New chapter, hope you like it! It changes POV just to clear up confusion. Read and Review? Yes (:

When I woke up the next morning, the house was silent.

All was still, all except the warm body breathing evenly next to me.

Eli.

I looked at his peaceful sleeping face and memories from last night flooded back to me.

It had really happened.

And I didn't regret it one bit.

I squirmed a bit in his arms, repositioning myself to my back.

I lifted my right hand and stared at the ring that sat upon it.

It was a small, simple, silver band.

It looked like a wedding band, as it was meant to.

How could something so simple claim such power over a person?

I had lived my life by this ring up until last night.

I continued to stare at it, making sense of my thoughts.

My initial thought was to take it off. Which I did.

It's a purity ring. I was no longer pure.

But just because I didn't believe in the initial purpose of the ring didn't mean it still couldn't mean something to me.

As I played with it and twirled it around between my fingers, I rethought it's symbolism.

It started as a promise to myself, and that's what it would remain.

But, rather than a promise to abstain from sex, it would readjust to fit my beliefs.

I slid the ring back to its place on my finger and made a new promise to myself.

A promise to only give all of myself to another for love. True love.

The love I felt in my heart for Eli.

I felt the boy stir beside me and quickly shifted myself to my side, catching him just as his beautiful eyes flickered open.

He realized where he was and a smile was quickly upon his lips.

I met his smile with my lips, pressed to his for a kiss.

When I pulled back, he was in a daze.

"Wow," he breathed.

"Wow," I whispered back, a girlish giggle following.

"So… You don't… You don't regret it?" he asked, concern filling his voice. His eyes were almost sad, as if he'd expected me to regret it.

"I mean, we didn't really do much talking… There was no talking at all, really. It was all so fast and-"

I once again cut him off by pressing my eager lips to his.

I kissed him until his tense body relaxed and he melted into the kiss.

I shifted my body so that I was now lying on top of him, our still naked bodies pressed together under the warm blankets of my bed.

At my movement, a small moan escaped his throat and he deepened our kisses.

I in turn deepened them only more. A smirk of my own appeared upon my lips at his reaction.

What was this boy doing to me?

We were tangled together, kissing desperately.

Our bodies were becoming hotter as our embrace became more passionate.

And I wanted him all over again.

His hands slid down my back to my hips and he grinded his own against me.

I felt him and knew he wanted me too.

I rubbed myself against him, earning another moan.

I pulled myself from his lips and leaned down, my lips brushing against his ear as I whispered a delayed response. "I don't regret it. Not one damn bit."

He shuddered and only held me tighter.

But I pulled myself loose from his tight grasp. I lifted myself to a sitting position on top of him, never breaking eye contact.

I took him in my hand and began to stroke him. First slowly, then gaining speed as my grip tightened.

His eyes fluttered closed as his breaths quickened.

His eyes still closed, I removed my hand and lowered myself on top of him. His eyes shot open and a loud groan left his lips.

"Oh, god, Clare," he mumbled, watching me as my body moved above his.

A month ago I would have been mortified to have my body displayed so openly in front of him.

But as we had gone further and lost some clothes along the way, he convinced me he found my body beautiful.

I watched him lovingly as he stared at my body, his hands roaming all over me.

I moved back and forth faster, finding my rhythm and biting my lip to hold back a moan.

When we were like this, I could control the movements.

I continued to move, finding a spot he hit perfectly and not wanting to lose it.

I gasped for breath as he held my hips and helped me to continue my rhythm.

I nearly screamed as I felt my whole body tremble above him. "Oh, Eli…" I breathed, pleasure shooting through me.

Before I knew it, he had me pinned down on my back and was now the one in charge. His eyes were hungry as they bore into mine.

I bit my lip, my eyes falling closed as I relaxed completely into his movements.

I did not hold back any moans the pleasure he was giving me brought.

As the sounds coming from me quickened, so did his movements as he guided himself in and out.

"Clare, baby," he breathed, "I'm almost there."

I pulled his face down to mine and kissed him, hard.

His thrusts only became harder, and I nearly screamed into his mouth at the feeling.

We came together and his thrusts became slower as we rode out our pleasure.

He fell onto the bed next to me, breathing hard.

My breathing was shaky as I let my eyes rest for a while.

"That was…" my voice trailed off into a whisper as I tried to catch my breath.

"Amazing," he murmured, finishing my sentence.

I opened my eyes to find him staring at me.

"Amazing," I breathed, closing the space between us with a kiss.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"See you in English, Edwards," I murmured just before my lips found hers.

She pulled away quickly, PDA now being against the rules at this prison. I mean school.

But I noticed the fierce red blush upon her cheeks.

Damn I loved that girl.

"I still can't believe you haven't told her yet dude." Adam slammed his locker closed and crossed his arms as he looked at me.

"I told you, I don't want to freak her out," I said, knowing exactly what he was talking about. It was like he had read my mind.

