Page 86 of The Scent of Intuition
“Then let me tell you that your qualities far exceed even your reputation as a diamond of the first water. Your beauty goes beyond being the belle at every ball. And the fortune a man would have if he married you cannot be diminished to your beauty alone.”
Bea swallowed hard and tried to calm her thrumming heart. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
She sniffled and moved her hand on his chest when he moved his own, giving her complete access to his torso. “About the physical exam…”
“Do you know what this muscle is called?” he asked, flexing it beneath her palm so it grew hard and rounded.
She shook her head.
“Pectoralis major.”
“Does it cover the heart?” She instinctively met his gaze as she awaited an answer. Somehow, her physical exam had turned into a tutoring lesson on male anatomy, and she was the student.
Well, she was.
And she wanted nothing more than to learn from him.
*
Alfie would modelfor her and teach her whatever she’d be willing to learn about the human body, and especially how to experience the most exquisite pleasures. But he was no fool and knew that she’d teach him about making love, for it didn’t matter how well-versed he was at the mechanics of it, Bea was a new discovery and an experience he wasn’t sure he could ever stop learning from.
If simply kissing her had changed his mind, holding her had changed this heart, and whatever followed now would change his fate.
He pulled his shirt out of his breeches and then removed it entirely, exposing even more of his body.
The black pupils nearly eclipsed her lovely green eyes, but she didn’t step back. She looked at him, getting her fill, and he would die to know what she was thinking. She bit her lower lip.
Oh how he wanted to bite it a little bit, too.
But not now.
Not yet.
“What’s this one called?” She moved around him slowly, taking him in with huge eyes as she trailed her fingers along his upper back.
“Trapezius.”
“Like a trapezoid?”
“It’s that shape if you isolate it.”
She furrowed her brow. “And this?” Her fingers brushed down toward his upper arm and over his shoulder.
“Deltoid.”
“And why the ridges?”
Alfie pinched his eyes shut. She was too sweet, too naïve, and he had to control himself to not lift her up, lay her on the bed, and give her a taste of how well he knew the female anatomy, too. He regained that control by thinking about the male anatomy instead.
“Thefasciaconnects muscle groups and if there’s no fat to mask it, these ridges appear.”
He flexed his biceps, but her hands trailed to his abdomen. She lay both hands flat.
“There’s no fat here. Are these abdominal muscles?”
Then her hands went to his sides and although it tickled a little bit, he didn’t laugh. “And that is a large muscle, theoblique abdominis.”
