Rebel Without A Claus

“It’s fine.”

“It wasn’t fine yesterday.”

“Well, I’ve had cake and sleep since then. It’s amazing what they can do for your mood.”

“Quinn.”

“What?” I laughed, sitting back. I rested my foot on the edge of the chair and hugged my thigh to my chest. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Nicholas. I was surprised to see you. If you say that all happened, then I believe you. I don’t have the time to hold a grudge against you right now.”

“All right, fine.” He held his hands up. “I just wanted to be honest with you so we could clear the air and move on. Hopefully as friends?”

I stared at him for a moment. “Fine. If we’re clearing the air…” I paused. “Um, I was upset yesterday when I saw you. Honestly, you could have texted me after you left explaining that and it all would have been fine. Or, at, like, any point in the last nine years.”

“That’s a fair point.”

“Alternatively, you could have just woken me up before you left.”

“I didn’t want to. That much I do remember.”

“Or paid for half the motel bill.”

“Another fair point. Please stop making them.”

“Absolutely not.” I shook my head firmly. “If I stop making them, you’ll never be able to learn all the ways you were wrong.”

“Again, with the fair points.”

I fought a smile and dipped my head to hide it. “Nicholas… Back in high school, I really liked you. A lot.” I peered up at him. “And that night… It was my first time.”

He froze. “What?”

“It was my first time,” I repeated. “You took my virginity, disappeared, and showed up here like we’re best friends nine years later. Yeah, I was a little hurt by that, but it’s fine.”

“Fuck.” He rubbed his hand down his face and turned away from me.

“It’s fine.” I laughed, dropping my foot back to the floor. “We were just kids, and it’s not like you knew that. Any of it.” I stood up. “Come on. We have to finish up here, stack the presents, and get something to eat before we have to get dressed and I want to gauge my eyeballs out at the festive joy all evening long.”

“Quinn.” Nicholas grabbed my wrist, gently tugging me back to face him.

My heart jumped into my mouth when my breasts almost brushed his chest, and a shiver ran up my arm where his fingers traced the inside of my wrist.

I swallowed. “What?”

“It was my first time, too.”

“What?”

His lips pulled to one side in a tiny smile, and his eyes crinkled with the movement. “I lost my virginity to you.”

Holy shit.

“Wow.” I licked my lips, and he glanced down at the movement. “That actually explains a lot.”

“It does?”

“Yeah. If we both lost our virginity together, it explains why it was so fucking awful.”

Nicholas laughed, dipping his head. “Was it that bad?”

“You don’t remember because you’re a man, and as a rule, men never think the sex is bad. So yes. Yes, it was. It was an absolute mess.”

He grimaced, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. “It was bad, wasn’t it? How long was it? Like two minutes?”

“Try thirty seconds.”

“There’s no way it was that short.”

“Time is like a penis, Nicholas. It’s never as long as you think it is.”

“Wow. That feels like a double blow.”

I wasn’t going to laugh. I wasn’t. Honestly. “Then be content knowing that while I remember that dreadful thirty seconds of awkwardness, I can’t remember how big your penis may or may not be. Your secret is safe with me.” I patted his arm and went to pull my wrist from his grip, but he tightened it, keeping me close to him.

And close to him I was.

Too close.

He lowered his chin, dipping his face toward mine. Our noses almost touched, and a shiver ran down my spine as he exhaled and his breath skittered across my lips, almost tantalizingly.

“Nicholas, we—”

He raised his lips to my ear, and I could swear they brushed my jaw. “I was going to ask you to have dinner with me to apologize for how I left you, but it looks like I’m going to have to do a whole lot more than that to make up for that night, doesn’t it?”

Heat flushed through my body. “We aren’t going to sleep together.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, sweetheart.”

“I’m not your sweetheart. And I don’t want to sleep with you.”

“My fingers are on your wrist, Quinn. I can feel your pulse, and from what I can feel, you’re lying.”

Damn it.

Stupid heart.

Stupid body.

Stupid hormones.

Fucking traitors.

Nicholas cupped the back of my neck and made it so that our bodies were completely pressed against one another. I drew in a sharp breath as something very long and very hard pressed against my thigh—spoiler alert, it wasn’t his phone—and my eyes fluttered shut as his lips whispered a kiss against my earlobe.