I wasn’t still a virgin at the age of eighteen because I had some sort of deep moral beliefs about waiting till marriage for sex or whatever. Nope, I wasn’t like that at all. I believed that all people, male or female, should feel free to explore their sexualities as long as they were old enough to consent, and I’d never judged my friends who’d started sleeping with their boyfriends when they were only sixteen or seventeen.
I’d simply been too busy with other things in life. School had always been hectic for me, and it was my number one priority. I wasn’t one of those super genius people who were seemingly born with the ability to understand quantum physics and five different languages; I had to study my ass off in order to make the grades I knew I needed to get into a place like Caltech, my Mom’s ultimate dream school for me. She had drummed it into my head from a young age: go to a top college, study a STEM major and get a job as an engineer or something else related to that. To her, that was the path to success in life, and I wanted to make her proud seeing as it was just me and her these days - the two of us against the world.
As a result, I’d spent most of my weekends studying to keep my GPA up or working on extracurriculars while my friends were out at all the cool parties hooking up with guys. The most trouble I’d ever gotten into was when I was allowed to attend the occasional sleepover birthday party on school breaks, and me and my friends would get up to all sorts of mischief playing silly typical teen party games like Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle, and everyone’s favorite – a combination of the two: Spin-a-Dare. But all of that was hardly ‘trouble’ at all. Nope, I was a good girl through and through, and tonight that was going to change. I was sick of being that straight-edged geek girl who always had her nose in a book, and my friends were going to help me find the perfect guy to change that.
So that was it. Tonight was going to be awesome.
“Ooh, hot guys at two o’clock,” Lana murmured in my ear, nodding her head towards a group of young men in black pants, ties and button-downs. Classy, but maybe a bit too classy. They were typical young professionals who belonged in a stuffy wine bar, not in Seattle’s hottest new club. Mint was in the basement of Hotel Laurent, and it was our city’s premier nightspot at the moment. Famous international DJs and celebrity guests often performed sets at it, and everyone knew it was where all the famous models and actors hung out when they were in town.
Cerie waved her hand. “Nah, not them,” she said, obviously thinking the same as me.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I can scope out my own guys.”
They exchanged glances and then looked back at me, almost mirror images of each other. They were both tall, auburn-haired and pencil thin with the metabolisms of jet engines, whereas I was darker and had the metabolism of a rock suffering from an addiction to sugar and fried things. Oh well, that’s life for you. I didn’t mind the way my curves filled out my clothes.
“If we let you pick, you’ll somehow manage to find the one and only nerd here and end up talking about economics or physics all night. What you need is the opposite of that – a big, muscular hottie with tatts and an attitude. Someone you won’t get emotionally attached to,” Cerie said. “Honestly, the first time always sucks, so it may as well be with the hottest guy you can find.”
“You need someone like that,” Lana said, nudging the both of us and nodding towards a table over to the left side of the club.
My gaze followed her nod, and I gulped as I saw who she was referring to. Major hottie alert. The guy was tall and inked, and under the flashing lights I could see exactly how his tattoos snaked around his bulging biceps. His nose was straight, his mouth firm, his brows heavy and his eyes bright. His face was vigorously alive and carelessly charming, and as he was approached by a blonde bikini-clad promo model, his eyes glowed with pleasure. Something about him seemed familiar, but I couldn’t figure out where I’d seen him before.
Suddenly it hit me. He was a model too. I’d seen him on a billboard only yesterday. Talk about aiming high for my first time! Dream on, Sophie, I told myself.
I groaned. “Come on…I can’t compete with that girl he’s with. Look at her! At least pick a guy I have a chance with.”
“What, you mean the tall blonde chick he’s with?” Lana said. “Check out his body language. His feet are facing away from her. He’s just being polite, and he’s definitely not into her.”
Lana fancied herself as some sort of expert on body language, and I had to admit, she was usually right.
Cerie cut in. “Even a Barbie would be jealous of how fake she is. Go and talk to him!”
