“Siddhartha Gautama,” I repeated. “AKA, Buddha. Born in Nepal. He was a prince who lived a secluded, pampered life.”
“When he finally ventured out into the world, he discovered all the terrible suffering people went through,” Christian added. “After that day he left his home and family to live an ascetic life and find a way to relive universal suffering.”
The doorbell rang and I paused, frowning. Kinsley stood. “Did someone order food?”
I gestured toward the Chinese cartons scattered across the table among our open books. In the living room, more cartons were on the coffee table between Luke and Chloe, who were quietly studying World History and Economics. “Food already came.”
Christian stood and put a hand on Kinsley’s shoulder. “I’ll get it.” He trudged to the door, grumbling about jerkoffs disturbing us during the one week a semester we needed to be left alone. Poor guy was all stressed out. Between midterms and the looming football playoffs, he had a lot on his plate. His tone changed when he found out who was on the other side of the door.
“Flowers? For me? You shouldn’t have.” Christian laughed.
“Yeah, of course. I’m in love with you, always have been. Get out of my way, jackass, I didn’t come to see you.”
I perked up at the familiar voice. “Dain?” My hands immediately went to my hair and my eyes went wide as I encountered my messy ponytail with strands flying every which way. I think I come across a pencil or two in there, too. “Oh, crap.”
Kinsley rolled her eyes again. If she kept it up, they were going to get stuck like that. “Didn’t you tell your boyfriend we had studying to do?”
I whipped a fortune cookie at her before quickly pulling my hair from its ponytail and finger-combing it. The guys’ voices were getting closer, so I gave my outfit a once over. I shrugged as I realized I could do nothing about my worn white tank top and PINK sweatpants. However, I did flick a sticky piece of white rice off my boob. “Oh shut up,” I hissed. “You wouldn’t be bitching if Aaron showed up.”
I was right and she knew it, so she silently sulked in her chair as Dain and Christian entered the kitchen. Dain was holding a bouquet of flowers, an assortment in a variety of bright colors. As I stood, he smiled and rounded the table toward me, ignoring everyone else. When he grabbed me, kissing me like he hadn’t seen me in years, I melted. This is why I was falling for this guy like there’s no tomorrow; no matter how many other people are in the room, he made me feel like I’m the only one.
“Hey babe,” he said after he let me come up for air. He placed the flowers in my arms and gave me a shorter, punctuated kiss on the lips. “Just came by to see if you needed any help studying.”
I scoffed. “More like you came to distract me from studying.”
He shrugged. “Can I help it if you can’t keep your eyes off me and on the books?”
“Oh, God, give me a break!” That was Luke from the living room. I shot him a glare over Dain’s shoulder. He stared back at me defiantly from where he sat on the floor, his back propped up against the couch. His eyes were narrowed on Dain’s back and he shook his head and looked away as if disgusted. Ignoring him, I buried my nose in the flowers and inhaled.
“These are beautiful,” I said. “Thank you. And studying is going great.”
Kinsley made a weird noise from the table. “Yeah, it would be if someone would focus.”
Dain removed his jacket—a black leather number that looked like something a biker would wear—revealing the white, long-sleeved thermal top he wore underneath. The shirt molded to his chest and arms like a second skin. Swoon!
“Well, I’m off work with nothing better to do. So, put me to work. I’m here for whatever you need.”
“There’s a pile of dishes in the sink that need washing!” Luke called from the living room. “You can do that!”
I shot Luke another glare. “No, you can’t. It’s Luke’s day to wash dishes and it was Christian’s the day before that. One of them needs to do it.”
Dain rolled up his sleeves. “No, no, I don’t mind busting some suds. I remember midterms and finals; it hasn’t been that long since I graduated. You guys just study, I’ve got it.”
I smiled up at him, sure I was practically salivating at this point. A guy who does dishes? My mother would never let me break up with him! “Thanks,” I said, going back to Kinsley and Siddhartha Gautama. The kitchen was a mess, and by the time Dain had washed, dried, put the dishes away, and cleaned the counters and swept the floor, an hour had passed. Kinsley had drilled me on Buddha, Krishna, and Jesus Christ. I rested my head on my arms as I rattled off the answers while Kinsley barked questions at me like a drill sergeant.
