Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
That got a good laugh out of me. “I just like the water. And you can come in next time. Stand there and watch me.” I quickly realized what I said. “Not as in watch me, but as in watch my back. Like in a protective sense. Did I say watch or wash? You know what I mean.”
Xavier cut me off before I could keep rambling. “If you needed someone to get your nooks and crannies, you should have asked me earlier.”
My cheeks were back to burning again. I rolled my eyes and tried to act casual, even though the image of Xavier’s big, strong, naked body dripping wet made my dick twitch.
“I’m good, thanks.”
“You sure?” he asked. “I think you missed a spot here.” He reached behind my ear, hand landing on my neck. I froze. Part of me understood that the right thing to do would have been to pull away, like I should have done in my father’s office. Too much had happened today; I couldn’t be adding more to my processing pile.
I pushed in. Fuck it. I nearly died today. Might as well get a kiss out of it.
Xavier’s hand tightened around the back of my neck. He parted my lips with his tongue, greedy to taste me. I took him in, kissing him back. A wave laced with ecstasy lazily washed over me, soft and slow and indulgent. It was a tender kiss, like we were both exploring each other. He sucked on my bottom lip, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw.
I was left breathless and wanting more. My hand landed on his leg. He had a huge tree trunk of a thigh. I rubbed it, loving how it twitched under my palm and how his soft leg hair felt. His shorts were bunched up around his bulge, which gave me plenty of thigh to work with.
He started to run his hand down my back, pulling me closer to him on the couch. Our legs pressed together. My heart raced, faster than it had during the fight earlier. I became hyperaware of my inexperience with these kinds of situations. I didn’t know much about Xavier’s dating history, but I could take a solid guess that he had slept with many more people than my zero.
His hand moved around to my stomach, slipping under my shirt. I could feel the rough calluses from his workouts against my skin. He stopped his hand over my chest.
“Your heart’s beating so fast,” he whispered against my lips.
“Sorry, I’m nervous.”
“Don’t apologize. What are you nervous about?” His breath brushed against my cheek. He kissed the space between my nose and lip. The room turned an entire twenty degrees hotter.
“This,” I said, my voice shaky. “I’m not, uh, I don’t have a lot of experience with hooking up. I’m a, uh, I’m a virgin.”
There, I said it. Got it out of the way. I expected Xavier’s face to crack in surprise, but he simply smiled and pulled back a little bit. “I didn’t know. I apologize if I was being too forward.”
“I want you to be more forward, if I’m being honest. I get anxious, though. I mean, I’ve fooled around and done a few things here and there, but I’m still not playing in the major leagues, if you catch my drift.” I sucked in a breath. I wasn’t as embarrassed as I thought I’d be talking about this. Xavier had a presence to him that welcomed vulnerability. Maybe it was in his nonjudgmental eyes. “And after my stalker situation, I really stopped getting intimate with anyone. You know about it, right?”
“Yes, I do. And none of it was your fault.”
“That’s not how it felt at the time. I’m the one that started talking to him online. He was cute and interesting. I was opening up to him. And I made the mistake of meeting him one day for a date. We did stuff in a hotel room—not sex—but that was enough for him to become obsessed with me. I immediately regretted it when I woke up to a hundred and three texts from him.”
“Then we can put a pause on this,” Xavier said, clearly wanting to respect my boundaries.
“No, I’m okay with this.” I motioned through the empty space now between us. “I’m only warning you I may get awkward and nervous and sweaty.”
“Like I already said, I don’t mind a little sweat.” He licked his bottom lip, still shining from our kiss. A romantic ballad played on the television. “And don’t feel bad about being a virgin or not having a lot of practice under your belt. I might as well have cobwebs for pubes.”
I gave a snort. “I highly doubt that.”
“It’s true. You want to see?” He teasingly lowered his shorts, just enough for me to spot a tuft of soft black hair. He laughed and snapped them back onto his waist. “I’m being serious. I haven’t been with anyone since my last boyfriend, Harry. We met when I was sixteen. He was, well, my everything.”