“So are you,” I said, counting in my head to keep my hands off her until she was ready. I didn’t know what was holding her back, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to push her.

“I haven’t…been with anyone in a really long time,” she admitted.

“Okay. How long?” I gently tipped her chin so she’d meet my eyes. I would sit here all fucking day with our shirts off and not touch her if it meant she unlocked just one of those doors in her head and let me in. I might gnaw off my own hands, but it’d be worth it.

“A…a while.” Her eyes were wide, tinged with fear and something else I couldn’t name.

“Okay. Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, knowing there was a reason. There was zero chance she wasn’t being chased by half the population of Dartmouth.

She shook her head. “No. I don’t know if I can… I don’t want to be a tease, or disappoint you.”

I sat up higher, ignoring the near-crippling pain in my ribs. Then I kissed her gently, keeping it chaste despite the sheer electricity shooting through me where her breasts pressed against my chest. “You couldn’t tease me because I have no expectations. I’m not a little boy, Leah. I can more than control myself, and if all we do is kiss, then that’s more than I could ask for. Do you understand?”

She nodded.

I brought my hands up her rib cage, reveling in how silky soft her skin was, until I rested beneath her breasts. “And there’s no chance of you ever disappointing me. You’re perfect just sitting here, so I can’t imagine how amazing you would be if I ever got my mouth on you.”

Her lips parted and her eyes darkened. She liked it when I talked to her. Noted. I was going to learn every single secret there was to turning her on, and then I was going to systematically use them until she didn’t know fear or doubt, just felt as sexy as she was.

“We’re only going as far as you say, Leah. You’re in control.” For now, I promised myself. Once she said yes, I would make her forget her own name.

She leaned down slowly and kissed me, pressing me back onto the bed. I lost myself in her taste, the feel of her perfect mouth, the way she fit against me like she was meant to be there.

I kissed her until she started to grind, and then my fingers dug into her hips as the pleasure ripped through me. You will not come in your pants like you’re in high school. Didn’t you promise that you could control yourself?

I focused on her, finally letting myself run my hands up her sides until I cupped her flawless breasts in my hands. She moaned and leaned forward, pushing them farther into my hands.

“Perfection,” I murmured against her neck, lightly sucking a sensitive patch of skin as I thumbed her hard nipples. Now that I knew what was under her shirt, was I going to be able to keep my eyes above her shoulders?

Yeah, because her eyes are even better.

I pushed her forward gently and then lowered my head to take one peak into my mouth.

“Paxton!” she gasped, her fingers tightening in my hair in a nearly painful grip. Fuck, it felt amazing.

She rocked forward on my dick, and I angled her hips so she’d rub against her clit if she did it again. Then I tried to picture the most unsexy thing I could think of to keep from rolling her over, and went back to work on her other breast.

She rocked. She moaned. I nearly died, harder than the fucking steel this ship was made of. I couldn’t remember a single time I’d been so turned on before my pants had even come off.

“Hey guys, have you seen Landon’s backpack?” Penna’s voice came from the other side of the door right before she opened it. “He left his wallet in it.”

“Shit,” I hissed, and rolled us off the bed, landing with a thump on the floor.

“Oh… Oh!” Penna said from the doorway.

I sat up, careful to keep Leah blocked from her sight. “You were saying?”

“I should have knocked.”

“That would have been nice,” I nearly growled at her, agony shooting through my ribs.

“Hey, Penna,” Leah said, waving her hand above the bed but showing no other skin.

“Good to see you there, Leah!” Penna’s eyes darted from wall to wall. “You know, I think I’ll just wait downstairs.”

“Backpack is under his bed,” I suggested as she shut the door.

I turned to Leah, ready for the embarrassment, but she was doubled over in laughter. “Seriously? The first time I get to second base in years, and that happens? It’s like living at home with my parents again.”

I grinned. “There are no words for you, my little Firecracker.”

She shook her head and crawled on hands and knees to find her clothes. That ass. There are no words for that.

“Get dressed,” she said, tossing the shirt at me, her hair looking like she’d been thoroughly fucked. You wish.

I wanted to stomp my foot like an angry toddler who’d been denied a candy bar, because what I’d missed out on was so much sweeter.

“Relax,” she said, leaning over the bed to kiss me quickly. “If you’re a good boy, that might happen again.”

I was ready to sit up and beg like a puppy.

“Shirt, Pax.”

I grumbled but put the damn thing on before we wandered down the stairs to see Penna on her hands and knees under Landon’s bed.

I spotted my chest protector on his dresser and picked it up, frowning at the break line.

“He kept it?” Leah asked.