Page 40 of Has-Been
Has let out a low frustrated growl.
“NO! For fuck’s sake! I’m trying to be respectful, or I don’t know… trying not to freak you out. You went through something awful, and I’m trying not to be a creep while you’re naked.” He led me back out to the bedroom, and I took a breath and dropped the towel.
“Jesus, Elise. You’re wet.”
I felt my lips twitch. “Only around you, Has.”
He blinked, struck dumb for a moment, and then he laughed.
“How the hell are you able to be cute and sexy right now? I’m doing my best not to fucking look at you, and you’re flirting with me.”
I stepped closer and took his hand.
“I’m freaked out, but you saved me, Has. You stopped him from hurting me, but you know what I realised?”
Has looked wary, but let me keep his hand, which I stroked with my thumbs as I watched him, watching me.
“I’m listening.”
“If he’d raped me, he’d have taken my virginity, Has. He’d have taken that moment from us. I can’t even imagine how awful that might have been. So I was thinking-”
“Jesus, don’t go rushing into anything, babe. You were assaulted tonight.”
I lifted my chin, determined not to let him talk me out of this.
“I want you to make love to me, Has.I want you to take my virginity right now.”
Twenty-Six
IthinkIprobablystaredat her like a complete prick for a whole minute. She wanted what? And she wanted it when?
My body was completely on board, but I was worried that she was making a mistake, because she was reacting to something, rather than choosing it for the right reasons.
“Elise…”
“Don’t say no unless you really don’t want me, Has-Been. I’ve waited long enough, and tonight I almost didn’t get a choice at all. Please. I can’t bear him being the last man who touched me like that.”
Fuck me. How am I supposed to say no to her?
“Babe, are you even on birth control? You’re rushing into this, because you’re reacting to what happened.”
“Please, Has-Been.”Oh, don’t give me the fucking eyes.I’m already hanging on by a thread here. I thought the birth control question might shake a little sense into her, because while I knew I’d wear protection, I knew she wasn’t prepared for this yet.
She pressed her hands against my chest, sliding them under my cut. I really should have put a t-shirt on when I got back. Still, her touch… it was worth it for that.
“Babe, you know I want to. You know I’m fucking desperate to be with you, but I don’t want to be something you regret tomorrow, or for the rest of your fucking life.”
Elise slid her hands down my chest, dragging her fingernails over my skin, making me suck in a sharp breath, and then her hands landed on the waist of my jeans.
“Please, Has-Been. I need you. I need to feel you, and I need you to erase this horrible night for me. I know you can make me see, and feel, and breathe only you, and nothing else. I need you to be my everything, please.”
And this is why I’m weak as fuck, because I can’t resist her, and I can’t refuse to give her what she wants or needs. I cupped her face in my palms, and made sure she was looking me in the eye again.
“Babe, did you mean what you said to Stitch?”
She swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry I said it to him first, and I know it’s fast. I know it probably makes me seem like some pathetic desperate thing, but I know you’re who I’ve been waiting for. It was you from the moment I set eyes on you for the first time, even as you punched my brother and knocked him to the ground.”
Oh shit. Of course, that was our first meeting. I caught sight of her in the doorway and I think I stopped breathing, because she lit up the fucking room with her sweetness, her innocence. I could fucking see it all in that instant.
