Scrimmage Gone South (Crimson Romance) by Alicia Hunter Pace Page B

from Ronnie Montjoy. I could have done it all night. After a while, he let out a little moan and said, “You are the best girlfriend ever.” Then he opened his eyes and there was that sweet misty look again.
    Girlfriend.
Was I really more than his phone pal? Could it really be that he thought of me that way, that he wasn’t dating other girls? I didn’t know what to say. Turns out I didn’t have to say anything. He opened his eyes and pulled me to him. “Stay with me tonight.”
    The time was here. I had to tell him. I pulled away and sat on the bed Indian style and finally let the words come out of mouth. “I have something to tell you, something that you are not going to like.”
    His expression changed totally. His mouth went into a hard line and he narrowed his eyes.
    “Okay,” he said.
    I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. But I had an idea of something different to tell him that would accomplish the same thing. He’d tell me to go and he wouldn’t call anymore.
    “I’m a virgin,” I said. “And I plan to stay that way, at least for now. I am not one to have casual sex, or have sex with someone I have not known very long. I have to make sure it’s the right guy and the right time. I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner.” He looked surprised, then puzzled. I was right. He was not happy. I don’t know why I said what I did next. It just came out. “But if I was going to have sex with someone I hadn’t known long, it would you.”
    That got a giant smile out of him and I realized then, I probably shouldn’t have added that last part.
    He laughed a little, sat up, and hugged me hard. Then he kissed my temple. “I still want you to stay with me. Believe me when I say, you’re safe with me tonight.” Then he had another one of those coughing fits. “I don’t know if I would have been able to do it anyway, though I was willing to try.”
    And I said yes, that I’d stay. It was like I had no sense but he was so sick and didn’t have anyone to take care of him. He gave me a pair of drawstring shorts and a t-shirt. I brushed my teeth with one of those new toothbrushes, gave him some cough syrup, and we went to bed.
    How can there even be casual sex? Not that we had sex or anything close to it. But I mean how can you sleep with someone all night and not fall in love? He held me all night and sometimes he would wake up and hug me to him harder. His arms were so strong and I felt so safe. Sometimes he would kiss the hollow of my neck and stroke my stomach. That made me nervous and he must have known it because he whispered that I shouldn’t worry, that he wasn’t going to do anything else. And he didn’t.
    I never wanted the night to end, but it did, of course. I had to leave early. I didn’t figure Harris would be back before mid-afternoon at the earliest but I couldn’t risk it. I told Nathan I had to get back to school to study and he didn’t argue. He had to go get checked out by the team doctor again and maybe get another shot. So we ate some Cocoa Puffs from the kitchen and I showed him how to work the vaporizer.
    Then he said he wanted to tell me something. I’m going to write it all down here exactly as he said it so that I’ll still have it when he hates me.
    Here it is: “Townshend, I have to admit it threw me for a loop for a second last night when you told me you were a virgin. But hypocritical as it is, I like that. I’m glad you haven’t had sex with anyone else and that you are waiting for the right guy and the right time. But I’m putting you on notice right now that I’m going to do my dead level best to be that guy and I’m going to create that time. You’re everything I want — classy, pretty, smart, and funny. And no one has ever been as sweet to me as you have been this weekend. You could probably go to England and get yourself some kind of a British Lord or something.” He narrowed his eyes and smiled. “Of course, he probably wouldn’t have the kind of money