Page 62 of The Apple Tree

Her smile mimicked mine, face flushed, wayward strands of hair teasing her eyelashes that fluttered shut as I kissed her for the first time.

I felt ten years younger. The hottest girl in school was straddling my lap with her tongue teasing mine and ribbons in her hair. The perfect mix of naughty and nice.

Everything inside me buzzed with need. I wanted to kiss her harder and deeper, but I didn’t. She deserved my patience, after all, I had no clue what I was doing or where things were going between us. But I liked kissing her, and I liked pretending that it was okay to touch her. Before it ended, she reached behind her to unhook her bra.

I broke the kiss. “We can’t,” I said, taking a deep breath while running my hands through my hair.

“I’m not,” she quickly said. “I’m, uh … not a virgin.”

She was so fucking irresistible.

At the same time, where the hell was my head? I hadn’t thought about the possibility of her being a virgin.

“I’ve just never had someone look at me like you’re doing,” she said, blowing her hair out of her face. “That’s why I’m a little shaky.”

“How am I looking at you?”

She slowly shook her head. “I don’t know because I’ve never seen that look before,” she murmured, leaking more vulnerability.

I suddenly felt a wave of responsibility—but not necessarily to do the right thing in someone else’s eyes. She deserved to be acknowledged as a beautiful, desirable woman who held a lot of power over the man looking at her.

“Eve, you’re happiness personified and fucking gorgeous.That’show I’m looking at you.”

A tiny smile broke through her nervous expression. “Like the centerfolds in your magazines?”

I felt like a pervert. She would never forget about those magazines.

“No one compares to you. But that’s not?—”

She kissed me while her hands made another attempt at unzipping my jeans.

“No.” I lifted her off my lap and scooted to the sofa’s edge, rubbing my eyes while trying to settle my breathing. “Dammit. I’m sorry.”

Eve quickly righted her bunched-up underwear. Her hair covered her face, and she kept her chin tucked.

I leaned back to button my jeans, then reached for her wrist as she stepped away to get the rest of her clothes.

“I don’t want to hear it,” she said, yanking her arm out of my hold and wrestling with her jeans to right the legs that were inside out.

I sighed. “Eve?—”

“No. Don’t say a word. I told you I wouldn’t be anyone’s regret, and you?—”

“And Idon’thave a fucking condom.”

She stilled with her back to me, jeans on but not zipped, hair covering her shirtless torso. The buzz of cicadas through the screen door was the only sound between us while I waited for her to process what I said—while I waited for my stupid brain to process the possibility that Josh could have woken up to see Eve straddling me half-naked.

I’m an idiot.

After a long pause, she turned. God, she was beautiful. Eve made me want to burn every magazine under my mattress. I stood, sliding past her to retrieve her shirt. Then I pulled it over her head.

She didn’t help me. Instead, she stood there, staring at my chest with a blank expression and rosy cheeks. So I guided her arms through the holes like dressing Josh.

Finally, she lifted her gaze to mine. “What if you had a condom?” she murmured.

“I’d be deep inside you, probably with a hand over your mouth to keep you from waking Josh.”

A grin bloomed along her face. “You think I’m a screamer?”

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