"You said you didn't want to freak her out because if you told her you loved her, it might seem like you were trying to trick her to get into her pants," he said, judgment in his voice. "But, since that's already happened once already, what's the big deal? What motives could you possibly have?"

"Once?" I blurted without thinking. I forgot, I had only told Adam about the first time.

Her mom had not come home the whole weekend. We had hardly left her bed until this morning.

"Wait, there were more times?" he asked, shocked. I raised my hands in defense.

"You didn't ask!"

"Dude, we're dudes. We're supposed to talk about this kind of shit. It's what we do."

I laughed, shaking my head at my best friend.

"Well, it wasn't shit at all, for your information." He raised his eyebrows, shaking his head at my comment.

"So you really didn't talk about it at all?" he asked, amazed. Clare and I were both talkers.

He should know, whenever anything happened between us we both vented to him.

"No, not at all."

"So, it wasn't awkward at all? I mean, I would just expect it to be awkward with her. She's just so… virginal."

"She wasn't any more 'virginal' than I was," I said with a shrug, beginning to walk down the hallway. He followed close behind.

"Whoa, wait. Mr. Eli Goldsworthy, a virgin?" He seemed shocked. I guess my "bad boy" persona automatically put a man whore label on me.

Truth is, Julia was my only other girlfriend. And that was over a year ago. Neither of us were ready for sex at that point.

"Well not anymore," I said with a smirk as we approached our math class.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell her, man," he said under his breath as we found our seats.

Of course I loved Clare. But I didn't want her to feel obligated to say or feel anything she wasn't ready for.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Hello, Miss Edwards. You're looking simply lovely this afternoon," I greeted her outside of our English classroom.

She looked at me startled and blushed.

I touched her warm cheek with my thumb, finding the color adorable.

"Hello, Mr. Goldsworthy," she answered, leaning up and kissing my cheek.

I looked her over, a smirk playing at my lips.

"What?" she asked, self consciously looking over her body. "Do my shoes not match? Do I have a stain?"

"No, nothing's wrong, Clare," I said quietly, my eyes still on her. "I'm just thinking about what a sin it is that I haven't seen that beautiful body of yours since this morning."

She blushed even redder than before. My eyes met hers and my lips formed a fake pout.

"I'm going through withdrawal."

"Well as I do agree it is a sin that we have had to go through a day of deprivation, it is almost over."

With a wink and a heart-stopping smile, she turned towards the door and put her hand on the knob.

"We can get the assignment from Adam," I said into her ear as I placed my hand on hers and removed it from the cold metal.

She turned to face me, doubt in her eyes. "Even if I were to agree, my mom is home and your dad works from your house. So there's nowhere for us to go."

"Clare," I started out, mischief growing in my mind. "Have you ever seen the back of Morty?"

She looked surprised at my suggestion. But the mischief in my mind must have expanded to her because before I knew it she had taken my hand and we were hurrying out to the parking lot.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"It just gets better every time," I mumbled against the hot skin of her neck.

Our clothes were in a pile in the corner and we were wrapped around one another, hot and sweaty from the event that took place just minutes prior.

"I-I'm sorry," she started to say.

I opened my mouth to object, there was absolutely nothing she needed to apologize for, but she silenced me with her finger.

"No, let me finish," she said quietly. She looked persistent, so I agreed to let her say what she wanted to say. I took her finger from my lips and began to play with her hand.

"I'm sorry if I'm not very good," she murmured, taking a deep breath before finishing. "I know you're more experienced and I'm not whatsoever and I hope it's not-"

I stopped her from rambling any more nonsense by silencing her with a kiss.

I held her hand in mine as I pulled back, staring straight into those beautiful blue eyes that seemed to capture my soul.

"Clare, have I ever told you that I'm any more experienced than you?"

"Well, no, but you just always know what to do so I just figured-"

"Baby," I interrupted, earning her attention and silence, "You took my virginity too."

"So," she whispered, "So I'm not horrible?"

"You're fucking amazing, Clare," I said with what I'm sure appeared to be the goofiest grin imaginable.

She turned me into mush.

A grin to match mine appeared on her face and she relaxed into me.

I continued playing with her fingers, absently toying with her ring.

Then I realized.

Her ring.

"Clare… are you sure you don't regret anything we've done?" I asked, my voice shaky. My eyes were glued to the ring on her finger.

"Of course not, Eli. Why would you think such a thing?" Her voice was calm, lazy. Her eyes were closed and she was lying comfortably on my chest.

"Well, why are you still wearing your purity ring? Are you ashamed or something?"

The last thing I wanted was for her to be ashamed.

Her eyes opened and she looked at me with the most loving expression in her eyes.

"Of course I'm not ashamed, Eli." She looked from me to her ring, then back again.

"I almost took it off the morning after…" she blushed, giving me a quick kiss. "But I made a new promise to myself instead. I promised to only give myself to someone who I really… care about. Like I care about you."

I looked down at her, every ounce of me wanting to tell her I loved her.

But I didn't want her to get scared, or uncomfortable. So I stayed silent and just kissed her.