what this is?”

He stared at his glass of wine, jaw tight. “You might not know this, but I’m a vain, shallow excuse of a man.”

She slid off the couch and knelt between his legs. “Look at me, handsome.”