I grinned at her then stood. “Body shots on the couch?”

“You and your body shots.” She laughed then squealed the moment my hand smacked her ass.

“You and your body.” I picked her up, carried her to the couch, then placed her so she was straddling my lap, still holding the tequila bottle.

“You like my body.” She kissed me lightly.

“No, baby, I love your body.” I returned my mouth to hers, my hands working their way up her jean clad legs and then under the hem of her T-shirt. The moment my hands skimmed her bare skin, she pulled her mouth from mine.

“Don’t you want to know why I’m an escort, too?” she blurted.

“If you want to tell me.”

She took a big swig of the tequila and I chuckled. “My mother was a whore and she got me into the game.”

I stared at her. I wasn’t sure if she was serious, but she wasn’t smiling. “You’re serious?”

She nodded. “Yeah, and this’s why I don’t sleep with my clients. I’m not a whore like she is.”

Was this also why she hadn’t slept with me? It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her, but the way she’d chugged the tequila right before she’d told me indicated that maybe sex to her was something she waited to do. If she only knew how many clients and chicks I’d slept with … I was a whore.

“You know you mean a lot to me, right?”

“I know, love bug.”

I smiled. “Love bug?”

“Sugar lips?”

“Love bug is better.” I chuckled and kissed her lips.

“Is it time to watch a movie now?”

“We can do whatever you want, gorgeous.”

“I’m going to go put on my pajamas first.”

While she changed, I put on basketball shorts, then turned on the TV as I waited for her. When she came out, she was dressed in short pajama shorts and a spaghetti strap top—braless. I groaned the moment I saw her because she was going to be the death of me.

Braless titties.

Bare legs.

Hard dick.

I needed my cock to calm down but, of course, all I could think about was the way she smelled of coconuts. Finally, she picked a movie and cuddled against my side. I pulled her so we were spooning because my dick needed to be against her ass. I wanted her back to my front so I had easy access to play with her.

I couldn’t take the agony any longer. My hand slipped down the front of her body, searching. I eased up the front of her shirt to slip my hand in her shorts and she stopped me.

“It’s okay,” I whispered in her ear. “I’m gonna make you feel good, gorgeous.” She turned slightly, her eyes searched mine almost as though she was unsure. “Just relax.”

She stared at me for a beat and then smiled before she wiggled her hips against me. I nudge my dick against her firmly, causing her to moan and me to grind a little harder. “I fucking love hearing those noises from your mouth. I wanna hear more. Tell me I can make you come, gorgeous. I wanna hear my name leave your lips. I’ve been dying to taste you.”

My hand slipped farther into her shorts and she turned onto her back, lifting her ass and allowing me to pull them off. Her gaze met mine as I lifted her shirt off before moving my mouth to hers, my hand cupping and kneading her breast. She moaned again, my tongue slipping in at that moment, and our kiss deepened. Her body relaxed and after a few moments I worked my way down her body with my mouth.

I dragged my tongue from her lips down her neck to her tits where I kneaded one perfect globe in one hand and sucked the other erect nipple. Her back arched and another moan came from her mouth.

When I switched to the other nipple, I noticed the ink across her rib cage:

she always had a way

with her brokenness

she would take her pieces

and make them beautiful

I made a mental note to ask her about it later because I didn’t want to stop my path to her sweet spot. I trailed kisses and licked down her chest to her stomach, her hands finally fisted in my hair and I kissed lightly up her thigh, working my way to her pussy. Just as my hands touched her so I could spread her open and get my first taste, she slid up the couch and out of my grasp.

“I … I can’t do this. I’m sorry,” she quavered and took off out of the living room.

“Wait,” I called after her. “What do you mean?” I followed.

“I’m sorry. I thought I could, but I can’t.” She closed her bedroom door.

“Baby, what’s going on? Talk to me.”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized again. “It’s not going to work out.”

The hell it’s not!

I tried the handle of her door but it was locked. I didn’t give a shit. She couldn’t say this bullshit and get to lock herself in her room. I’d confessed to her about Vanessa. The least she could do was tell me what it was about me that was so repulsive we couldn’t even fuck. Without giving it another thought, I rammed my shoulder into the door and it popped opened. The lousy lock was no match for my size or my strength. She flinched as she stood next to the bed when I barged in.

“You don’t get to do this,” I declared.

“It’s not about you!” she hissed, tears streaking down her face. She was holding a piece of paper that was recently folded into fours.

“The hell it’s not!” I started to walk closer to her and she backed up, causing me to stop. “Are you scared of me?” She shook her head. “Then what is it? Why are you crying?”

She stared up at the ceiling for a beat then back to me. “If I told you my flaws would you still want to be with me?”

“Of course,” I admitted without needing to think about it.

“They’re really bad, Paul.”

“So we’re back to Paul now?”

She set the paper down on the bed and I saw that it was a drawing of a birthday cake—something a kid would have drawn and colored. She then crossed her arms over her chest and that’s when I realized she was dressed in her normal tank top she wore to bed—not the spaghetti strap thing she had on earlier.

“What I’m about to tell you, you can’t change. So don’t even think you can. It’s in the past. It’s done. Just like your past, I can’t change what happened with your high school girlfriend.” I nodded. “These things make us who we are today and yes, I’m dealing with shit and before you … Just … I’m okay if you don’t want to be with me anymore once you find out.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Because my mom sold my virginity when I was seventeen and I haven’t had sex since!”

She fell to the floor, sobs coming from her throat. I rushed to her, scooping her up and carrying her to my room. “Shh, it’s okay,” I whispered, placing her in the center of my bed and wrapping her in my arms.

She cried until she fell asleep. I, on the other hand, didn’t get a wink of sleep. All I could think about was even though this woman next to me was broken, I didn’t care because I was certain I was falling in love with her.

Chapter Fifteen

Andi

The sun seeped through the blinds and my eyes felt dry and crusty as I tried to open them. My mouth was dry, my head pounded, and when I felt the warm, hard body pressed firmly against me, everything came crashing back.

I’d told Paul how I lost my virginity.

Well, I hadn’t told him everything. I’d spared him the graphic details. I couldn’t believe that I’d told him. I’d never told anyone about that night—not Cat, not even Seth. It might have been because of the tequila. It might have been because of Paul. It might have been the mixture of the two. I wasn’t sure.

The feelings I felt were foreign to me. I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to tell him about my mother, about Tony, and about Marco. I wanted to tell him about the FBI and how I was in Vegas undercover. How I was really Joselyn Marquez and not Andi Middlebrooke. But I couldn’t tell him most of it, so I told him the only part I could tell him, and that was the only thing that no one knew.