“Hey.” She touches my arm, and I feel it at the base of my spine. “You don’t have to say anything.”
“Yeah, I do.” I force myself to face her.
“Is it the virgin thing?”
My breath halts.
But she doesn’t notice and keeps talking. “Because I don’t mind that. At all.”
Fuck if my cheeks aren’t burning.
“You’re right, Gray does gossip more than a flock of old ladies.” I squeeze the back of my neck. “Yeah, technically, I guessI am. It’s not like I’m going around hiding it. I just don’t really mention it either.”
“Well, why should you? Your sex life isn’t anyone’s business.”
“I’d like it to be your business.”
She blushes at that. Sweet Fi who, by all accounts, doesn’t fluster easily. I love that I can make her blush, can leave hertongue-tied.
“Look,” I say, “I didn’t want to make this a big deal, but I thought I should tell you because I know there are guys who freakout when a girl doesn’t have experience and they weren’t informed, and—”
Fi’s mouth shuts me up. Her kiss is firm, as if she’s trying to tell me it’s okay, yet it’s also tender, which makes my entirebody clench with some weird, uncomfortable emotion.
She lowers from her tiptoes and looks up at me with solemn eyes. Her slim, warm hand takes mine again. “I meant what I said.You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. But I can see that it bothers you. So if you want to tell me, Ethan,I’ll listen.”
The last thing I want to do is talk. But I take a deep breath and try. For her.
Ten
Fiona
Babbling, blushing Dex is new. It’s almost cute, the way this big, burly guy who could easily lift me over his head and spinme with one hand becomes all flustered.
Except I don’t like that he’s obviously upset. So, I don’t smile. I simply hold his hand and wait for him to talk.
Because I know he will. Though he’s a virgin—which, holy hell, I cannot believe this gorgeous giant is untouched—and he mightbe quiet, Ethan Dexter is the most forthright man I’ve ever known. I’m used to guys who fake their way through life with falsebravado and grand boasts. Ones that, when cornered, lash out. Or guys who lie about uncomfortable truths.
But Dex? No, he just takes a breath and admits that he’s a twenty-four-year-old virgin. Again, the thought ripples over me,and I find myself more than a little turned on over the prospect of being the only girl to have him, to see him come. Hotdamn, I want to witness strong, silent Ethan break apart and lose his mind.
Suppressing a shiver of lust, I lean in closer under the pretense of letting his big body block the wind, when really, I just want to surround myself in his warmth and delicious scent.
Dex tugs my hand, and we sit on a wide, flat boulder that’s tucked under a little crook on the hillside. Tall, fragrant grasses,buffeted by wind, ripple, and the sunlight grows warm on my skin.
The corners of Dex’s eyes crease in a frown as he stares at his hands on his massive thighs. Then he reaches into his backpocket and pulls out his wallet to remove an old laminated photo. He doesn’t look at the picture he hands to me.
“I met Drew and Gray at a football summer camp during my junior year in high school.” He clears his throat. “I’m the one onthe left.”
He doesn’t need to clarify. There are three guys in the picture. Wearing dirt-stained uniforms, they have their arms slungover each other and are smiling for the camera.
I notice Gray straightaway. He’s the tallest, his hair bleached pale blond by the sun, and he’s grinning extrawide as if he’son top of the world. Drew, the one in the middle, is a quarterback and Ivy’s client now. I got to know him well when she andGray married. He was Gray’s best man, and I was maid of honor. He’s model cute—even then—with light brown hair and eyes anda crooked, almost sly smile. Then there’s Dex.
If it wasn’t for those serious, beautiful hazel eyes of his, I might not have recognized him. He isn’t wearing a beard—notsurprising, given that this is high school—and his smooth cheeks are plump and round. Dex is plump and round. Oh, you cansee the beginnings of the massive muscles he has now, but high school Dex had yet to shed his baby fat.
His smile is more reserved than his two friends’, cautious almost, but I see the joy in his eyes. He loved being at this camp.Clearly loved his two friends as well.
“I was always a chubby kid,” he says in a low voice. “You know, the big guy who looked like he’d been held back a couple of grades when he stood next to the rest of the class.”
Lump in my throat, I nod.
