Page 1 of The Virgin
CHAPTER 1
JONAH
“If the nextword out of your mouth is trajectory, I’m never playing darts with you again.”
“You’re only mad because you suck at this.” Jonah poked his tongue out of the corner of his mouth to concentrate on kicking Spencer’s ass.
“If we drank at my place, I could kick your ass inMario Kart, but you’re tired of losing.”
Jonah took his shot and hit near enough to the bullseye that Spencer officially had no hope of overtaking his score. “Did you ever stop to think that I let you win?”
Jonah cast an amused look over his shoulder at his best friend Spencer, who rolled his eyes and stepped up to take his turn. Not that it would make a difference to the outcome of the game.
“It’s not fair that you’re this good at darts.” Spencer lined up his shot and swore under his breath when it went wide, nearly missing the board completely.
“It’s not my fault that Colby was a competitive nightmare growing up. He had to be better than me at everything he could. Not like it was hard for him to beat me at sports, but I had to take my wins where I could get them.” Jonah put the darts away and clapped Spencer on his big, broad shoulder. The man was built like a tank. “Come on, I’ll buy you a drink.”
“You make it sound like growing up with Colby was awful.”
“It was.” Jonah scoffed. “Because Taylor is the baby of the family, Colby would never compete with him. Only me, because I’m older. I swear, his name is in the dictionary under ‘middle child syndrome.’”
Maybe awful was a stretch, Jonah thought. Colby wasn’t that bad. He was just a gung ho, eager sort of guy, always had been. And with Mom long since passed away and Dad raising three boys and running Bennett’s— the family diner—on his own, sometimes the kids were left to their own devices. Jonah still didn’t know how the three of them survived each other. Having Taylor around probably helped, to be honest. He was six years younger than Jonah, and four years younger than Colby, but where Colby doted on Taylor, he picked on Jonah. Colby had to be the best, the strongest, the fastest. After a while, Jonah had learned not to care about his competitive streak, but that didn’t mean he had to let Colby win at everything.
Having a jock for a brother had turned out to be an advantage, especially one who made Jonah help him train for soccer camp and swim meets. Too bad the small edge it gave him towardnotbeing a nerdy social pariah hadn’t helped him to be less awkward around men he was interested in.
Jonah stopped at the bar and ordered a couple more pints for him and Spencer. They were regulars at The Anchor, a local bar that was the kind of place people went to hang out and have fun. The Anchor was dim without being dingy and decorated in different woods. Pictures of pirate ships adorned one wall, a slight nod to the name of the bar, Jonah thought. There were pool tables and dart boards, and they carried a variety of beers from local microbreweries. The food was typical bar food, but it was always good.
On the way back to their table, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He took his seat before digging it out and checking.
“Is that from Damon?” Their other friend, who sometimes made up the third member of their trio, was supposed to have met them there.
Jonah wished it was from Damon. Anything was better than getting another message like the one he’d just read. Flames lit the side of his face, and he shoved his phone away. “No, it was from Tom.”
“The boyfriend?”
“He wasn’t my boyfriend. We went out a couple times, but …”
“Ah shit, Jonah, I’m sorry. Do you want me to let the air out of his tires? I could draw dicks on his windshield with dry erase markers.”
Jonah drained the rest of his beer and contemplated getting another, but Spencer shook his head.
“That won’t help.”
“I feel stupid, that’s all.”
Spencer furrowed his brow. “You must have really liked him.”
He shouldn’t have laughed as hard as he did, but he couldn’t stop himself. “No, actually. He was drier than a slice of stale bread, but that was half the appeal, you know.”
Spencer eyed him with more curiosity than Jonah was comfortable with. “Stale bread is appealing? I don’t follow.”
It was no secret, to Spencer at least, that Jonah went on a lot of first dates, but not a lot of second ones. Seldom did he make it to a third, and he had never told Spencer why.
But…he was tired of carrying it around like it was some kind of shameful secret. Logically, Jonah knew there was nothing wrong with being a twenty-seven-year-old virgin. So what if he taught teens that had more sex than he’d ever even thought about? So what if he was a socially awkward mess of a man who couldn’t bring himself to let someone touch him in the ways he ached to be touched?
Sometimes he thought it might kill him. He’d lie awake at night and imagine all sorts of dirty scenarios where he was touched and fucked, held down, held open, and used. He knew that no one had ever died from lack of sex, but sometimes he wanted to. Okay, that was dramatic.
“Jonah?” Spencer said, making him realize he’d been quiet for too long.
