Page 38 of Brooks

“I’m not a slut.”

I tried to stop my body from tightening, I failed. Every muscle bunched. I hated that word and it pissed me off she was inferring I thought she was one.

“I know you’re not.”

“Right. I gave it up easy. And the guys heard. If that doesn’t scream slut, I don’t know what does.”

I pulled back, rolled her to her back, and even though I knew she couldn’t see me, I got face-to-face with her.

“No one. I repeat, no one in this house thinks you’re a slut.”

I could feel her breath on my lips and I wanted to close the distance and taste her, but this was important. I needed to know she understood.

Chapter 15

He was too close. His lips lingered a scant distance above mine and I wanted him to kiss me. Which was a bad idea. Because kissing would turn into something else, and that would to lead to even more something, then I’d be a double slut. And the guys would probably hear again.

I knew this. I knew it was a bad idea. So what the hell was wrong with me? Why did I want him to lean down, just a tiny bit more, and take my mouth? Because I was a double slut, that’s why.

Instead of closing the distance I mumbled, “Right.”

“I will never understand society, women especially. A man goes after what he wants and gets himself some, no one thinks twice about it. A woman takes what she wants, and other women call her a slut. Which leads her to call herself a slut. Which only further makes her think poorly of herself for doing something that is not wrong. And if she’s lucky, she had a good time doing it. So I will tell you again. No one in this house thinks you’re a slut. And most especially not me. I don’t care if you took one look at me, thought to yourself, I’m going to fuck him, and two minutes later you went about doing it. That makes you a woman who knows what she wants. A woman who will take it and not give a shit what anyone else thinks about what she’s doin’. Nowhere in that does it mean you are a slut.”

Well, I now knew his view of women’s sexuality and how they treat one another. It still didn’t change the fact I had taken one look at him and the fantasies began—in earnest.

“All right, Brooks. Then I’ll rephrase. I’m easy.”

“Wrong again. There is nothing easy about you.”

“Yeah. Okay. The first time I let you kiss me you were just coming in the room to tell me dinner was ready. The next time, I walked straight into the shower fully clothed and without thought about anything, including safe sex, I let you fuck me against a wall. All of that not only screams ‘easy’ it screams sl—”

“Tatiana,” he warned.

I ignored him and continued, “It took James months before I let him kiss me. And after that it was another month before I let him touch me.”

“That says more about him than you.”

“How the hell do you figure that?”

“Doll.” He said “doll” in a way that was more like him calling me dumb than saying my name.

“That’s not an answer.”

“It says you knew you needed to go slow and protect yourself from him. You were cautious, slow, calculating. It also says he’s an idiot. In more ways than one. When a man finds a woman like you, he does not delay making you his. It does not take months to get in there. And when he finally ties you to him, he does not act like a dick and step out on you. He recognizes what he has, and fights like hell to keep it.”

“I can’t argue with you about him being an idiot. But it wasn’t just him. I’ve always been cautious and slow.”

“Then you never found the right kind of man.”

“Uh huh, and let me guess, you’re the right kinda man?”

“When you first saw me, what was your first thought?”

Oh, no. We weren’t going there. There were some things a girl didn’t divulge. First thoughts was one of them.

“I didn’t think anything. I was working.”

“Bullshit. I was working, too, but I took one look at you in your shirt and sexy heels and all I could think about was what those long legs were gonna feel like wrapped around my back.”