Free The Babysitter by Kenya Wright Page B

everything back into the bag.
    I covered my face. “This is so embarrassing.”
    A smirk plastered on Jude’s face. “Dad, could you give us a minute?”
    “Sure.” The handcuffs dangled in Kaden’s fingers as he studied them. Just awesome. They were meant to be a joke to lighten the topic, but now Kaden probably thought I was a horn dog.
    “Dad, could you go ahead and give us some time?” Jude cleared his throat. “Now, please.”
    “Oh, yeah. My bad.” Kaden avoided looking my way. “Rain, don’t leave this house without finishing our conversation.”
    “Okay,” I mumbled.
    Once Kaden disappeared into the kitchen with my handcuffs tucked in his back pocket, I scurried toward the door. “Okay. Pretend you didn’t see that. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m actually feeling a bit sick.”
    Jude seized my waist from behind and towed me back to him. “Stop, Rain.”
    I leaned back into him, not wanting to show him my blushing face. “I’m not playing. Pretend that didn’t just happen.”
    Laughter bubbled out from his chest. “Lube, really? Who’s that going in, me or you?”
    I spun around and hit his chest. “Not funny. And you didn’t see that or anything else. We don’t talk about this.”
    “We’re definitely talking about this.” He covered his mouth, but a chuckle fled between his fingers. “Holy shit. Did you see my dad’s face?”
    “Hello. It didn’t happen.” I waved my hands. “Nothing occurred.”
    He studied the apples on the front. “I give you an A for symbolism.”
    Years ago, he’d proclaimed in a drunken stupor that the act of a woman giving her virginity to a man was like Eve handing over the apple to Adam.
    “The world would change for everyone involved,” he had slurred. “She’d see things clearer and so would he. No more garden of Eden for her. She’d be cast out into deserted territory, Rain. Save your apple! For all of the world’s sake, save your apple!”
    I had called him a moron and he’d passed out on my bed.
    “Jude! What’s taking so long?” a female yelled from upstairs.
    “Just a minute!” he called back.
    “Who’s that?” I leaned to the side.
    “Vicky.”
    “One of your dad’s groupies?”
    “Of course.”
    Of course.
    I sighed.
    “Well, there are your condoms. Feel free to use them on your dad’s groupie.” I gestured to the bag and simply accepted that I’d made a bad decision in choosing him. “Tonight’s a bust anyway. Let’s just hang out tomorrow.”
    “What the fuck?” He dropped the bag and caught me before I turned around again. “Now you’re mad? That’s not even fair. I didn’t even know you would be here or that you would . . . you know, want me to . . . deflower you.”
    “Deflower?” I buried my face into my hands. “Just kill me now.”
    “That is what you wanted, right?” He moved my hands away from my face. “You were going to ask me to take your virginity, or am I to assume that you intended on taking mine?”
    “You’re so not a virgin.”
    He fluttered his long eyelashes. “I could be.”
    “I thought I told you to forget about it.”
    “No way. We’re discussing this.”
    “Jude! Can you bring up some wine too?” Vicky, the groupie, screamed out.
    “You better get her that wine.” I rolled my eyes. “See you tomorrow.”
    “Hell no.” He brought me back. And just like that, his face shifted from fun-loving to pissed. He formed his lips into a straight line. His blue eyes glittered with an edge of annoyance. “I planned all types of shit for us tonight. In fact, I’ve been putting it all together for months.”
    “I didn’t know—”
    “Of course you didn’t. It’s a surprise.”
    “None of it can wait until I’m less embarrassed?”
    His right cheek twitched as if he was holding in laughter. “Rain, you’ll be embarrassed for years after this. I’m going to make sure I remind you about that moment for a long, long time. You might as well stop pouting like a baby.”
    “I’m