I flashed her a reluctant look. “No, seriously, look at him! There’s no way he’d even want to go near me, let alone hook up with me tonight.”
“Oh, get over this insecure crap,” Cerie replied, playfully swatting me on the arm. “You’re great. Now do it. I dare you.”
“I double dare you,” Lana added.
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, guys, we haven’t done that since the ninth grade.”
The last time one of them had dared me to do something, I’d been fourteen and ended up passionately grinding up against a tree in Lana’s backyard. That was still preferable than being dared to go and talk to this unbelievably hot guy, though, and I gulped as Cerie nudged me in his direction and hissed in my ear.
“You can’t back out of a dare. That’s the rules, remember?”
I let out a sigh. She’d been correct in her earlier statement. Insecurity was decidedly unsexy, and I needed to pick up my game if I was ever going to go home with a guy. “Fine. But if I end up humiliated, you guys are buying me drinks for the rest of the night. And if he turns out to be a serial killer, I’m going to haunt you both.”
They grinned and nodded, waving me away, and I slowly walked past two grinding dancers and a guy who looked like he’d taken an entire bottle of pills before stepping towards the table where the hot guy was standing and sipping on a glass of amber liquid. As I drew closer, he looked over Blondie’s shoulder, and my stomach flipped over as our eyes locked. The corners of his mouth quirked up in a confident smile that made my lower half go all tingly, and I wondered what he’d be capable of doing to me in the bedroom if he could affect me so much with just one glance.
I heard him excuse himself from the blonde girl, and she was gone by the time I stepped up to him.
“Hey,” I said, feeling like a prize idiot the second the word left my mouth. ‘Hey’? Great opening line, Sophie! I thought bitterly. I really wasn’t cut out for this, but practice makes perfect, right? I could only get better from here on out, or so I hoped.
“Hey back atcha,” he replied, his smile morphing into more of a smirk. His deep voice easily carried through the thumping music. He looked older than me, but not by all that much. Twenty, maybe twenty-one.
I felt like a deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car, and my plastered-on smile faltered as I stared up at him. God, he was tall, and up close his muscles seemed even more powerful. I wanted to look away so he wouldn’t think I was a total pervy freak, but at the same time I couldn’t tear my gaze away. Crap. What the hell was I meant to do?
I could hear Lana’s voice in my head again. Keep smiling. Act confident even if you aren’t feeling it.
“I feel like I know you from somewhere. Are you the guy from the vodka billboard?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s me. I’m Drew. What’s your name?”
I opened my mouth to tell him, but something made me falter for a second. I didn’t want to tell him my real name. If I was going to shed my old nerdy girl identity tonight, then I wanted a sexy alter-ego name for the evening. Hey, it wasn’t like the guy was ever going to find out. I’d already decided that whatever happened tonight was going to be a one-time thing, just to get my virginity out of the way before I headed off to college in a few months.
“Err…Tatiana,” I said.
He arched an eyebrow, and I mentally kicked myself for not having chosen a more realistic fak
e name. To my mind, Tatiana was a very Russian sounding name, and with my black hair, curves, tanned skin and chocolate brown eyes, there was no way I looked anything other than Latina. Oh well.
“Cool. Nice to meet you, Tatiana.”
He extended a hand as he spoke. I shook it, and my stomach turned to mush as electricity seemed to spark between us. I finally managed to tear my eyes away from his, and he slid the same hand under my chin and tilted my face back up so that I was forced to look into his eyes again.
“You’ve got amazing eyes, babe,” he said, dropping his hand back to his side. “Keep them on me.”
The intensity of his expression made me even more nervous, and I couldn’t tell if he was actually interested in me or just loving the thrill of the chase. Not that he had to do much chasing. I was the one who’d approached him, after all.
“So, you been to Mint before?” he asked.
“No,” I replied. “This is my first time at a club, actually.”
