Page 182 of Unexpected Hero

Blinking, I shrug and keep my lips pursed, acting like I can’t be bothered to respond. But my insides are spinning around like they’re trying to get me a spot in the showcase showdown on The Price is Right.

“Violet! Answer me! Did you?”

I buff my nails on my shirt, right over my heart. “Did I what?”

“Stop messing with me, Ms. Holt, or I’ll drive down there and personally cream your corn. Don’t fuck with my emotions like this when I’m hungover.”

Lowering my chin,I look deadass in the camera and slowly let my smile free until it slides up my face like it’s melting in reverse.

Standing now, she holds the phone at a reasonable distance and waits for verbal confirmation.

Wearing a wall-to-wall, face-splitting grin that radiates pure joy, I finally answer, “Yes, I did, Stella. I had sexual intercourse. I’m no longer weighed down with the chastity belt of childhood trauma.”

We squeal together like we’re two hogs high on slop.

When we can talk again, she asks, “Are you happy? You look happy.”

“I’m over the moon. I’m floating in the clouds. My feet aren’t on earth anymore.”

She puts her hand on her chest and closes her eyes. After a few shakes of her head, she looks at me with the proud face of a mama bear watching her cubs fall into a honey pot. “Oh sweetie, I’m so dang thrilled for you. I’m so glad you took my advice. Please tell me it was with a pleasure Dom, and he gave you all the orgasms.”

My head kicks back. “Wait. What are you talking about?”

“Are you that high on the sex buzz? We were just texting about this last night. You were all upset about James, and like the helpful bitch I am, I suggested you find a Dom to make it better.” She narrows her eyes, reacting to my sagging face. “That’s not what happened? Did I hallucinate that? Damn you, Paula!”

Shaking out of the haze of disgust brought on by the mere idea of having slept with another man, I chuckle at the way she’s shaking her fist at the sky.

“Stella, I did have that conversation with you, but I totally forgot all about it. Not that it matters. It was James.”

She falls back to the bed, scrunching her shoulders up by her ears. “Really? Oh my gosh,” she squeaks, her face going dopey. “You gave your virginity to someone you actually care about. Oh that makes my heart all fluttery. I love that for you.”

Unable to talk, I sit there, blushing like a fourteen-year-old and share the moment with my best friend, despite her being in another state.

After a few seconds, her face loses some of that doting glow. “But wait. I thought you hadn’t seen him in weeks. How did we go from you having a panic attack to you forking over your V-card to him? Did you trip and fall onto his penis or something? Considering where you work and how klutzy you are, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”

“Ha, ha, ha.” I roll my eyes. “Last night, I was keeping my shit together and breezing through my shift. Then, around midnight, he just waltzed in.” The memory of how he looked flutters across my mind. The way he stared at me, so stoic and reserved, but with passion simmering under the surface.

I must pause too long for Stella’s patience level. “Okay, so he strolls in, and that’s when you fell onto his dick?”

“Gah! Shut up for a second,” I tease. “Let me relive this.”

She flicks her wrist at me in a go-ahead gesture.

“He waited silently until I was done checking in this couple. After they cleared the lobby, he and I just stood there like statues. When the silence got awkward, I told him he could go on in or something like that. But he said no.” I close my eyes and shake my head. “No. That’s not right. He said, ‘I’m not here for that.’ Then I asked him what he came for. And Stella, the man said—”

She cuts me off; damn her. “He said you. He said you. Right? Tell me he said you!”

I nod and sigh like a smitten schoolgirl. “He said, ‘I came for you.’ And then I died. Right there in the lobby. Left my body and floated into the clouds. Bye-bye, Lettie.”

When I focus my eyes on my friend, she’s the physical embodiment of the melted face emoji.

Same, girl. Same.

“I assume it was epic.” She somehow makes it sound like a statement and a question.

“So much yes. It was... gah. He was perfect. Kind, gentle, and so focused on my comfort and pleasure. Fuck. He gave me so many orgasms. And Stella Bella, you’d be so proud of me. I rode his face twice. No. Thrice.”

“Proud doesn’t begin to cover it, honey. That’s my girl. Makin’ Mama Bear proud.”

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