Austin’s lips crashed against mine, and I held him tightly to my mouth, our need almost bruising in its fever. But Austin pulled back, face completely serious, and finished. “I got something I wanna tell you, Pix. Two words that are almost busting from my chest. Two words I’ve never told no one before. But until I know I have you completely, and you have me, no secrets, no barriers in our way, I won’t be saying them out loud. But I want you to know they’re in my heart all the same.”

My chest was full, so full of uncoiled emotion at his honestly, and I tried hard to think of the two words he wanted to say. Is it love? Does he love me? Do I love him? Could I love him? Or are we both too destroyed to ever be good for one another?

Austin’s hand began stroking along my inner thigh, shooting shivers to my core, and all the air whooshed out of my lungs the closer he got to the apex of my thighs.

Austin took a shuddering breath and said, “So you tell me how far you wanna go right now. Because I want you, all of you. It’s your call, Pix. It’s all on you.”

I watched Austin glance down to stare at his hand on my pale thigh, and I could see the passion in his eyes, see the subtle parting of his lips as he viewed my bare legs. Shock pulsed through me when I realized he didn’t seem repulsed. In fact, it was the opposite. He was flushed, turned on, and… he wanted me.

It was almost impossible for me to comprehend.

“Austin,” I whispered, and he tore his gaze from my lower body to look me in the eyes. “Take me. Take it all.”

A slow, relieved smile spread on Austin’s face, and he immediately rose above me, pressing a kiss to my lips. Hooking his fingers in the side of my panties, he began lowering them down my legs until I was completely exposed to his eyes.

Throwing my panties to the ground behind him, Austin kissed my mouth in soft, sweet kisses, and I suddenly felt his fingers slip gently along my folds.

“Austin… ah…” I whispered and began rolling my hips at his touch. I’d never been touched there before, but I was craving what Austin was giving me. Falling hopelessly under his spell.

“You’re so ready, Pix,” Austin said as one of finger slipped within me, my eyes snapping open in shock.

“Hush, Pix. I’m just preparing you. It’s gonna hurt at first, but I promise I’ll make you feel good. I promise you’ll come.”

“What… what about you?” I asked. Then, suddenly, I cried out, Austin’s hand touching on something sensitive within me… something that felt… too good to describe.

“I’ll be good, Pix. This is all about you tonight.”

Reaching up, I gripped onto Austin’s hair. “I need you. I need you right now. I almost can’t take it.”

Austin’s chest rose and fell and, removing his fingers from inside me, he stood and walked to a set of drawers across the room. I watched his back from my place on the pillows as he opened the top drawer and removed a condom.

Austin turned to me, embarrassed, and shrugged. “Rome used to use this place a lot before Molls.”

Trying to breathe through the nerves, excitement, and the sight of the absolute living art that was about to take my virginity, I smiled. Austin was perfection—pure, artistic perfection. All he saw when he looked at himself as an ex-gang member, someone with nothing to offer. But someone with nothing to offer wouldn’t have brought someone like me to this unfamiliar place of acceptance. Someone with nothing else to offer wouldn’t be playing in one of the best football programs in the country, and they certainly wouldn’t be so creative to display such a beautiful collage of art, of things that were clearly important to his soul.

Austin Carillo was a poor trailer park boy with a heart of pure gold.

“You ready, Pix?” Austin asked, and I nodded slowly.

Placing the golden condom packet in his mouth, Austin began pulling down the waistband of his jeans, fully revealing his black boxer briefs.

Heat accosted my entire body as I admired his built and perfectly muscled frame, his hair still slightly ruffled from where I had raked it with my fingers, and the large bulge underneath the boxers.

Swallowing loudly, Austin hooked his fingers in the edge of his boxers and slowly began to pull them down too.

I couldn’t remove my eyes as he revealed himself to me, and I could tell he was nervous as he cast a shy glimpse up at me through impossibly long ebony lashes.

Austin began to approach me, and I followed the flow of a thigh-length tattoo of two hands clasped together in prayer, a delicate rosary falling from the intertwined fingers. I was more nervous than ever.

Kneeling on the floor at my feet, the condom now clutched in his hand, Austin began crawling over my body, his tense-with-need face meeting mine. The side of his bottom lip sucked in at the edge as his eyes hooded with pleasure.

Brushing a piece of hair back off his face, I saw that my hand was shaking. So did Austin, and catching my hand in his, he brought it to his lips. “You ready, Pix?” he asked through a tight voice, and I felt the brush of his long erection against my bare thigh.

Nodding my head, unable to speak, Austin rose to his knees, ripping the condom packet with his teeth, and rolled the latex on himself.

Taking each one of my hands, he threaded his fingers through mine and brought them above my head, adjusting his strong thighs between mine.

Austin stared into my eyes as he braced himself at my entrance, and my heart boomed in my chest like a drum. With a soft kiss on my lips, Austin pushed forward, his fingers tightening around mine, his lips moving faster, almost as if to distract me from the sudden rush of fullness.