The Perfect First (Fulton U, #1)(11)

She slid a folded piece of paper across the table to me. I stared at it, slightly afraid of what I’d find. When I opened it up, my eyes raced along the page, devouring the words as my brain whirred and teetered on the edge of frying. I looked from the paper up to her and back to the paper.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” I looked back at her, really looked. She was young. The Heidi braid thing she had wrapped around her head aside, she couldn’t have been more than twenty.

“Are you even legal?”

She pursed her lips then pulled them in, biting them. “I’ll turn nineteen in three months.”

Now that I knew she wasn’t underage, I checked her out. She was cute. Light brown hair. Light brown eyes. They darted down at her cards and back up at me. Nice body. There was no reason she’d need to take out an ad for sex. “Are you trying to harvest guys’ organs or something? You can walk into any party on campus and get laid if that’s what you want.”

She tugged on the buttons at the front of her shirt, which only drew my attention to that area. I added great rack to my mental list of her positive attributes. I couldn’t tell how tall she was, but she looked like she was average from where I was sitting.

“I’m not very involved in the party scene. I felt this was the best way to find suitable candidates for this job.”

“What job?”

Her fingers ran along the top of the stack of notecards in front of her and she said the words so quietly I barely heard them. “Losing my virginity.”

Fuck me. A virgin. I didn’t think those were still out in the wild once college started. “You want to lose your virginity to a guy who’s willing to answer an ad like this?” I slapped the folded paper down on the table. “You’re going to get hurt. Or killed. Only a psycho would answer this ad.” Or someone so desperate they’d have no issues taking advantage of someone like her.

She peered up at me. “You answered it.”

“No, I thought I was coming here to meet with a media specialist. There’s no one else here who looks stuffy enough other than you, so I figured you were who I was meeting.”

“Oh.” Disappointment oozed from her voice. “Sorry, I didn’t realize. I asked people to arrive at three. I thought you were exceptionally punctual. That earned you an extra point.” She pointed to the little hash marks at the top of my card.

“You’re completely serious about this.” I couldn’t piece together why someone like her would be doing this. It wasn’t just stupid—it was dangerous. It wasn’t that I was the upstanding picture of morality, but she was setting herself up for trouble beyond what someone who looked like her could handle.

“I wouldn’t joke about something this serious. I have a lot to accomplish and only until May to do it.”

The door to the coffee shop opened again and I glanced over my shoulder. A harried-looking woman wearing a suit came in with binders and folders tucked under her arm. Now, that made more sense. I’d thought Seph looked too young, but who else rocked a blazer on a college campus when they weren’t headed to an interview? Everyone else in Uncommon Grounds had rolled out of bed either five minutes or twenty-two hours ago and parked themselves here. The forty-something woman at the door’s gaze bounced from table to table.

I leaned in close to Seph, a terrible thought invading my mind. “Are you dying or something?” She was only eighteen, looked perfectly fine and healthy. Shit!

The woman who’d rushed in appeared at the end of the booth. “Reece?”

I nodded.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Rebecca.” She held out her hand. “Your coach set up the meeting. My car broke down, sorry about that. Let’s grab a table when you’re finished here.” Her wide smile dimmed a little when she glanced over at Seph with her notecards and business attire. “Were you in the middle of something?”

I shook her hand. “Just give me a minute.”

Rebecca stood there, bouncing from foot to foot.

Seph still hadn’t answered my question. “Are you dying?” I ducked my head and tried to catch her eye.

She nibbled on her lip, the plump fullness of it clenched between her teeth.

“Do you mean literally or metaphorically, like due to embarrassment?”

“The first one.” I covered her hand with mine. A slight tremble went through her. She was scared shitless like a rookie running out of the tunnel for the first time. I wanted to pull her in close and whisper into her ear that it would be okay. Whoa! Talk about blindsided. This was what I got for not getting laid since the season began. It was turning me into a chick.

She peered up at me. “No more than any of us. I’m sorry for the mix-up. Go ahead to your meeting.” She slid her hands out from under my grip and off of the table, and held them in her lap.

I wanted to get her out of there, wanted to grab her stuff and take her out of that booth where she was going to be interviewing guys to lose her virginity to. That was a sentence I’d never thought I’d say before. She sat still, trying to put on a brave face.

“Seph…” The words died in my throat. I didn’t know her. Why did I feel like I needed to protect her from this massive mistake?

“I’ll be fine.”

I could only imagine what had gone around campus when she’d posted that ad. It would be equal parts people showing up to gawk, maybe make fun of her, and people who were interested. I shuddered at the thought of the guys who might actually try to take her up on the offer. My fingers tightened around the table’s edge. My knuckles were white. Shaking my head, I loosened my grip and slid out of the booth.