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“All right.” He took off the cap with a feeling of inevitability. He’d never been just friends with her. He doubted he could hold that line now, even for one night.

CHAPTER NINE

“MUCH COZIER,” Pris said as they cruised along the highway in the twilight. More like the old days. They’d never made out in Josh’s vintage T-Bird, but she had fond memories of his New Haven apartment.

Then she noticed a cell phone clipped to the dash. If she called her folks now, she’d probably get their machine. “Can I use the cell?” she asked.

“Be my guest.”

Picking up the phone, she dialed and, fortunately, got the machine. She told them she was fine, she was with Josh, and she’d talk to them in the morning.

Josh made no comment on the call. “Are you hungry?” he asked, finally. “It’s getting close to dinnertime.”

“A little bit, but a hamburger from a drive-through is fine.” She thought of how they used to grab fast food on their way to his apartment to make love.

“I guess we’d make an interesting couple going into a regular restaurant.”

She laughed. “We’ll make an interesting couple at the drive-through window.”

“Good point. I can park the limo and go in to pick up the order.”

“And spoil the fun? Josh, if I really wanted a restaurant meal, I’d say so. Being outrageous is starting to appeal to me.”

He glanced at her. “Then I guess you’ve changed in the past six months.”

“Try the past six hours. Until this morning, I was the same old conservative Pris. And then Brad’s ex called.”

Josh groaned. “Don’t tell me he’s been fooling around on you with the ex.”

“Nope. She asked if I’d had sex with Brad, and I said no, because—”

“What?”

“Brad thought we should wait until after we were married.” Which sounded dumb now.

“Are you saying you’ve gone six months without sex?”

“It hasn’t been easy.”

His laugh was bitter. “Tell me about it.”

She looked at him in shock. “You mean, you haven’t—”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been busy with work.” He seemed embarrassed that he’d let the comment slip. “You know me, trying to get lots of hours in. So what’s the story on your fiancé?” he asked, as if wanting to shift the attention away from himself. “Don’t tell me he’s gay.”

“Nope. According to his ex, he’s very quick on the trigger.”

Josh coughed. “She could have been making that up out of jealousy.”

“I know, so I asked him. And from his reaction, it’s true. But he said he hadn’t told me because he didn’t think it was important.”

“The hell he didn’t think it was important!” Josh looked ready to spit nails. “That’s why he put off having sex with you! No wonder you ran out of that church like your dress was on fire. What a jerk!”

“I didn’t know what else to do. I could either run out or stay and explain to the guests that I wasn’t marrying him because he’s terrible in bed.”

“He deserved to have everyone know, tricking you the way he did.”

“Maybe so, but there were kids in that church, and Brad’s great-grandmother. I thought if I ran, I’d buy myself time to figure out how to answer the questions.”

“So here we are.” He paused. “And neither of us has had sex in months.”

“Looks that way.” The past few hours had made her much bolder. “What do you think we should do about that?”

CHAPTER TEN

WITH HIS BRAIN full of thoughts about sex with Pris, Josh decided he was an unsafe driver for this houseboat on wheels. Bedroom on wheels was more like it. And temptation was sitting beside him wearing a white wedding dress.

He put on the turn signal and took the next exit. “I think we should get a hamburger and talk about the situation,” he said.

“You’re right,” she said immediately. “I didn’t mean to come on like some sex-starved woman. I just—”

“You are a sex-starved woman.” Josh watched for a hamburger joint, any hamburger joint. “And I’m a sex-starved man, and that’s an explosive combo. I had no idea that you’d been living like a nun ever since we split up.”

“You probably think I was stupid to agree with Brad’s idea.”

“Not stupid. I’m surprised, that’s all.” Shell-shocked was more like it. All along