The Trouble with Virgins (Daughters of Venus 2)

“What’s got your panties in a bunch?” I heard a rough voice say.

I glanced over my shoulder to see Pike standing there next to my bench. He was a damn good looking man, long blond hair combed back, the sides of his head shaved and spotted with some badass tattoos. Tattoos covered his arms and neck too.

He was what I hoped Kent would be in a few years. Pike was the kind of guy you wanted to pick you up, slam you into a tree, and fuck the shit out of you. I felt myself getting wet again.

God, why was I so horny? This wasn’t normal.

“You’re up early,” I replied.

Pike didn’t wake up as early as the rest of the town. He liked to party hard into the late hours and sleep any time he wasn’t required to work. I, and everyone else, knew he liked to frequent the club and hang out with the single ladies.

“I have good reason to wake up,” he said.

“And what would that be?”

I saw him staring down at me, at the spot between my legs, and as I lowered my gaze I saw that my legs were open. My dress was covering me so he couldn’t see anything but that didn’t matter. He wanted to see. It was clear if he had X-ray vision he’d be eye fucking the shit out of me right then and there.

Pike sat down next to me and nudged me with his ass, telling me to scoot over. My eyes were drawn to a tattoo on his neck. It was some sort of bird, maybe a sparrow, peeking out from the collar of his T-shirt.

“You’re eighteen today,” he said.

“I am,” I replied as I twisted one curl of my hair around my finger.

“Are you excited?” he asked.

Somehow I knew there was so much more to that question. He put his hand on my knee to confirm it.

“I am excited, Pike.”

Then my mind got right. What the fuck was I thinking? This guy, who wasn’t even my fellow, was playing mind games with me. He knew I was horny. He knew I was craving cock. Or at least I think he did. Either way, this wasn’t the way to go about it. I was a Dove and I was in charge. So I was going to show him that.

“I am excited. You know why?” I said.

Pike stroked my knee with his finger. I swatted it away.

“Why are you excited, baby girl?” he asked.

“I’m excited because this is my day. I’m in charge now. And I will have suitor visits. When I do, the right men, the ones I choose, will show me why I should let them take care of me for the rest of my life. And I want real men, Pike. I want men who can…take care of me…in so many ways. Any man not able to keep up…well…they should just back off.”

Pike looked at me and cocked his head to the side.

“Where’s Lauren?” I asked.

It was my turn to fuck with him a little bit. Who the hell did he think he was coming on to me so early in the morning like I was some naïve little girl ready to fall for the charms of the almighty Pike. I was getting angrier the more I thought about it.

Pike laughed under his breath and looked away.

“Lauren…” he said, letting the word drift on the wind. “Lauren’s complicated.”

I’d heard the stories. Pike had tried to get Lauren to make him her fourth husband, something that was nearly unheard of in our community. Typically women took three husbands. They could take more than that but to do so was seen as being selfish and stupid as more than three always turned into trouble.

Like Agatha, Kent’s mom. Everyone knew that story. The Dove who couldn’t get enough. The nymphomaniac Dove…the one who made the grave mistake. Her story was taught in the schools now, told to young Doves coming of age. It was a lesson in honesty and trust, greed and lust, and passion unhinged. Agatha. Lauren. Lauren who almost became the next Agatha.

“Have you met Kye?” I asked.

Pike whipped his head to the side and glared at me. He’d heard of Kye. Kye was the only man who made it through the Agatha situation. He was the oldest of the men in the community at age 60 and had remarried Mayzie. But he was always looked at as the man who survived Agatha’s ordeal. Kent hated him. Technically he was his dad being the only living male from the family but Kent didn’t see it that way and wanted nothing to do with him.

“Are we not friends?” Pike asked me. “Cause I sense a bit of tension between us that I’m not quite understanding.”