The last thing I want to do is talk. But I take a deep breath and try. For her.

Chapter Ten

Fiona

Babbling, blushing Dex is new. It’s almost cute, the way this big, burly guy who could easily lift me over his head and spin me with one hand becomes all flustered. Except I don’t like that he’s obviously upset. So I don’t smile. I simply hold his hand and wait for him to talk.

Because I know he will. Though he’s a virgin—which, holy hell, I cannot believe this gorgeous giant is untouched—and he might be quiet, Ethan Dexter is the most forthright man I’ve ever known. I’m used to guys who fake their way through life with false bravado and grand boasts. Ones that, when cornered, lash out. Or guys who lie about uncomfortable truths.

But Dex? No, he just takes a breath and admits that he’s a twenty-four-year-old virgin. Again, the thought ripples over me, and I find myself more than a little turned on over the prospect of being the only girl to have him, to see him come. Hot damn, I want to witness strong, silent Ethan break apart and lose his mind.

Suppressing a shiver of lust, I lean in closer under the pretense of letting his big body block the wind, when really, I just want to surround myself in his warmth and delicious scent.

Dex tugs my hand, and we sit on a wide, flat boulder that’s tucked a little crook on the hillside. Tall, fragrant grasses buffet some of the wind, and the sunlight grows warm on my skin.

The corners of Dex’s eyes crease in a frown as he stares at his hands on his massive thighs. Then he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his wallet to remove an old, laminated photo. He doesn’t look at the picture he hands to me.

“I met Drew and Gray at a football summer camp during my junior year in high school.” He clears his throat. “I’m the one on the left.”

He doesn’t need to clarify. There are three guys in the picture. Wearing dirt-stained uniforms, they have their arms slung over each other and are smiling for the camera.

I notice Gray straight away. He’s the tallest, his hair bleached pale blond by the sun, and he’s grinning extra wide as if he’s on top of the world. Drew, the one in the middle, is a quarterback and Ivy’s client now. I got to know him well when she and Gray married. He was Gray’s best man, and I was maid of honor. He’s model cute—even then—with light brown hair and eyes and a crooked, almost sly smile. Then there’s Dex.

If it weren’t for those serious, beautiful hazel eyes of his, I might not have recognized him. He isn’t wearing a beard—not surprising, given that this is high school—and his smooth cheeks are plump and round. Dex is plump and round. Oh, you can see the beginnings of the massive muscles he has now, but high school Dex had yet to shed his baby fat.

His smile is more reserved than his two friends’, cautious almost, but I see the joy in his eyes. He loved being at this camp. Clearly loved his two friends as well.

“I was always a chubby kid,” he says in a low voice. “You know, the big guy who looked like he’d been held back a couple of grades when he stood next to the rest of the class.”

Lump in my throat, I nod.

“Girls never noticed me.” Dex takes back the photo when I offer it to him and puts it away. “Not until junior high when I started to play football, and then only in a, ‘Hey, good game, Dexter,’ sort of way.”

He stares out at the ocean. “They noticed me in high school, though. Made the varsity team freshman year. Went All-American senior year.” He shrugs. “I was still more fat than muscle, but the cheerleaders were all about giving players the love. And that included me.”

Well, why wouldn’t they? Dex is awesome. And I seriously doubt he’s changed much since his childhood.

“I fooled around some. Thing is, I knew they were only into me because I was on the team.”

“Why would you think that?” I can’t help asking.

He gives me a look that says, get real. “Outside of my high school circle, not one girl gave me the time of day. Ever. And…” He scratches his beard. “One of them admitted it. Lisa Unger told me, ‘Don’t worry, Dexter, we’ll take care of you. You’re on the team, after all.’”

“Bitch.”

His mouth quirks. “Just honest, I guess. Anyway, after that, I didn’t want to mess around. I kept to myself. Hell if I was going to be with a girl who wanted me just because I played football. ”

“Okay, but what about college? There are lots of girls in college who aren’t shitty little shits.”

Dex snorts at that, and his eyes crinkle. But it quickly fades, and he grows pale beneath his tan. “By the second year of college, I’d lost the fat and felt a bit more…confident. But then...” He blows out a breath and braces his elbows on his knees.

“Ethan.” I touch his back and find his long-sleeve shirt damp with sweat. “What happened?”

His large hands clench into fists. “I’m not proud of this part.”

My stomach tightens, but I keep my palm firm against his body. “It’s okay.”

I really don’t know if it is, but don’t know what else to say to reassure him.

“So…I…uh… Spring Break sophomore year, a bunch of us from the team headed down to Mexico. It was wild. Girls everywhere. Sex everywhere. I’d never seen anything like it. Our season was over, we’d won our first National Championship, and we were treated like gods.”