I let out a sigh and take a step back, placing Gizmo on the floor and then wringing my hands, the words unbelievably difficult to force out of my mouth.
I’ve never admitted this to anybody apart from Kaitlyn.
It’s too embarrassing.
I’m twenty-one years old.
“I’m a virgin, Tanner.”
I turn quickly, taking my cellphone from my pocket, unwilling to look into his face to see his reaction.
“I need to call Kaitlyn. Can you wait here?”
I flee into the bedroom, feeling his eyes burning into my back, knowing that the chances of him still being there when I return are pretty freaking low.Chapter TenTannerI watch her go, my mouth falling open and, a drumbeat pounding in my chest.
The increase in my heart rate has nothing to do with that piece of crap Dirk. That was just a scuffle and he’s lucky he said sorry when he did. Otherwise, the darkness might’ve torn its way out of me, that twisted violent thing I haven’t felt since I was a teenager, the night Mom and Dad died—no, not died, were murdered …
I shake my head, dislodging those thoughts.
No, my heart is cracking like a series of lightning strikes because of Tess, her words banging around my mind as she disappears into her bedroom.
I move over to the front door, thinking, Virgin, she’s a fucking virgin.
I try to close the door, but the lock has been shattered out of the hinge. In the end, I settle for wedging it in place. I let out a sigh when I realize that there’s no way Tess and I can do anything else now, not here, because the idea of anybody pushing that door open and seeing or hearing my virgin queen shivering in lust sets me on a savage edge all over again.
My body is still sore and starving from the contact with her, and now the word virgin is roaring out in my mind, over and over again.
She emerges from the bedroom a few minutes later, letting out a sigh and still avoiding my gaze as she wanders to the couch. She drops down, picking at the fabric of the cushion.
“So one of Kaitlyn’s colleagues heard Dirk arguing with her boss about giving him her address. She snuck out and she’s in a motel right now. I had like thirty missed calls from her trying to warn me, but my phone was on silent for class. And then I was … distracted. Anyway, she’s going to come to meet me at the apartment.” She shakes her head with another sigh, this one tinged with disbelief. “All of this is so crazy.”
“I can give you the address now and tell the security to let her in,” I say.
“Won’t we cramp your style?”
“I don’t live there,” I say.
“You just have an empty apartment lying around?” she says, wringing her hands together. Then she laughs, without humor, a bitter noise followed by a slow shake of her head. “Oh, I get it.”
“Get what?” I ask, sitting down next to her, but on the far end of the couch, whatever that means on a piece of furniture this small. “What are you talking about, Tess?”
“Of course you’d have another apartment in the city. Because that way it’s easier to keep your – what shall we call them – meetups with the ladies of this fine city separate from your personal life? And I guess these women are pretty much all freaking stunning, aren’t they, and—”
“Tess,” I growl. “I don’t want anyone else apart from you. I don’t care that you’re a virgin. No, that’s a lie.”
“A lie?” She flinches, turning to me, her bright blues brimming with self-consciousness. “So you do care?”
“Yes, I care,” I growl. “I’m fucking happy, Tess. Because you being a virgin means that I get to claim you, truly claim you, for the first goddamn time. I don’t want to think of you with other men, and now I don’t have to. You’re mine, mine alone, forever.”
“Yeah, fine, but …” Her shoulders sag and she shakes her head. “It’s stupid. With all the craziness we just went through, with what Kaitlyn’s going through … I don’t know, it seems a little self-indulgent to talk about this now, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t give a damn,” I say, sliding along the couch and wrapping my arm around her.
I pull her close to me, Gizmo settling between us, and kiss the top of her head. I grip her shoulder hard, as though she could turn to mist and disappear at any moment.
“All I care about,” I tell her, “is making you mine. Everything else is just background noise.”
“Really?” she whispers.
I claim her lips again, kissing her firmly and opening my mouth to consume her. Our tongues clash and stroke together, an unstoppable swirling dance of lust and want. I feel myself growing feral and all the desire in me trying to unleash, so I forcibly stop the kiss, panting as I stand up and pace over to the kitchen partition, resting my elbow against it.