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Thinking about that night again made me all kinds of ragey as I went into detail about how one of those assholes tried to grab me, slipping his hand beneath my sweater to try and grab my breasts, and how his dickbag friends laughed and tried to get in on it.
“Oh my god! Please tell me you reported their asses to the school for assault and harassment.”
A little grin pulled at my lips. “I didn’t need to. Apparently, Beau was still on campus and saw it go down.” In all the time we attended the same college, our paths would occasionally cross, but the university was so much bigger than our high school, so that was the first time in four years there’d been any interaction between us. I shook my head as I remembered the beating he’d given all three of them.
“He beat their asses, Colbs. I mean,beat them. One guy ended up with a fractured jaw, another with a concussion, and he actually broke the hand of the guy who’d tried to feel me up.” Watching him do that and hearing them howl in pain was so much more satisfying than getting them kicked out of school.”
“Holy shit,” she breathed in awe. “He really did that?”
I nodded my head. “He really did. Then he drove me home. Obviously, the whole scene had really shaken me up. I don’t know how he knew, but he must have sensed that the idea of walking around campus made me a little skittish, and all of a sudden, he just started showing up everywhere. We didn’t talk about the attack, but he walked me to and from classes, even if his were all the way across campus. He walked me to my car regularly, and if I was studying late at the library, he’d be standing outside waiting when I finally left.”
I looked into my mug, lowering my voice as I said, “Then one night, it just... happened. I let my guard down and ended up going back to his apartment with him.”
I wouldn’t admit it to her, but to this day, that was the best sex of my life. Not because it was actuallygreat sex. I was a virgin, after all. That shit hurt like hell. But what made it the best was the absolute care and tenderness Beau had treated me with. That night, he’d made me feel like I was the most precious thing in the world to him. He’d done his best to make it good for me, and while I hadn’t been able to orgasm—becauseagain,it was my first time—it still ended up feeling good.
Colbie had leaned so far across the table as I told her the story that she was halfway draped across the thing, her chin propped in one of her hands, a rapt expression on her face. “Then what happened?”
I shrugged as a pit of sadness formed deep in my belly. “Then we woke up, and just like always, he went back to being the same jerk he’d always been.”
Her whole upper body rocked back, her spine shooting straight. “Wait. What? Just like that? He had sex with you, and then went back to being the same asshole he always was?”
“Yep. Just like that. His father called that next morning while we were still asleep, and I made the mistake of thinking the phone was mine and answered it.” I lifted my shoulder in a shrug. “That set him off for some reason. After he got off the phone, he went total Ice King on me, and that was it. That was the last time I ever talked to him. He tried walking me a couple more times, but I started taking different routes or leaving class a few minutes early to miss him. I guess he eventually got the hint. He was drafted not long after, and that’s it. That’s all there is.”
“That’s”—Colbie’s chest sank on a gush of breath—“so underwhelming! God, what a letdown. That wasn’t a story, Pres.That was barely a store. It didn’t even have a real ending. It just...” She waved her hand in the air between us, “petered out.”
I chuckled, shaking my head at her ridiculousness. “I don’t know what else to tell you, babe. That’s what happened.”
Her scowl was laced with suspicion. “But it’s not, is it? I mean, not really. Because you showed up here freaking the ever-loving hell out.”
Ah yes. That.
“I was doing yoga on the beach the other morning, and he was out for a jog.”
Colbie let out a hum that surprised the hell out of me. It was almost dreamy. “What does Beau Wade look like when he’s running? Asking for a friend.”
I shot her a snide look. “Uh-huh. Sure you are. But to answer your question, good.Damngood. And he wasn’t wearing a shirt either.”
Her hand came down on the table with a slap. “I know we hate the guy and all, but can we be grownups here and admit that he’s all kinds of gorgeous? I mean, if that man were a steak, he’d be the finest cut of Wagyu on the freaking planet.”
I wish I could argue, but she spoke the truth. And the bastard had only gotten better with age.
“All right, so spill it. What happened at the beach?”
I told her about the conversation we’d had, how he told me he was back because of me before we inevitably got into a fight, because that was what we always did, and finally, how I was in the process of storming off when he kissed the freaking life right out of me.
By the end of it, Colbie was fanning her face, her cheeks having taken on a rosy glow. “Holy shit, Presley.”
“I know.”
“That was . . .”
“Insane,” I said at the same time she sighed, “hot.”
I blinked in confusion. “Wait. What?”
“That was freaking hot! The man tells you he’s come back because of you, then he kisses you stupid?”
“I never said he kissed me stupid,” I countered, feeling the need to argue simply because it was the easiest thing to do.
