The Kingmaker (All the King's Men Duet #1) - Kennedy Ryan Page 0,33

sift my fingers into her hair. God, I’m going to sound like some besotted beggar, but I don’t give a fuck. “I want as much time as I can have with you. As long as we’re here. Until I leave for Antarctica or you go home. I just—”

“No, you don’t under . . .” She stops and smiles, and it’s a little self-conscious. “You said at dinner that you could clearly see my values, but I think you overlooked one.”

“Okay. Help me out here. What am I missing?”

“I’m a virgin, Doc.”

14

Lennix

The pin-drop silence following my words stretches so long I start fidgeting. Maxim just stares at me, mouth slightly open.

“I said virgin, not alien.” I run a hand through my hair. “If that’s a problem—”

“It’s not.”

When he takes my wrist between his strong fingers, it feels frail and small. Or maybe that’s how I feel, sharing something so personal and . . . mine with him. It reminds me how very little we know about each other.

“My favorite color is blue–green,” I blurt. “Not one or the other, because they’re just better blended together.”

He blinks a few times, frowns, then chuckles, a low, sensual sound that goes straight for my panties. If we actually make it to his place tonight, he’ll have the horniest virgin ever on his hands.

“Okaaaay. I’ll remember that the next time I’m, oh, I don’t know, buying you a pair of shoes, but tonight I feel like maybe there are other things we should discuss.” He starts walking, semi-dragging me along. “Let’s walk and talk.”

It’s not that late, and the streets still brim with conversations and laughter and people. Amsterdam is distinct and charming and wild and beguiling. It’s this amalgamation of medieval and modern that feels distinctly European to my American eyes.

“We’re going to your place?” I ask after a few moments of walking in silence.

“Yeah, unless you want your first time to be in a hostel with your two roommates listening and watching? I mean, if you’re into that kind of thing, I’m down. I just assumed you’d want some privacy.”

“Privacy would be better probably, yeah. Do you, um, want to know why I’m still a virgin?”

“If you want to tell me. It’s not like a disease or a contagious condition or something you have to confess to a partner for their personal health or safety. ‘Beware of virgin.’”

“Well a lot of people seem to treat it that way. I mean, guys do sometimes get weird about the whole deflowering thing.”

“You know, I actually have had quite a bit of sex, occasionally with virgins, and I’ve never found a flower down there.”

I punch his arm lightly and he laughs, draws me into his side, into the warmth of his body, and kisses the top of my head.

“Also, I’m hurt,” he says. “Here I was thinking I’m the first guy you’ve offered your virginity to only to find out you’ve been trying to get rid of it forever and all these idiots have been so freaked out by an imaginary flower between your legs that they wouldn’t take it. Now I just feel like sloppy seconds.”

I laugh-growl and turn my head to playfully bite the inside of his arm. Even through his sweater, the muscle is dense and unyielding.

“I haven’t, you know,” I tell him. “Haven’t offered it . . . myself to anyone else, I mean.”

I sneak a sideways glance at him only to find him assessing me from the side, too. He still doesn’t voice the question, but I want him to know.

“When I was thirteen years old, I became a woman. I know it sounds early, but we have a tradition, a rite of passage for young girls, called the Sunrise Dance. It’s extremely important. For years, the government actually outlawed it, and we had to perform it in secret.”

“Damn colonizers,” he mutters.

“Um, your ancestors were probably some of those damn colonizers,” I say, but give him the slightest smile to remove some sting from the truth.

“My ancestors were Welshmen who didn’t come over until the late 1800s.”

“And what did they do when they came over?” Before he can answer, I answer for him. “Settled. And I bet they settled on land that was stolen from Natives. And they instantly assumed their position higher on the American totem pole because believe me, we’re always at the bottom.”

“Touché. I’m sorry. Am I being terribly white and ignorant?”

“No, it’s not that. And as much as I typically enjoy a good lecture on colonialism and