He smirked again. “Well, there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there, sweetheart?”
I felt naked under his gaze, and I got the distinct impression that he’d somehow read my mind, and the ‘first time’ he was referring to had nothing to do with the club. I was thankful that we weren’t standing in broad daylight, where he’d easily be able to see the blush spreading across my cheeks.
“Do you like it?” he continued, taking another sip of his drink and coolly appraising my figure with those gorgeous eyes.
“Sure. I only just arrived, but it seems okay. Cool music.”
He shrugged and affected a bored expression. “Yeah, I guess. All clubs are the same to me. I get paid to be seen hanging out at them, so they all blur together after a while.”
Lucky bastard. I suppose that’s what happens when you’re uber-hot. People will literally pay you to show up at their events. Drew seemed a bit full of himself for bringing it up, but there was no denying the effect he was having on me despite his seemingly egotistical attitude.
“So you just come here to show off those muscles and make bank, huh?” I said. Cerie had told me that guys liked a bit of friendly teasing mixed in with their flirting, and unfortunately, that was the best I could come up with while feeling this nervous. Dammit, this was really not going well. My own awkwardness was making me internally cringe. At least he was still talking to me, though. That had to count for something.
He snickered. “I don’t need to show off. I just need to show up.”
God, he really was incredibly arrogant. If he actually wanted someone to like him for more than his abs, then he needed a set of brakes installed on his mouth. Then again, maybe that was his thing - hook up with girls and make sure they didn’t like him enough as a person to really care if he ever called them again afterwards. Oh well. Didn’t matter to me. This was going to be a one-time thing. That was the plan, right? I just had to follow through with it.
“So…what are you doing later?” I asked.
“You,” he said, without skipping a beat. He managed to keep a completely straight face as he said that, aside from a brief twinkle in those bright blue eyes of his, and I wondered if he was that bold by nature…or bold from using that same line over and over and having it work. Probably the latter.
I’d always heard that it was women who had no problems getting laid, but this Drew guy was proving quite the opposite. All he had to say was one word and I was melting on the inside, and I was willing to bet it was no different for any other woman who encountered him. I bet no one had ever said no to him, not in his entire life. And why would they?
“You’re very forward,” I finally replied, and he smirked again.
“I’ve got a room upstairs in the hotel. You coming or not?” he asked.
He said that last part in a smug tone, as if he didn’t believe I was up for the challenge. Little did he know I was more than up for it. I nodded, and he took my hand in his before leading me across the room, past my friends and out of the club. Cerie and Lana grinned at me and gave me the thumbs up as we passed, and soon Drew and I were alone in an elevator, on our way to the penthouse suite of the Laurent. Neither of us spoke, but that was okay. This wasn’t a date, and we both knew we weren’t here for conversation.
He swiped a keycard into a lock when we arrived on the top floor, and I admired his broad shoulders and back as I stood behind him. Compared to him, I felt tiny and vulnerable, despite my curvy frame. When the door opened, I stepped forward and drew in a sharp breath as I took in the incredible view from the window on the other side of the spacious room. City lights sprawled out below us, and I admired the beauty of it before gasping as Drew came up behind me and slid an arm around my waist.
Something warm touched my back, and I realized it was his bare chest. Ha. He hadn’t wasted any time; he’d already taken his shirt off.
“Like the view?” he whispered in my ear, his warm breath making me shiver.
I turned around and raked my eyes over the contours of his inked chest, arms and stomach. God, his abs were so sculpted that I could probably drink champagne out of them if he was lying down.
“I think I like this view better,” I replied, curling my lips into a half-smile.
“And you say I’m the forward one,” he murmured.
His blue eyes smoldered, and my own brown eyes felt plain in comparison. Excited butterflies took flight in my chest, dipping and diving at the look of pure possession in his gaze. He cupped my face, caressed my cheek and leaned in, and I barely had time to register what was happening before his lips crushed down on mine, devouring me with the intensity of his kiss. Every inch of my skin tingled with mad desire as his big hands coasted over my shoulders before sliding the zipper to my top down, and I closed my eyes and leaned further in, returning his kiss with equal passion.
