Page 72 of A Favor Owed

“Well, thanks, Brady,” I say sarcastically. “Take my virginity and call me an idiot. Very sensitive of you.”

“Yeah, I can tell you’re an emotional wreck.” He smooths my hair away from my face. “I wouldn’t have stopped if you didn’t want me to. I would have tried to make it better for you…somehow. You know, instead of just, Jesus, going at it like that.” He flinches. When he next speaks, his voice is lower and more hesitant, his eyes sad. “And I would have liked knowing, you know?”

My heart sinks further. It never occurred to me that it would have been special for him to do that with me knowing it was my first time. I kept a secret from him that I didn’t need to keep, and it ended up hurting us both.

“I’m sorry,” I say. Now the tears pooling in my eyes aren’t from pain. “I should have told you. That was really messed up.”

Alarm quickly replaces the sadness in his eyes. “No. No way,” he says urgently, placing his thumbs at the corners of my eyes like he can hold the tears back. “Don’t be sad, and definitely don’t cry, okay? I swear to God, it’ll break my heart if you cry right now, Ange.”

“Okay, okay,” I say quickly, biting my already sore lip and taking a deep breath to tamp down the sadness and regret. “Then stop looking at me like that. You already look like I broke your heart.”

“You’ve definitely dented it a little along the way, maybe stomped on my ego a few times, but the three of us are a pretty sturdy bunch.” He shakes his head and briefly touches his forehead to mine. “I feel like an idiot for not realizing.”

“Well, you’ve never had sex with a virgin before,” I say, smiling. “So you get a pass.”

He laughs. “Wow, you’re right. I just lost my virgin virginity to you.”

“Are you going to be all clingy now?”

“You better believe it, Pines. You gotta marry me and have my babies now.”

I laugh. “Time and place.”

He wraps his arms around me and kisses the top of my head. “It’ll be better next time,” he says. “I promise.”

“It better be, McDaniels,” I say, basking in his warmth and sunshine. “You owe me.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Brady

“I’ll be right back.”

Angela disappears into the bathroom. “Ow, goddammit,” I hear her hiss when it hurts to pee. Jesus Christ. I slap my hand against my forehead. I seriously have never been so annoyed with and so crazy about someone in my entire life.

I’ve just gotten good and schooled on Angie Pines’s trust and intimacy issues. They’re no joke. She isn’t a cold-hearted bitch or anything. She’s just… I don’t know what to call it. Independent? Closed off? Emotionally out to lunch?

Whatever she is, she’s Angie. The wrong girl in so many ways, the right girl in so many more. And the hell if I haven’t totally fallen for her.

“You okay?” I ask when she finally comes out and crawls back under the covers with me.

“I’m fine. You seem like maybe you’re still mad, though.”

“I’m not mad, Ange.”

“What are you, then?”

I shrug. I’m still a little stunned by the whole thing. I wanted to blow her mind. I know her body better than I’ve ever known anyone else’s. It was supposed to have been perfect.

“I wanted that to be really good for you,” I say.

“It was everything I wanted, Brady,” she says softly.

“No lies, Ange.”

“I’m not lying.” She props herself up on my chest and looks at me. “We need to modify our deal again. When we’re telling the truth, we have to believe each other. Okay?”

I brush my knuckles across her cheekbone. “Yeah,” I say. “Okay.”

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