He froze.
But his lips softened under mine. I kissed him hard, tilting my head a bit. I swept the tip of my tongue along the inside of his upper lip… trying to show him this wasn’t some game, that I meant it when I said I liked him.
He groaned a little and started kissing me back.
His lips parted, sliding over mine, and he sucked on my lower lip. I moaned, and the desire shot all the way to my toes. For a long, hot moment, we fused together as my heart slammed blood through my body. Sparks rippled across my skin and down my spine… his kiss hitting me like a bolt of lightning between the legs—pure electricity.
Then he pulled away.
“Don’t,” he said.
“This isn’t some game,” I breathed, as he peeled my arms off his neck.
He stood by the bed, breathing hard and staring down at me.
“You saying you really want me?” he challenged, like he didn’t buy that for a second.
“So what if I do?” I fired back. “Anddon’tcall me a slut.”
“I never called you a slut, Courteney.”
“You treated me like one. I’m not one.”
I took a deep breath. Then I uttered the three little words I’d been carrying around for so long, forhim… because honestly, the number one reason I’d never had sex was becausehewasn’t available to have it with.
“I’m a virgin.”
“What?” He stared at me blankly. I wasn’t sure if he actually hadn’t heard me or hadn’t understood me or what.
I cleared my throat.
“Say that again…?” he prompted, when I said nothing.
“I’m. A.Virgin.”
He listened. Then he shook his head before any words came out. “No. No, that’s not possible.”
I laughed, more bitterly than I should’ve, maybe. But I was so freaking tired of the whole virgin stigma—and everyone making such a big deal about it. “Why?”
“Because…” he said, at a loss. His eyes dragged down the curves of my body, briefly. “Look at you.”
Right. Because I looked like someone whoshouldbe having a fantastic sex life?
And yet I couldn’t get the one man I actually wanted to touch me.
I crossed my arms over my chest, attitude flaring.
“I changed my mind. I do hate you.”
“You should,” he said.
Christ, he was such a dick.
Why? Why did we always have to end up here?
Him, rejecting me, looking at me like I was a stupid little girl who didn’t even know what she wanted?
Just because I was eighteen and a virgin didn’t mean I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted.
