It was the strangely perfect ending to a perfectly strange day. Renee had seen one of her best friends laid out in the morgue, and seen another friend confess to murdering her over the fact that she wouldn't remain faithful to her. Then, her new boyfriend, the beautiful and charming Nicholas Stokes – who just happened to also be her big brother Greg's co-worker – had taken her out on their first real date. When they'd met just the night before, he'd promised to take her to the restaurant at the Lucky Dragon on the famous Las Vegas strip. After a night of murder, mayhem, and more then a little passion, Renee wondered if she hadn't wandered into an alternate reality.
She sat now, wearing Nick's borrowed shorts and a Texas A&M t-shirt, cross-legged on his bed, sharing a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey, trying to adjust to the idea that this man, this thirty-five year old man, gorgeous and smart and most likely full of tricks and trouble of all sorts wanted her. He looked too delicious for words, shirtless, in shorts, lounging with his long legs stretched out towards her. She was…a kid, really, a woman yes, but in his eyes, still a student, and student always equalled kid and worse, immaturity. Rather then allowing herself to think too hard, she tried to keep the conversation light as she sampled the banana ice cream.
"Greg has always had a little bit of trouble with me dating. One of his friends who I'd been seeing a little of came over on Thanksgiving when I was sixteen, and he saw us kissing by the pool, and Greg tossed him in the pool."
Nick had to laugh at the idea of Greg kicking anyone's ass. "I think big brothers have a way of knowing when their little sisters are playing pop goes perfection. It's genetics."
Renee swallowed thickly but kept her voice light and teasing. "So says the voice of experience?"
"I was the youngest, but even still, I was always discreet with my women," Nick explained, hoping he didn't come off sounding like a man whore. "I had my rules. Always at their place with no chance in hell of being busted."
"I see." At this, Renee lowered her spoon, along with her eyes. She suddenly realized that there was a bit of a gap between them, not just chronologically, but also in emotional development and certainly in life experience. She didn't want to ask it, but she just couldn't seem to stop herself from asking such an inevitable question. "And, umm…how many of these women would you say there have been?"
The slight change in her voice didn't skim past Nick completely unnoticed, but he tried his best to keep it light before the conversation got heavy. "You're asking for my roster?" he said playfully.
"No, no, I mean, we just met, I don't want to sound all clingy and jealous," Renee began, but was cut off when Nick nudge her hip with his toe.
"No, it's okay, I don't mind." He set his spoon aside, counted silently, his head tilting back and forth as he ticked off his fingers. "About…fourteen or so, since I was seventeen. What about you?"
Renee fought a blush. She couldn't believe she'd let this subject come up; it was one of her most embarrassing admittances, and few people actually knew. She liked Nick, and suddenly found herself on the brink of tears at the very real probability of him running when she told him.
"I doubt you want to hear this."
"I'm sure it's not that bad." Nick smiled. Clearly this was a very personal thing for her, and something was telling him she'd been burned.
Renee took a steadying breath. "Okay. Before I met you, I'd had sex once before in my life."
Nick stared at her, dumbfounded. If she was joking, it was very cruel, not to him but to herself. There was no way that someone like her could be so inexperienced; she was sweet and smart and witty, and gorgeous on top of all of that. Whoever the one and only had been was both lucky and an unparalleled idiot. He had a sudden flash of angry jealousy of this mystery man, that he'd been the first to be intimate with her and then toss her aside like a used tissue.
Renee felt like she wanted to throw up. He hadn't said a word for close to three solid minutes, and the look of shock had never left his face. She swung her feet over the side of the bed, turning away from him, hoping she could still save face. "I'm so sorry, if you think I misled you into thinking that I was a woman of more…experience," she said, at length. "I just…I thought it should be something you should know, before this went any further."
The silence hung heavy between them, like a heavy pendant on a fine silk thread. Renee just let out a quick laugh and shook her head as she got off the bed. "You know what, maybe I should just go over to Greg's and stay with him tonight." and oh that one would sting a lot when she showed up on his doorstep and he rubbed it in her face. Then she got her second shock of the night when Nick was suddenly on his feet, grabbing her wrist to stop her.
