Page 46 of Corrupted Lies

“Are you?” he barked, not quite sure why it mattered so much.

“No,” she muttered, averting her gaze by turning her head away from him.

Nuh-uh.

No way was she hiding from him.

He was her best friend, he was supposed to be the one person she could confide in without fear of judgment.

Something he’d obviously failed at conveying.

Just because he could be gruff, didn't engage in conversation that he didn't personally deem necessary, could come across as being aloof and uncaring, didn't mean that any of those things applied to Alannah. He thought she knew that, but maybe she didn't.

“If you're not a virgin, then what did you mean?”

The wind continued to pick up, and with the way it whipped up the waves, sending them crashing across the surface of the ocean, it was getting harder to hear.

Although he suspected why he didn't catch Alannah’s response was more because she muttered it under her breath than because the weather was making it too difficult to hear her words.

“Look, can we just forget I blurted that out in a panic?”

Despite the pleading note to her voice, he shook his head. “No.”

“But, Jake?—”

“I said no, Alannah. Now tell me. How is it possible that a woman as drop-dead gorgeous as you, who has been in several serious relationships, who isn’t a virgin, is worried about dying without ever having an orgasm and not getting what the fuss is about? Tell me. I want to understand,” he added, gentling his voice on those last words.

“It’s embarrassing, okay?”

“Sunshine, this is me. Your best friend. There isn’t anything you can't tell me.”

When she scoffed, he realized how stupid those words sounded when he said them aloud. While he absolutely one hundred percent meant them, he’d never encouraged Alannah to treat him as her safe place, even as he vowed to be her protector. Since he was a guy and she was a girl, he’d always assumed she took her talking needs to her other girl friends.

Now as he managed to catch how miserable she looked even in the darkness, he realized that had been a mistake.

Being betrayed by her own family in such a horrible way meant she had trust issues. He knew that, understood it. But since she had lots of friends and was always in some relationship or another, he usually worried more about her getting taken advantage of than her emotional needs.

Mistake.

Big one if the way she inched away from him, putting what distance she could between them was any indication.

“Talk to me, please?”

“I’ve just never orgasmed, okay? It’s no big deal, I shouldn’t have said it. I don’t even know why I did, it just came out. We have bigger problems than the fact that there’s something wrong with me and I'm terrible at sex.”

A growl rumbled through his chest before he even realized it. “If you didn't come during sex, that’s your partner’s fault, not yours.”

The small smile she gifted him was full of pain and not her usual sunshine. “I’d believe that, but I can't come on my own either. Trust me, I’ve spent a small fortune on enough toys to know that it’s not the toys, and it’s not my partners’ fault, it’s all mine. I guess I'm just defective.” She gave a humorless laugh that broke his heart, and he was filled with a determination to fix this for her somehow.

“I doubt you're defective. You just have to learn your body, what it likes and what makes it hum with desire and need.”

“Hum with desire and need?” Alannah gave another laugh, this one a little more genuine. “Who are you and what did you do with my grumpy best friend?”

Just because he wasn’t even close to being the most demonstrative guy around, he always made sure to attend to the needs of any lover he had. Long term relationships had never been his thing, but if he was going to sleep with a woman, he was damn sure going to ensure it was good for her, that she didn't walk away thinking something was wrong with her like Alannah’s partners had done to her.

Before he could say anything more, there was a huge crash of thunder, and like someone had turned on the faucet, rain suddenly pounded down around them.

Following the roar of thunder, a crack of lightning lit up the night sky.

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