“You were an ass to me then, and you had no right to any part of my personal life. Things are different now.”
“Did you fuck him?” I hold my breath, waiting for her answer.
Slowly, she nods, and I try to get a grip on my emotions.
“I thought he might have said something to you.”
“Cristian is a gentleman. He never divulges details, and he hasn’t said anything about you, not even when I asked him.”
“Then I’m glad I did it with him.”
I frown.
“I lost my virginity to Cristian when I was seventeen,” she quietly admits.
Removing my arm from around her body, I rest my head in my hands. “He means something to you.” A girl like Gia doesn’t just give her virginity away flippantly.
“It’s not what you’re most likely thinking.” She places a palm on my back. “It actually wasn’t planned. I was a couple months away from graduating, and I didn’t want to go to college a virgin. I had been planning to lose it with my boyfriend at the time, but we broke up. I was at a Maltese party, and Cristian was there. We got talking, and he’d just broken up with someone too. We flirted a bit, and then one thing led to another.”
“Was that the only time?”
“Yes.”
I’m battling with a whole slew of emotions. “He better have made it good for you.”
“He took care of me. He made my first time memorable, and it was only special because it was my first time. I don’t have feelings for him, and he doesn’t have feelings for me. It was a onetime spur-of-the-moment thing.”
“Okay.” I lift my head.
“Are you mad?” She nibbles on her lower lip.
I shake my head. “I’d be a prick to be mad about something that happened years ago before I was on the scene.” I expel heavily. “I’m jealous, Gia. He got to be your first.”
She wets her lips a few times, opening and closing her mouth.
“Just say what’s on your mind.”
Fear flickers across her face briefly before her head lifts and her shoulders straighten. “You could be my last.”
I hold her stunning face in my hands. “I could be.” I move to stand, needing to make love to her now.
“Wait a sec. I have something else to tell you.”
I groan. “Fuck. I’m not sure my heart can take this.”
“I always want to be brutally honest with you, Joshua. Not just because of what you’ve been through in the past, but I believe all relationships need to contain complete honesty from the very start. I don’t want you caught off guard by someone saying something to you. I want you to have the full facts.”
“How are you only twenty-two? How are you so wise?”
“I’ve learned from the best. My parents have an amazing relationship built on open communication, trust, respect, and loyalty. I want that for me. For us.”
“I’ve seen that with Nat and Leo too, and it’s what I want. I need it after what Ina did to me. I don’t trust easily, Gia, but you have effortlessly woven your way into my heart.”
“Are you still afraid?”
“Yes, but the best things in life are scary.”
She kisses my cheek. “I agree.”
