“What?” she sighed, her tongue coming out to moisten her lips.
He held back the groan stuck in the back of his throat. He was trying to do the right thing here. “I need to grab a shower and then we’ll go eat something.”
Angelina frowned, looking unsure. “Oh, okay.”
Not really knowing what to do, Adam turned to get some clean clothes. He then headed toward the shower, but her voice stopped him.
“Adam, don’t you want me?” Her voice trembled, but was loud enough to stop him.
If she only knew how much he wanted her. “It’s too soon, Angelina.” Was all he could think to say and he didn’t even trust himself to turn around and say it to her face. He was on the edge and it wouldn’t take much to push him right over.
Closing the bathroom door behind him, he dropped his clothes, climbed in the shower and turned the cold water on. The first blast of freezing water hit, making him suck in his stomach, but it was doing nothing for his raging hard-on. God, he was just a dumb ass. All she probably wanted from him was comfort, yet there he was kissing her senseless as soon as they were alone, gaining a hard-on from hell. Hell, he didn’t even know if she’d ever been with anyone or not. It wasn’t as if she had saved herself for him all these years. He knew she dated through high school, but never seriously and she wasn’t the type to put it out to anyone. She swore she had been pretty much untouched during her kidnapping.
Leaning his head against the cool tile, he cursed as he banged his head repeatedly against the tile.
“You’re going to hurt yourself.” Her voice washed over him like a warm blanket against the cold water beating down on his back.
With his head still against the tile, he squeezed his eyes shut, praying for strength. “Angelina, I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
“No, you’re not,” she responded, her voice firm, yet there was a hint of uncertainty.
“What do you mean I’m…” Adam turned only his head to look at her, and wished he hadn’t. She stood just outside the shower door. Her beautiful body bare, her pale blonde hair hanging over her shoulder partially covering her breast. “Jesus! Angel, please, you’re killing me.”
“Yeah, well you’ve been killing me for six years, Adam Pride.” Angelina went from sounding uncertain to pissed off. “I’m not a virgin, you idiot, so stop treating me like one.”
Still facing the wall, both hands supporting him against the tile, he felt his body tighten with the urge to kill the son-of–a-bitch who’d had her first. “Who?” He hadn’t meant to ask, but it just came out of his mouth…in a snarl that had his lip curling up in rage.
“Really?” Angelina laughed in disbelief. “Okay, you want the run down? I’ll give you the run down. Junior prom I went with Mark Wilson.”
“Mark Wilson?” Adam hissed, his gut clinching. He had hated that guy.
“Shut up,” Angelina hissed back, causing him to turn to look at her over his shoulder. “Yes, Mark Wilson. After watching you and Beth Ann all night, I just wanted…that…what you guys had. Except I wanted it with you, but I knew I couldn’t.”
“Mark Fucking Wilson?” Adam spat, banging his head once more against the tile, his anger not directed at Angelina, but at himself. Though he was a different person back then, Adam had been aware of Angelina, hell who wouldn’t have; she was hot as hell, just as much as she was at that moment, but he had been the football star dating the captain of the cheerleading squad. That was the way it was; the way people thought it should be, but not the way it should have been, because Adam had truly not been happy. He knew that now, but back then, he was too full of himself to realize anything other than being the number one badass on the field, dating the girl every guy wanted. God, he had been such an asshole.
“Yes, Mark Fucking Wilson,” Angelina yelled, becoming angry.
Adam couldn’t help but smile. Angelina never cussed and he didn’t think he’d ever heard her say fuck before. Glancing back at her, his smile faded. She stood with her arms covering her breast, her head hung.
“It was awful, and to this day, I regret it because it wasn’t you I gave myself to first.” Angelina finally looked up at him. “I heard you last night when you thought I was asleep, Adam Pride. You promised to make me forget. I heard your whispered words and I need you to make me forget not only Robert, but Jeff who sold me to that awful man, who auctioned me off to Robert along with the other women, but most importantly, make me forget Mark Fucking Wilson, because he shouldn’t have been my first. You should have been. I need for you to stop trying to do the right thing and just love me like you say you do, because that is the right thing to do.”
Their eyes held as the challenge laid between them. Pushing away from the wall, Adam turned fully, his eyes running slowly down her body then back up, stopping at her sweet blue eyes. “You are beautiful.”