Page 15 of Dirty Sweet Valentine
It also strengthens my resolve to get this story, to “out” the girl who is messing with my head without even trying.
Soon, the microphone and speakers are down and the crowd is dispersing. Kira shouts after the group she’s been chatting with, “I’ll meet you over there.”
Then, finally, she’s alone. I watch her gather her belongings into her shoulder bag. This is my chance to get the answers I need. I walk up to the stage, catching her as she steps off the bottom step. “Kira?”
“Yeah?” She turns toward me, her eyes so bright and her smile so pure, my knees nearly buckle from the force.
Then she recognizes me. I see the moment it happens, too—her expression falls, her face loses its color. “Oh. It’s you.”
She looks so horrified at the sight of me that I almost feel bad. Almost. Then I’m just pissed. I can’t have imagined the spark between us at the bar. She owes me more than a blanched look and an oh. “Yep. It’s me. Chase. Chase Matthews.”
Kira scans the area around us. Apparently satisfied we’re alone, she visibly relaxes. She lowers her eyes, a blush touching her cheeks. “I remember your name.” Her voice is soft, flirty, even.
“You do?” I hadn’t really thought she wouldn’t recall who I am. Just, all of a sudden, I’m not entirely sure what to say.
“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?” She pushes a strand of her hair behind her ear and for half a second I wish it were me touching her hair, touching her ear, kissing her. Sliding my thumbs over her pert nipples, following them with my tongue.
The Temptation of Chase Matthews.
I force my gaze away and shrug. I have to focus on the story. “I don’t know. No reason.”
God, I have to get a hold of myself. Picturing her naked is not helpful. This is not going to get me the article I want, the article I need. The relief from thinking about her day in and day out. I take a step toward her and lean my arm against the proscenium of the shell. I stare at her, breathing evenly, until I feel better. More in control.
“I guess I’m just surprised to see you again. Especially under these circumstances.” I gesture around.
“You’re surprised to find I’m a Cherry Saver, you mean.”
“Well, yes.” I had been prepared for a lot of answers, but not pure bluntness. So much for being the one in control.
But if she can be straightforward, so can I. “Because I’m pretty sure you didn’t actually save your cherry.”
“I suppose you would be pretty sure of that, wouldn’t you?”
Her cheeks grow pinker and it’s a jolt straight to my groin. God, she looks gorgeous like this—all flushed and innocent. Even wearing that stupid-ass T-shirt under her North Face. “Yes. Very sure.” For another long moment I’m taken back to that night, to her legs wrapped around my waist, to those sweet, sweet sounds that still vibrate in my ears.
Dammit, how does she screw with my focus so easily?
I run a hand over my face. “Which is why I’m confused. I’m sure you can understand.”
“I can.”
But that’s all she offers. No explanation, just those two words. This is going to be tougher than I hoped. “So why, then? Why did you get up there and play Princess Cherry Saver when you don’t believe any of that crap?”
She moves around me to the back of the band shell, gesturing for me to follow.
Good. Now we’re in a more private location.
Wait—is that good? Because now the flashbacks of the last time we were alone are even more prominent in my mind.
Kira obviously doesn’t have the same thoughts on hers. Her brow furrows in irritation. “Who says I don’t believe that crap?”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Is this all a setup by Jared? Maybe I’m on some sort of prank show. Only there aren’t any cameras that I can see.
Kira adjusts her bag on her shoulder. “There are some really good principles in the Cherry Saver Manual.”
“There’s a manual?” What other principles could there be besides keep your legs shut?
Never mind. I don’t want to know. “Don’t answer that. Whatever the principles, you obviously don’t follow them.”
“Who says?”
“I had sex with you the first time I met you!” That had happened, hadn’t it? Because it’s starting to feel like maybe it had all been a dream. A very good dream, but unreal nonetheless.
Kira looks down at her boot as she kicks at a patch of grass. “Yeah, well, anyone can make a mistake.”
That zing hit like a knife to my chest. “You’re calling me a mistake?” Hopefully she hadn’t noticed the slight quiver in my voice as I said that. I already feel completely whipped where she’s concerned.
“Not you, exactly. I’m calling sex a mistake.” She sighs. “I should have waited.”
“Like, until we’d been on a date or something?” It was kinda slutty how we’d jumped each other in a bar. Also really fucking hot.
Or does she mean something else? “Until we were married?”
She shakes her head, not meeting my eyes. “Just in general. I should have waited in general.”
I take in her words, finally understanding her meaning. No, no, no. That’s impossible. It can’t be, but… “Are you trying to tell me you were a virgin?”
“Shh, keep it down, will you?” She grabs my arm, pulling me even further behind the band shell. “Of course I was a virgin.”
“No way.” I try to ignore the tingling of my skin where she touched me and concentrate on the facts of our tryst. “You had a condom.”
Her cheeks grow rosy again. “What can I say? I was raised to be prepared.”
“There is no way you hadn’t had sex before.” I don’t know if I
want to believe it.
“Are you calling me a liar?”
I raise a brow. “Um, considering the speech you just gave to that crowd, yeah, I am.”
“Well, I’m not lying about this.”
I think back to the way Kira had stared at my dick. She had seemed a little bewildered at the sight. Was it because she’d never seen one live and in person?
Nah, that couldn’t be it. And there were other things, other signs I can’t ignore. “But you knew what you were doing.” Like how she’d squeezed around me, the way she’d bucked her hips to feed me deeper into her.
She thrusts out her jaw defiantly. “It’s not like I haven’t done my research.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I read books, Chase. I’ve seen…videos.”
The thought of Kira watching porn is overwhelmingly awesome, and I can’t even respond.
“Forget it.” She blows out a breath of frustrated air. “Point is—some things are natural. You know?”
“No, I don’t know.” My first time had been super awkward and over in a rush. Nothing like what I experienced with Kira. “First time sex is not like that normally.”
“How so?”
“It’s usually pretty bad.”
She peers up at me, her brown eyes sparkling. “Really? So I wasn’t bad?”
“No. There was nothing bad about you and me at all.” I hold her gaze for several seconds, drowning in the depth of her chocolate pools. Something stirs inside me. From the burn of it, I’d say it’s just being horny, but this is a little higher, in my chest. Nearer to my heart.
Whoa. This is so not happening.
I run a hand through my hair. She couldn’t have been a virgin. Could. Not. Not because it isn’t a possibility, given what she’s just told me, but because I don’t want it to be true. Because that would make me the worst kind of asshole—taking her virginity in the back of a bar. So it can’t be true. “Isn’t there supposed to be blood or something? You know, your first time?”
“Sometimes.”
“And other times?”
She rolls her eyes. “Let’s just say that if thirteen years of horseback riding didn’t break my hymen then I’m pretty sure that the excessive masturbation did.”
