One Wish by Robyn Carr Page A

funerals...” Grace shrugged. “She was mortified. We had a standoff. She wanted me to live at home with her, follow in her footsteps, plan charity events, travel with her, let her... Well, she probably had some guy lined up for me from somewhere. We never got that far in a discussion. I wasn’t interested. I wanted my own life and I wanted it simple. We haven’t spoken in years. It’s very sad. It’s for the best, I think.”
    By his expression, he was stunned. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder. “Grace...I’m sorry.”
    “Thank you. Maybe someday it will sort itself out. What I really want you to know is...” She lifted her chin bravely. “Troy, I’m not like Iris. I’m not like other girls. I’m probably less experienced than some of your students. I’ve never had a guy I really liked before. I’m pretty lame at it.”
    “You’re doing very well,” he said with a smile. He poured them each a glass of wine.
    She took a sip. Then a breath. “Well, even though you’re probably going to figure it out anyway, I thought you should know—I don’t know much about men. Just what my boyfriends in my romances told me. That’s it.”
    He raised one eyebrow. “And how am I going to figure that out?”
    “When you realize I don’t have any idea what to do! You’re going to guess, if we do decide to do it, that I’ve never done it before. You will be my first unless you run for your life right now.” She grinned at him. “No pressure.”
    He grinned right back. “I’m not worried, Gracie. Are you?”
    She nodded. “Maybe a little,” she said.
    “Want me to tell you how it’s going to be?”
    Again she nodded.
    “The first time it’s going to be very slow and safe. We’re going to kiss until we’re steamy. We’re going to touch and get so close we can feel each other’s heartbeat.” He leaned over and gently kissed her cheek and her throat and she let her head drop back and closed her eyes. “We’re going to lie down together and lose some clothes... We’ll discover each other. I’m going to touch you in all your special places and you’re going to touch me when you’re ready. We’ll ease into things slowly and carefully, but the most important thing is, you can say no or stop whenever you don’t want to go any further. Even if we’re naked and breathing hard, if you say stop, we stop.”
    Her eyes were still closed and she whispered into his cheek. “I don’t use anything...”
    “I do,” he said.
    “When is this going to happen?” she asked.
    “In a hurry, Grace?”
    She shrugged. “Well, when I make a decision...”
    “We’re going to enjoy a glass of wine. Then, if you’re ready, you’ll let me know.”
    * * *
    Troy hadn’t been prepared for this—a twenty-eight-year-old woman as beautiful and funny as Grace, a virgin. He would have expected her to have sexual history, like most women her age. Some had a lot of notches, some only a few, but he’d never encountered
none
before. Even his first girl, his first experience, wasn’t a virgin. She’d had a serious boyfriend before him. Of course, just because he was a flirt and liked to have girlfriends didn’t mean he’d been a sexual prodigy. He had sex for the first time at nearly the end of his first year of college. At eighteen, he was the last among his buddies, unless they were lying.
    They were probably lying. Of course they were lying. At least mostly lying.
    He took this very seriously, making love to Grace. It had to be a good experience for her and he was definitely eager to take on the challenge. He just hoped there wasn’t some virgin consciousness that would have her leaning toward true love and marriage because of sex. He wasn’t opposed to that in the long run, he just didn’t want it all to happen in one night. He was crazy about her, couldn’t wait to get inside her, didn’t see any red flags that would warn him to get out of this relationship—he just needed time to get more serious.
This