I wake up to lips on my neck. To hands gently stroking down my side. Carter.

Oh my god, I fell asleep!

The room is dark when I open my eyes, darker than before. “Hi.” My voice is scratchy, whether it’s from sleep or from that last orgasm, I’m not totally sure.

“Hi.” Carter’s voice, on the other hand, is warm like honey and does all sorts of interesting things to my body.

“I’m sorry I fell asleep.”

He laughs as I turn over so that we’re face to face. “Are you kidding? There’s no better compliment. A man likes nothing more than to know he’s fucked a woman so well she has to take a nap.”

I hide my face in his shoulder, still embarrassed. “How long did I sleep?”

“A couple of hours. It’s a little after midnight.”

“Wow.”

I move, feeling a twinge between my legs—my body not used to being used in that way.

“So, how do you feel.”

A smile creeps across my lips as I lean up to kiss him. “I feel good. Better than good.”

“Worth it?”

“Definitely,” I say. “Even if I am that girl who’s sleeping with the coach.”

“Your young, very hot coach.” He says, leaning over me. I can feel him against my leg, fully hard.

I raise an eyebrow at him. “As much as I want you again—my young, very hot coach—I think it needs a break.”

“You’re right,” he nods, leaning down until his lips are on mine, “but I’m counting the hours until I can be inside you again.”

“At least twelve.”

I glance at the clock on the nightstand. He’s right, it’s right after midnight. Kara will have been asleep for hours.

Everything stops.

Oh my god, Kara.

Guilt crashes over me, thick and heavy. She’s going to be crushed when I tell her I broke the pact. I don’t even know how I would begin to tell her what we did. But if I’m back in the dorm before she wakes up, she won’t know. She won’t ask where I’ve been or what I’ve been doing, she’ll only ask how dinner was. “I have to go,” I say quickly, sitting up and nearly making our heads crash together again.

“Hey, wait,” Carter says, catching my arm. “What happened?”

I realize that I’m doing the same thing to him that I did at the party, and I never explained. “My best friend, Kara,” I say. “We made this pact when we were little. That we would stay virgins until the right person came along. She always took it way more seriously than I did. I think for her, the right person means the person she’s marrying. I don’t have a clue how I’m going to tell her about this, let alone that I did it with the coach. But if I’m back in the dorm before she wakes up she won’t be suspicious and I can avoid what I have to tell her for at least a little while.”

I realize as I finish speaking that I was going at full speed and I take in a breath.

“Wow. Come here for a sec,” Carter pulls me back onto the bed, back into his arms. “So you guys agreed not to sleep with anyone. Why?”

“Because it was right after sex ed and boys were still gross.”

He nods. “So at the party—”

“I heard Kara’s voice outside the room. She was looking for me. I didn’t want her to find you and me…in the middle of it.”

Carter looks thoughtful. I know I just threw about ten years of baggage on him, so I’m not surprised. He frowns. “You think she’ll be that upset that we slept together?”

“When I told her I was going on a date, she said to be careful because of the pact. When I told her it was with you, she was fine because she assumed you’d never sleep with a student.”

The laugh that rumbles from him is genuine. His real laugh is quickly becoming one of my favorite sounds. “Well, she was wrong there.”

“Yeah.”

“You two seem really close.”

“We are,” I say. “That’s why it makes me sick inside when I think about telling her.” Putting a hand on my chest, I sit up and smile. “I don’t regret this. I wanted this. I want more of this. It’s just, I don’t want to lose her either.”

Carter runs a finger down my side, absently following the line of my ribs. I feel amazing to be already so comfortable like this—both of us naked and not at all shy. “I get it. But I don’t think you’re going to help things by hiding them from her. Then it’s just going to bug you that you’re not telling her something when it seems like you guys tell each other pretty much everything.”

“Yeah, we do.” I hate that he’s right, but he is. “I still have no idea how I’m going to tell her though.”

“Maybe when you guys do something fun, I don’t know what you guys do together.”

I flop back onto the pillows. “She wanted to do TV and pizza tonight.”

He grins. “So do that tomorrow night and tell her then.”

“That means that I still have to be back before she wakes up today,” I say, suddenly reluctant to leave the warmth of his bed and the temptation of his skin.

“That’s true,” he says. “But after you tell her you can spend as many nights here as you like. Preferably with as little sleep as possible.”

“Mmm.” I want more of him, and I wonder if there’s something about having sex for the first time that makes you crave it. Like now that I know just how good it can be, there’s always going to be something missing when I’m without it. “I guess I should get dressed then.”

“I suppose, though I think it’s more fun watching you take your clothes off.”

I hop off the bed, a little unsteady on my feet, and search for my dress. “If you hurry, I’ll even let you walk me back to campus.”

He’s off the bed faster than I even thought possible, pulling on his pants. “How could I resist that?”

The night has cooled and the sky is that clear navy that’s so gorgeous on summer nights. There are still people out and about, but it’s easy not to take notice, like we’re in our own world. We’re not walking fast, and yet it seems like we’re at my dorm in no time at all. Carter pulls me up onto my toes, teasing my lips with his, and kissing me until I feel drunk with it. I sway after him as he pulls away, my body not ready to let him go.

He chuckles, steadying me. “Goodnight, April.”

“Goodnight.”