Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) by Ainslie Paton

power of ten. Every
single judge giving them that perfect score. She rocked her hips and he thrust
and they stopped kissing to pant, foreheads pressed together, until without
warning he flipped her to her back on the seat and held himself over her.
    “You
are gonna kill me.”
    She put
her hand to his face, and he turned his head to kiss her palm. “What a way to
go, huh? Take me home to your empty apartment so we can both die with our
clothes off.”
    “You
want that?”
    “Yeah,
you crazy man.” She started on the buttons of his shirt. She was the crazy one,
desperate to get her hands on his skin.
    “But
you need sleep.”
    There
was that tight-packed set of abs she’d felt through the cotton. “I’m not
tired.” She pushed his shirt open, and a shiver went through him, but he still
held himself away.
    “You’re
married.” Had to be what his hesitancy was about. A wife stashed somewhere. Crap .
    He
recoiled. “No. Fuck, no.”
    “You
have a girlfriend.” That’s why he’d stopped. He shook his head, hair falling in
his eyes. “Then why?”
    “I
shouldn’t. You have to . . . It wouldn’t be fair.”
    She
scrambled out from under him. “What are you saying?”
    “I have
a problem and I need to solve it and that’s not on you. I couldn’t do that to you.”
    “You’re
not clean.” She sighed. She’d been too carried away to think about that, and
she knew better.
    He did
the unexpected. He gave a bitter laugh. “ I’m a goddamn
virgin.” He sat in the seat with his elbows on his knees and his head in his
hands.
    She
said, “Quit fooling around,” even as she knew he wasn’t. He’d kissed her like
Dalton Connors had kissed her in the barn at the orchard when they were
fourteen. Like the world only started when their lips met and might end if they
stopped. And hers had.
    “I’m twenty-eight
years old. I’ve been to college and I had my own business and I’ve never been
inside a woman. The last time any of me was inside any part of woman, and I’m talking
my tongue in her mouth, I was a senior in high school.”
    She
swung her legs into the foot-well of the car and sat beside him. She wanted to
touch him but she didn’t know if he’d want that.
    “You
got through college a virgin?” How was that possible? Not if he looked like he
did now. He’d buttoned his shirt, but she’d seen a flash of ink.
    “I got
through college never leaving the computer lab. I started my business in
college. I barely even dated. It’s no wonder I’m useless with people, I’m fucking
unnatural.”
    Oh,
this man. She put her hand on his shoulder. “Do you want to have sex?”
    He
turned his head and they locked eyes. “I want it now like I want oxygen to
breathe.”
    “With
me?”
    “With
you, oh God, yes, please, with you.”
    He
opened his arm and she tucked her face into his chest. “So . . .?”
    He
wrapped her closer. “No. I should’ve sorted this years ago. I need to hire a
professional and work all the clumsy out and maybe then you might want me.”
    How it
had to sting for him to tell her that, and how awful he thought it was the kind
of chore he could handle by putting it on his to-do list and paying someone to
take care of it.
    “I want
you.”
    He
brought her chin up so he could see her eyes. “You can’t possibly. I could hurt
you, and it won’t be any fun for you.”
    “You
won’t hurt me.”
    He
brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “You’re tiny and I’m not in control.”
    “I’m
strong and flexible and you know it. I understand what you’re saying and I want
to be with you. I want to be your first.”
    “I’m
going to explode the minute you touch me.”
    “I’d
like to see that.”
    He
shook his head. He was miserable with shame and indecision.
    “And
then when we do it a second time, you won’t come so quick and by the third time
you’ll—”
    He
stopped her mouth with a too-hard kiss that pinched her lip and made her cling
to him.
    And now
she trembled