Luke had to mentally rewind to their previous conversation about outdoor sex. ‘You mean you’ve never had sex on the beach?’
She lowered her hands from her mouth and avoided his gaze. ‘Anywhere.’
Luke frowned. ‘You mean anywhere outdoors?’
She glanced either side of her to see if anyone was sitting near enough to overhear and, leaning forward again, whispered, ‘I’ve never had sex.’
He looked at her blankly for a moment, trying to get his head around what he’d heard, or thought he’d heard. ‘Let me get this straight… You’re saying you’ve never slept with anyone? Is that what you’re saying?’
She rolled her lips back inside her mouth and gave a single nod.
He leaned forward to make sure he wasn’t mishearing her. ‘You’re a virgin?’
‘Yup.’
Luke sat back as if someone had shoved him with the end of a telegraph pole. ‘You’re joking, right?’
Abby shook her head. ‘Nope.’
She was a virgin? Abby Hart, the relationships and dating expert was a virgin? Why the hell hadn’t she been intimate with anyone? She was twenty-three years old. Most modern girls lost their virginity well before then, unless they had religious reasons for being celibate.
‘But why?’ Luke asked, genuinely confused.
She shrugged and looked at the bowl of salted peanuts on the table between their knees. She took a peanut and popped it into her mouth and chewed and swallowed. She reached for another and another and did the same. ‘Did you know it’s virtually impossible to eat only one peanut? I’ve done extensive research on this. It literally cannot be done. Try it.’
Luke moved the peanuts out of her reach. ‘Abby, look at me.’
She slowly brought her gaze back to his. Her tongue swept salt crumbs off her lips and he suppressed a groan. He couldn’t stop thinking about her tongue doing that to him. ‘I know it’s a little weird, but I never really felt emotionally ready… I mean, before now.’
His heart slammed against his chest wall. ‘Before…now?’
She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and eyed the peanuts like a puppy looked at an out of reach treat. ‘I sort of wanted to a couple of times, but I always put a stop to things out of fear I would make a fool of myself or…or something.’ Her gaze met his. ‘Anyway, I figure if we have sex anything like we dance then I think we’d be good together in bed.’
‘That’s another theory of yours, is it?’
‘Yes, well, of course it’s a theory because I haven’t put it to the test yet, but that’s the whole point of this conversation.’ She gave him a smile that looked a little shaky around the edges. ‘So, what do you say? Will you do it?’
Luke was having trouble getting his brain into gear. Other parts of his anatomy were well on their way, but his brain? No. Sleeping with Abby was the sort of trouble he could do without. Apart from the fact she was his kid sister’s best friend, Abby was trouble, period. She wanted things he didn’t want.
You want her.
He did. Badly. So badly he could feel the lust throbbing right here and now in his loins. Lust like he had never felt before. Not even as a horny hormonal teenager.
But it didn’t mean he was going to have her.
He didn’t get involved with virgins. Abby was the poster girl for the white knight and white wedding and white picket fence package. Everything she wrote in her column was about being in a secure and happy relationship.
Nothing he could offer her was anything near secure.
He didn’t do commitment.
Luke leaned forward to take her hands in his to get her full attention. ‘Listen to me, Abby—’
‘We don’t have to tell Ella,’ she said. ‘She doesn’t even know I’m a virgin.’
He did a rapid blink. ‘She doesn’t? But I thought you two were best friends?’
She lowered her gaze to their joined hands. ‘We are but we’ve only known each other for the last four years. There are some things you don’t even tell your best friend.’
Luke could relate to that. There were things he hadn’t told a soul. Nor ever would. There was no point because talking about it would never take away his guilt. How could it? He gave her hands a little squeeze to get her to look at him again. ‘Why didn’t you feel you could tell her?’
A screen came down on her face and she pulled her hands away. ‘Look, if you don’t want to do it then let’s leave it at that. I’ll find someone else. Eventually.’
Luke’s gut clenched. Which someone else? Some stranger she picked up in a bar? Or on a dating app? And why was she acting so closed-off all of a sudden? How well did his sister know Abby Hart? Did anyone really know her? Why had she got to the age of twenty-three without doing the deed? She was attractive and sexy and funny. She surely wouldn’t have been short on offers?