Quinn
I woke up with a nasty taste in my mouth, cuddled up with the very man I’d been trying to convince to hate me. It was Saturday, so he had nowhere to be but in bed with me.
When I sat up, so did he.
“Ugh.” I clutched my forehead, closing my eyes and grimacing at the pounding headache.
“I’ll grab you some water.” He murmured.
His whisper against the side of my neck gave me goosebumps, which made me swear at him.
Cody only gave me an amused expression and disappeared for a second. I heard the fridge open, and he came back with a cold water bottle.
I took it without thanking him and chugged the whole thing, praying the water would do away with both my headache and the warm fuzzies that were drawing me toward my sweet mountain of a man.
“You’re cute when you’re drunk.” He remarked, leaning up against the wall with a slight smile on his face.
I looked at him like he was an alien.
“What are you doing?”
He glanced around the room.
“Sitting, I think.”
I rolled my eyes and reached up to massage my temples. Cody was still smiling at me, I could feel his eyes on me.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Because you’re beautiful and I’m lucky to have you.”
Um, what?
“Did we have sex last night?” I groaned and covered my eyes with my hands. “We did, didn’t we? Great, now I have to deal with an attached cheeseball.”
Though my words didn’t show it, I felt incredibly guilty and a little sad to think that I’d had slept with him for the first time while I was so drunk I wouldn’t remember it.
Cody laughed.
“No, we didn’t have sex. We ate Cheetos and you fell asleep thirty seconds after you finished puking your guts out. Don’t worry, I’m plenty attached without making love to you.”
That revelation was… something. Something that I didn’t quite have words for. Something that I needed to diffuse, quickly.
“So now you’re telling me you don’t want to have sex with me.” I folded my arms. Clearly that wasn’t what he was saying, but maybe he would turn his smile off if I jumped to random conclusions.
“That’s definitely not what I was saying.” He folded his arms, and the smile faded a little.
I’d nearly struck a nerve, so I needed to keep going with that.
“Are you a virgin?”
Cody quirked an eyebrow.
“Are you really asking me that?”
“Yep.” I popped the ‘p’.
“Of course I’m a virgin. I’ve been waiting for you since I was a little kid.”
“Awe, cute. You’re a little virgin club member.” I made a ‘that’s adorable’ face. “Cute little virgin James.”
If I were him, I would’ve slapped me.
Instead, he just put an amused expression on his face. I saw through it, of course, straight to the vulnerable center of him.
“I’m proud to be a virgin, Quinn. It means that I’ve been strong enough to save myself for you, that you’re the only woman I’ll ever be with. You can’t make me feel embarrassed about it because it’s not embarrassing. All of my firsts, all of my everything is yours.”
His words struck me. At first, they struck me in a this-man-is-way-to-good-for-me way. Then, they struck me in a holy-crap-I-love-him kind of way, which I promptly ignored. Finally, they struck me in an I-know-exactly-how-to break-him way.
A pit formed suddenly in my throat.
If I wanted to get him to sign the paper, I was going to have to do something worse than I’d imagined. It would be worse than hoeish, it would be downright cruel.
I would have to let him think I’d come around for a while, and then I would have to distance myself from him slowly, like I wasn’t happy with the relationship. Making him believe it would be a challenge, but I could do it. The only question was if I was willing to.
“I have to go check on my house.” I stood up quickly and smoothed out last night’s clothes, which I was still wearing.
“You might want to change first.” He was half-smiling again.
Dread seeped through me when I realized that if I did what I was planning, it would be a long time before Cody smiled again.
“Right.” I opened my suitcase and grabbed a top and a pair of shorts, and then I stepped out of the room and into the bathroom to change.
“What are you doing? You never leave the room to change.” He called out.
“I’m protecting your virgin eyes.” I called back, my heart still pounding too fast.
“What’s going on, Quinn? Are you okay?”
“I’m hungover and in pain, dummy. Of course I’m not okay.” I lied.
He chuckled, that son of a gun.
Biting back a groan, I finished getting dressed. Was I willing to trade my peace of mind for my dad’s shot at the senate?