“Of course.”
 
 I went quickly, not because I feared someone would see me, but because I had to go that bad.
 
 Back in Dallas’s room, I stripped everything off again and got in beside him.
 
 He put an arm underneath me. “I’m going to ask you a question, and while I don’t think you’ll get upset at me for asking, I just want to warn you that it’s personal.”
 
 I inhaled a gulp of air and prepared myself. “Okay. Go ahead, ask away.”
 
 “Was that the first time you’d ever had sex?”
 
 I buried my face into his shoulder. “Yes,” I mumbled.
 
 He moved my head away from him so we were eye to eye. “You don’t have to be embarrassed about it.”
 
 “I’m not, but I probably should have told you up front,” I said. “Was it that obvious?”
 
 “You were really tight. I mean, it felt totally awesome for me, but I got the feeling that it might not have been that way for you.”
 
 “It was okay. I think maybe I need some practice.”
 
 He frowned and smoothed my hair away from my face. “I’m sorry.”
 
 “Don’t be. It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. It just is.”
 
 “I’m going to make it up to you.”
 
 My body clenched. “Right now?”
 
 He nodded and went down to the bottom of the bed, taking the covers with him.
 
 His gaze fixed right between my legs, and my face flushed.
 
 Before he dipped his head, he glanced at me and smiled.
 
 I closed my eyes.
 
 A throbbing inside of me started to build and build. I heard myself beg, “More. Please. More.”
 
 He nudged a finger inside me, still licking, still sucking.
 
 Electricity shot right up my spine. I moaned in ecstasy.
 
 The pulsing was getting faster, closer together. Then a moment of reprieve, like when an aerial shell is sent hurling through the air, and I waited… But this was no dud. The firework burst open, lighting the sky in awe.
 
 After I came down, able to breathe again, he crawled up to me and kissed the throbbing artery in my neck.
 
 I smiled slowly, lazily. It was going to work. Just as the internet had said. I was going to fall asleep in his arms and not wake until morning.
 
 But even with my head tucked into the crook of his arm and my wet, hot sex pressed up against his thigh, sleep never came.
 
 Twenty-Five
 
 The Morning After
 
 Dallas and I walked into the cafeteria together for breakfast. Not holding hands or arm in arm—instead, he was pinching my ass. I hadn’t expected this crackling energy between us, but I loved it. We went our separate ways to grab food and then joined back up to find a seat together.
 
 “She’s the one,” said a female voice to my right. “She’s the girl in the hoodie.”