"Angel, I've never slept with anyone. I'm a virgin."
"What?" She jerked back, disbelief written all over her face. From her reaction, you'd think I told her I had bodies buried in my backyard.
Being a virgin isn't that weird, right?
"I've never had sex before," I repeated.
"Are you fucking with me right now?" she asked, and I almost jerked back from her use of the F-word. It seemed dirtier coming from her pretty little mouth.
Part of me wanted to tell her she shouldn't say that word. The other part of me wanted to ask her to say it again.
"I'm dead serious. You can ask Colton if you don't believe me."
"But … but … " she sputtered. "You're so … I mean, you know you're really good-looking, right? How is that even possible?"
I just shrugged. I could tell her my entire dating history, but I didn't want to talk about other girls right now. "It just never worked out. And now I'm at the point where I want it to be with someone I really care about."
Angel nodded like she understood. A brief silence fell over us as she processed my confession. "Did Kendra really throw up on your shoes?"
I grinned. Not because it was a good memory-it was actually pretty fucking gross. I just found it highly amusing how Angel wanted to confirm that random detail of the story.
"She did." I grimaced. "It took me an hour to get them clean the next day."
Angel snickered at the unfortunate incident before covering her mouth. She struggled to wipe the humor from her face, but failed. "Sorry. Totally not funny."
I reached over to unbuckle her seat belt and motioned her over. After scooting across the bench seat, she snuggled into my side as I put my arm around her.
"I still can't believe you're a virgin," she said, shaking her head. "But since you were so forthcoming about your history … I guess I should let you know I'm a virgin, too."
I hadn't even thought to ask. It didn't really matter to me if she was or not. But now that I knew she'd never been with anyone that way … something akin to relief flowed through me. The thought of anyone else touching her was unpleasant.
Since meeting Angel, I felt like I was learning new things about myself. I'd never been the jealous type before. There was just something about her that made me feel possessive. Protective. It was both exciting and disconcerting.
I hugged her to my side and kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry our date sucked."
She laughed lightly and squeezed her arm around my middle. "It wasn't all that bad. Actually, I was having a really nice time until Kendra showed up." She glanced up at me and her face suddenly held a hint of outrage. "Did you know that wench sent over a kiddie cocktail?"
My laughter bellowed inside the truck. "Did you just say ‘wench'?"
"Yes. Wench. It was mean," she pouted.
"Aw, baby … " I cooed teasingly.
I was mildly surprised by how easily the term of endearment slipped out. I'd meant it to be playful, but as soon as I said it, the word felt more intimate. When she didn't object to it, I was glad. Knowing Angel, if she didn't like it she would tell me. Her straightforwardness was becoming one of my favorite things about her.
Her lips were still slightly pouting when I brought my mouth down to hers. Slowly, I kissed her top lip, nipped at her bottom lip, then finished the kiss with one more soft peck on her full mouth.
As much as I wanted to go further, I knew we needed to ease into whatever this was. The last thing I wanted to do was ruin it by rushing into the physical stuff. We were both in uncharted territory.
Cupping her face with one hand, I ran the tip of my nose down the length of hers. I'd done that on the couch earlier today. I had no idea what made me do it then, and I didn't know why I did it now. I'd never done that to anyone before.
It just felt right with Angel. Natural. Like it was an act of affection meant just for her.
Holding her tighter to my body, I placed another kiss on top of her head. She melted further into me as her fingers drew lazy circles over my ribs. We sat like that for a few minutes in comfortable silence, the only light coming from the glow of the clock on the dash. The darkness outside made me feel like we were in our own world inside the cab of my truck.
Although it wasn't really that late, I couldn't help the yawn that escaped. Since yawning always seems to be contagious, Angel followed right after me and I chuckled.
"I don't know about you, but I'm beat," I said.
She simply nodded, her eyes looking heavy.
Once we got inside my apartment, Angel excused herself to the bathroom to change into her pajamas. I went to my bedroom and started to build a pillow wall in the middle of the bed that could rival any impenetrable wall ever built.
Sleeping in a bed next to Angel was going to be hard for me.
I already knew what it was like to sleep next to her, to wake up with her body pressed against me. We had an excuse for the night before. Falling asleep next to each other had been an accident, and waking up without an inch of space between us couldn't have been helped due to the size of the sleeper bed mattress.
But now … now I knew what her lips tasted like and how the soft flesh of her hips felt underneath my fingers.
However, it wasn't what I knew about her that made sleeping next to her so difficult. The hardest part was the unknown.
There was so much more I wanted to find out.
Like what it would feel like to run my thumbs over her stiff nipples. Or how her ass would feel underneath my palms as I squeezed.
An obnoxious scoffing sound behind me made me turn around. Looking amused, Angel was standing there shaking her head at my construction efforts.
I groaned out loud because I could see her nipples through the white fitted T-shirt she was wearing. But my groan quickly turned to laughter when I got a look at her tiny shorts. I would've thought they were sexy if it hadn't been for the design printed on them.
The light purple fabric was decorated with rainbows, clouds, and unicorns.
Fucking unicorns. Seriously, what were the odds?
Angels hands went to her hips as she glared at me. "Are you making fun of my PJs? These happen to be my favorite," she said, self-consciously tugging at the bottom of her shorts.
"No." I chuckled. "It's just … unicorns and I have a sketchy past."
While we got into bed, I quickly told her the story I'd named "the great unicorn massacre of 2010" and by the end, she was laughing, too.
"I can't believe you just left!" she exclaimed. "That's terrible."
We were lying on our sides, facing each other with a pillow wall in between, and the mounds were so tall we almost couldn't see each other over the top.
"I know. Think I should send them an apology card?" I asked as I turned out the lamp. "I've seriously considered it."
"I think it might be too late. An apology won't bring the unicorns back," she replied with mock seriousness.
Angel's hand was resting on top of a pillow in front of me and I couldn't resist touching her. I slid my hand over hers and lightly ran my thumb across her knuckles. Her hand turned so she could link her fingers with mine and she let out a contented sigh.
"So … what are we going to do about this?" she whispered into the darkness. She didn't have to clarify what she meant. I knew she was talking about what was happening between us.
"I don't know, but I like it. I like you," I said. "And we have three weeks to figure it out."
ANGEL
For the second morning in a row, I woke up surrounded by Travis.
Although he agreed to share the bed with me, he insisted on building that ridiculous pillow wall I'd suggested.
A lot of good that did.
I was curled up on my right side and Travis was behind me with his arm slung over my middle. His face was buried in my hair and I could feel each exhale against the skin on my neck.
My body was flush up against his and I felt a rigid bulge behind me. I'd always wondered if morning wood was a myth. Now I knew it was very real.
The day before, I'd felt his hardness when I was straddling him on the couch, but that was just for a second. Now I could feel the entire length of him along the small of my back.
And I do mean length.
The pillows that had been separating us were haphazardly strewn around the room, as if sometime during the night one or both of us decided to blow the barrier to smithereens.
Even during sleep we were drawn to each other like magnets.
I was glad Travis wasn't awake yet because it gave me some time to think about how much my life had changed in the last week.