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So I wanted to have sex with a female who had developed very quickly into my closest friend. So what?

I stood and moved to her until I was close enough that I had to look down and she had to look up and my erection was almost touching her through my shorts. “I want you,” I said thickly. “I want to fuck you, to pleasure you, and I can’t for the life of me think of one good reason why I shouldn’t.”

She didn’t give me the reaction I was hoping for. I hadn’t been dense enough to assume she would.

I’d wanted a reaction. Period. Any reaction from Ro was foreplay for me.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” She burst out with, moving away. “Don’t you remember the contract I signed? I’m not quitting. I refuse to give up a job for whatever the hell it is you think you’re doing.” Her every word was breathless, and pained, like she had to force them out.

“Listen, I take full responsibility for anything that happens. I’ll put it in writing if you’re really worried about that.”

“What are you even doing, Turner?”

Her saying my name did something to me, and it took me a minute to recover and speak. “Just a few times, probably, then we can go back to business as usual. It wouldn’t affect your job, I’m not letting you go, not ever, it’s not even an option, but I think we need to get this out of our systems.”

“Our systems? Like this isn’t your idea alone?”

I shot her a level look. I was a lot of things, but I wasn’t blind. Not about this. I pointed at her, making solid eye contact. “Go ahead. Try to deny this to my face. You’re trembling. You’re out of breath. I know the signs. You want me. And lucky you, I’m right here.”

And then she said it. The thing that complicated things out of all proportion and beyond all reason.

“I’m a virgin, Turner,” she said quietly, and I froze.

And stared. And stared.

Fuck, all of this was way worse than I could have predicted, because my reaction was the opposite of what it should have been.

That little technicality didn’t turn me off.

Just the opposite.

It drove me wild.

“What does that mean, exactly?” I finally asked. We’d been staring each other down for an uncomfortably long time.

“You don’t even know what a virgin is?” she asked, amused. “It’s that foreign of a concept to you?”

“Don’t make me smile right now. This is serious.”

“No, it’s not,” she said with sheer, confident, frustrating exasperation. “It’s absolutely not. Certainly not to you. You take nothing seriously.”

“What is that supposed mean?”

She rolled her eyes.

I wanted to throttle her.

I wanted to climb inside of her and rut until she was a boneless puddle at my feet.

I tried again. “How are you a virgin?”

She looked at me like I’d just said the silliest thing on the planet, but it was just another bit, the damned little hellion comedian. “Everyone starts out a virgin. Did you not know that?”

She had the nerve to make fun of me at a moment like this?

My brain short-circuited, vision going a little fuzzy for a delicious moment. I thought I might come in my pants.

“How are you still a virgin?” I tried again.