The Darkest Secret: A New Adult Romance Novel by Jessica Pine Page A

by the exultant knowledge that I had done that to him. I was out of my mind with the sense of my own power and daring. My top was bunched up over my breasts, my nipples bared to the elements. He had his hands on my hips now and I was arching into his touch, all but begging him.
    "Little rich girl, right?" Justin said. "Used to getting what you want?"
    He hooked him thumbs into my panties and started to pull them down. Once again I felt the jab of fright, but as he'd said - this was what I'd wanted. Maybe it was going to happen faster than I'd expected, but I couldn't say I hadn't wanted it to happen. I stepped out of my underwear. His grin was all teeth - all the better to eat you with, my dear.
    "I'll take these," he said, scrunching up my panties and stuffing them in his pocket. My heart was beating so fast I thought it would explode, the pulse between my legs nothing more than a mad, stuttering flutter. He reached between my legs and pushed his fingers into me - too fast and too rough - and that tiny wince of mine was my undoing. It wasn't that he was an especially sensitive lover, but I later found out he was finely tuned to fear - especially mine.
    Justin laughed.
    "No shit," he said, slowly. "A virgin?"
    I tried to look seductive, twisting my hips into his touch, but he just laughed again. "No way," he said, kissing me on the mouth. "You're too damn funny, baby."
    "I wasn't trying to be," I said. "Aren't you going to...you know?"
    He removed his hand, smoothed down my skirt and looked me up and down as he licked his fingers clean.
    "Nope," he said. "I don't think so."
    I folded my arms over my breasts, conscious that he could see the shape of my nipples through my t-shirt. Five minutes ago I'd felt like a sex goddess. Now I just felt like a sad, desperate little slut.
    "Then give me my...things back," I said, reaching to remove the rosary beads from my neck.
    He grabbed hold of my hand and kissed me.
    "This right here?" he said, laughing. "This is why I'm not gonna fuck you, baby. You can't even say 'panties', let alone 'fuck' and 'pussy'."
    ***
    T hat was the start of it - an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse that went on for almost a month. Once the initial humiliation had faded I told myself he'd kept it in his pants because he was a gentleman. "Yeah right," said Everglade. "More like he smelled untainted cash and wants to make sure you're thoroughly dickmatized before he has his wicked way."
    I ignored her; she'd been going through an 'I hate men' phase all summer. Besides, the last thing I wanted to do was accept that what she said about Justin might have been true. He courted me thoroughly, writing me erotic poetry and sneaking up on me in the library, whispering filthy suggestions in my ear. "I'll never get over the fact that you flashed me on the dance floor," he said. "You - a sweet little virgin. Trying to seduce me."
    Sometimes I told him to go fuck himself. Other times it ended with us in increasingly frantic clinches where he'd use his tongue and his fingers to great effect, but still refused to put his dick inside me. "Delayed gratification, cher," he said. "I want you grateful. I want you mine."
    "I am yours. I am grateful," I'd say, as often as not on the verge of tears. All I wanted was to feel him inside me, but he kept on withholding.
    "Nobody's touched you before," he would whisper. "You're going to be my creation, Amber. All mine. Everything you know how to do? It's going to be because I taught you how to do it, just the way I like it."
    Justin did everything he could to keep me in a permanent state of lust. There were a whole set of instructions to this end - no underwear ever, a careful wet shave every day in the shower, since I apparently wasn't even allowed a natural coat of hair between him and the parts he so tenderly neglected. Masturbation was strictly forbidden, unless he was there to watch, although sometimes I flouted the rule only so that I could later confess and be 'punished' - which