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naive ninny.

    â€œI behaved pretty much like a sex-crazed idiot,” he remarked, “didn’t I?”
    She was, for some reason, beginning to feel vindicated. “Pretty much.”
    â€œAnd I...took full advantage of your...innocence.”
    Memories evoked by those words throbbed almost painfully in her chest. “If you hadn’t, someone else would have, I’m sure.” A lie. No other man had ever intoxicated her with passion as Cort had. She wouldn’t have lost her head in quite the same way with anyone else. But she saw no reason for him to know it.
    He shifted to search her face, a frown in his eyes, as if he sensed she hid some truth from him. His efforts seemed only to frustrate him. “I owe you another apology,” he said at last. “I shouldn’t have said what I did when I left. You didn’t deserve my harshness. And crudeness. I’m sorry.”
    She gaped at him. Never had she expected this particular apology. She struggled for a moment to find her voice. “No, don’t be sorry. You only told me the truth. If it was harsh, well...” she shrugged, realizing as she spoke that she believed what she was saying “...at least you forced me to face the facts.”
    Which had been the hardest thing she had ever done.
    Love? he’d scoffed as he’d packed his bags. I don’t love you, Laura. I want you. There’s a big difference. This is the only “real” thing we’ve ever had between us .... And he’d put her hand on his zipper, against the hardness swelling there.
    Grappling to hide the pain that memory still inflicted, she went on in a soft, soothing tone, “In fact, I believe I owe you my thanks. You taught me a valuable lesson.”
    â€œI was a son of a bitch, and you know it. I wouldn’t blame you if you never—”
    â€œNo, I mean it, Cort. You really did teach me an important
lesson. Do you remember how dead set I was on telling my parents to go to hell when they insisted that I break up with you?”
    He fell silent, his attention caught. Slowly, he nodded.
    â€œI was ready to give up all their financial support and pay my own way, even if it meant dropping out of college. ”
    Again he nodded, almost warily, as if expecting a vengeful punch line.
    â€œHow could I have been so crazy? I was willing to throw my future away, and for what? Love!” She mimicked the exact tone he’d used with her, all those years ago. “I know better now, of course. Thanks to your honesty. You could have told me some pretty lie, and I would have mourned for our ‘ill-fated love.’ Instead, I had to face reality, and I learned from my mistakes. I’ve learned never to base important decisions on...on whimsy.” She gazed deeply into his eyes, which had grown unreadable. “So I do thank you. You didn’t hurt me in any lasting way. You actually helped me.” Although she meant every word, these last few stuck in her throat, and she had to force them out. “And time did prove you right. There wasn’t anything between us except sex.”
    Something flashed within the midnight depths of his eyes, then faded away, leaving them somehow even darker than before. His mouth hardened. His jaw squared. But his voice, when he spoke, was soft. Dangerously so. “Does that mean you forgive me?”
    An odd reluctance delayed her reply. She had no doubt that he regretted his harsh way of breaking off their affair, and she’d already told him that he hadn’t hurt her in any lasting way. Why, then, did she sense some hidden challenge in his gaze. “Yes, of course I forgive you,” she said at last.

    They stared at each other for a dozen or more heartbeats.
    He then slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her slowly, determinedly, into a hug. “Thank you, Laura Merritt,” he breathed into her hair, “for your forgiveness.”
    â€œAnd thank you for