Page 40 of Zane

"This is not-"

"I'm not."

"I already figured that out."

She nodded and took a deep breath. "I have no experience at all."

He shook his head. "I don't-" He started when her words hit him. She saw when he realized what she was trying to say. "I- you-"

"This is my first time."

He sat there staring at her for so long, she wondered if he was ever going to say anything.

"I just wanted you to know."

He needed space and time to think. With that in mind, he pulled his fingers from hers and rose slowly, like a man who had lost most of his faculties.

"You're a virgin."

"Yes."

"You were with the guy for two years." He took a step back as if to distance himself.

"Two years and several months. We were waiting until after the wedding."

"I see." He took another step back. "And you want your first time to be with me. Why?"

She shrugged and thankfully pulled the sheet over her breasts. He felt as if his brain had been scrambled.

"When you kissed me in the garden, I felt something. After I decided that I wanted to pop my cherry, I wanted it to be you."

"Pop your-" Zane shook his head and wondered if he was in an alternate time zone.

"Isn't that the right term for it?" Her combination of innocence and seductive pose was designed to drive him crazy. He might just be losing his mind, he mused.

"That's one way of putting it. Let me get this straight. You want me to take your virginity."

"Yes."

Emotions he couldn't or didn't want to identify at that moment swirled and threatened to overwhelm him. His first time was when he was fourteen, and the sixteen-year-old cheerleader had certainly not been a virgin. This would be his first too.

"You're upset."

"No." He shook his head.

"Then why are you all the way over there?"

"I- we need to think this through."

"I already have. Are you saying no?"

"No!" His brain felt muddled. "Look, we need to- Are you sure this is what you want?"

What the hell was he debating about? He wanted her with an intensity that was searing right through him. Yet here he was, debating. She was naked and willing and... and a bloody virgin!

"I'm positive."

"Why?" Some demon inside him wouldn't let up with the questions. Christ!