“Okay,” Dain stated grabbing me by the waist and making me stand. “Study time is over. Break time.”
Kinsley frowned. “But we still have to go over African religions.”
Dain grasped one of Kinsley’s flashcards and glanced at it. “Female circumcision? Yeah, all you guys need to know about that is it sucks.” I giggled, but Kinsley was not amused. “Look,” Dain said, serious this time. “You guys have been going for an hour since I’ve been here, nonstop. And I know you were going for hours before I got here. A break won’t kill you; in fact, it’s good for you. Take a walk, eat a cookie, go to sleep. Chill out, okay?”
“He’s right.” Aside from the fact that I really wanted to be alone with him, we had been studying all day between classes and for hours after. I was beat. “Let’s pick it up tomorrow.”
Kinsley nodded and tucked her cards away before standing. Christian rubbed a hand over his tired face and stood as well. “Thanks for doing the dishes, man,” Christian said, clapping Dain on the shoulder as he walked by. “Domestic looks good on you.”
“Yeah? That’s what your mom said.”
Grinning, Christian punched him in the chest and Dain shoved him. “Okay, that’s enough testosterone,” I interjected. “You,” I called to Christian, “go make Luke and Chloe call it a night. It’s late. You,” I smiled up at Dain, “come with me.”
Dain’s eyebrows shot up as I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled. He winked at Christian. “I think I’m in trouble.”
Christian’s laugh was cut off as we hustled upstairs. The minute we were in my room and the door was closed, Dain grabbed me and tumbled me onto the bed. My head had barely hit the pillow before he was over me, his legs trapping mine, his elbows holding him up.
“Dain—”
“No talking,” he whispered, leaning down toward me. “Kissing first, talking later.”
“Okay,” I mumbled against his lips. He silenced me effectively, his mouth soft yet firm against mine, his tongue warm and sweet. He turned to his side next to me, pressing against me with one arm beneath my head. We lay there like that for I don’t know how long. I stared at the ceiling, pretending that I wasn’t trying to look nonchalant. In reality, my heart was racing so fast I thought it might explode from my chest. Dain touched the bridge of my nose, tracing a path over it and down to my lips. The pad of his index finger rested there and I kissed it.
“Did you miss me?” he asked.
I turned to face him. “Wouldn’t you just love for me to say yes so your overinflated ego can get another unneeded boost?”
Dain grabbed his chest and groaned as if I’d wounded him. “Ouch. That hurt.”
“Oh, please. You already know the kind of affect you have on people,” I said. “If I tell you, you’re just going to get a bigger head than you already have.”
He grinned. “Yeah, it’s already hard to get my shirts on in the morning. Pretty soon I’ll have to start greasing the doorway to get out of my apartment every morning.”
I pinched him and he poked me in the ribs. “You’re so not funny.”
“No, but you are.”
I turned my body toward his and propped my head up on the pillow. “Funny, as in ha-ha, funny? Or funny, as in ‘this chick is crazy’?”
“A little bit of both.”
My jaw dropped. “Ugh, you are so in trouble.”
“What’s my punishment?” He perked up like an excited puppy, almost eager for whatever brand of torture I was going to dish out. “Please tell me it involves you taking your top off.”
“You have a one track mind.”
His hand skimmed my stomach, creeping beneath my tank top and teasing bare skin. “Is it my fault you’re so damn sexy?”
Sexy? Me?
No guy I know has ever referred to me as ‘sexy’. Cute, I get all the time. Sexy feels nice for a change. I arched my back as his searching fingers moved up, taking my shirt with them. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my belly button and I shivered, one hand coming up to his hair.
“Dain,” I whispered. “Wait, I—”
“Mmm,” he mumbled pausing just below the underwire of my bra. “Kinda busy down here.”
“Yeah, but I’m talking to you up here.”
He sighed and raised his head. “I’m all ears.”
