Page 95 of Hometown Halftime

I slam a pillow to my face to absorb my laughter.

“Yeah, um, gentle would be good. Never done that before.” There’s a long pause on the line before Darren continues, “Oh, what the hell. Do you have a pen and paper, or should I text you my address?”

I yank the pillow from my face to see a wide-eyed Riley completely dumbfounded.

“Uh, yeah, just text this number.” Riley rattles out and then hangs up, throwing his phone on the coffee table.

I launch up to my knees laughing, “Oh my God. He was going to let a girl peg him!”

Riley runs a hand down his face. “I didn’t think he would actually go for it.”

We both collapse in laughter until we’re crying. Once I calm down, I lean toward Riley.

“Truth or dare.”

Riley shakes his head. “It’s your turn, I just went!”

“I’ll go double next time, come on, truth or dare.”

“Fine. Truth,” Riley responds.

I roll my lips before I ask, “Would you let a girl peg you?”

His eyes whip to mine. He opens his mouth to respond but then shuts it again. The look that passes over his features takes all the humor out of the room. This time, I definitely pushed things a little too far.

“If I tell you something, will you promise not to judge me?”

My butt hits the cushion and I take a deep breath.

“Of course, I would never judge you for anything, Riley.” I tilt my head and add, “Unless you’ve committed a crime, like murder or something, then I think it would be a matter of—”

He cuts me off and says, “I’m a virgin. Pegging or otherwise. I’ve never been past third base with a woman.”

For a second, I genuinely think I heard him wrong.

I stare at him while the words settle heavily into the air between us. Riley Weston, the quarterback with a flirty smile and biceps to die for…is a virgin. There’s no way he could have trouble finding a woman willing to sleep with him. My brain almost can’t make the truth line up with the man sitting beside me on this couch.

But then pieces start clicking together. The way he froze on the couch the other night when things got heated. The nerves in his eyes afterward. How careful he gets anytime the tension between us turns more physical. Suddenly, all those moments rearrange themselves into something that makes complete sense.

Oh.

That wasn’t Riley rejecting me; he was panicking.

This new information makes him even more attractive—if that’s even possible. Because underneath the easy smiles and teasing comments and confident flirting, Riley trusted me enough to hand me something vulnerable. I know men. I know how much pressure gets shoved onto them about sex and experience from basically the second they become teenagers, especially in locker rooms. Most guys would rather chew through drywall than admit something like this out loud.

But Riley did—to me.

Emotions hit me completely off guard then, because I can see the uncertainty settling into his posture now that the words are out in the open. His shoulders are tense like he’s waiting for my reaction, and the thought of him sitting there bracing for judgment makes something twist painfully inside my chest.

“Riley…” I shake my head. “How?”

“By choice mostly,” he responds.

“Wow,” I whisper.

“I guess I never really thought it was a big deal. Yeah, all of my teammates hook up non-stop, but I can’t do meaningless sex. It’s not in me. And don’t get me wrong, I’ve done all the things that lead up to sex, but not the full meat and potatoes, you know? And now I think I’ve just waited too long and put too much pressure on the whole thing.”

I scoot closer to him. “Didn’t you have a girlfriend back at school, though?”