Page 16 of Fierce Mountain Man

He sounded surprised. Yeah, he’d expect I had at least a little experience at this age.

“My life has been…not normal for a long time,” I said after a pause.

A long time? It had never been normal—not looking at the life of most of my friends, anyway.

“But you’ve dated,” he said.

I shook my head. “I had a couple of guys ask me out in high school, and we’d hang out, but I never wanted anyone to know my situation, so I never got past group activities. In the past few years, I’ve been working two to three jobs at a time to pay bills and set some money aside for my future.”

“For your bakery,” he said.

I nodded. “For my bakery.”

Suddenly, Tobias set his bowl on the table behind him and turned to face me. “I’m going to ask you something directly. If you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to.”

The intensity in his stare made my heart beat a little faster. I knew what he was going to ask, and I had to prepare myself to answer honestly.

“Are you… Have you ever been with a man?”

“No.” I lowered my gaze to my mostly empty bowl, distractedly cutting the remaining bite into two tiny slices before spearing one with my fork. “I’ve never had sex.”

When I finally dared to look up at Tobias, I found him staring at me. He seemed to be speechless. That was what I feared.

I didn’t want my virginity to be a big deal. I didn’t want it to scare him off. I’d never told a guy I was a virgin before, but I’d always imagined it would be the one thing that would send someone running for the hills.

“I had no idea,” he said. “I definitely wouldn’t have suggested strip card games if I’d known.”

My mouth twitched in a nervous smile. “If I didn’t want to play, I would have let you know.”

“So you wanted to get naked with me.”

That one statement seemed to siphon all the air from my lungs. I was taking shallow, quick breaths, just trying to get my wits about me.

“Yes,” I finally choked out.

“You wanted to get naked with me?” he repeated, this time as a question.

I looked down. That helped me catch my breath a little. “I’m not naked yet, so I’d put it in future tense. Iwantto get naked with you.”

Was I giving him a grammar lesson? What the hell?

But when I looked up at him, I saw the heat in his eyes, and I knew the message had landed. I’d chosen him to take my virginity.

I’d chosen him for a reason. This connection we felt went well beyond sex. I didn’t just want him to take my virginity. I wanted him to be the only one I made love to for the rest of my life.

And with that thought, I speared the last bite of cheesecake and shoved it into my mouth, chewing and swallowing. I then set the bowl on the coffee table, just as he’d done, brushed my hands together, and looked down at the cards still on the cushion between us.

“Let’s get to work.”

8

TOBIAS

This game was taking way, way too damn long. Maybe I was just being a bad sport, considering I sat here wearing only my underwear while she was still fully dressed.

But there was hope on the horizon. She’d just lost her first game. I tried not to gawk as she began unbuttoning her blouse, one button at a time. Lower…and lower…and lower.

I kept my focus on the cards I was shuffling, finally splitting them as she was shrugging out of the blouse. Her generous cleavage spilled out over a black lace bra.

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