"Don't go."
She turned back to look at him, a complete look of incredulity on her face. "What?"
"Please, don't go." It was a plea, something Nick never thought he'd say, but he was practically begging her not to go. He sat her down, smiled softly as he brushed a loose strand of hair off her brow and linked his fingers through hers. "I'm not freaked out. I want to know why someone as beautiful and sexy as you could be so, well…inexperienced," he said honestly.
"Really," she replied, not believing him for a second.
"Really. I want to know."
Renee dragged a hand through her hair. "It was about six months ago," she began. "It was about six months ago, a couple weeks before I turned twenty-four."
"You're a September baby?"
"Focus, Nick." Though, she couldn't help but feel a little more relaxed. "I thought I was in love, with Kenny my boyfriend at the time, so I made the decision to sleep with him."
Renee closed her eyes as she remembered the sudden shock of pain, and the awkward feeling of being invaded, but more then anything, she remembered the look of disappointment on Kenny's face with each movement until he finally gave up all pretence and left her in the bed. "After it happened, Kenny said he couldn't believe that me, of all people, would turn out to be so useless in bed. So the next morning, he dropped me off at my apartment and I never heard from him again."
"Oh baby." Nick was mortified. He knew as a man, there were times he'd been a complete ass and done those stereotypical things, but this was beyond comprehension. How could a man treat any woman that way; how could any man treat this woman that way? He drew her into a tight embrace, ready to cry out of sympathy for her. "That was your first time?"
She leaned into him, breathed deep the wonderful scent of Hilfiger aftershave, of candied almonds and the slight whiff of banana on his breath. "And until last night, the only time."
"I feel sorry for him."
"Why?"
Nick drew back to kiss her. "Because was too stupid and blind to see what a prize he had in you, and I'm not going to make the same mistake he did." He kissed her again to punctuate his statement. "I am not letting you go so easily."
They both knew what this last sentence meant, without the corny clichéd words being spoken. Somehow that made it all the more sweet. Renee felt the smile creep onto her face, watched it spread over his. "So…you think I'm okay?"
"Okay? Honey, okay is for your brother's coffee." When he looked at her, her eyes searching, Nick suddenly realized that there was a great attraction here, in being essentially the first – and, in his mind, the only – man in a woman's life. What a privilege, he thought as he pulled her back down onto the bed, and lay so he was half on top of her, covering her body with his, leaving her legs free. "You brought the house down."
"And you're not upset?"
"Why would I be?"
Renee jerked a shoulder. "Most guys I dated, when they found out I was a virgin ran like hell for the door."
"I'm not most guys." Nick looked at her, one more layer of respect being piled on the heap, and saw now a rather innocent look to her face. She was still Renee, a woman with a wealth of experiences under her belt, but in this one arena, Nick took more then a little pleasure in being her teacher. Hoping he didn't sound like too much of an ox, Nick tried to choose the right words so as not to scare her.
"So, um…what exactly, do you have experience with…when it comes sex?"
"Beyond kissing a man, you mean?"
"Yeah."
"That's it."
Nick nearly swallowed his tongue. "That's it?"
"Yeah, that's it." Renee smiled blithely. "Still sure you don't want me to go?"
"Well now, if you go…" Nick trailed off, kissing her neck, making her sigh, "How can I show you everything else?"
Whoever this Kenny was, Nick hated him more and more by the nanosecond. It was one thing to be careless with a woman; it was another thing to be carelessly with a sexually innocent woman and in his mind. Then what she said next made him nearly fall out of bed.
"How much more can there be?"
Nick laughed, a low and musical sound that made Renee smile, her curiosity piqued. "What time's your flight tomorrow?"
"Four-thirty, why? You think it'll take that long?"
Nick shifted so that he was fully on top of her now, ran his hands under the loose shirt, up her back so he could strip it off her. They undressed each other slowly, tenderly. When they finally lay naked, light from the street coming in across the bed, he smiled softly, and whispered in her ear, "You have no idea."