So much passion sparked between us as our lips met that oxygen seemed to vanish from my lungs entirely, and I could feel my panties dampening with need as my insides clenched.
“You’re so sexy.” Drew’s gravelly voice sent electricity shooting down my spine as he pulled away from my mouth and yanked my top off, and my nipples tightened into hard little nubs under my bra, begging for his touch.
There was an invisible pull between us, so thick and strong I could almost touch it. He slid an arm around me again, and within the blink of an eye, he’d thrown me down onto the king-sized bed. I skittered back towards the pillows, watching with fascination as he shed his jeans and boxers.
He was totally nude now, and I bit my lower lip as he reached down and slowly stroked a hand over his rock hard shaft. No wonder he was so arrogant…his cock was huge. Was that where the word ‘cocky’ came from in the first place?
He motioned towards the bedside table to the left of me. “Grab me a condom, babe.”
As I leaned over to the drawer and opened it, he was suddenly upon me, and I let out a giggle as he pushed my skirt up to my hips, yanked my legs apart and slid a hand inside my black panties. My breath caught in my chest, squeezing its way into my lungs, and with one quick groan he was spreading my lower lips and rubbing slow circles on my clit.
“Stop!” I said as I playfully pushed him away. I’d only managed to get the bedside drawer halfway open before he’d attacked me.
As I pulled out a condom and shut the drawer a second later, something caught my eye, and my smile died on my lips. It was a small wastebasket a couple of feet away, and if my eyes weren’t deceiving me, there were two already-used condoms lying in it. He must have already had at least one other girl up in here tonight. For some reason, my heart suddenly plummeted into my stomach at the sight of it.
I didn’t feel strong, empowered and sexualized. I felt weak, cheap and used, and I couldn’t understand why I’d thought this whole thing was a good idea. I didn’t want to be a virgin anymore, but was this really how I wanted to remember my first time - a hotel room with a perfect stranger who’d never give me a second thought afterwards? Earlier on, I would’ve said
yes, but I now knew that was naïve. Now that I was actually in the moment, I realized exactly how much I didn’t like the idea of casual, no-strings-attached sex. Something about it just felt so wrong, like I’d have to be dead on the inside to enjoy the total lack of real intimacy and meaning.
As I hesitated, Drew’s hands were all over me again, stroking, caressing and squeezing, and I abruptly got up and pulled my skirt back down over my thighs before hunting for my top.
“What the…”
His eyes narrowed with confusion, and I looked down at the floor. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I have to go.”
“Huh? What the fuck are you talking about?”
I cast my eyes around, looking for my black and silver clutch purse. “I have to go,” I repeated.
“You can’t be fucking serious,” he said. “You tease me and get me all hard and raring to go, and then you just fuck off before we even start? You can’t do that!”
Ugh. He sounded like such an entitled prick. My cheeks burned, and I glared at him.
“I don’t owe you anything. You know, women are allowed to change their minds,” I said. “We’re allowed to say no. Amazingly enough, we’re even allowed to vote!”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Thanks for the lecture, Miss Feminism 101. I wasn’t insinuating anything sexist, I was just saying it’s pretty fucking rude to purposely give a guy blue balls.”
“Well, I’m sure you can find someone else to take care of that,” I said, gesturing towards the trash can as I finally located my clutch.
He looked mystified, as if no one had ever dared to reject him before, and as I turned and strode towards the door, he called out to me.
“Wait!”
“What?” I replied, turning back to face him. Maybe he wasn’t so much of a jerk after all. Maybe he was about to say he’d be okay with taking things slower.
He smirked and put his hand on his crotch again. “You don’t know what you’re missing out on,” he said. “You could’ve had the best night of your life.”
Score - A Stepbrother Romance Page 21