Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Maybe she thinks I’m going to mock her. Maybe she thinks I’m that sort of monster. She doesn’t understand. If I ever act like a monster, it will only be to keep her safe, to keep our family safe. I’d never hurt her.
I jog over to the elevator.
“Please,” she says, when I’m about to stick my arm in the door. “Don’t follow me. I can’t…I shouldn’t have said that. I feel like I’m going to freaking cry if you come in here with me.”
There’s no reason to cry, I almost say, but then I stop myself. She doesn’t need me telling her how to feel.
“I don’t care,” I say instead, quickly.
It’s more than not caring.
My cock is somehow harder than it was when we were kissing, pushing against my pants, my balls swollen, and my shaft alight with the claim-driven sensation.
She’s a virgin, which means she really is mine, completely, forever. Nobody else is ever going to touch her.
“Really?” she whispers.
Before I can answer, the doors close, shutting her away.
I bite down on a curse, hating the fact that we had to rush our meeting, hating the fact she’s flying back to England, hating that I’ll need to wait two months to see her…and that’s if I see her when she returns.
I need to remember Alex.
But she’s a virgin, untouched, mine.
She’s waiting for me to claim her.
Nobody else ever gets to touch her, to even fucking look at her in a way I don’t like.
If it wasn’t for Alex, I’d rush down there right now, take the steps three at a time and then sprint into the lobby, yelling at her to stop. But I can’t, not with her parents there.
Alex would find out.
It would end everything.
Instead, I turn and slowly walk back up the hallway, opening and closing my hands into fists, wishing life wasn’t so damn complicated.
CHAPTER NINE
Becca
I used to think I was content with my life in England.
It’s not that I was crazily happy. But I had my photography course and I’m close with Mom and Dad. I have a couple of friends, though nothing like what I share with June back home. The time back home shows how much I cling to the East Coast.
But ever since the kiss with Ben – almost three weeks ago now – I’ve found it difficult to focus on anything.
Even today, as I walk through the park with my camera in my hand, I can’t stop thinking about the taste of his lips, the texture of them, and the way his body seemed to swell like his muscles were bursting.
I don’t care.
That’s what he said about my virginity, but the anxiety gripping me was too fierce to stop, to have a proper conversation about it.
We were in Alex’s apartment. My big brother’s apartment.
If I didn’t leave, we might’ve done more there. Ben’s hand would’ve completed its journey down my pants, between my legs, massaging and rubbing until I melted in a way I never have before.
I’ve got a day off from the restaurant, where I’m working for the summer break. I’ve got no more school for three months…and in a month and a week, I’ll be back in the States again. I might even finish my studies there.
With Ben.
I try to push the notion away.
Ben hasn’t contacted me since I left, and I’ve avoided him too. At least, I’ve made sure not to reach out to him.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about him nonstop; looking at pictures of him, my crush returning with ten times the force, now I know it has some basis in reality.
He wants me. He doesn’t care that I’m a virgin.
Everything’s perfect, except for the fact he and Alex are best friends.
Ah.
I want to hate it, but I can’t.
Alex’s social media shows how well they’re doing, both of them smiling as they open another gym…though Ben’s smile seems sharper, darker somehow like he’s hiding a secret.
And he is. We can never take back that kiss.
The social media page for the gym franchise shows videos of Ben teaching classes; the kids seem thrilled to have a championship boxer and minor celebrity in their midst. I often watch these at the easy way Ben talks with the kids, his muscles throbbing and massive in his gym-branded T-shirt.
These videos are the perfect example of why Ben drives me so freaking crazy. There he is, his muscles glimmering in the lights, his eyes intense and focused.
But whenever a kid asks a question or asks for help, Ben responds in the best way, showing me what an incredible father he’s going to make.
My body pulses at that thought. I know I shouldn’t let my mind go there.
As I walk around the pond, looking for possible photos, I can’t help but think of how much sweeter this would be with my family. Except, lately, I don’t think about Mom and Dad and Alex when I think about my family. I don’t even think about June, who’s been like a sister to me since we were little.