Page 33 of Inferno

“Yeah?” he murmured with a wry half smile. “Tell that to my parents.”

“I will if you want me to.Seriously.”

“Uh, thanks, but I don’t think it’d do any good. How’d you get up here?”

“I climbed up the trellis.”

“The what?”

“The trellis.”

An image of the rose-draped ladder attached to the side of the house filled Manning’s mind, and he chuckled. “I didn’t know that’s what it was called.”

A delighted grin curved Caitlyn’s lips. “God, you’re cute.”

Manning suddenly remembered that on the ride to school that morning, she’d casually asked him whether he had his own bedroom and where it was located. Now he knew why she’d been so interested.

As a cold gust of wind swept into the room, he pulled away from Caitlyn to close the window. As he turned around, she caught his face between her hands and kissed him. He kissed her back, sucking on the cherry-flavored tongue she plunged into his mouth.

Moaning softly with pleasure, she backed him toward the bed and pushed him down. Heart pounding with excitement, Manning watched as she unbuttoned her trench coat and slipped it from her shoulders.

His eyes flew wide. “Shit!”

Her naked body glowed softly in the moonlight as she climbed onto the bed. She helped Manning pull off his shorts, then reached up and removed a foil packet tucked inside her bun.

It was all Manning could do to hold still as she covered him with the condom and straddled his waist.

“Are you a virgin?” she whispered.

He swallowed hard.“Hell, no.”

Her eyes twinkled. “That’s too bad,” she lamented.

“Why?”

“I wanted to have the bragging rights of popping your cherry.”

That sounded fair enough.

“Okay,” Manning quickly amended. “I’m a virgin.”

Caitlyn laughed, low and wicked. “They say you never forget your first. Do you think you could ever forget me, Manning?”

Not in this lifetime.

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“What you’re working with.”

This startled another laugh out of her. “What I’mworkingwith?”

“Yeah.”Manning grinned cockily. “You might be my first, but you damn sure won’t be my last. So I can’t answer your question till I see how many moves you got.”

Caitlyn smiled seductively. “Oh, I’ve gotplenty.”

“Show me.”

So she did.