Page 17 of Finally a Bride: Best Friend's Brother

My jaw drops.

She laughs. “I’m kidding, but good to know that’s not true.”

“And the other one isn’t either.”

“Sure.” She’s not buying the truth and I’m not sure I want to try that hard to sell it. I know what I did and didn’t do. Plus, Jamie Logan wanted to, but I said no that I heard she gave Barden King more than a good time…

A trip to the doctor for antibiotics and a visit to his pastor for a talking to about sex.

I didn’t need either of those. I was focused on getting the hell away from all the crap that wasn’t true about me and now I find out that the grapevine grew. I figured it would die off if I was gone.

But I want her to know the real me.

“I’m being honest, Ella. I went into the Army a virgin.”

She stills. “Oh… then why did Jamie say that?”

“I don’t’ know. I never even kissed her. I guess people thought that I’d claim the bad boy shit and honestly, I never wanted it. I never wanted any of it. I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time and it seemed trouble found me easily. Thankfully that shit stopped when I went to boot camp.”

She walks toward the bed. “I think I need to get to know you a little better before anything physical can happen.”

I pat the bed. “Nothing needs to happen.”

Not that I don’t want it to happen, but I want her to be comfortable.

She slides in next to me. I slipped into a t-shirt and sweats and her long brown hair tickles my bare arm. “I lost my virginity to… Bennington King.”

Barden’s bro… huh.

I’m not sure, but I thought I heard… “Isn’t he gay?”

“Yeah. He said that he realized his truth after he had sex with me.”

Oh, shit. Ouch.

“I really don’t know what to say,” I say, running a hand over my short hair.

She giggles. “It was really bad.”

“But you’ve had sex since then, right?”

Her eyes close and she crinkles her nose.

I turn toward her. “You haven’t had sex since then?”

She shakes her head with closed eyes. “Nope.”

“Why?”

“Gun shy? Worried I’m why it was bad.”

“I can’t imagine that. And I’m sorry he did that to you.”

“Did what?” she asks.

“Tested his sexuality out on you.”

She shrugs. “You know, in a way it was probably for the best. I just wanted to get it over with and he was kinda the same way, so we were really just there to have a test run.”

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