thirteen, and it was awful,” I tell him. “I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up. I had it built up in my head that it was going to be the best thing ever because I’d had a crush on the guy for the last few months. Well, it was slobbery, and the boy ended up telling everyone I tasted like fish.” Fucker. I was vulnerable in the new, rich kid school my aunt put me in. My classmates knew I didn’t come from money, and it turned out this boy was just playing me.
“You definitely don’t smell like fish. You smell like...” He breathes in deep, dragging the tip of his nose across the arch of my neck. There’s something so sensual about it that my toes nearly curl in my shoes. “...a garden in the summer.”
My knees go weak. It’s true that things get better with age. Magnum must have experience. Not that I want to know the ins and outs of said experience. I shiver. Fuck. I really don’t want to know the ins and outs because my jealousy will flare again.
Come to think of it, it’s kind of fucked that I want four guys to share me, but I don’t want to share. I shrug because, well, that’s me, so whatever.
“Don’t distract me,” I tell him.
“You’re easily distracted.”
I smile because it certainly seems like I’m easily distracted around them. I put some space between us, pulling back a little. “Your first kiss?”
“There was a girl down the road when I was six. I pecked her cheek.”
“No, no, no. Real kiss. With tongue.”
He groans. “Why don’t we just say that my kiss with you—with tongue—was the first one I’ve ever really enjoyed.”
He full-on distracts me then, moving in to cover my mouth with his, sending sparks of electricity through me as he claims my lips over and over again until I can’t even remember the boy’s name who pissed me off when I was thirteen.
11
Murmuring seeps into my consciousness. I extend my legs out on the bed, stretching like a cat, working the kinks out from the turtle position I’d been sleeping in.
Silence fills the room, which is odd, since I’m sure I heard something loud enough to wake me.
I make myself relax, tucking the pillow back under my head. Magnum fell asleep in the corner chair again. Maybe he talks in his sleep, even though I doubt he even falls asleep. The guy must be working on zero hours. Guilt coats my sleepy haze. I shouldn’t have asked him to stay here again.
The whispers start back up, and this time, I’m sure of it. I listen in case Magnum does talk in his sleep, curious if he’s dreaming about me. He’s starred in a few of my dreams, so at least we could call it even if that’s the case.
My heart freezes in my chest when another voice joins his. I suck in a breath, but I stop myself from reacting even further. Johnny’s here. Not on the phone, in my head, or staring back at me from a computer screen, he’s in this room. I’m sure of it.
“Thank you for watching her,” he says.
“She’s special,” Mag whispers, and my heart squeezes at his words.
I lay there dreamily. If I wasn’t positive they were actually having this conversation, I wouldn’t believe it. Last time Johnny caught someone in the same room with me alone, he beat the shit out of him. Now, Magnum is legit in my bedroom, and Johnny is thanking him. Mag even called me special, and so far, Johnny hasn’t reacted to his words.
“I would’ve been back before…”
“Don’t even mention it,” Mag says. “We know. We get it.”
Johnny sighs. The edge of the bed depresses, and I bite my lip. “Shit’s all fucked up.” The somber, edgy tone in his voice makes me want to wrap my arms around him, but I don’t want to give myself away yet. Plus, if he’s finding someone to open up too, that’s even better. He and Magnum have been close. I don’t know if they’ve ever had a relationship where they talk about shit, but Johnny needs those kinds of people in his life. People he can talk to about anything without repercussions. “I thought I was going to lose her, man. It was worse than her dying because at least then I would know she could never be around. But being sent to prison? She’d be alive, but we couldn’t have