Page 58 of Fallen Hero

“I want anything you’re willing to give me.”

Christ. A different me would take that statement and run with it until we collapsed into bed together.

That was not where I could go with Calista, or anyone.

“When I was with Emily, we were both virgins. I ended that relationship one. She did not,” I told her.

Calli rolled to her side. The lapels of the robe slightly opened, exposing just enough of her cleavage to make my dick take notice but not enough to be indecent.

Fuck, she was beautiful, and I was an asshole.

“You were with her for four years.”

I understood the question even if she asked it in the form of a statement.

“Her family was religious. She wanted to wait until she was married. I respected that and I loved her, so it wasn’t a hardship. But, there I was at twenty, a virgin after I caught my pious girlfriend fucking a TA in her English class her freshman year of college.”

“That’s really shitty, Mase. I don’t know what to say.”

“Nothing to say. It was fucked she cheated. The end.”

“So that was the end of you wanting to be in a relationship? She fucks you over and that’s it for you? You just let her win?”

I smiled.

She shook her head, and confessed, “That sounded judgier than I wanted it to.”

“Is that your way of admitting you’re judgmental?”

“I never said I wasn’t.”

“Damn, you’re cute when you get huffy.”

Her eyes narrowed, and that was cute too.

“I feel like there’s more to the story.”

There was fifteen years more to the story.

“You sure you wanna know? It’s a long story, and you look tired.”

The prettiest pink rose on her cheeks. Better than the blush in the kitchen, because this one was all for me.

“Stop stalling, hotshot, and spill.”

“Bossy.”

Calli glared, and I hid my smile.

“The sad tale of my sex life,” I started, unsure why I was willing to share any of this with her. “It took me a while to get over Emily, lick my wounds, and, now that I was single, figure out sex and what it meant to me. If I’d only been waiting because that was what Emily wanted, or if it was also something I wanted.

“I got over Emily, but I still wasn’t sure about sex. Eventually I started dating. Met a girl, we hit it off. Date three, she’s all over me. But I’ve never fucked a woman and I’m not sure, so I slow things down. Next time I take her out, we end up back at her house, she goes for it again. This time when I gently let her down, she asks me if I have erectile dysfunction. That relationship ends.”

Calli was pinching her lips into two flat lines.

“Something funny?” I drawled.

“Nope. But erectile dysfunction. That’s where she went with that? Bold on her part. I would’ve thought it was me and I was a shit kisser or had BO or something. I would not have gone straight to ED. Unless . . .” She trailed off and her eyes dropped to my crotch.