Fuck, if I’ve never had a girl come like that before. But there’s a first for everything, and this is my first.

“Baby, what’s the matter?” I rock her in my arms and pull a blanket up around her. I know it’s what she needs, even though the hair around her face is damp and sticking to her forehead. I just gave her the fucking orgasm of her life, but I know what she needs right now is comfort, as much as I want to get my dick as wet as her pussy.

“It’s nothing.” She sighs and puts her head against my shoulder. She isn’t crying, but I know she wants to. I can feel it in her voice, in the way her words vibrate against me.

“You don’t have to talk about,” I say, pushing her hair away from her forehead and rocking her gently. We look out my window, and I realize what a lucky son of a bitch I am. I have the apartment I grew up in and this wonderful woman in my bed, and all I want to do is get to know her better.

I’m breaking my own rules. I’ll usually at least make sure the girl has cab fare or if I really like her I’ll call Jimmy to give her a ride, but I don’t want most of them to know about Jimmy. They see something like that and they try to cling onto me even harder. At least cab fare will get them home safe and I won’t have to bother Jimmy or have them seeing fucking dollar signs in their eyes.

“I should tell you,” she says, her breath breaking heavily under her words. “It’s not just a coincidence that I was a virgin.”

I hug her close. “Technically, baby, you still are.”

She lets out a deep laugh, but there’s pain behind it. “I know. That’s very true. But there’s something I didn’t tell you about why I use my mom’s last name.”

“It’s okay, you can tell me if you want. And if you don’t want to, that’s okay too.”

“No,” she says, sitting up and folding her legs under her, drawing up the blanket around her. Her faint smile lights up the dark room. “I want to. I’ve never really talked about it before.”

She tells me about how her mom was young when she married her dad, how her mom had ambitions and dreams beyond being a wife and mother. But her dad didn’t understand. Her dad wanted his wife to raise their daughter, and that’s what she did. And she was a wonderful mother. But she grew resentful of Mr. Murray; she wanted a career of her own, and she wanted them to share in the difficult and awesome responsibility of being a parent.

“Mom didn’t know what to do. My dad came from old money, and my mom wanted to get out of the small neighborhood she was from. She wasn’t a gold-digger. Far from it. In fact, when they got married, it was her idea to sign a prenup. And when they split up, she got something, but it wasn’t anywhere near what I think most women would expect.”

“I’m familiar with how the law works in New York State,” I say, holding her hand in mine. “If there’s no prenuptial agreement, the assets are divided fifty-fifty in cases of divorce.”

“That’s right,” she sighs, looking down. “So mom actually convinced him to structure the prenup so that she wouldn’t get that much if they ever legally split up. That actually made my grandparents insanely mad.”

I consider it from their point of view. “Well, raising a child is a hard job on its own. Especially when you take on all of the responsibility. Your dad is a really good guy, don’t get me wrong, but he’s addicted to his work.”

“Right. And my mom’s parents thought she would deserve more for raising me. The whole thing just actually makes me uncomfortable to even think about.”

“It shouldn’t,” I say, touching her cheek. “Sweetheart, you did nothing wrong. This isn’t your fault.”

“I know it isn’t, but it still makes me feel all icky. My mom got what she wanted, but at what cost? To think that money has such a big place in families.”

“You’re absolutely fucking right,” I say.

She sighs again and gives me a small smile. For all the guilt and baggage she’s carrying around, she’s so strong. I’m so fucking impressed with her right now.

“So anyway,” she continues, “my grandparents’ logic was that raising a child is a full-time job, and harder than whatever finance crap my dad does, and that in case of a divorce she should have the security she deserves. My mom, on the other hand, didn’t want money to have any part in the relationship, and thought raising a child would be its own reward. You know, an intangible gift is what I think she called it once.”

“I can see that this weighs heavily on you,” I say, lacing my fingers through hers. “So forgive me for prying, but why are you still a virgin because of all this?”

“Oh,” she laughs, her face becoming pink. “I guess I just thought I shouldn’t risk falling in love until I have my life figured out. My schooling, my career. All of it. I wanted to have everything in order before I get hitched onto someone else’s wagon.”

“Baby,” I say, “you would never hitch onto someone else’s wagon. You are going places all on your own. You’ll never be anyone’s sidekick. Ever.”

“So what about you, anyway?” she asks, her brows knitting together in the middle. “You’re a successful guy, absolutely gorgeous, clearly you have more money than god. You’d think you would be settled down by now.”

“I guess I never told you what happened with my ex, huh?” I don’t mean to, but my face contorts into a disgusted expression, and she can tell that I don’t like talking about it.

“That bad, huh?” Ava raises a knowing eyebrow at me.

“All the shit you mentioned about money getting in the way of family, that applies to me too. Except my ex was all too eager to have money be part of the equation. She thought of me as some kind of fucking business opportunity instead of a potential life partner.”

Sweet Ava looks down and shakes her head, her pretty brown locks falling around her shoulders. “I’m really sorry that happened to you. That sucks.”

“I realized then and there that I don’t have time for people in my life who just see me as a fucking personal ATM. And the worst part was that I thought I wanted to marry this woman.”

Ava winces. “Ouch. How did you find out the truth?”

“We were at this fucking ostentatious wedding, and I mentioned something to one of her friends about how I wanted to have a small wedding when I eventually got married, and she told me I better not tell Christine, my girlfriend at the time, anything about having a small wedding. Later I confronted her about it, and everything just sort of came out.”

“You’re better off without her,” Ava says, sweetly kissing me on the cheek. “Good riddance to her. She didn’t deserve you.”

“That’s what I love about you,” I say, pulling Ava onto my lap. The blanket falls away, revealing her gorgeous body for me. “You’re kind and innocent. I don’t think I’ve ever really met anyone like you before.”

My sweet Ava presses her lips to mine, and I sweep my thumb along her throat. She’s perfection in a gorgeous package.