Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
When someone knocks on the window, I can’t stop myself from blushing bright red – which must be a dead giveaway.
Hunter glances at me almost guiltily and then presses the button to send the window down, revealing a short, out-of-shape, balding middle-aged man staring right at us.
“Hello?” Hunter asks, managing to keep his voice remarkably straight considering everything.
“Excuse me,” the man says. “I hardly think this is the appropriate place to be doing what you were doing.”
Oh god. Could this get any more embarrassing?
“We, um, we weren’t…,” I say, but Hunter glances at me quickly as if to tell me not to bother.
“Don’t worry,” he says briskly. “We were just about to leave.”
“I would encourage that,” the man says, his nasally tone carrying deep distaste.
Hunter moves for the door handle, and the man steps back. I’m so stunned that I can only sit where I am, not feeling like I can move.
I absolutely don’t want to get out of the car. If I do that, I’ll be out there – with this strange man – and I won’t have any protection at all.
Hunter gets out and closes the door firmly behind him as if to tell me to continue to stay put. He moves around the man out there, who is still watching us from the sidewalk with an evil squint, and then gets into the front seat, ready to drive.
I reach for the seatbelt as if I’m on autopilot, shuffling myself into the farthest seat from the strange man, hoping he’s not going to say anything or shout after us as we drive away.
Hunter starts the engine, and there’s a strange silence in the car until we get to the end of the road, where he glances in his rearview mirror, and then I see his hands relax on the wheel.
“He’s gone,” he says, his voice sounding relieved. “I’m sorry about that.”
“No,” I say, feeling numb. “No, it wasn’t your fault. I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?” he asks, and his eyes flick up to the rearview mirror to seek mine out. I meet them unwillingly, unable to evade his magnetism even now. “You don’t need to be sorry about anything.”
He’s being so nice. That almost makes it worse because he must be disappointed. Of course, he must be. We were so close – and I had to ruin it like that just as it was getting interesting.
And now, one more thing occurs to me that hadn’t quite hit home yet. We were nearly caught. If we had been further along before someone found us, we might have been seen when the workers were coming out of the office building to go on their lunch break.
It might have been my father who found us like that.
My actual dad might have witnessed me losing my virginity.
What had we been thinking, getting so carried away in the car like that?
“I shouldn’t have let it get that far,” I say, more to myself than anything else. “We were supposed to be working.”
“I’m the professional here,” Hunter says somewhat sternly. “This is my fault and my fault alone. You’re not to blame at all. Do you hear me?”
Reluctantly I nod, knowing he can see me in the mirror. I don’t want to argue about it any further. I still feel guilty beyond measure. Guilty and stupid. I had something amazing and managed to screw it up before it even happened.
“We’ll go back to my place and regroup,” he said. “I, um. That is if you want to. I hope this hasn’t put you off.”
“I still want to hire you,” I say wearily. Hunter must be worried about his payday. After all, I’m a client to him first and foremost. He probably thinks that now he’s not interested in me like that, I’ll turn tail and run.
But I do still need to find out about my dad, and he’s the only person who can help me right now, even if it is humiliating.
“I’m not talking about the job,” he says gently, and I look up to meet his eyes in the rearview mirror again.
He looks right into my soul for as long as he can before he has to look back at the road.
“Oh,” I say, my cheeks coloring. “You mean you’re not…?”
He glances at me again as if he wants to ensure that I see his seriousness. “It doesn’t put me off,” he says. “You being a virgin, I mean.”
“I thought…,” I start. I don’t know how to say it or if I can say it. It’s so humiliating, all of it. “I thought you didn’t….”
“I just didn’t get the opportunity to say it with that guy appearing out of nowhere,” he says. “It doesn’t matter. The only reason I was concerned is that it’s not right. Losing your virginity in the back of a car. It shouldn’t be like that.”