Page 13 of Game Changer
Ethan’s jaw ticks, but he doesn’t tell me I’m wrong, either. He can’t. When he’s around Cameron, he’s a different person. He’s lively, energetic, and outgoing. He’s different when it’s just us in the kitchen at midnight sharing a bowl of ice cream. The real Ethan is hesitant, but he’s got the biggest heart and would take the shirt off his back for anyone. It’s like he wore a mask in high school and could finally take it off when he got home. It didn’t make sense. It still doesn’t.
“Okay, so, we’re into each other,” he says, ignoring my statement about the cheerleaders. “Where do we go from here?”
I furrow my brows. Why is Ethan acting like he’s never done this before? He knows what comes next. We’re in a car alone for fuck’s sake. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the next step of the plan. “Where doyouthink we go from here?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know. We have to tell Maddie first.”
Little does he realize Maddie isn’t a factor anymore, but that’s a conversation he needs to have with her himself. I know Ethan, and until he hears it from Maddie, he isn’t going to believe it.
“Maddie aside, do you want to know whatIthink we should do next?” I move over the console to place a hand on his thigh. His eyes shoot down as if he’s etching this in his memory for eternity, watching as I move my hand slowly to the crotch of his jeans, where his erection is already waiting for me. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t longed for this for years. Ethan and I have always had sexual chemistry, but we’ve both been too afraid to make the leap.
“Maya.” His voice is gravelly, filled with warning as I palm his erection. Little by little, the temperature rises in the car, and my thighs are clamped together in an attempt to gain some sort of friction while he raptly watches me palm his cock. He glances over at my thighs, which are exposed since my dress has ridden up.
Leaning in close with my lips pressed against his ear, I whisper, “This is the part where you kiss me.”
Whatever tether is holding Ethan back snaps. One second I’m on my knees in the passenger seat, and the next he’s pulled me onto his lap to straddle him.
His lips meet mine with a force that has me moaning instantly. I’m shocked at how much passion is behind it. I’m thrown by how I’ve gone without kissing him for this long. His hand drags up my back to wrap in my hair, holding me at the base of my skull while he completely devours me. My mouth opens for him, allowing his tongue to collide with mine, and damn, is it good. No wonder all the girls in school wanted to sleep with him.
I’m grinding against his growing erection when suddenly his hands land on my hips and he rips his mouth from mine. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he mutters, inhaling deeply through his nose. “We need to stop.”
“Stop?” The word is foreign to me. I haveneverhad a man tell me to stop what I’m doing. I’ve never had any complaints, but maybe my pasta had too much garlic at dinner. Shit. Does my breath smell? Am I bad a kisser? I’ve never been told that before, but . . .
“I just need a second,” he pants. “To breathe.”
“Um, okay?” I slide back over to the passenger seat and put my seat belt on in a total state of confusion. What happened? Did I say something wrong? Do something he wasn’t comfortable with? I’m racking my brain while Ethan mutters under his breath and pulls out of the parking lot, and the entirety of the drive back to the Airbnb is spent in silence.
Twenty minutes later, Ethan opens the sliding door that leads out to the patio, where I’m currently sulking in the hot tub. His parents went to bed hours ago, and Maddie and Cameron aren’t back yet. I didn’t want to be in the bedroom across from Ethan’s because even that felt too close. My blood is still humming from our kiss, but my heart is broken all the same.
I should have known it was a bad idea to come on this spring-break trip with their family. Yes, Maddie is my best friend, but the older I get, the harder being around Ethan becomes. And after he pulled away from our kiss, I’m pretty sure I’ve royally fucked this up between us.
Why do I feel like this? I’ve never been upset over a man’s opinion. I can tell myself all I want that Ethan is just another guy, but deep down, I know he’s more than that to me. Our midnight ice-cream time and brief moments around his sister have been enough to drive me crazy, and although I played it cool earlier in the car when he confessed his feelings, I was relieved this game between us was finally over.
And then he went and started the game clock over.
“Can I join you?” he asks.
I shrug, swirling the water around in front of me to play with the bubbles. “Your parents booked the place. I can’t dictate where you can and can’t sit.”
With a frustrated sigh, he enters the hot tub with swim trunks and a T-shirt on. He wore a T-shirt in the pool yesterday, too, and it bothers the hell out of me that he thinks he needs one. “Look,” he starts, “I didn’t want you to stop kissing me earlier. What I said came out wrong, and I’m sorry you took it that way. I just—”
“You just what?”
Steam passes between us when he locks eyes with me and says, “I had to stop because I’m a virgin and I didn’t want to embarrass myself by coming in less than ten seconds.”
Silence.
Nothing but dreadful silence.
I pop my mouth open to say something but then snap it shut because what the fuck am I supposed to say tothat?
“This is why I didn’t want to tell you. Nobody knows. Not even Cameron, so if you could keep this secret between us then I’d appreciate it.”
“How?” It’s the only response I can think of. “I’ve seen you with countless girls, Ethan. You’ve escaped with them upstairs at parties only to come downstairs looking all disheveled. You expect me to believe you’re a virgin? I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“Think what you want, but I’m telling you the truth. It was easy to make it seem like I hooked up with other girls. Escape to the bathroom, flick water on my face, mess my hair up. It takes a lot of effort to keep a facade up, but I did it.”
“For what?”
