Rebecca looked ravishing, all right. The orange firelight turned her blond hair the color of the flames and her skin was tawny and sleek. She rolled over on the carpet, one breast almost popping out of her white lace bra. She hadn't flinched a bit when I came out of the bathroom and told her we needed to talk.

"Whatever it is, Lewis... can't it wait till tomorrow? I'm bushed and all I want is to crawl into that enormous bed with you and do the deed!"

God! I had to stop this before it went any further.

"Sweetie... I think it's time we said good night."

She finally sat up, crossed her legs on the floor and looked strangely at me. "What do you mean, Eric?"

I was nervous as hell but went on, "I rearranged our situation and got us separate ones -- adjoining... but separate." Rebecca was completely confused, and it was turning sour quickly.

"What does this mean, Eric?" she asked. "Are you screwing with me? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was pretty clear what this weekend was about. I thought you felt the same way about me that I feel about you. Am I imagining that?"

"Not at all!" I said quickly. "It's just... well, Rebecca I should have said this before but I'm.... I'm just getting out of a bad relationship... it's not completely over and I don't want to overlap this. I want what you and I do, what we have, to be completely on its own. "

Then came the questions.

"Are you sure it's really over? Does she know about us? Are you living apart?"

Questions! Questions! Questions!

I lied.

"Yes, it's really over. Yes, we live apart, Rebecca. I told you, that's why I have a roommate -- to help out with things. My -- my lover lives in Atlanta, where she... where she's from... I just want to get her things out of the house, I want her gone completely from my life before I make love to anyone else. Is that so weird?"

"Nowadays? Yes!" she said.

"Well, I'm sorry. I'm old-fashioned then. I thought you would respect this, Rebecca. I mean, I want this between us to be very important, I want it to last. And I think you do, too."

Finally, she was caving. We agreed that waiting could be sexy and fun, she told me that if she told her mother about this, her mother would worship me. I smiled... and said I was far from a god.

We kissed some more and Rebecca left.

I felt sick. I was in way over my head. I had no idea what to do to get out of this. What the hell was going to happen?