Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
You can’t blame yourself. You were a child. I’ve known the sort of people your friend was. Not on that level, but they will twist your mind. They’ll make you start to define yourself by the way they see you. But it’s not true, Della.
I sit up, leaning against the wall, staring at the message as it blurs across the screen with my tears.
It’s like he’s just reached inside my mind and found the thing I needed to hear most, the hope I rarely let myself feel.
Thank you for sharing that with me, he goes on. I know it must’ve been hard.
I still can’t reply, staring at his words. I’m not sure how much time passes.
Hudson walks around next door, running the faucet as he does the dishes.
Through the thin apartment walls, I can hear music thumping loudly.
Somebody yells, an argument.
I wish I was there with you, I type. I wish you could hold me right now. Tell me I didn’t misread the signs in your office. Tell me you were going to kiss me. Because I knew, the first time I saw you, Elias… I knew you were the man for me. Only you.
But then an instinct of self-preservation kicks in, telling me I’m taking it too far.
I delete the message.
Thanks for listening, I send.
I meant it, he replies. I’m here for you.
But why? Just because it’s your job?
I almost delete this message too, but something stops me. I’m able to push send somehow, as though reaching through a fog of nerves and self-doubt.
No, Della, it’s not just my job. We both know what I almost did in the office. I know I’ll have to control it. But it doesn’t mean we can’t talk. I won’t lie, though. It will be hard. I’ve never felt this way about a student before.
Somehow, even as the tears are still stinging my eyes, I’m smiling.
There’s a big grin on my face as I read his words, as I realize what they mean.
So you were going to kiss me? I was starting to think I might’ve imagined it.
Yes, I was. I wanted it so badly. But then I saw your face and I thought I’d made a mistake.
It wasn’t a mistake, I typed quickly. I just didn’t know how to respond. This is a little embarrassing, but I’ve never kissed anybody before. Or done any of that stuff. Do you know what I’m trying to say?
Are you saying you’re a virgin?
I bite down, wondering if I have gone too far.
This entire conversation feels surreal, as though I’m going to wake up in class, Mary staring down at me with a stern look on her face. Or my boss at the restaurant will clap his hands loudly, waking me up.
Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
I am waiting for a response.
For minutes – though it feels like hours – I wait.
But nothing comes.
CHAPTER 8
Elias
I stare down at the cracked screen of my phone, wondering how I did that.
Fair enough, I work out a lot. I keep myself in good shape, and I’ve always had a naturally strong grip. But I didn’t think I’d be able to almost shatter a phone by squeezing it.
The second she told me she was a virgin, my balls flooded. Hot tension rushed up my shaft, precome making my engorged tip tingle.
Even after what she’d told me – even with my heart still aching for her, my instinct roaring that I’d always protect her – I couldn’t deny the primal response.
She’s a virgin. She’s never kissed a man, never touched one.
She’s mine, only mine. And she only ever will be mine.
I want to hold her, tenderly kiss her on the cheek, tell her she doesn’t have to be afraid. She doesn’t have to live in the past or let her evil so-called friend guide her life anymore.
And then I’ll lay her on the bed, struggling to repress the savage in me as I gently take off her clothes.
We’ll start slow, with my solid manhood gliding up into her patient pussy, deeper and deeper.
When I feel her shifting with me and her moving with me, I’ll let out the animal side. I’ll thrust my hips forward and snarl, pushing deep, telling her huskily as I lean close to her ear….
“Mine, mine, mine.”
Each word is a thrust.
I walk around my apartment, looking for my old cell phone. I got a new one a couple of years ago. I remember thinking I needed to donate the old one, but I can’t remember if I ever did.
I look in every drawer, under the bed, rifling through my MMA gear.
It’s nowhere.
Screw it, then. I need to go to the store.
I can’t leave my woman hanging like that, wondering how I feel about her revelation.
As I head for the door, I open and close my hand. I didn’t even feel the small shards embedded in my skin, little pieces. There’s hardly any pain.