was back on her hip. She was digging in.
“No. I was fifteen.” I’d never loved anyone, but I wasn’t about to lay that one on her.
“So, why do I have to love my first?”
“Okay, you have me there. Find someone who won’t get fired for touching you.” I’d break the guy’s fingers one by one, but it couldn’t be me.
“My dad will never know!” She walked forward, and I stepped sideways, then back, putting my boat between us. “I can keep a secret. I’ve never told a soul that you and Weston are best friends. Please do this for me.”
“Do it for you?” Like I wouldn’t enjoy every single minute? “This isn’t a favor to ask like catching a ride home, Savannah. This is my career. This is your first time.”
And damn if I wasn’t the selfish prick who wanted it.
“Are you seriously hiding again?”
“With good reason.” My jaw ticked, and I crossed my arms over my chest.
Surprise flared in her eyes, and a slow, wicked, sexy-as-hell smile spread across her face. “You want me.”
“I’d say that’s pretty obvious given what happened in that gallery.” My dick pulsed, hardening to near-pain at the memory.
“I wanted it to happen.” She swept her tongue over her lower lip, and I wondered if she remembered too. My mouth watered. I’d been so close to tasting her, to eating her in that very public space. Not some stranger in a butterfly costume—Savannah.
Coach’s Savannah.
My Savannah.
“You’re killing me.” I laced my fingers over my head.
“I should have told you my name, but I knew if I did, you’d stop. And it felt so good. So, so, so good. And I just wanted to live in that moment where you wanted me because I’ve always wanted you. Always wondered what it would be like to spend a night with you. Always wondered what it would take for you to look at me like a woman instead of the seventeen-year-old kid whose jaw-dropped when Dad brought you home for dinner.”
The admission nearly broke me. I blew out a long, slow breath, but this wasn’t some candle to huff out. This was a fire, and she’d just fanned the flames.
“You were never a kid to me.” I’d been a twenty-two-year-old rookie who’d known better than to look at teenage girls. She’d been Coach’s daughter, someone to look after, to care for, but never to touch.
Then she turned twenty, and I’d looked, cursing myself the whole time.
Now she was twenty-one, and I’d touched, and couldn’t bring myself to regret it, but that didn’t mean I was going to dirty her up with hands that had no business on all that alabaster skin.
“Then don’t treat me like one.” She squared her shoulders but tugged on the star pendant of her necklace that hung just beneath the space in her collarbone. The star that had given her away at the gallery and did the same thing now. It was her nervous tell.
“It should be special. Your first time.” My hands fell to my sides. “It should be candles and roses and long, long hours that leave you limp and satisfied—”
“Then give me that.” Her gaze turned hot.
“—and it shouldn’t be because of an arrangement you make. It’s not a business transaction, Savannah.”
“I’ve heard the first time can hurt,” she said softly.
Just thinking about sliding deep inside her, feeling her tighten around my cock— I swallowed. “Not for everyone, but yeah. Especially if your partner doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Shit. Had I even known what I’d been doing in college? Would some non-experienced idiot fumble his way into her panties? Push her before she was ready? Take her without making it good for her? Without getting her off once, let alone twice or more?
“I somehow think you know what you’re doing.” Her eyes flashed with victory as if she could read my thoughts.
Hell yes, I did. I’d lick her to her first orgasm before I even thought about stretching her with my fingers. That would be for the second. The third? You have to stop.
“You wouldn’t hurt me,” she said, finally twisting open her water and taking a long drink. “You’re too good at taking care of me to hurt me. Not emotionally or physically if it can be helped. I’d be safe with you.” She put the water down on the windowsill like punctuation—like it had proved her point.
Fuck my life, she was right. “Savannah…”
“I’ll give you a few days to think it over.” She tucked her thumbs into the pockets