1
This was not going as planned.
And I hated it when that happened.
See, this was supposed to be the weekend I lost my virginity. Yes, that's right. I was a twenty-five-year-old virgin. You read that correctly.
Having four older brothers who were known around our small town for being full of piss and vinegar meant that I didn't date in high school. Ever. No boy would even talk to me, much less ask me out, for fear of the wrath of the Prescott boys.
Well, I wanted that to change.
I had it planned out. I didn't want a relationship because men were a huge pain in the butt. Again, four older brothers had taught me that. Watching them screw up their relationships throughout my teen years had been extremely informative.
If they weren't taking their girlfriends and later wives for granted, they were cheating, or carousing, or just plain being jerks. It was enough to turn a girl off from romantic relationships.
I knew that not all men were like my brothers, but even they didn't act like that in the beginning. Who would?
I didn't want to waste my time trying to get down to the truth of a man, only to have him prove that he wasn't worth the effort.
Now, don't get me wrong, I loved my brothers dearly. I just didn't want to date anyone like them.
So, losing my virginity would have to be a casual sort of thing. Sure, I could wait until I was ready to deal with dating and everything that came with it, but I had more important things to worry about.
Like grad school.
I was starting my first semester this fall. It would be another eighteen months to two years before I would be done, and I really didn't want to be a twenty-seven-year-old virgin.
I had no idea why that seemed even worse to me, but it did.
Where was a good place for a single woman in a small town to troll for a one-night stand?
Not The Red Boot, the local pub. Or online hookup sites.
That was a guaranteed way for word to get back to your overbearing, butt-head brothers that you were trolling for a quick roll in the hay.
The only chance I would have without having to drive an hour and a half away to a club in Dallas would be my employer's wedding.
I decided to lower the skeeziness factor of picking up a guy at my boss's wedding by arranging a date for the following night or even the following week. I hated to do it but my options were extremely limited and I knew that I wouldn't have time to take care of this issue once the fall semester started.
There were single men from out-of-town coming to celebrate Cam's upcoming nuptials to Brody Murphy, her fiancé. Brody had spent several years living away from our little town of Farley and he had lots of handsome single friends. They were also older than me and likely a great deal more experienced, which meant that my first time might not completely suck.
The problem was Cam's brother, J.J.
Since the moment I'd bumped into him outside the rehearsal dinner, he'd stayed glued to my side. It wasn't necessarily a hardship because I'd known him most of my life due to his friendship with my brother, but he was also throwing a monkey wrench in my one-night-stand plans.
Jackson James McClane had been the star of many of my adolescent fantasies, but I'd grown out of that. Mostly. He'd already graduated high school by the time I was a freshman, but he was the same age as the youngest of my four brothers, Scott, so I saw him constantly at my brother's basketball games in high school.
When I was twelve, I thought he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And he was always nice to me. He picked on his little sister incessantly, but he never picked on me.
When I was thirteen, I went from innocent admiration to full-blown crush. I could barely speak around him. I always felt flushed and hot in his presence. He was still nice to me, but his smile had the power to make my heart race.
And when he came over to our house to spend time with Scott, God, I wasn't sure if I wanted to hide in my room or lurk outside Scott's room just so I could hear his deep voice as he trash-talked my brother while they played video games.
But right now, I wished he were far, far away.
I couldn't sleep with my boss's brother and he was making it impossible for me to find another candidate. Though I doubted he wanted to sleep with me because he didn't seem interested in flirting. Just talking and dancing. On any other day, I would have loved it because I sincerely liked J.J. He was a good guy. Just not the guy I needed for tonight.
It hurt, though, just a little, that he wasn't as attracted to me as I was to him. I understood why. Growing up, I'd always been Scott's little sister. It didn't surprise me that he wouldn't see me as a woman even all these years later.
Unfortunately, J.J.'s refusal to let me get more than a few feet away from him meant that I wasn't able to flirt with any of Brody's friends either.
Not that I had a lot of experience flirting, but I figured maintaining eye contact, listening, smiling, and encroaching on a man's personal space would get the point across.
I couldn't suppress my sigh when J.J. pulled me out onto the dance floor once again, this time for the bridal party's dance with the new couple.
His arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me in close, but not too close. I could feel the heat of his body through his suit, but the only parts of us that touched were our thighs when they brushed together as we moved.
"What was that for?" he murmured next to my ear.
I didn't look at him, just kept my eyes glued to his shoulder as I focused on not stepping on his toes or tripping over my shoes. I didn't often wear heels and it took a lot of concentration to walk in them, let alone dance.
"What was what for?" I asked, absently.
His arm tightened around me just a shade. "That sigh."
"Just hoping I don't injure you," I lied. "It's been a while since I danced with someone."
"You're doing fine," he murmured, his breath warm against my temple.
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the toe of my heeled sandal caught on his dress shoe and I stumbled.
J.J. pulled me into his body to steady me and I inhaled sharply. My arm ended up along his shoulder and my hand curved around the opposite side of his neck as I clung to him.
Essentially, he carried me for a couple of steps before I got my balance back and I could feel each and every one of his strong muscles working to hold my weight.
It was then that I realized his shoulders were broader than they had been twelve years ago when I'd first developed a crush on him.
He'd filled out. He no longer looked like a teenage boy, but a man.
My stomach twisted and I felt a twinge between my thighs. I might not have dated all that much, but I was no stranger to what arousal felt like and I was definitely experiencing it at the moment.
Just the smallest spark.
And it wouldn't take much to fan it into full flames.
Once my feet were beneath me, I kept my firm grip on J.J. and tilted my head back to look up into his face. His eyes were golden brown and gazed into mine without blinking.
"That's exactly what I was afraid of," I murmured.
That familiar flushed feeling crept back in as J.J. and I maintained eye contact. I hadn't intended to start a staring match, but now that I was so close to him, looking into his eyes, I couldn't tear myself away.
When his grip on me loosened, the hand I'd placed on his neck tightened reflexively. I wasn't ready to let him go yet. Not when I could feel almost every inch of him for the first time.