“Oh.” I blinked, staring down at him, surprised. “Sorry, I can’t remember what I was going to say. Um … usually when I tell a guy to wait, or hold on, or ‘hey dummy, my face is up here’, they don’t listen.”
His crooked smile slammed into my chest and knocked the wind from me. “I’m not most guys, Jenn. Now, you were saying?”
What was I saying? Hell, it couldn’t have been important. “Nothing,” I said with a smile. “Carry on.”
Dain lowered his head again, and I gasped as his tongue circled on my skin, causing goose bumps to break out and spread. I gripped his shoulders and held on as he inched my shirt higher, exposing the cups of my plain, pale pink bra. Despite its plainness, Dain seemed captivated by the thin strip of fabric separating him from my breasts.
He came up to my mouth and kissed me, only breaking it long enough to whip my shirt off over my head. No twitching, no hives, no office supplies … so far, so good.
Was this really happening now, on day fifteen? I certainly wouldn’t have planned it this way, but God Dain smelled so good and his body … don’t even get me started. As my hands came up and discovered washboard abs beneath his shirt, all coherent thought fled. Once he was shirtless, I was gifted with the full-on Shirtless Dain Experience. Hard, chiseled, and all mine … I was in heaven.
He gripped my hips and pulled me closer to him, as close as I could possibly get with the layers of his jeans and my sweatpants still between us. I whimpered as he kissed my neck, stifling the sound against his shoulder in case one of the guys had come upstairs. Living with a bunch of other people sucks at a time like this.
Never, ever have I wanted someone this badly, and never so soon after meeting them. But as Dain reached toward the waistband of my sweatpants, I just knew … he was the one I wanted to have my first time with. What were the chances, when I set out to just get it over with already, that I’d find someone I actually felt was worthy of it?
“Hey,” I whispered.
Dain lifted his head and stared down at me. His lips were parted and his breathing was heavy, which made me smile. It was nice to know I wasn’t the only having a hard time breathing.
“Yeah?”
“Can we talk about this for a second? It’s just … um … I should probably tell you …” I trailed off, embarrassed. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that Dain might want a girl with experience. And by experience, I don’t mean trips to the ER from incidents involving braces and staplers, or being scared out of ever trying out a little bondage because of a nutcase with a pair of leather straps.
Dain’s eyes widened and he sat up on the bed, straddling my legs. “Wait a minute. Did you used to be a guy or something? Because whoever your surgeon was, he did a great job.”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously?”
He laughed. “Okay, so what is it? You don’t have herpes do you?”
“Of course I don’t have … what kind of girl do you think I am? I’m a virgin!”
I hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that, and judging by Dain’s expression, he hadn’t exactly been expecting to hear it. His eyes widened. “You’re what?”
I could feel my face and neck heating in embarrassment. “Yeah, whatever, don’t make a big deal about it. I just thought you’d want to know.”
He laughed and I glared at him, propping myself up on my elbows. At my murderous look, he sobered. “Okay, seriously not laughing about you being a virgin. I think it’s sweet.”
That threw me for a loop. “Really?”
He shrugged. “Well, yeah. I just laughed because you said ‘don’t make a big deal about it’, when that’s exactly what I should be doing. I mean, your first time is a big deal. Are you sure you’re ready?”
I fought the urge to scream. I reminded myself that Dain was what I wanted, and it was because of stuff like this. I took a deep breath. “I know what I want,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I was. “And I want you. I like you, Dain. I think … I know it’s soon, but I think we’re connecting well.”
He smiled and grabbed me, pulling me against his chest. “Of course we are, and you have to know already that I feel the same way. I like being with you, Jenn. Still, I can wait to be with you, if you need more time. I’m not the type to pressure or push.”
Relief swept through me. I’d already felt instinctively that we were headed somewhere special, but to hear him say out loud that he felt the same way made it that much better. “Okay,” I whispered with a nod. “We’ll wait. I want to do this,” I added.
He tilted my chin up and kissed me. “I know you do,” he said. “You should let me make it special for you. And we should probably do it at my place, where the bed isn’t a surfboard.”
I pushed at his chest and laughed. “My bed isn’t that small!”
