“Take off your shorts and panties,” I said. I wanted to watch my hand as I played with her. She lifted her bottom so I could help her tug them down. When they were gone, she lay back against me again with her legs open. I lifted my hand to smell her and licked the taste off my fingers. She watched me with wide eyes, and the pulse in her neck quickened and throbbed. “You taste really good,” I told her.

She took a swift breath and squirmed.

“Lean up. I want you naked,” I instructed her, knowing this was a bad idea. I hadn’t had her naked since the night on the beach, and I’d wanted inside her so bad that night. I knew she’d let me if I asked. But I couldn’t do that to her. I was leaving. I didn’t deserve her virginity. But damn, I wanted it to be mine.

She lifted her shirt and tossed it, and I made quick work of her bra.

Then she leaned back again, completely naked in my arms. It was the most humbling and erotic sight I’d ever seen. I had only slept with four girls and seen about seven naked, so my experience wasn’t that great, especially compared with Rush, Grant, and Woods. But I knew that this time with Bethy would mark me. For life.

Bethy

“Do you trust me?” Tripp asked.

I knew by now that when he asked me that, he was about to do something new. I also knew that it was going to feel amazing. But it still made me nervous. I nodded and braced myself for what came next.

“Lean up one more time,” he said. I did as I was told.

He pulled his shirt off, and I was relieved. I didn’t like being the only one naked. But then, I’d never seen him naked. He always just took off his shirt. His hands went to his shorts, and I stopped breathing.

“I’m just undoing them. When we’re doing things . . . it gets tight and uncomfortable down there. I need to give it some space,” he said, watching me closely.

I nodded, but I still couldn’t breathe. Not because I was scared of what he was going to do but because I wanted to see him so badly. I’d felt him through his jeans and shorts, but I’d never seen anything.

He unzipped his shorts and tugged them down. As I lifted my bare bottom, he kicked his shorts off, then reached for me to settle back between his legs. The only thing between my bottom and his erection was the thin cotton of his navy boxer briefs.

Oh, boy.

The hardness felt different without the buffer of his shorts. It was bigger than I thought. Which scared and excited me all at once.

“Bethy, sweetheart, relax. I just needed some space. My boxers are staying on. I swear.” He thought I was worried that he was going to push me for sex. He wouldn’t have to push very hard. I was at his mercy. If Tripp asked me to do something, I would do it. That was the simple, pathetic truth.

“I know,” I assured him.

“Good, now lie back and let me touch you,” he said in my ear as I eased back against him.

Watching him undress had excited me, and with my excitement came the dampness. It had spread to my inner thighs, and opening back up so he could see that was humiliating. Maybe I could say I needed to use the restroom. But then I’d have to run into his apartment naked. Not a good idea, either.

Tripp’s hand was on my knee, and he started pushing my legs open again. I squeezed my eyes closed as I slowly gave in. When his hand moved back down there, he paused as he felt me. I wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere. “Oh, fuuuuck,” he groaned, and his fingers started moving again. He slipped two inside me this time as his breathing picked up. “God, baby, just when I think it’s not possible for me to get more turned on, you open up to me again, dripping like this. Jesus, Bethy. You’re going to kill me.”

I liked it when he said things like that. It sounded dirty, but I liked it. Tripp saying things like that, with his voice all husky, made my whole body hum. His other hand slipped down and touched my damp inner thigh, and he muttered another curse. “Even your thighs. Were you dripping down them?”

I didn’t know how to answer that. I wasn’t sure how it had happened.

“Was it me taking off my shorts?” he asked against my ear.

I couldn’t really form words with him touching me down there with both hands now.

He slipped his fingers back inside me, and I moved against his hands. “I would slip in so damn easy. Do you have any idea how bad I want to be inside you? To know I’m buried inside you. That you’re mine, and no one else can have what I have. You’re so tight and hot. It would be the closest to heaven I’m ever gonna get.”

Oh, God. Those words. I panted as he breathed hard in my ear. He held me open with one hand and slid his finger gently, back and forth, through the moisture with the other.

I was fighting to breathe.

“Straddle me, Bethy. I want to feel you like this,” he said.

I lifted a leg, and he slid me up until I was directly over the obvious erection jutting forward, tenting his boxers. Then he lowered me slowly over it. My weight pushed it back down against his stomach. He threw his head back and groaned as I sank down on him completely. Seeing him like this only made me tingle even harder down below, which I knew meant I was just getting wetter.

“Fuck, I want to feel this without the boxers. Do you trust me?” he asked as he opened his eyes and looked up at me.

I nodded, because the truth was, if he wanted to be inside me, I would let him. I loved Tripp. There was no doubt in my mind that I would always love him. Even when he left, I would love him. Giving him my virginity was something I wanted to do.