Dare’s lips twitched and the muscles in his jaw tightened, but other than clearing his throat twice, all he said was, “And?”

She dropped her gaze back to his chest. “And…I didn’t feel that.”

He was silent for a moment, although there were odd rumbling noises from his chest as if he was struggling to hold some emotion within him. Disgust at her lack of finesse, no doubt.

She wanted to cry.

“Charlotte, I might not be the most experienced man in the world, but I know when a woman experiences an orgasm, and I can assure you that you did.”

“Well, I don’t know about this orgasm business, I haven’t studied that, but I do know that although what I felt with you was wonderful, truly wonderful, indescribably so, it was not a crimson tide of completion that bubbled and foamed about me. What I felt was much more…common. It was…for lack of a better word, earthy. I know a lady should not feel such things, and I will try very hard to school my feelings toward those of the crimson tide of completion, but you must tell me how to go about it. Vyvyan,” she said with a sudden frown at the bureau where the book rested, “is lamentably silent as to how one is to encourage all the foaming and bubbling and such, and eliminate the baser feelings.”

Dare said nothing for a moment. Charlotte gathered her nerve and looked up at him, dreading to see the expected disgust in his eyes, but needing the comfort of his understanding. Hope rose again within her as she saw the laughter and love in his face as he stroked the line of her cheek, cupping her chin to kiss her very gently. Surely, she thought with a blissful sigh, he couldn’t be disgusted when he was looking at her with such a tender expression?

“Charlotte, that moment—it’s called an orgasm—is earthy. Lovemaking, real lovemaking, is not done with any elegance or refinement, or even sophistication. It’s two people coming together in the most fundamental way, it’s sweat and heat and uninhibited pleasure, and if you do it properly, when it’s over you should need a bath.”

Her eyes widened. “Not refined? Vyvyan La Blue makes no such note of this. A bath…yes, I suppose that what with all the moistness that ensues, that could be desired on the lady’s part, but I had no idea it applied for gentleman as well.”

He was grinning at her now, pulling her hand down the length of his chest to his groin. “How do I feel?”

She curled her fingers around the long length of him, suddenly feeling a bit shy. “Your chest is bedewed with perspiration.”

“And?”

She remembered the feel of his back beneath her fingers. “So was your back.”

“And?”

“And you’re sticky. Here,” she said, squeezing him slightly.

He traced a finger under her breast, then eased backward. “And how do you feel?”

She glanced down at the juncture of her thighs. “I suspect the same, although Mama always said ladies don’t perspire, they glow.”