“Each to his own, I guess.”

“Her own, and taking the plaque off someone’s teeth is my idea of dental work, not a romantic kiss. People should keep their tongues in their own mouths.”

“I guess this means I shouldn’t ask you about oral sex.”

“What?”

He threw back his head and let out a bellow of a laugh.

She flushed, but as she took a long sip of wine, she was surprised she wasn’t more embarrassed.

“Come on, Nell. The night’s long and we’re all alone. Tell Father Mathias where this hang-up of yours comes from.”

“Mathias? I thought your name was Matthew.”

“Mathias is the Slovak version. It’s Mat with one t. My sisters’ doing. Unfortunately, it stuck. And don’t change the subject on me. I take it your ex-husband isn’t much of a kisser.”

She sipped her wine, then found herself saying, “Not with me anyway.”

“With someone else?”

She hesitated, then nodded slowly. He had no idea who she was, and she was so tired of pretending she and Dennis had been blissfully happy. At least Nell Kelly could tell some small part of the truth.

“A lot of someones?”

“No, only one. He was faithful. He just wasn’t faithful to me.” She toyed with the pillow in her lap. “He wasn’t anything with me.”

There was a long pause. “Are you trying to tell me you didn’t have sex with your husband?”

She realized what she’d almost revealed. “Yes, of course I did. It just wasn’t great sex.”

That was a lie. There had been a few weeks of fumbling attempts that had left her with this humiliating uncertainty about whether or not she was still a virgin. She felt like a fool. All through high school and college, her healthy body had ached for a man’s touch, but she’d been raised to be daddy’s good girl, so she’d said no the few times a boy had gotten up the courage to ignore the Secret Service.

“The guy must have a problem.”

A big one. He was buried six feet under at Arlington National Cemetery. She choked back a laugh that felt like a sob. “Are you sure I wasn’t the one with the problem?”

He paused for a moment, and she realized he was really thinking it over. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

She found herself smiling. “Thank you.”

“Feeling a little insecure, are you?”

“A little.”

“So he had great sex with his girlfriend, but not with you.”

“I don’t know what kind of sex he had with his . . . his . . . girlfriend.”

He straightened, and his eyebrows shot together. “Crap.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t a girlfriend,” he said slowly. “It was a guy.”