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And so what? He was pussy-whipped, and proud of it, too. A few of his friends had suggested breaking it off with Lori before heading to college. Y’know, so he could engage in the mindless fuckery that some thought a rite of passage. It wasn’t him, though. He didn’t need to get his dick wet in anyone’s pussy other than Lori’s. He might only be eighteen, but his mom often told him he’d been born with his maturity chip well developed. He already knew who he wanted to spend his life with—Lori—and what he wanted to spend it doing.
A career working for others and making them rich formed no part of his agenda. Entrepreneurial-spirited, he planned to start his own company as soon as he could raise the capital. He wasn’t sure in what field yet, but whatever he decided upon, it’d be a fucking roaring success. He’d make sure of it.
He led Lori onto the dance floor and whirled her around as if they were appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Lori clung to him, her green eyes narrowing in accusatory fashion.
“You’ve been holding out on me, Quinlan.”
He spun Lori in another well-executed twirl, then pulled her back into his arms, burying his nose in her blonde hair. She smelled of rhubarb and rose with a hint of grapefruit. He smiled to himself. She’d used the bodywash he’d bought her for her birthday. He couldn’t remember smelling it on her before, and knowing Lori, she’d kept it for a special occasion. For tonight.
“You’re worth it.” He brought her lips to his, savoring the taste of the fruit punch on her tongue. “God, I love you, Lori James.”
Two lines appeared between her neatly threaded eyebrows. “Can I ask you something?”
He smoothed the lines away with his thumb. “Always.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to play the field a bit in college?”
He flexed his jaw. Jason, one of the guys he hung around with, was going to lose his fucking balls tonight. “Listening to Jason is a terrible idea. He’s barely out of diapers.”
Lori snickered, but the moment of levity didn’t last. “I’m serious, Zane. You’re eighteen, and you’ve only ever been with me. Aren’t you curious about what it would be like to sleep with another girl?”
A coldness hit him right in the chest, and he fixed her with an unwavering gaze. “Are you? Is this your roundabout way of telling me that you want to know what it’s like to feel another man’s dick inside you?”
“No! Jesus, Zane, that’s not what I mean.”
“Sure fucking sounded like it to me.”
“This… you… oh hell.” She pressed her palms to his cheeks and eyeballed him. “I don’t want anyone but you, Zane. But it’s different for guys.”
“Why? Why is it different? And please, do not, under any circumstances, quote a single syllable from Jason fucking Dobbs as backup for your reasoning.”
She nibbled on her lip. “I wasn’t going to. But he has a point, Zane.”
“No, he doesn’t.” He let out a weighty sigh. “Look, for some guys, yeah, I get it. They want to tear through college and count the notches on their headboards in the hundreds by the time they leave with their degree. But that’s not me, Lori. I don’t need to screw other women while I’m waiting for the right one to come along. Because she already did. Three years ago.”
“Zane.” Her eyes went misty before she lowered them. “I just… I don’t want you to get into your thirties and forties and wonder if you made a mistake. I don’t want you to grow curious and end up cheating on me because you didn’t get the chance to experiment.”
“I’d never fucking cheat on you. Never.” A ball of anger rose from his stomach to his chest and sat there, a lump of fiery lava. He wasn’t angry at her. Never at her. Rather, he raged at the whole idea that somehow guys couldn’t commit to one woman. The entire belief system was fucked up, entrenched in eons of primitive history.
“Okay, okay.” She caressed his face, trailing her fingertips over his jaw. “I’m sorry I suggested it. I promise, for the rest of my life, that I will chain you to my side and only let you off the leash on birthdays and Christmases. Deal?”
He broke into a grin. “Deal.”
The night raced by, and as the clock struck midnight, couples began to drift away. Some planned to continue partying in a nearby park, others headed off to friends’ houses, where long-suffering parents had agreed not to kick up too much of a fuss when their homes got trashed. As for Zane, he had a far more intimate party in mind.
“I have a surprise for you,” he murmured in Lori’s ear. “Come with me.”
He led her to the car and saw her inside before jogging around the hood and getting into the driver’s seat. He fired up the engine and put the car in drive.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
He steered the car through the streets of Manhattan, heading south on Park Avenue. At Twenty-Second Street, he made a left, and then a right and pulled up outside the Gramercy Park Hotel. A valet hurried over, opening Lori’s door first. Good man. He’d just earned himself a healthy tip.
Lori stared at the uniformed young guy waiting to help her out of the car, then twisted toward him. “Zane?”
“Come on.” He cocked his head, gesturing to her.
