My heart picked up its pace, thundering like a dozen stallions as I mulled over what she was asking. Every warning sign and bell and whistle was going off like a chaotic symphony inside me for even considering it. Fake kissing and heavy petting was one thing, but to strip her down, to take her for the first time…

That was an entirely new ball game, one I wasn’t sure either of us was equipped to play.

“Clay,” she whispered when I didn’t answer, and her hands crawled up my chest, fisting in my shirt. “There’s no one else I trust. Please.”

I closed my eyes at the sound of yet another plea, gut wrenching and chest caving in because I already knew before I answered that I wouldn’t deny her.

I couldn’t — not when she was asking me for help.

Swallowing, I reached behind her and flicked on the light. We both blinked at the brightness, but then her Caribbean-blue eyes locked on mine, her breath just as shallow as it was when she dragged me in here.

But she didn’t waver.

She didn’t cower or back down. She didn’t shy away. She didn’t take it back. She looked me right in the eye and asked again, silently, for me to be the one to take something I knew was more precious to a woman than I would ever understand as a man.

I rolled my lips together.

And then, I nodded.

Her relieved sigh came like her first breath after being underwater for years. She threw her arms around my neck, and I closed my eyes as I caught her, warning zipping down my spine like an electric shock.

“Really?!” she squealed, squeezing me tighter. “Thank you, Clay. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

I just buried my face in her neck where I held her, hoping like hell she knew better than I did what we both could handle. It was more disbelief than anything else that washed over me the longer we stood in that embrace.

I’d agreed.

I was going to take her virginity.

Against every obvious red flag telling me this was a bad idea, I couldn’t say no.

Somewhere deep inside me, that wild creature I’d tried so hard to tame smiled in victory…

And anticipation.

Chapter Thirteen

Clay

Our first away game was against the South Vermont University Vikings, and we clobbered them.

The field was a rainy mess from the time we jogged out onto it for warm-ups, our cleats and uniforms both covered completely in mud by the end of the first quarter. My knees ached from sprinting in the conditions, and my left ankle felt worse from all the sliding around than when I’d broken it in the sixth grade.