“I think Beatrice sees love and passion as a way in which a woman turns over control of herself and her love to a man, not a desirable thing in a time period in which women were essentially the property of their husbands.”

“That’s understandable. But fear almost causes her to spend her life bitter and alone rather than take a chance on happiness with a man. Sometimes you have to take a risk, not knowing exactly how it’s going to turn out.”

“Oh, there’s the road we need,” Imogen said, pointing to her right. “Camp Lane. And I don’t think I’m much of a risk taker.”

“Cool.” Ty pulled into a gravel parking lot and stopped the car. “No? You’re not a risk taker? I think I probably am.”

“Since you risk your life every Sunday, I would say so, yes.”

Ty shrugged. “I don’t see racing that way. Sure, you can wreck, but given all the thousands of times we all drive on a track, serious accidents don’t happen all that often. You’re probably more at risk of an injury in an accident in that piece of crap you call a car than I am in my safety-first stock car.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Imogen ran her finger along her bottom lip. “Do you think there are personality types that are truly incompatible? Like can a cautious person and a risk taker actually tolerate each other long term? Or a highly sexual person live with someone who has a low libido?”

“The first one, yes. The second one, no. If one person is wanting some action all the time and the other is constantly begging off? That’s going to be a huge source of tension.” He could say with absolute certainty that he would be really frustrated if he was with a woman who thought having sex once a month was plenty. He’d get more if he was single. Of course, the upside to a relationship was that when you did finally get around to sex, there would be intimacy along with the physical connection, but he still didn’t think he would be anything short of chronically horny and irritable if he had access to a woman but got the black flag every night.

“I think I would have to agree. One person will always feel like they’re having to ask for sex instead of sharing it freely with each other. And the person who is not highly sexual will fall into a pattern of simply giving in to the other in order to stave off the argument, which isn’t conducive to intimacy or uninhibited and enthusiastic sex.”

Ty gave Imogen a long look. “Are you trying to tell me you gave in last week to prevent an argument?”

She snorted. “Hah. If anything, it would have to be considered the other way around. I offered it even before then, and you turned it down.”

“I explained that. We’re not going there again, are we?” Because that didn’t sound like anything he wanted to bumble his way through a second time.