Undenied (Unspoken 3)

“Do I suck in bed?” he repeated.

“No. Now do you mind telling me what precipitated that question?”

“Okay, so I don’t suck, but am I any good?” he asked, ignoring her question.

Gracie cocked her head then circled around the island to stand in front of where he was slouched against the sink. “What’s going on with you, Wes? Where on earth would you get the idea that you’re a lousy lay?”

He growled in frustration. He didn’t have all night to have this conversation with her. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought it up. His best friend’s wife probably wasn’t the best source for boosting his sexual ego even if she was in a position to judge. And well, she was as much his best friend as Luke was.

“Gracie, will you just answer the question instead of peppering me with more?”

Her eyes softened and she leaned back against the island so they faced each other. “Wes, the night we had our threesome was honestly the best sex I’ve had in my life. I couldn’t have asked for better lovers than you and Luke.”

He shifted uncomfortably at her intense perusal.

“So you going to tell me what brought this up or are you going to make me play dirty?”

“Play dirty?” he asked, though he was afraid to find out what she meant. Gracie could be downright evil when provoked.

“Well, I’m pretty sure you don’t want Luke to know about this little conversation.” She arched one brow. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have waited until he left to get more beer. Nor would you have declined to go with him.”

“You wouldn’t.”

She batted her eyelashes innocently. “Wouldn’t I? I would in a heartbeat. This has got to be downright juicy, and I’ll do what I have to in order to pry the goods out of you.”

He snorted in disgust. “Luke so didn’t know what he was getting into with you.”

Her eyes twinkled and a smile hovered over her full lips. “Oh, I don’t think you’ll hear him complaining.” She crossed her arms over her chest and eyed him. “Okay, so spill it. Did you make it with some chick who thought you were the worst guy she’d ever fucked?”

Despite his discomfort, he couldn’t help but laugh at Gracie’s bluntness. It was what he liked best about her. And why he’d decided to come to her with his problem. She liked to joke, but he knew when it came down to it, she’d never rat him out. She was too loyal.

“It’s kind of a long story,” he said with a heavy sigh.

She made a show of checking her watch. “Well, you better abbreviate it. I figure we have ten minutes tops before Luke gets back.”

Suddenly he regretted his impulsive decision to talk to Gracie about Payton. It seemed ridiculous and could only add to his embarrassment. Quite frankly, he’d be happy for no one to ever know, and he’d be even happier if Payton hadn’t shown up out of the blue after twelve years. Twelve years in which he’d put the past firmly behind him, only to have it pushed back into his face with one chance encounter.

“Wes,” Gracie said softly. “Whatever it is that’s bothering you, you can tell me. You know that. Hell, you saw me through one of the most awkward moments of my life. I wanted to drop dead of embarrassment when I waltzed into the kitchen at the cabin, half-naked, only to find you standing there looking at me.”

He grinned at that memory. “Ahh, my first glimpse of the infamous nipple rings.”

Gracie blushed, which only caused him to grin wider. She planted a fist in his gut, and he doubled over laughing.

“Okay, okay.” He straightened his body and took a deep breath. “You’re going to think this is ridiculous, but I went over to Zack’s to get a beer. There was some wild bachelorette party going on. I was checking out the girls, and I saw someone I know. Well, knew anyway. Then she saw me.”

“Run screaming in the other direction?” Gracie asked.

“No, that’s the thing. She runs over to me and leaps into my arms and plants a huge kiss on me.”

Gracie frowned. “Was she butt ugly?”

“No, not at all. She’s…well, she’s hot. Gorgeous hot. I mean one of those women a man is just drawn to.”

“Okay, so what’s the problem?”

“I love women. No secret there. And I haven’t exactly had the sex life of a monk.”

Grac

ie snorted indelicately.

“Shut up,” he growled.

She giggled and gestured for him to carry on.

“By all rights I should have been all sorts of turned-on. I mean I had a handful of luscious woman in my arms. She’s kissing me. Her breasts, gorgeous breasts by the way, were all pressed up against me. And…”

“And?” Gracie prompted.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I think I may have lost an inch or two, my dick shriveled so quick. I think it may have gone into permanent hiding.”

Gracie pressed her lips tight together and her body shook with silent laughter. “Uhm, Wes, you could stand to lose an inch or two and still be better off than most of the male population.”

Heat slid up his neck much like nails on a chalkboard.

“Okay, I’ll strive to be more serious. Hard, though, when you give me openings like that,” she cracked. “So how, pray tell, did this dick shriveling incident lead you to the conclusion that you must suck in bed?”

“Well, there’s more to the story,” he said grudgingly.

“Aha, so now we get to the good part.”

“Shut up, Gracie.”

She held her hands up in surrender. “Continue on.”

He raised his fingers to his hair then slid them down the back of his head to his neck. “Do you remember Payton Ricci from high school? She was two years behind us.”

Gracie scrunched her face into a thoughtful expression. “Huh uh, doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Well, I had a major crush on her the summer after my senior year. We, uhm, well we had sex. I was her first.” He winced at the memory. “To make a long story short, it was a disaster. I hurt her. To date, it has to go down as one of the most awkward moments of my life.”

Gracie’s lips formed an O. “And Payton is the chick from the bar tonight?”

He nodded.

“And you can’t get past the fact that you once had disastrous sex together?”

“Evidently not,” he muttered. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I’ve spent the last twelve years agonizing over it, but when I saw her, all I could remember is the look on her face, her crying out and the tears afterward. I felt like complete shit then, and I feel like complete shit now.”

A light of understanding blazed in Gracie’s eyes. “Wes, was that what all that stuff was about at the cabin? You seemed overly concerned that you’d hurt me.”

He didn’t say anything, but then he didn’t have to.

She pursed her lips and blew out a long breath. “Wow. I don’t know what to say. I can understand why you feel bad, but damn, she was a virgin. Despite what a whole host of romance books might tell you—okay, me, since I’m sure you aren’t reading them—the first time for a woman is often a combination of messy and uncomfortable. Throw in a more-endowed-than-average guy, and you get even more messy and uncomfortable.”

“What was your first time like?” he asked, unable to resist his curiosity. And maybe he needed for her to say it had been as awful as it had to have been for Payton.

She chuckled. “Forgettable. That’s the experience in a nutshell. A few kisses, he touched my boobs, got between my legs and ten seconds later it was all over with.”

He cringed. “That sounds eerily familiar, but damn it, I’d never seen that much female flesh up close and personal. I’m not even sure I made it all the way in before I went off like a damn machine gun.”