Hendrix (Raleigh Raptors 3)

Her eyes flew wide as she shook her head. “Oh, no. You have the wrong idea. This isn’t…revenge sex.” She finished those words quietly, leaning against the wall. “I wasn’t going to tell anyone. Especially not my dad.” She dropped her gaze and twisted the bottle in her hands.

“Savannah.” Okay, now I was confused. I closed the distance between us and took her chin between my thumb and forefinger, tilting her face toward mine. I loved how tall she was, how easy it would be to dip slightly and kiss her. Hell, I loved everything about her body. That was the problem. “You said this was about taking your power back.”

“It is.”

“That power doesn’t include telling your ex to shove his bet up his ass because you scored with me?” My thumb stroked her jaw gently. Fuck, my control was so shattered when it came to this woman that I couldn’t even hold her platonically.

“I don’t care what Trevor thinks.”

I never wanted to hear that name again.

“Explain this to me one more time.” I bracketed my hands on the wall on either side of her, holding on to the supports so I didn’t hold on to her.

“Okay.” She swallowed but held my gaze just like she always had. She’d always pushed and poked at me, got on every single one of my nerves, but she’d never hid from me. “I deserve to control who I have sex with for the first time.”

“Agreed.” Anything less would have me burying bodies.

“I didn’t know he had a motive.” Her shoulders dropped slightly, taking my stomach with them.

“Every man dating you is going to have a motive to get you naked, Red. It should be lust, desire, need, love…anything but a fucking bet.”

“I know.” She tucked a loose strand of her red hair behind her ear while the rest lay in a braid down the side of her breast. Not that I was looking at the deep cut of her blank tank, either. That way lay madness. “But at least if it’s with you, I’d know there’s no bet. No bragging. No request for sideline passes.”

Fuck. Now that was something I understood. “You want someone to want you for you and not what you can give them.”

She nodded.

“I get that.” My chest tightened. We were more alike than I’d ever realized, and it was dangerous, this connection.

“Simply put…I trust you, Hendrix.” There was a vulnerability in her eyes I’d never seen before, a crack in her infamous, tough-as-nails armor and it hit me straight in the heart.

“You shouldn’t.” She was twenty-one. A woman fully grown. Legal and responsible for herself in every way. She was beautiful, passionate, and so fucking sexy my dick was cursing the spandex of my rowing shorts. But more than any of that, she deserved way better than me. “I’ve fucked so many women I can’t remember their names or their faces.”

She looked away, and I cupped the back of her neck. God, she smelled good. I deserved sainthood for not immediately taking her up on her offer.

“Look at me.”

She did.

“Is that really what you want? To be added to a list I can’t even number?” That was the ugly truth of it.

“Yes.” She tilted her chin.

“Fuck that.” I pushed off the wall and put some much-needed space between us. “You deserve better. Go find some college boy who will love you.”

“Did you love the first girl you slept with?” Shit, the hand was back on her hip. She was digging in.

“No. I was fifteen.” I’d never loved anyone, but I wasn’t about to lay that one on her.

“So, why do I have to love my first?”

“Okay, you have me there. Find someone who won’t get fired for touching you.” I’d break the guy’s fingers one by one, but it couldn’t be me.

“My dad will never know!” She walked forward, and I stepped sideways, then back, putting my boat between us. “I can keep a secret. I’ve never told a soul that you and Weston are best friends. Please do this for me.”

“Do it for you?” Like I wouldn’t enjoy every single minute? “This isn’t a favor to ask like catching a ride home, Savannah. This is my career. This is your first time.”

And damn if I wasn’t the selfish prick who wanted it.

“Are you seriously hiding again?”

“With good reason.” My jaw ticked, and I crossed my arms over my chest.

Surprise flared in her eyes, and a slow, wicked, sexy-as-hell smile spread across her face. “You want me.”

“I’d say that’s pretty obvious given what happened in that gallery.” My dick pulsed, hardening to near-pain at the memory.

“I wanted it to happen.” She swept her tongue over her lower lip, and I wondered if she remembered too. My mouth watered. I’d been so close to tasting her, to eating her in that very public space. Not some stranger in a butterfly costume—Savannah.