Page 25 of The All-Inclusive

He raises those weird golden eyes. “I don’t owe you an explanation. Not until I’ve talked to Sara. I owe her the dignity of having that discussion in private.”

It’s a fair point. “How do I know you’re not some wife-beating prick who came here to finish the job?”

He blanches at that, looking sick to his stomach. “I’d ratherdie than hurt Sara. Hurtanywoman, ever. I’d—I’d never do that.” His tortured expression tells me he means it. “I’ll admit I handled our breakup poorly, but I’d never intentionally harm Sara in any way.”

For some bizarre reason, I believe him. “Why did you wait until she came here to try and win her back?”

“I didn’t come here to win Sara back.” His big shoulders slump as he looks out at the sea. “I don’t deserve her, and I know I can’t make her happy in the long run. That’s—that’s non-negotiable.”

“Okay.” He’s not making sense, but I’m guessing the explanation falls under the heading of details this dickhead doesn’t owe me. “So why did you come?”

Closing his eyes, he sighs. “We grew up religious, believing sex is something that should be saved for marriage.”

Wait.

Is this fuckhead saying he’s a virgin?

“No,” he says, opening his eyes. “To answer the question you’re thinking, I’m not a virgin. But Sara is.” He frowns. “Was. Fuck, I don’t know.”

I don’t owe this guy any details from Sara’s enchantment. What happened in that room before Frogman showed up is between her and me. If she wants to share, she can tell him herself.

But the nature of what Frogman’s saying bugs the shit out of me.

“Let me make sure I’m understanding this right. You believe she’s a ruined woman if someone else touches her p?—”

“No!” He practically shouts his response. “Absolutely not.” He hesitates there, like he’s gauging how much to tell me.

“Fuck it,” he mutters, glancing out the window again. Maybe it’s a love of the sea like the one that drives most SEALs, but I don’t think that’s it. He can’t meet my eyes for some reason. “We almost had sex a few times, but I always held back. I know Sara’s family. I know how she was raised, and I knew she’d regret notwaiting, so I forced myself to be strong. To hold out and give her the white wedding she’d wanted her whole life.”

“Okay.” Purity culture goes over my head, but I get that it matters to some people. “So once you split up, you found out she’d ditched the white wedding plan?”

He takes a long time responding. “I made her a promise,” he says. “When I was eighteen and went off to BUD/S.” He frowns. “That’s Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL trai?—”

“I know what BUD/S is. I’ve got a buddy who’s part of the Teams.”

“Right, yeah.” He takes a second to regroup. “We agreed to split up for that stretch of time. We took several other breaks over the years—the long-distance thing gets tough, you know?”

“Uh—”

“So yeah, we broke up a few times. And Sara made me promise I’d never tell her what happened when we were apart.” His mouth presses into a thin, fretful line. “She asked me to swear that no matter what happened, we’d find our way back to each other. That I’d be the man to take her virginity.”

I blink. “Pretty sure she didn’t expect you to stick to that once you called off the wedding.”

Dickhead looks down at the table. “I keep my promises. It’s the reason I can’t get married.” That doesn’t make sense, but he glosses right over explaining it. “I thought she’d still stick with her plan. She’d move on with her life and find some nice guy to marry. That her husband-to-be would still be the first guy to have her.” He swallows hard, looking like a guy who’s hoping the floor opens up and swallows him. “I never in a million years thought she’d comehere.”

“I see.” In a weird way, I do. “So, now that she’s hell-bent on getting laid outside wedlock, you’d like to do the honors.”

Fury flares in his eyes. “Don’t talk about Sara like that.”

I study his face, confused by the reaction. For all this guy’sfaults, he hasn’t once slut-shamed the woman for what he witnessed when he walked into that room.

And while he’s taken a few jabs at me, he’s not as pissed as he could be that I had my tongue in her pussy.

That sweet, tight, perfect little?—

Fuck.

A fierce throb of need pulses through me. That’s…unexpected.

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