He smirked. “It kind of is. If we wanted to go to sleep after, I’d have to lay on top of you. Or you on top of me. Actually, this is sounding better by the second.”
We kissed again, and my arms went up around his neck, meshing our bodies back together. It was insane, to want to kiss someone this much all the time and not want to come up for air. I felt dizzy, drunk off Dain. I guess that’s why I leaned. When I did, I took Dain with me. I didn’t realize what was happening until my back hit the floor and my breath was knocked from me with a loud ‘whoosh’. Our noses bumped, hard, and my eyes started watering. Dain groaned, covering his own face as he struggled to his knees.
I tried to sit up, but froze when the door swung open to reveal Chloe on the other side. “Oh wow,” she said, faltering in the doorway as she took in mine and Dain’s lack of clothing. Dain turned and froze. I sat up slowly, accepting his hand as he pulled me. “Awkward.”
“Yeah,” I scoffed. “It’s real awkward when you walk in on crap like this because you don’t knock!”
Chloe winced. “Yeah, sorry. Heard a crash and thought somebody might be hurt. But uh … everything looks …” She trailed off, her eyes lowering to Dain’s bare torso. “Great. Everything looks … so good.”
“Chloe!”
She snapped out of it, at least having the grace to blush. Dain reached for his shirt and I reached for mine. Just when I thought I couldn’t be any more embarrassed, Luke appeared behind Chloe. “Hey, is everything—” He stopped, a choked sound coming from his throat. My head poked through the hole in my shirt just as his eyes locked on my exposed bra. His mouth fell open and I quickly covered myself, jerking my tank down to meet the waistband of my sweatpants. “Wow, this is really awkward.”
I scowled. “You think?”
Dain turned to me, now fully clothed. “I think I’m gonna go.”
He seemed as embarrassed as I was. If he went screaming for the hills after this, I’d have no cause to blame him. “I’m sorry,” I said, reaching up toward his face. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. No bruising or broken skin, see?”
He turned his face to side to side for my inspection. I nodded. “Okay. Call
me later?”
I stood on my tiptoes to reach him as he leaned down to kiss me. “Yeah, later tonight.”
I nodded at his retreating back. He paused in the doorway, which was still blocked by Chloe and Luke. Chloe moved, but Luke didn’t. His jaw clenched as he stared at Dain, his dark eyes narrowed and assessing behind the chestnut strands of hair falling into his face.
“Luke!”
He turned from Dain to me, his eyes still filled with annoyance as he stepped back, slowly. He gave Dain just enough space to pass, shooting daggers at his back as he left the apartment. When the door was closed behind him, I turned on him with wide eyes.
“Dude, what the hell?”
Luke strode into my room and slammed the door, leaving Chloe on the other side. “Seriously?”
Luke ignored her and came toward me until we were almost nose to nose. “What happened?”
I reared back, surprised at Luke’s attitude. This was a side of him I’d never seen before. Luke was easygoing and laid back; he never lost his cool.
“I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
He sighed. “It is if he hurts you.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Well, he didn’t. He won’t.”
Luke snorted. “Come on, Jenn, wake up. What do you think a guy like that wants with a girl like you?”
Anger creased my brow and flared my nostrils, hurt lodging itself deep. All of my insecurities came flying back at me with that single question. “Oh, so a guy like Dain couldn’t possibly see anything in me because I’m not tall and gorgeous? Is that it?”
Luke’s face softened and he sighed. “Jenn, no, I didn’t mean it like that. I only meant—”
“What you meant, is because I’m not like one of the little bimbos who chase you around campus, I couldn’t possibly keep the interest of a guy like Dain.”
“Damn it, Jenn, you’re getting it all wrong!” he yelled, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
“Oh, I think I understand just fine. Get out, Luke.”
“Jenn, come on.”
I avoided his gaze and shook my head. “I get it, okay? I’m not sexy, I’m not captain of whatever team, and I could never have been the prom queen. I’m not the kind of girl he’d usually go for, but he likes me and I … well, how I feel is none of your damn business. So just leave me alone.”
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