Page 96 of The Rogue

“Yes. It was summer. You were fifteen, I was sixteen and you had really what was quite a demure swimsuit. But I just looked at them. They were growing, and Iwas a guy, and I remember thinking your body was so pretty. And then there was Chelsea, and she was seventeen. She was wearing a bikini. She wasn’t younger. And innocent. I just knew that I didn’t want to screw up what I had with you over that. So... I redirected my focus to her.”

She frowned and looked at the surface of the water, then back up at him. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“You don’t have to. It just is. I met up with her at the bonfire by Sullivan’s Lake that night, we had some beer, her dad was cleared out of the cabin for the night, she had condoms, we had sex.”

“And did you make her come four times?” She knew she sounded salty. Shefeltsalty.

“No. I didn’t make her come at all. I felt like a dick. I told myself that I needed to figure out what I was doing before I ever did that again because it didn’t seem right or fair that I got to pump a couple of times and have thebest time, when the girl I was with might not. So... There you have it. It was a shitty first time, actually. I wish it would’ve been with someone that meant something to me. But then, until today, I don’t think I’d ever had sex with someone who meant something to me. But at least I was better at it.”

Rue shifted in the tub. Their legs tangled. A bolt of arousal hit her between her thighs. “I was so afraid. Not that it would hurt. That it would betoogood.”

He laughed, threw his head back and laughed.

“Yeah. Well. I was naive. It wasn’t. Obviously. But that was actually just right for me. I found my comfort zone. I stayed in it. For eight years. It isn’t just you andyour sexuality that I opened the door to, it’s my own. I’m still me. A little bit inside out, but still me.”

She scrunched her eyes, trying to keep the tears at bay.

“All right, chickadee. Let’s get you out of here before you turn into a prune.”

“You’re a lot more solicitous after you’ve had sex with a woman.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

But she was being lifted out of the tub, so her commentary didn’t seem to make much difference.

“Tell me about it.”

“Only that when we were friends—I mean we are friends—but when we were friends who’d never had sex, I don’t think you would worry about the amount of time I was in the bathtub.”

“Not a fair statement. Because when we hadn’t had sex I wouldn’t have been in the bathtub with you. I wouldn’t have been able to see these.” He moved his thumb over one of her nipples.

Shock, arousal and embarrassment lanced her. “We just...”

“I want to again.”

“Justice!”

“Come on, Rue, it’s three in the afternoon. It’s the perfect time.”

Chapter Twenty-One

It felt essential that he stop talking to her and start making love to her. It was weird to have found himself in this situation. Rue was the one woman he was better attalkingto than anything else.

Now suddenly, they’d had sex.

It had blown his mind. The feel of her under his hands, the taste, the way it had felt to slide inside her, it had nearly destroyed him.

He didn’t know how to categorize it, or where to put it.

Butthis, he knew what to do with this. With her body. He knew how to make her scream. He was so damned good at that.

And she was tempting.

That was the main thing. He had lost his control somewhere back there. He had pushed her, and he wanted to push her even harder. Wanted to undo her completely.

You don’t have the right...

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