After bio, which Vin didn’t show up to, I finally decide that I need to head back to the dorm. I can’t hide from my own room. When I get there, though, the place is empty, and Anthony even cleaned up the usual mess on his side of the room. Maybe they’ve been avoiding coming back too because they don’t want to have the talk with their roommate about how they can’t hook up with a virgin. The ache in my chest starts up again as I think about what could have been, the way they kissed me, the way they touched me…
The whole time I shower, I think of their hands on my body. I touch my breasts, my hips, my stomach, pretending my hands are Vin’s or Anthony’s. But it’s not the same. Not without their heat, their passion. When I touch my pussy, fingers circling my aching clit, all I can think about is the sudden change in Vin’s expression. The moment when he went from hot and lustful to turned off, cold.
I leave the shower without reaching an orgasm, and it only makes me more hot and bothered than I was before.
I spend my afternoon classes distracted, texting Nita under the table. I leave out a few details, like the whole two-guys-at-once part, but just say I got shunned last night when a guy who was kissing me found out I’m a virgin.
What a douche, Nita replies immediately. Screw him! Or rather, don’t. Find someone who will appreciate your first time, not be afraid of it.
She’s right, I realize. I shouldn’t be sad at all. I should be glad I dodged a bullet, not sleeping with these guys. In fact, I should tell them just how shitty they’ve been.
Tonight, I decide. When I get back to the dorm room after my last class, I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.
I stand outside our dorm room door, fists clenched. You can do this, I tell myself. But if I’m honest, I’ve been procrastinating. Taking forever to eat dinner, spending some time in the library afterward to get a jump-start on homework. Anything to avoid coming here and confronting the guys. I don’t want them to team up against me again, talk me into feeling ashamed of myself. Being a virgin is nothing to be ashamed of and how dare they try to make me feel that way.
I square my shoulders. I’m right. I can do this.
I shoulder open the door.
Then I freeze in the entryway, gaping.
Because our room has been completely transformed.
Candles light every surface, from the desks to the edges of the boys’ beds. The floor is strewn with rose petals, which make the whole room smell amazing, and there’s soft music playing from a speaker set in the corner. For a moment, all I can do is stare and wonder how long this all took to put together.
Then my fists tighten.
Figures. I’m gone for one day and they decide to set up the place to seduce their next mark.
I’m only in the doorway for half a minute before I hear footsteps behind me. I step inside the room, turn to watch Anthony and Vin enter. They’re both in full on suits, which makes me take another step backward involuntarily to get as far from them as possible. Because the animal, instinctive part of my brain wants to grab them both and drag them inside right now. Damn them. Why do they have to look so fucking hot right now?
“Cassidy,” Vin starts, but I launch into my speech over him. The only way I’ll get this out is by blurting it now, before they have time to distract me again.
“I can’t believe you. Both of you,” I say. As I do, they step inside and close the door behind them, so at least the whole hallway won’t hear our shit. “It was a big deal for me to go along with your idea, you know.” My fists tremble at my sides, and it takes every ounce of effort I have to keep my spine straight, head held high.
“I wanted my first time to mean something, to be special, and I was afraid if it was with you guys—both of you—it would just be another hook-up. I mean, who the hell has a ménage à trois when they lose their virginity?” I can’t help the way my voice rises, as I get more and more angry at the situation. At what they made me feel.
“But you guys kept asking, and the more I got to know you, the more I thought that maybe you were right, maybe it could work, and it could mean something. But then the second you find out that I’m a virgin, you toss me aside like I’m nothing?” My eyes burn with unshed tears. I refuse to cry in front of them, not now. But damn, this hurts more than I expected. “You treated me like I was nothing except sex for you, and—”
That’s as far as I get. Because before I can finish, Vin strides across the room and cups my face in both hands, kissing me long and hard. I freeze, confused, even as my body kicks into gear, leaning into him against my will.
When he breaks away from the kiss, I’m breathless, lost. I don’t have any time to recover before Anthony is right beside Vin, running his hands through my hair gently as he kisses me too, his lips softer, gentler. The room spins around us, and I can’t focus, can’t seem to find my balance.
What the hell are they trying to do to me?
Anthony pulls away, and both guys are gazing at me, frowning, hands on mine, our fingers tangled together.
“We never meant to hurt you,” Vin murmurs.
“We’ve never been with a virgin before,” Anthony adds. “And it didn’t freak us out or make us judge you,” he points out when I open my mouth, anticipating what I was about to say. “We were just afraid that, well…”
“That deflowering you in the middle of a public park at night was a bad idea,” Vin finishes.
My cheeks flush red-hot. “But—”
“I’m sorry, we might have handled that badly,” Anthony admits with a sideways glance at Vin.
“I knew if we stayed there we would have risked losing control.” Vin brushes my cheek gently, his fingertips hot as flames on my skin. “We didn’t want that. We want your first time to be perfect. To mean something.”