“Sherry?”

She turned sharply to the closed door. “Yes?”

“Are you okay?” Basil asked with concern, and then sounded confused as he added, “Who are you talking to?”

Sherry glanced back to her reflection and whispered, “Now see what you’ve done?”

“What did I do?”

Muttering, “d.a.m.ned immortal hearing,” she opened the door. Basil stood just outside in light blue cotton pajamas and a dark blue robe. He looked so d.a.m.ned debonair . . . like he was used to being in strange bedrooms with women he’d only met days ago.

“Nothing,” Sherry a.s.sured him when she realized she hadn’t responded to his comment, and then she admitted with a little chagrin, “I was just talking to myself.”

“Oh.” He looked relieved at this news and smiled, his gaze sliding down over her with pleasure. “You look lovely.”

“Thank you,” she squeaked, and moved past him to hurry to the bed, her only thought to hide herself under the covers. G.o.d, she was such a ninny.

Sherry climbed quickly to sit in bed and tugged the covers up to her neck. She then held them in place with one hand and forced a smile for him.

Basil still stood across the room, a rather bemused look on his face. She supposed she couldn’t blame him. She was acting like a terrified virgin on her wedding night. Clearing her throat, she patted the mattress next to her with her free hand and asked, “Aren’t you going to come to bed?”

Basil eyed the spot but shook his head. “No, I think it’s probably better if I don’t.”

“What?” she squawked with surprise.

Turning to pace to the chair that sat in the corner of the room, he settled himself in it and said solemnly, “Honey . . . we need to talk.”

“Oh, G.o.d, really?” Sherry groaned, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead with the fingers of one hand. According to the movies, “Honey, we need to talk” was code for “I’m about to dump your a.s.s.”

“Really what?” Basil asked uncertainly.

“The breakup speech,” she said grimly, dropping her hand to scowl at him. “Let me guess, this is all going so fast and we need to slow it down.”

“What?” he asked with bewilderment. “No, of course not. Honey, you are my life mate, I will never break up with you.”

Sherry narrowed her eyes, but he looked so earnest, she actually believed him. Relaxing a little, she asked, “Then why are you way over there?”

He smiled crookedly and admitted, “Because if I come any closer I fear I will not be able to refrain from ravishing you, and we need to talk first.”

Refrain from ravishing? He was so cute, Sherry thought, and let the blankets slip a little so that it rested just above the neckline of her nightie. Basil’s gaze immediately dipped to follow the movement and she saw his hands clench on the chair arms. Suddenly feeling more cheerful, she said, “Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

Basil hesitated and then forced his gaze back to her face. “Do you recall what Stephanie said earlier tonight?”

“Which time?” she asked, letting the blanket drop a little more so that the top half of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, visible through the lace nightie, were on display. She might as well have been bare from the nipples up, she noted with a quick glance down, so wasn’t terribly surprised when Basil seemed to find it a little harder to pull his attention upward this time.

He did, though, eventually, and then cleared his throat, frowned and asked, “What was I—?”

“Stephanie,” she reminded him sweetly, feeling incredibly powerful in that moment.

“Oh yes.” Basil nodded, his gaze slipping down to her lace top as she let the blanket drop altogether. She was pretty much fully exposed now, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s visible through the lace, her nipples a darker rose than the nightie itself. They were also erect, she noticed, and felt a blush curl up over her cheeks. It was amazing how quickly you could go from feeling like a ninny, to feeling powerful, to feeling like a shy schoolgirl, Sherry thought.

A tearing sound drew her gaze back to Basil to see that he was clutching violently at the chair arms now and had apparently done some damage to the material. More importantly, though, her nipples weren’t the only thing in the room that were erect. Basil had popped a mini-tent in his lap.

Confidence restored and the sense of power surging back within her, Sherry slid out of bed, and this time she did not scamper, but walked with slow and what she hoped were s.e.xy steps to stand in front of Basil.

He was reaching for her before she’d even stopped walking, his hands clasping her upper hips and pulling her forward when she would have halted.

Sherry grabbed for his shoulders to keep her balance, and then gasped in a breath of air when he closed his mouth over her nipple through the lace. She felt his tongue move, rasping and shifting the cloth across her nipple, and she moaned as heat instantly poured through her. So distracted was she that she didn’t even notice that his hands had left her hips until she felt cool air on her stomach. Just as she realized that he’d pushed her nightie up to just below her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, Basil released her nipple and ducked his head to lick her stomach above her belly b.u.t.ton.

Suddenly self-conscious about her body again, Sherry started to retreat, but Basil let the nightie drop over his head and grabbed her hips again to hold her in place. He murmured something as well, but she didn’t have a clue what it was. Words could get a bit garbled when you tried to talk while licking your way down a woman’s body.

Gasping, Sherry grabbed for his head to keep from falling when Basil suddenly forced her back a step and slid to his knees in front of the chair. His tongue never once left her skin as he made the maneuver, and she would have been impressed but was too busy gasping again, this time in shocked pleasure as he ran the fingers of one hand lightly across the damp flesh between her legs. Even as her body responded to the caress, he withdrew his hand to grasp her left leg and shift it over his shoulder. Basil then dipped his head between her legs to caress her with his tongue instead.

Sherry was pretty sure her heart stopped then. She was also pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to keep her balance long and so was relieved when he suddenly lifted her off her feet, turned on his knees and dropped her in the chair he’d just vacated. That relief only lasted until he reached out to grasp her knees and raise and spread her legs, draping one over each arm of the chair. The position left her open to inspection. Sherry immediately tried to sit up and close her legs, but he was having none of that. Planting his hands firmly on each thigh, Basil held her in place, then bent his head to minister to her again.