Thorn's Challenge - Brenda Jackson [33]
Thorn breathed in deeply as he brought his bike to a stop. All he had planned to do was take Tara out to eat and then back home. But the feel of her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, the feel of her pressed so close to his back and the scent of her surrounding him had been too much.
He angled his head over his shoulder and came very close to her face. “We need to talk.”
Tara lifted a brow. “Couldn’t we have waited until we got to the restaurant?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s rather private and not a topic we would want to discuss over dinner.”
“Oh,” she said, wondering just what topic that could be.
She climbed off the bike and stood back as he turned off the engine, kicked down the motorcycle stand and then swung his leg over the bike. She tried not to look at how tightly stretched his jeans were across his body, especially over his midsection, as he slowly covered the distance that separated them. She met his gaze. He had said that he wanted to talk, but the look in his eyes told another story.
She swallowed when he came to a stop in front of her. “What did you want to talk about?”
Thorn blinked. For a moment he had completely forgotten just what he had wanted to discuss with her. His concentration had gone to her mouth and his desire to devour it. Savor it. Taste it.
“It’s about birth control,” he finally said.
Now it was Tara’s turn to blink. “Birth control?”
“Yes,” Thorn answered in a husky voice. “I need to know if you’re using any?”
Tara blinked again. “Excuse me?”
Thorn’s voice got huskier when he explained. “I need to know if you plan on using birth control when we make love because I don’t intend to use anything.”
Tara stared at him, momentarily speechless. Never in a million years would she have thought that he was the kind of man who would be the selfish type in the bedroom. They were men who thought all they had to do was to enjoy the act of making love and not contribute to the responsibility of making sure there was not an unwanted pregnancy. She had heard about such men and couldn’t believe that Thorn was one of them. She couldn’t believe he was actually standing in front of her dumping something like that in her lap.
Looking him squarely in the eye she placed her hands on her hips. “No, I’m not on any type of birth control,” she said, deciding not to add that she had started taking the pill six months before her wedding was to take place. She had stopped when the marriage hadn’t happened and had not given any thought to going back on them since there had not been a need. As far as she was concerned there still was no need since she had no intention of sleeping with Thorn, although he didn’t know that.
Her gaze sharpened and angry fire appeared in her eyes. The expression on her face would probably have killed lesser men. “So if you plan to sleep with me, Thorn Westmoreland, then it will be up to you to wear a condom.”
Thorn crossed his arms over his chest. Oh, he intended to sleep with her all right. But sleep was only a portion of what they would do, a very small portion. He watched her glare at him. Damn, but he liked her feistiness and had from the first time they had met. He knew he had ventured into territory that was probably off limits by the way she was acting, but the sooner she knew the score, the better. First he had to clarify things with her.
“Don’t misunderstand me, Tara. If it were any woman other than you, I wouldn’t even dream of taking them to bed without my own brand of protection no matter what type of protection they claimed to be using. In addition to that, I would make sure we both knew the state of our health. Safe sex means a lot to me, and I need to be certain it also means a lot to the woman I’m sleeping with. When it comes to bed partners, I’m extremely selective. Because of racing, I routinely take physicals, and I’m sure since you’re involved in the medical field, things are probably the same way