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His eyes flew open, and his brows leapt nearly to his hairline. “Really? Are they big harmlessteddybearslike your dad?”
“They reallyare,” she insisted, even if she couldn’t help smirk. “And my mom said Uncle Romero is more excited about you being Beast’s brother and grilling you about him. Oh, and Uncle Manny and Max,” she laughed outright now. “You’re gonna love them. They’re hilarious.”
“How manyfreakinguncles do you have?”
Glad for the change in mood and distraction about what would very likely be happening before the day was over, she happily explained more about her family’s dynamics. The food arrived and they sat down to eat in front of the TV.
While it was on, they barely paid attention to it. Instead, they spoke food, cooking and since they were on the subject of Chinese food, she told him about her family’s restaurant’s famous chorizo fried rice. Vannah couldn’t get over how comfortable she felt. As if she’d been hanging out with him like this forever.
As usual she couldn’t eat very much in one sitting but was glad there was enough left to munch on for the rest of the afternoon and dinner. Knowing things would inevitably end up getting cozy, Vannah made sure to excuse herself to the bathroom before they did, brushed her teeth and gave the jittery girl in the mirror a much-needed pep talk.
No surprise once out of the bathroom, Byron was already in the bedroom with the TV on in there instead. By the time he’d excused himself to the bathroom as well and came back, Vannah was thankfully feeling a little calmer. He joined her on the bed where she’d taken a seat pretending to pay attention to what was on the television. As always, he took her in his arms first thing. She cuddled up against Byron’s big strong embrace and couldn’t help breathing in deeply again. Feeling Byron glance down at her, she turned up to meet his eyes.
up. That beautiful smile of his, so uncharacteristic to his otherwise hardened demeanor, reminded her of the very first time she saw him at the signing. He’d already told her more than once now that he’d never smiled so much as he’d found himself smiling since he’d first laid eyes on her. She was lost in those eyes for a moment before breathing in deep again. Leaning in to kiss her softly, he then pulled away. As she opened her eyes, he seemed to search them. “Penny for your thoughts?”
“What?”
He chuckled clasping her even closer. “Before my time, too. My mom used to say it. No surprise it’d be over your head, little girl. Means, what’s on your mind?”
For a moment, Vannah considered making something She’d hate for him to pull back if he knew how hard thislittle girlhad fallen for him already. Then her mother’s steadfast advice resurfaced amid her thoughts, and she swallowed hard. “I don’t remember ever feeling so content just hanging out and having lunch with someone.”
He stared at her for a moment, started to say something but then seemed to change his mind and smiled instead. Vannah was then indulged with one of the amazing kisses she now knew she’d never get enough of. Her entire body trembled as their kissing got deeper. As it’d been happening in the past several months, they slowly repositioned themselves until they were completely lying down. Byron’s body was half over hers as he sprinkled kisses down her chin and neck, and he began unbuttoning her top.
They’d gotten as far as him taking her breasts in his mouth and most recently him caressing her between her legs but just over her panties. Despite that, Vannah had nearly come undone, and she could feel herself going there again as he caressed her between her legs again now, but over her jeans.
Panicking, she placed her hand on his chest, and he immediately pulled his hand away. “No,” she said touching his hand.
“Savannah, I don’t want you doing anything you’re not comfortable—”
“No, it’s not that.” She shook her head meeting his staunch stare. “I actually came here prepared for things to move forward today. I just . . . I just wanted to talk to you about something first.” Her heart pounded as his eyes went from widening in surprise, to him peering at her in question. “When you asked me if I was still a virgin—”
She shook her head quickly and almost laughed at the immediate alarm in his expression. Albeit the urge to laugh was more out of anxiety, than the comedic value of his panicked eyes.
“I’m not,” she assured him caressing his hard bicep. “I just didn’t explain everything.”
Once again, the obvious change is his mindset was fast. “I don’t need details, Savannah.”
“Not details.” She squeezed his bicep this time, trying to calm her racing heart. “It’s just that I wanted you to know the whole truth. I was with one guy who I knew for a long time, because he was a close friend of my cousins growing up, before becoming a couple. Then we were together for a while before I decided I was ready. But my reasoning for deciding I was ready was because neither of us had . . .” She swallowed hard feeling kind of stupid now but was determined to get this out there. “We’d both be each other’s first, and he was moving away. Being young and dumb, we both thought going there would make it more official, and therefor we’d have a better chance of making the relationship work despite the distance.”
She shrugged as he continued to listen to her intently. “His moving an hour away didn’t seem so far. But neither of us had cars, and I didn’t even have my license yet. The long-distance thing didn’t work out.” She shook her head because she was getting off track and wanted to get to the point already. “Anyway, technically we were active but only for like a month before he moved. And at that age and having brothers and a dad like mine—” Vannah paused when Byron suddenly smirked. “What?”
“You mean the teddy bear?”
“I’d just turned seventeen, Byron.”
“Oh,shit.” The smirk flattened.
“Yeah,” she said with a laugh. “As you can imagine, Richard wasterrifiedof us getting caught. So, while technically we became active, it didn’t happen very many times.”
Byron was back to searching her eyes, only now he’d gone deadpan. “You wereRichard’sfirst everything and he was yours, just a year ago? You still keep in touch with this guy, Savannah?”
“No.” She shook her head, probably too quickly. “Things got weird when I told him I’d applied at ESU even though I knew he’d gotten a scholarship to San Diego State. Then I got accepted and it got even weirder. Our calls and texts started tapering off until we were hardly speaking anymore, and then we officially broke things off via text. Anyway.” She shook her head because she was getting off track again and touched his face with a wince. “Point is, I’m ready for this with you. I just . . . I just hope you’re not expecting an experienced siren or anything.”
To her surprise, after staring at her silently for a moment, almost in awe, he shook his head and laughed. He then buried his face in her neck with a groan. “Are you fucking kidding me?” He pulled back and took her face in his hands. “Here I was bracing myself for something jarring.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head then kissed her softly before pulling away to look her in the eyes again. “Like that maybe you still have feelings for your first everything, or that maybe he’s one of thefriendsyou’ve talked about having.”
