Prologue #2
Fuck that. I answered his question with one of my own.
“Do you have a condom?”
“Back pocket,” he answered quickly. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths.
I found his wallet and handed it to him.
He pulled a string of condoms out and removed one.
I didn’t have the mental energy to focus on what it meant that he carried so many around with him.
He lost his pants and briefs and rolled the latex down his hard length.
With his hands on my hips, his fingers hooked beneath the waistband of my panties, Seb locked eyes with me.
His Adam’s apple bobbed on a rough swallow.
I nodded my head, nerves fluttering in my belly, my limbs tingling yet heavy. I wanted this. I wanted him.
We didn’t say another word as Seb positioned himself on top of me and slowly pushed his way into me. The unfamiliar stretch pinched at first. I pressed my face into Seb’s collar as, inch by inch, Seb filled me. A single thought ran through my head on a loop. What if I’m bad at this?
It was like Sebastian knew I was in my head. He cradled my face in his hands. He kissed me. He touched me. He pulled out and slammed into me, and I suddenly knew what all the fuss was about. Sex was amazing. Or at least sex with Sebastian Devereux was.
My legs shook, tightening around his waist, as a pressure I’d never experienced built inside of me. His thrusts sped up, erratic and strong. I hit my climax a moment before him. Our pulsing muscles playing a song that only we could hear. I sank back onto the bed, boneless and sore.
Seb’s gaze on me was a picture of confusion. His eyes bounced between mine, his breath labored, skin coated in a sheen of sweat.
Insecurities bubbled up from low in my belly, rising to the surface. But before they were fully marinated, Seb grabbed my face and crashed his lips into mine fiercely.
He pulled back and left me floating on a cloud of bliss.
“Lydia,” Seb called, concern lacing his voice. I looked up… or down… to where Seb was kneeling between my legs. “You’re bleeding.”
“Oh. That’s okay. That happens the first time, right?” I was eighteen. I paid attention in health class. I knew not to get worked up over it.
His eyes rounded, concern turning to horror. “Your first time?”
“Don’t freak out on me. That was good, right?” He stared at me, unblinking. I swallowed roughly. “Right? I thought it was good.” He was making me nervous. The fear that I was bad at sex hit me in the chest.
“It was fucking phenomenal,” he growled harshly, pulling at his hair.
“Shhh. Keep your voice down.” I looked behind me at the door, trying to hear if there was any indication that someone had heard him, pride swelling up in my chest. I turned to face Seb again, smiling. “Thanks for my birthday present.”
“I was supposed to give you something, not take something from you.”
“You did. You gave me the best first experience,” I told him honestly.
Seb got up and immediately started to dress. “Stay there. I’ll grab you a facecloth.”
“Don’t worry. I have a towel in the laundry,” I told him.
“I’ll get it.” He spun around, an uncharacteristic nervous energy radiating off him as he looked for the laundry basket. He found it in the corner of my room and pulled a towel out. “Is this one okay?”
I nodded. The weight of what we just did settled into my gut. I’d known Sebastian for most of my life; he was my brother’s best friend. He was too good-looking for his own good and charming to everyone he met. The fact that he wanted me set my heart fluttering.
He tried to clean up the mess between my legs, but I pulled the towel from his grip instead. It was dumb to be embarrassed by it, but I was. I didn’t want him to think I was gross.
We stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do next. How to act.
“Well,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I should get going, I guess.”
“Yeah, okay. Thanks for stopping by, I guess.”
He shook his head with a grin, and I followed him to the window.
He opened the glass pane and screen before throwing his leg over the sill.
I didn’t really want him to go, but I couldn’t ask him to stay.
That would only come across as clingy and needy.
He straddled the windowsill, half in and half out, and turned to face me.
His gaze traced my face slowly, and butterflies erupted in my belly.
He reached for my waist and dragged me close to him. His lips on mine sent tingles across my skin. A low groan came from him before he pulled back and dropped to the ground with a dimpled smirk and a thud. I watched him go, a delicious new smile on my face, the scent of our climax tickling my nose.
* * *
“Well, don’t you look well kissed,” Sunday Jones said, sidling up next to me on the way to my next class.
“What?” My face dropped. How could she know about what happened between Seb and me last night?
“Sebastian Devereux, right?”
My thick, dark eyeliner helped me level a menacing look her way. “What are you talking about?”
“Did you or did you not hook up with Sebastian Devereux last night? Inquiring minds want to know.”
I stopped short in the middle of the hallway. Two other students nearly walked into me, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t moving until I had more information. “What is this about?” I asked harshly.
“Ugh,” she sighed, rolling her eyes like explaining this to me was more work than she signed up for. “You’ve got yourself a reputation as being a cocktease,” she started.
I looked down at my outfit. Black fishnet tights under black shorts, a black band T-shirt that I was sure none of them had heard of. My makeup was dark, edgy, and artfully applied to keep people away.
“So Tommy Riscuto dared Sebastian to hook up with you last night at the bonfire. Tommy didn’t think he could do it. I think there’s a six-pack on the line or something, so now I have to find out who won. Is that a yes or a no to hooking up with Sebastian?”
My vision went fuzzy.
I was a dare?
A game he was playing to win a six-pack of budget beers?
I turned in the opposite direction of my class, the exit doors suddenly calling my name. I needed to get out of here. My stomach turned with humiliation, warring with the red-hot anger that flared in my chest.
“Is that a yes or a no?” Sunday asked to my back.
“Fuck off, Sunday,” I all but growled.
And Tommy Riscuto, the sensitive-ego baby who didn’t like being told to pound sand when he tried to feel me up at that house party.
And Sebastian fucking Devereux.
I got to my car with tears streaming black lines down my face. Everyone was going to know that I was stupid enough, naive enough, to let Seb take me in the most intimate way. I was going to be the laughingstock of Calla Bay, all because of Sebastian fucking Devereux.
How dare he.
Nope. Not happening. I wasn’t sticking around to watch my name, my reputation, my dignity, be mocked by these small-town assholes.
I was getting out of here as soon as I graduated. I would be swallowed up by the big-city life where no one knew your name, nor did they care. Where no one knew that I gave everything to a man who only wanted to win a dare.