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Oliver shakes his head. “I can’t believe you would do that. You’re throwing away the purest part of yourself to someone you don’t even know, just so you can be like your friends? You can never take that back. Don’t you want to give that to the man you’re going to be with every time for the rest of your life?”
Okay then. I’m not with the gentleman. I’m with The Abstinence Guy. I thought he was a myth from sex-ed class. Getting a lecture on purity was the furthest thing from my plan for New Year’s Eve, but apparently I’m a virgin slut with no morals who needs a reminder that my body is a temple. I can feel it coming on already.
“Why does it matter?” I ask.
“It matters,” Oliver says, so forcefully that I look at him against my better judgment. He’ staring at me, his luminous eyes full of…sadness.
“Why do you care?” I ask.
“Look,” he says. “I like nice things. Quality over quantity, yeah? I want the very best. And that applies to the woman I’ll marry as well. I don’t want someone who’s been used by another guy and tossed away.”
I just stare at him, trying not to let my mouth hang open too far. Oh, but he’s not done yet.
“If she’s not good enough for someone else, why would she be good enough for me? If a woman gives herself away to every man she dates, what does she have left to give the man she marries?”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I ask.
“What?”
“Yeah, pretty sure there’s something about a lock that any key can open? Oh, and don’t forget chewed gum. And used tires. Or is a used car where you have to replace the tires? It’s hard to keep up with all analogies that compare women to objects.”
“I didn’t compare you to any objects,” he says, frowning at me.
“Well, who said anything about marriage?” I ask, since I’m pretty sure I should be offended, but I’m too drunk to remember which part of his attitude was most offensive. “I just met you. I don’t even know your last name. I was just trying to lose my stupid v-card.”
He sighs. “I’m sorry. But there are other guys out there who value the same things, and you’re cutting yourself off from them.”
“A real tragedy,” I mutter, rolling my eyes. “You seem like such a prize.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have used myself as the example,” he says, smiling so his dimple sinks in and almost makes me forget what a raging douchebag he is. “But the point still stands. The right man for you might want you to have saved yourself for him, and if you don’t, then you’d miss out on that. And I know you can walk away from here and sleep with the next guy you meet, but for what it’s worth, I hope you won’t.”
“I won’t,” I mutter, glowering at him.
I know it’s true, though. I can’t believe how reckless I’ve been. Not just with myself, but with everything. Sleeping with a stranger is not going to change what Todd did. And it’s not going to make me anyone other than who I am. For all I knew about Oliver, he could have been some murdering rapist, and here I am hanging out with him while my little sister sleeps innocently beside the bed, trusting me to protect her.
“Good,” he says. “Because from what I know of you, you’re an amazing girl, yeah? I’d hate to see you throw yourself away over some silly need to gossip with your girlfriends.”
That’s exactly what I was going to do, and it pisses me off that he called me on it, that I’m so transparent and shallow. I grit my teeth and fight the urge to tell him he can take his judgmental ass home if I’m such a disappointment.
“Now give me your phone,” he says, the entitled bastard picking it up without waiting for me to answer. He thumbs it on and opens theOnlyWordsapp. “I’m going to put in my contact. So the next time you get a silly idea to let yourself be used by a total stranger, you can text me and I’ll save you again.”
I can’t even speak without sputtering with indignation.
Save me?Who the actual fuck does this guy think he is, and where did he come up with the groundbreaking levels of audacity? I never asked for a knight in chastity belted armor. In fact, I’m pretty sure I asked for the exact opposite.
He cracks a grin when he sees the look on my face. “Or just text me again if you want a repeat. You’re a great kisser.”
He looks a little roguish then, almost like his brother with that twinkle in his eye. I don’t know if it’s the alcohol or the fact that I don’t know what else to do, but I burst out laughing before I know it’s coming.
“Fancy doing something else then?” he asks, then drops me a wink. “Or were you only after one thing?”
“Rude,” I protest, my face flushing. I throw a pillow at him, and he ducks, and it tumbles off the far side of the bed. We both freeze, stifling laughter. I hear my sister stirring, and I grab Oliver’s hand and drag him off the bed, shoving him at the balcony door. He slides it open and slips out as I go around the bed to take the pillow off Lily and tuck her back in. She sighs and snuggles her stuffed unicorn, and I make sure she’s sleeping again before I step out to retrieve Oliver.
The rain has slowed to scattered, fat drops spitting down every few seconds. I hunch against the damp chill, opening my mouth to apologize for sending him to the balcony when it’s so nasty out. Before I can, he snags my hand and pulls me against him, sliding a hand around my lower back and smiling down at me. His gorgeous, long lashes sweep down to his cheeks, shuttering his pale eyes from view, and then his lips are on mine again.
I’m going to push him away. After a minute, I will. He doesn’t deserve more of me than I’ve already given. But I let him kiss me one more time first. One more time because damn does he know how to kiss, and the little ball of metal in his tongue is tickling mine, and his arms are hot around me on the cold night, and his sigh against my mouth makes my knees buckle. I’m going to push him away, but I told myself one more kiss, and it doesn’t end until one of us pulls away.
I hear the rain coming, and I huddle into his chest, ready for him to pull away. Instead, he turns us, pushing me up against the wall under the tiny ledge of shelter from the roof. His other hand reaches out, his long arm finding the glass door and pulling it closed without opening his eyes, without breaking our kiss. Then his arms are around me, and the rain hits, pelting down on his shoulders so hard a mist of droplets splatter onto me. I let out a little shriek into his mouth, and he chuckles into ourkiss, swaying his hips against mine, so the length of our bodies is pressed together.
