Topless with a guy. Another first.

The lights in his room weren’t even dim. There was no hum of music or any other sound to distract away from the fact that it was just the two of us, fully and completely naked. And yet…I didn’t feel all that uncomfortable or embarrassed. Actually, all I felt was need. I needed his hands on my body. I needed his lips on my lips. I needed to feel him inside me. Now that this moment had come, I was glad it was about to happen with Rhett. I didn’t feel the same shyness with Rhett that I used to feel around Ben.

Rhett crawled on top of me and his mouth went straight to one of my nipples. He kissed, sucked, and licked in ways I never knew possible. A shot of pure heaven. He had my skin prickling and buzzing. His mouth worked its way from my breasts all the way to my waiting mouth. Those X-rated lips of his pressed against my lips. With one easy probe of his tongue, I opened up and let him in. Our tongues met and danced in a way that was quickly becoming familiar and easy.

This lasted for a minute or two, perhaps longer, I’d sort of lost track of time so it was hard to know for sure, then suddenly his touch and his kiss left me. He jumped out of bed and grabbed something off his nightstand—a condom. I watched as he ripped the packaging, dropped the wrapper somewhere on the floor, and then rolled the condom over his length in a manner of seconds. It was an impressive sight to see.

“You like watching?” He winked and shot me a cocky grin. “Don’t you?”

I shrugged, but I think he could tell how much I was enjoying myself. Because I was.

Joking aside, he cleared his throat and grew serious. “You know, I’m in awe of you. You’re cool as hell, the most beautiful woman that has ever and will ever be in my bed, and I’ve got this mad crush. Seriously, out of left field, blindsiding, call my mother with the good news—that sort of crush.” He gave me the most genuine smile. It made my stomach flip and this shiver run through me. “I just needed you to know that.”

I didn’t know how to respond. All I knew was that I suddenly felt vulnerable as hell. He moved over me, settling between my legs, and he positioned the head of his erection against my entrance. I wrapped my legs around him, ready for it, wanting it, but scared to death of it. He pressed a kiss to my cheek and then suddenly he was pushing inside me, filling me, and it hurt way more than I ever expected.

I’d been planning on hiding my pain—if there was any—and lying until the cows came home about my virginity. Hell, if my hymen broke and he questioned it, I even had a lie for that. I figured I’d tell him the only other guy I’d been with had had a really small penis. Something. Anything other than the truth. I wanted tonight to be fun and easy, not complicated and emotional.

But I couldn’t lie to him. Because, even if he was the world’s biggest player with a million and one notches on his bedpost, I liked him just as much as he seemed to like me. Despite everything else. Despite my broken heart and despite Ben. And as he pressed inside me, as the pain overwhelmed me and my emotions exploded, as he was probably realizing the truth for himself, I wrapped my arms around his neck as tight as I could and whispered, “I’m a virgin.”

He stilled the second the words left my lips. Shit. I messed everything up. Tears pooled behind my eyes. I waited for him to pull out and end everything…except, he didn’t. He only remained frozen. So I froze too.

Then finally he whispered something to me. “And you want me to be your first?”

“Yes,” I breathed.

“Okay,” he said softly.

My heart squeezed.

This wasn’t over.

Without argument, complaint, or comment, he ever so slowly and carefully, pulled out and inched back inside me. It stung, but not nearly as bad as his initial thrust. I let my death-grip around his neck loosen. Once I gave him a little room to move, he started pressing little kisses to my shoulder, then up the side of my neck, and then all over my face and lips. All his kisses felt so good, so comforting, and they helped me relax. He moved slowly in and out for a third time, and this time the pain from before was significantly less.

I laughed a little at my own fear. This wasn’t bad at all.

Rhett shifted his weight onto his arms, so that he could properly stare down at me. He gave me this fake stern look, followed by a flirty grin, and then more kisses. Meanwhile, our love-making fell into a gentle rhythm. My emotions were still sky-high, but whatever was left of the pain transferred into pleasure. Really. Amazing. Pleasure.

But there was something I enjoyed even more.

Never in my life had I felt so connected to another human being. Telling him the truth and the way he had handled it, had created this instant bond between us. It was intense, crazy, and wonderful all at once—like my ribs were cracked wide open and my heart was showing. It wasn’t a one-sided feeling either. There was no doubt in my mind that Rhett felt exactly what I did—all the emotions, all the tingles, all the excitement. I could see it in his eyes and feel it in his touch. Instead of being only physically on the same wave length, we were mentally there too.

Then, as if I wasn’t feeling enough already, he reached a hand down between our joined bodies and his fingers brushed across my clit. “What are you doing?” I asked, stunned.

“I’m going to try to make you come.”

“You shouldn’t do that,” I breathed, squeezing my arms around him and burying my face against his shoulder.

“Why not?”

He continued to stroke his hand against me as his thrusts remained deliberate and even. To be honest, I didn’t think I could handle more. If I came for him right this moment, like I had in his car earlier, I might do serious damage to my already fragile emotional state. Everything happening was already too overwhelming, too exposing on every level. But the combination of his hand against me and his dick buried deep inside felt too good to protest.

“Trust me,” he whispered into my ear. “Just trust me.”

Only now did I notice that his breaths were uneven and choppy, his skin glistening with a layer of sweat, and the muscles in his arms tense and straining. I was getting to him just as much as he was getting to me. It also occurred to me that having slow and gentle sex wasn’t normally how a playboy like Rhett did things. And yet, here he was, making another exception for me. Knowing how much he cared—knowing how much I cared—that realization had a direct effect on my clit, no lie, and this overwhelming tightening feeling hit me.

A warm sensation spread across my chest. The tightening increased.

“I don’t want to come,” I choked out.

There wasn’t much of a choice in the matter. It happened anyway. Everything around me faded out of existence, except for the hot, tingling explosion that erupted through my whole body. I couldn’t breathe or think or see. It was euphoric. The opposite of emotional. I screamed Rhett’s name and squeezed those arms of his as hard as I could. I was so focused on everything happening to me physically, that only when I started to come down from my high, did I realize that something similar had happened to Rhett.

He’d orgasmed with me. And I sort of missed it being too caught up in my own bliss. Which was a shame because I wished I could have watched him and seen his face during it. Now that the moment was done, he rolled away, pulled the condom off, and tossed it into a trashcan near his bed. He lay beside me, and this very long, very satisfied sigh left his lips.

“How was that for your first time?” he asked, turning toward me and brushing my hair away from my face.

“Intense,” I admitted.

“You can say that again. I’ve never done it like that before.” He traced his hands across my chest and then lightly over my breasts. “You have nice tits, by the way.”