Free Burn: A South Beach Bodyguards Book by Erin McCarthy Page B

pulsing desire. I didn’t get hard from one kiss normally, but this was different. The chemistry between us was undeniable, explosive. It was a sexy, craving kiss, and I squeezed her waist harder. I shifted my legs, so I could bring her closer into me, feel her body fully, her breasts brushing against me.
    I wanted to scoop her up and take every inch of Isabel with my tongue, and make her mine. If I licked it, it would be mine, right? And no one else could have her.
    It was that thought that brought me back to my senses. I broke off the kiss and set her away from me. She fell down off her toes, dropping six inches and out of my range, thank God.
    She smiled at me. “That was better than I was expecting.”
    “Me too.”
    “So let’s not stop.”
    She reached her arms up again but I just took her by the wrists and kept her firmly a foot in front of me. “We’re not taking this any further. You know we can’t.”
    I expected petulance. Maybe even pouting. She had displayed quite a bit of that in the last eighteen hours. But she just gave me a smile. It scared the living daylights out of me.
    “What?” I asked.
    But she just shrugged, that smile still tugging at the corner of her mouth.
    That was the look of a woman planning something. I didn’t know how to drive home the fact that it was a one-off, that I was not going to cave. I just wasn’t. “Isabel, I’m not kidding.”
    “Did I say anything?”
    “No.” Now I was thoroughly confused. “But you understand, right?”
    “I understand everything.”
    The hell she did. “You think you know me. You don’t fucking know me.”
    But she just smiled again. “I’ll just finish packing. I don’t need much.”
    What the hell did that mean? I was afraid to ask.
    It became pretty damn obvious when she bent over and fished the condoms out of the wastebasket and checked the expiration date on the package. “Oh, yeah, these aren’t any good. We should stop at the store.”
    I felt my jaw drop. “Isabel. That was a kiss. I’m not having sex with you.”
    “But I want you to.”
    “I want a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean I should do them.” Like her. I should not do her.
    She blinked at me like it was all so obvious. “I want you to be my first. I promise I don’t expect anything afterwards. I don’t want to date.”
    Now I was thoroughly confused. “You just want me to take your virginity? That’s fucked up.” Intriguing, but fucked up. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had been with a virgin. I had to have been about sixteen and I was sure I had done a shit job of it then. Maybe I would do better now, but that was just a hell of a responsibility. Besides, this was Isabel. I couldn’t wrap my head around what she was thinking.
    “Why is that fucked up? It feels like it’s taking on a life of its own, being a virgin, you know what I mean?”
    “No.” I didn’t. I barely remembered being a virgin and I didn’t remember thinking about it a whole lot. I had just dived on the first girl who had made it clear she was down with it. Her name was Katie and I had thought I was well and truly in love with Katie. When I was younger I had mistaken lust for love. I knew better now.
    “Like it’s ruining the spontaneity of future relationships because it’s this thing now… like all this pressure. The minute I tell a guy they either run for the hills or they get weird about it. I want it to be a non-issue.”
    When she explained it like that it made sense, in theory, I guess. But I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to be the guy who just broke her seal so it would be a non-issue. I wasn’t sixteen anymore, impulsive and enthusiastic, because I knew that sex was never as straight-forward as everyone wanted to believe it was. It was complicated. Messy. “Why me?”
    “Because you’re a good guy. You like to be helpful.”
    Seriously? I guess I should be flattered, but what the hell? For a girl who had waited to almost twenty-two she was