Page 49 of Mr. Scandalous

“Wow, are things that serious?”

“Deadly. I’ve been miserable for weeks and didn’t know how to bring it up to Randy, but the wedding shower pushed me over the edge.”

“You can’t take the tea leaf reading seriously. It didn’t mean a thing.”

You can’t cage the wind.The words Madame Xavier had spoken to her flitted through Eden’s head. She was good at giving advice but not too hot at taking it. If she were being honest, she would admit she’d been upset by the tea leaf reading, too.

“Madame Xavier was right.” Jill picked at a fuzz ball on her sweater. “Somethingismissing.”

“Do you love Randy?”

“Oh yes, very much.”

“And he loves you?”

“I don’t doubt his devotion for a moment.”

“So what’s the problem?”

Jill took a deep breath. “You heard Sarah say Randy and I are committed to a second virginity. We’d planned on waiting for our wedding night to have sex for the first time with each other.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, that’s not the whole truth.”

Eden grinned. “You two have been having sex.”

“No!” Jill’s hand went to her throat. “I mean we’ve been playing around some, sure…”

Images of how she and Alec had been playing around popped into her head and she had to struggle hard not to grin.

“But here’s the thing. This isn’t a second virginity for me. I actuallyama virgin.”

“What’s so bad about that?”

“Randy doesn’t know.”

“So tell him.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Jill kneaded her forehead with two fingers. “Randy’s had so much experience with women, and here I am a twenty-six-year-old virgin. Won’t he think something’s wrong with me?”

“Why would he think that?”

“It’s freakish, being a virgin in your mid-twenties, but I was waiting until I found the right guy and fell in love. And then Randy wanted to do this second virginity thing to prove to me that his old lifestyle was behind him.”

“But that’s a good thing. It shows how serious he is about marriage.”

“I know, but now I’m feeling I haven’t lived enough. That I need a few notches on my bedpost, too, so when I’m an old lady in a rocking chair I don’t think back and regret not having explored my sexuality a more. I hate being so inexperienced.”

“You want to sleep with someone other than your fiancé?” Eden stared at her.

“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Jill dropped her face into her hands. “I’m so confused.”

“I can see how the Bon Vivant and the Virgin basket might have hit a sour note, but don’t let your doubts destroy a great relationship.”

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