I think it’s the shame more than anything, there is nothing worse than knowing you passed out with your pants around your ankles and a hot cowboy picked you up, pulled your pants up and carried you off. That isn’t the damsel in distress scenario I had in mind. God, what if I had some pee dripping out still? I...I just can’t.
“Hey,” he calls, and I stop but don’t look back.
“It’s a nice fuckin’ fanny.”
Asshole.
Total jerk.
7
“You know there are still snakes out here, right?”
I look up from my spot at the log by the river that I came to hide after my embarrassing incident. Rhett has managed to find me; I guess he feels bad for his laughing. So he should, you don’t laugh at a girl when she’s down, and you don’t compliment her fanny. I mean, it was kind of nice but still. No.
“I’ll take my chances,” I say, staring at the moon as it reflects over the water.
“Sorry I laughed at you.”
I shrug it off, but his apology means something.
That’s the thing about men like Rhett, they say sorry and they mean it. They mean it with every piece of themselves and their word is law.
“Nobody saw anythin’, I promise you.”
I glance at him. “Thanks ... you know, for saving me from the snake.”
“Pleasure,” he murmurs. “Not every day I get to save a beautiful woman with her pants down.”
I clench my eyes shut, the shame washing over me. “God, can you stop reminding me.”
“I will ... soon.”
“Well, when you’re done, can you go and check my tent because if there’s a snake in there you’re going to see far worse than me passing out with my pants down.”
“Wouldn’t mind seein’ that again.”
I flush and say nothing, I just keep my eyes on the water.
What is it about me that keeps drawing Rhett closer?
Is it just because I’m different and he finds it fun? Or is it because he’s actually interested in the person I am?
I don’t understand.
I’m not sure I ever will.
“Heard you and Kara talkin’ earlier,” he murmurs, so low I almost don’t catch him. “Didn’t tell me you were a virgin.”
I heard that last part just fine.
I grit my teeth, horrified that he overheard that. Not just because he now knows I’m a virgin but because he would have heard us talking about him, too. Oh man, if he got hold of my notebook the man would have a field day. The things I’ve got written in there, yikes.
“Not by choice, believe me,” I say carefully, my voice embarrassed. “I could have given it to a few men, I chose not to because ... I don’t know, I guess I’m old school and didn’t want to waste it on some flimsy fumbly guy who would last two seconds and that would be the end of it. I like things in my life to matter. I’m only young, it’s not the end of the world.”
I dare to look at him, and the expression on his face makes me weak at the knees. He’s looking at me like a hungry wolf, like a man who wants to devour me in ways I’ll never forget. The expression sends shivers down my spine, makes my skin prickle and my heartbeat quicken. He’s looking at me like he wants me, like he wants me so bad he can’t take a single second longer of not having me.
I’ve never been looked at like that before in my life.
“Please stop staring at me like that,” I whisper.
“Like what?” he growls.
“Like you want to eat me alive.”
“Fuck me, sweetheart. I do.”
“Why? Because I’m a virgin?”
He shakes his head. “It’s appealin’ that you’re untouched, don’t get me wrong, but the idea that you’ve never felt pleasure before makes me want to take you right here on this fuckin’ bank, makin’ you scream my name so everyone can hear the exact moment I showed you how good I can make you feel.”
I swallow.
I don’t know what to say or do.
I just stare at him, dumbfounded.
“Why would you want me like that?”
“Because there is somethin’ about you, from the second I met you I felt it. You draw me to you in a way I’ve never been drawn to another person. I want to know everythin’ about you, at the same time I want to put my fuckin’ mouth all over you.”
I’m dreaming.
I have to be dreaming.
There is just no way this gorgeous man, so far out of my league, wants me this bad.
“You could have any woman, the most beautiful woman in the world would fall at your feet ...”
“I don’t fuckin’ want any woman, and you’re so naturally beautiful I spend most of my day strugglin’ to take my eyes off you.”
“I have freckles ...”
He grins, wild and devilish. “They’re fuckin’ adorable.”
“My hair is always messy, it’s not perfectly brushed and bleached.”