“Chloe, you’re beautiful. A wonderful woman.” He pulled his tie off and tossed it on the coffee table. “I find it hard to believe that you haven’t had sex.”
While she knew that he didn’t mean to hurt her, his words still stung. She wrapped her arms around herself. “It’s not that I don’t want to have sex. I just haven’t had the opportunity. You remember how overprotective my brothers were when I was a teenager?”
Theo nodded.
“Boys were too scared to look at me twice.” At the time, there had been only one boy she’d wanted. The one boy she would’ve been happy to have her first time with. But he’d left, and she’d never got the chance.
“And when you got older?”
“I buried my head in books and was constantly studying. Boys my age partied and slept around with whoever opened their legs. I wasn’t into that. When I first started working as an agent with only local Australian talent, no one interested me. By the time I was interested in a relationship, the hours and amount of travel I needed to do for work had become all-consuming. Dating became too difficult.”
He stood staring down at her with a blank expression.
Wishing he’d say something, reveal something, she started pacing. “Nowdo you believe I’m a freak?”
“No, I don’t.” He ran his fingers through his already messed-up hair. “That night we met in the club, we went to my apartment to have sex.”
She nodded.
“Shit.” He put his other hand on his hip. “I’d thought I’d picked up a random girl who was down to fuck. We would have had fun, but in the end, it would have meant nothing. Why would you want your first time to be like that?”
Chloe rubbed her palms on her legs. “It was my birthday. I’d just told my friends about mysituationand my plans for the future.They’d encouraged me to let loose, have fun, and hook up with a few guys before I committed to one.” She stood up and walked to the window, looking sightlessly at the traffic below. “I would have been fine with a one-night stand, but I didn’t like the thought of having sex with a stranger, nor did I want to stay a virgin much longer. When I saw you, I knew what you wanted from me, so my first time would be with an old friend and someone I—” she stopped herself from saying “love” because nothing could happen between them. Love wasn’t an option. “Someone I trusted,” she amended. “Then you recognized me and, well, we know what happened next.” She turned back to look at him. Embarrassment from that night still rippled through her.
“You trusted Owen enough to have your first time with him?” He did the clenching of the jaw thing again, speaking through gritted teeth.
Thinking back on her time with Owen, it was obvious there’d been no chemistry between them. He hadn’t made her melt with one glance. Her heart had never raced when he’d said her name, and her body had never hummed with pleasure with a simple touch. And she hadn’t trusted him, she’d been burned so many times that she’d needed to reveal her deepest secret to determine if she was willing to trust him with her heart and her virginity. And Owen had failed. Hard. “It wouldn’t have happened.”
“Why?”
“It just wouldn’t.” Even before he’d showed his true colors, deep down she’d known she hadn’t wanted to marry or have sex with him. She’d tried forcing something that wasn’t there. God, was she that desperate to be married that she’d ignore her gut? Obviously she was, because she’d planned on seeing Owen again. Why did she have to be wired the way she was? There wasn’t an easy way to forge a deep emotional bond in only a few dates.
“Why?” he repeated.
“Because even before he turned into an arsehole, I just thought he was nice. That’s all. Just nice. He didn’t make me feel things. There were no fluttery feelings in my stomach. My heart didn’t race with a simple touch of his hand. Worse, I wasn’t sure I could trust him. He made me nervous,” she said. “He made me sneeze. I wasn’t comfortable with him. Not like I am with you. He didn’t make me feel things like you do.” God, she hadn’t meant to say the last part out loud, but the words flew from her mouth. Sick of keeping her feelings to herself, she threw caution to the wind and continued, “When I pictured my first time, it was always with you. I wanted you to be my first when I was eighteen, then when we met again at the club, and… now.”
Theo grew still. “Chloe—”
“Don’t say it.” She held up a hand. “Don’t say you can’t because of Ethan. That’s a bullshit excuse. Don’t say you can’t because you don’t want marriage and kids. I know where you stand.” Even though it broke her heart. “I’m not asking for a commitment. You admitted it yourself, there’s an attraction between us. We should be able to act on it if we want to. If you’re going to ignore what’s between us and not face it, you’re a coward. Are you a coward, Theo? Or are you going to take what we both want?”
They stared at each other, their chests heaving with every breath. Would he take the challenge, or would he walk away?
Please don’t walk away.She didn’t think she could handle any more rejection.
With two long strides, Theo stood before her. Her heart skidded to a stop at the fierce gaze he pinned her with. He cupped the back of her head, his eyes dropping to her lips right before he claimed her mouth. Opening her lips with his tongue, he slid it inside her mouth. The kiss—so passionate—knocked the air from her lungs. She clutched his hips to stop herself from swaying on her feet.
He didn’t walk away!
His hands moved from her head to her shoulders, pulling her closer. Warmth washed over her skin. None of her other kisses could even hold a candle to this one, and she never wanted the kiss to end. Then his lips broke from hers to scrape his teeth along her neck, teasing her. She moaned. She felt him smile against her skin before he licked her racing pulse. Her head tilted back; desire pooled between her legs.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he murmured against her ear.
“God, yes. I’ve been ready for years.” Wild horses couldn’t drag her away from him right now. Nothing would stop her from achieving her goal of losing her virginity. A giddy bubble flittered in her stomach.
This was actually happening!
He chuckled, low and sexy, the sound vibrating through her. “That’s what I wanted to hear.” He pulled away and glanced around the room. “I don’t want your first time to be on a sofa or up against a wall.”
The wall idea sounded hot, but he made a fair point—her bed would be more comfortable, and also bigger. She linked her fingers with his and led him to her bedroom. The afternoon sun filtered through her blinds, bathing the room in bright, blinding rays. In a few moments, Theo was going to see her naked in broad daylight. Sure, he’d already seen and done a lot to her, but it had all been at night or in poor light. Suddenly, she felt shy. Not because this was her first time—her body practically hummed with excitement. It was because she was finally sleeping with Theo. Would her lack of experience show? Would he enjoy it as much as she knew she would?
