Page 103 of Stags

“No,” she said, smiling up at him, pressing her body into his, “I can’t, because I don’t ever do that, and my ma will get worried and she’ll give me hell about it. And if I tell her I have a boyfriend…”

“Ah,” he said, nodding. “Right. My ma wouldn’t like it either. Me settling down with a doe, it’s a threat to everything. I’m supposed to put my mother first, my sisters first, my nieces and nephews. That’s my family.”

She nodded. “Right. And I’m supposed to grow up, get a job, and stay right where I am, and pay them all back for funding my education, you know?”

“Yeah.” He touched her forehead. “Yeah, okay, I get it. But also, am I your boyfriend? For real?”

She giggled, pressing her face into his bare chest. “I mean… not if you think we’re going too fast or if I’m freaking you out or whatever.”

“Not freaked, not at all,” he breathed into her hair. “So, we’re official, then? Yeah?”

She tilted her head back and grinned up at him, so happy it felt impossible to contain. “Yeah.”

They kissed again, and the kissing got intense and horizontal, him over her, pressing her body under his in the bed. They were naked; he was hard.

They were going to do it, and she knew it, was certain of it as she felt their pelvises making contact like that, and her only worry about it was that it was late already, and that she was going to be getting home in the middle of the night.

And then, she thought that if her mother hadn’t texted her now, maybe her mother just wouldn’t notice if she didn’t come home. It wasn’t like she wasn’t an adult, anyway. It wasn’t as if she had to get permission to stay out all night. Still, she never had stayed out all night, not just left in the morning and never come home.

But then, he stopped, throwing himself off her, lying on the other side of his bed and panting at the ceiling. “Okay, you’re trying to leave,” he said. His cock was pointing at the ceiling too.

She just looked at him, feeling taut all over, feeling excited, feeling…

He fixed her with a look. “Hey, Rora, we have time, you know. No rush. We don’t have to do everything tonight.”

She liked that. She smiled.

“When we, uh, when we make love? I want it to be perfect, so let’s wait and do it right, yeah?”

“Okay,” she said, nodding.

She got dressed. He did too, because he was going to walk her out. They had both driven here from the bar earlier. Her car was parked on the street out front. It took them a while, because they got distracted, kissing each other, pressing into each other.

By the time she was walking out of the room, she felt floaty and happy and tired.

They went through the apartment—it had two floors—downstairs, going past the door to Stockton’s dad’s study, which was open and there was a light on inside, but she didn’t think anything of that, and Stockton didn’t either as they walked past. He was talking about how he was going to take the elevator down with her, and she was saying he didn’t have to do that, and then the study opened.

And she couldn’t breathe.

Bruin stood in the doorway of the study and looked at her, his eyes wide.

“Hey, Bruin,” said Stockton.

Bruin didn’t say anything. He was just staring at her, looking at Stockton’s hand on her body, the way Stockton had his arm around her. Then his gaze seemed to settle on her mouth, and Rora wondered if her lips looked reddened and kissed. She wondered if her hair looked mussed. She put her hand there, trying to tame it, comb it down with her fingers. She was blushing.

“I wanted to introduce you, actually,” said Stockton. “This is Rora, and we’re, um, well, we actually are officially dating. Ma won’t like it, but I thought you’d want to meet her.”

Bruin swallowed, turning his gaze on Stockton. “Dating.”

Rora hadn’t known. Did Bruin think she had known? No, he could see how shocked she was, he could see how this had unsettled her.

Bruin turned back to her, sticking out his hand, his expression changing. “Nice to meet you, Rora. I’m Bruin.”

Rora’s lips parted. “We should…” She looked up at Stockton, at the way he was smiling at her, thatlookin his eyes, and she wondered what happened if he knew that she’d lost her virginity to his father. Probably, nothing good. She took his hand, then, and she shook with him. “Nice to meet you, Bruin,” she said in a strangled voice.

He withdrew his hand quickly after the handshake, like she burned him. “You’re on your way out?” He wasn’t looking at her.

“Yeah, just walking her to her car,” said Stockton.

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