Virgin Seeks Bad Boy (Bliss River #3) - Lili Valente Page 0,16
the end.”
Aria nods slowly. “I did. But I got hurt a lot along the way.”
“Do you regret being with someone other than Nash?” I ask, genuinely curious. I didn’t expect Aria to be so anti-experimentation. Adventure was pretty much her middle name until Felicity was born.
She shakes her head. “No, I don’t. Every failed relationship helped make me the person I am now. I can love and appreciate Nash in a way I’m not sure I would have if I hadn’t been with those other guys, but…” She wrinkles her nose. “I just hate to think of you getting hurt. Especially your first time. You’re always going to remember that first experience. It’s unavoidable. So, it’s really preferable when it’s a nice memory, you know?”
“I know.” I gather my mug in both hands, feeling oddly…bereft.
What Aria’s saying makes sense.
The logical part of my brain knows that.
But the rest of me just wants permission to throw caution to the wind and set a cross country speed record on my way to Nick’s bed.
“Guys who don’t want a ‘good girl’ for a girlfriend usually have their reasons for it,” Aria adds gently. “And they’re usually not nice ones. You might think you’re okay with having a fling with him, but how are you going to feel when he calls it off a few weeks after you start sleeping together? Or if he doesn’t even bother to officially end it. What if he just stops calling one day and a few days later you see him out with another girl? That kind of thing happens with guys like Nick.”
I heave another tortured sigh. “I know it can, but I really don’t think it would end like that. I swear, Aria, the way he makes me feel…” I bite my lip, searching for the perfect words, but in the end all I come up with is a cliché. But clichés stick with us for a reason. Because they feel so dang true. “When we kiss it’s fireworks all the way. I’ve never felt fireworks. Ever. And I know he feels the same way.”
Aria makes a pained face. “Have you already slept with him?”
“No.” I study the cream swirls in my coffee as I mumble, “He found out I was a virgin and backed off. He said I was a beautiful girl who deserves a beautiful first time and he wasn’t the type of guy for me and blah blah blah and then he left.” I roll my eyes. “So, yeah… It was mortifying.”
Aria’s quiet for a long time.
Finally, I glance up to see a thoughtful expression on her face.
“What?” I ask. “Is there a better word than mortified? Humiliated, maybe?”
“No, you shouldn’t be mortified or humiliated, of course not,” she murmurs before falling silent again.
“But?” I prod after another minute passes. “What are you thinking? The suspense is kind of killing me.”
“I’m thinking…” She presses her lips together for a moment before continuing. “I think I’m torn.”
“Torn how?”
“As your sister, I feel compelled to give you one kind of advice.” She sips her coffee. “But if we were just friends, I’d say something different.”
“Pretend we’re friends, then,” I say, laughing when Aria narrows her eyes at me over the rim of her mug. “You know what I mean. Of course, we’re friends, but pretend we’re just friends.”
“Okay, but as your sister, I feel compelled to tell you not to take what I’m about to tell you too seriously.” She leans in, adding in a confidential tone. “I think he likes you. Maybe even really likes you.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Really?”
“Really,” she says. “And I don’t think he’s as wild as he pretends to be. I mean, a real bad boy wouldn’t care if you were a virgin, and he certainly wouldn’t care about protecting you from guys like him.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” I say, my heel jogging up and down and I consider our encounter last night through that lens. “I mean, I’m pretty into him. I think it may be more than a crush, you know?”
“Maybe for him, too, but like I said, I wouldn’t take the possibility too seriously. You’d still be playing with fire. If he’s that spooked by what he’s feeling, sounds like your relationship would be off to a rocky start.”
I fight a gleeful grin, but lose the battle almost instantly. “I’m okay with rocky starts.”
Aria holds up a hand in the universal sign for ‘slow down.’ “But I could be wrong. Remember that.”