Andre looked scandalized. "You wouldn't," he said accusngly.

She burst out laughing at his expression. "I wouldn't," she promised. Even though there was no one nearby enough to pay attention, she lowered her voice to a more confidential volume. "For pity's sake, I found a man as good in bed as you are, why would I want to fake anything?"

Andre looked rather pleased at that, and scooped her up in his arms. "Now that's just flattery," he chided softly. "Either that, or you have very low standards."

"You're just not used to being flattered, is all. You wanna hear something shocking?" She lowered her voice yet again and leaned close to his ear. "Before you? Twice. And I think the second one was a pure fluke because he sure as hell didn't know what he was doin' before or after that."

"Twi--oh," Andre said, looking stunned. "Really? But, er..." He frowned. "I only do what you tell me!" he pointed out. "It's not like...er..." He frowned. "How many since?" he asked.

"Um. I don't know. I don't count." As usual, there was no disguising the fact that Spider was blushing; it made her whole face glow. "That's just it. You do what I tell you. See, up until now it was good enough to be with somebody. I sort of got the idea that that's what most women got out of it. Just being close to someone."

Andre beamed at the color of her face. "I don't know. I think some people need to be close to someone; I don't like being close to anyone unless I like them. Does that make sense? I mean, it's not that I haven't tried, but I never got much out of it. When you love someone, you love everything about them, the way they smell, the way they taste. When you don't, it's like havin a strane-smellin person in your mouth."

She rubbed her cheek to make the colour die down. It didn't work. "That's, um, not exactly what I meant. I mean, I like you, that's not the question. I love you." She scooted in closer and cupped a hand around his knee. "It's a bit different for girls, is all."

Andre kissed her cheek. "I've never been a girl," he admitted.

"Likely for the best, that. You'd make a terrible girl." Ah, well, at least her face was warm now, if not the rest of her. "It's more like . . . for girls, I think goin' to bed with someone is more a way of knowin' you've got someone's undivided attention. Even if you don't, y'know, get anything more out of it. Men have sex to have sex. Girls have sex to have men."