Can't Touch This (Can't Touch This #1)

“Exactly.” Ryder smiled. “And I just asked him before his mother could bullshit how old he was. Guess what he answered.”

“Well, if he’s that old, he looks mighty young for his age.” I squinted. “I don’t know kids. Animals, yes, but children aren’t my speciality.”

“He’s seven, Ves. A full four years on top of me ever going near that woman.”

The relief flooding through me played silly buggers with my legs and they wobbled. “You mean—”

“The only kid in our lives is the one we cook together—if and when we decide we want to add more to our zoo other than just dogs, cats, and a pig or two.”

“Oh, thank God.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. “This…ugh, this is the best news I’ve ever heard.”

“Even better than hearing that I love you?”

“Okay, second best.”

“Damn right.” He kissed my cheek. “Now, if any other disgruntled lovers try to scare you off with illegitimate babies or other heinous lies, can you please run toward me instead of away, so I can fix it?”

I leaned back. “Wait…just how many other disgruntled lovers am I expecting here?”

His eyes twinkled. “Uh oh, are we about to have the conversation where we admit how many people we’ve been with? Isn’t that opening a can of worms?” He scrunched up his handsome face. “As far as I’m concerned, you were a born-again-virgin when we met and no one else has had the privilege of having you.”

The idea of leaving the past in the past was the right thing, even though I did want to know. But then it would just torture me if he’d been with a lot. It was best not to know. Curiosity would kill the cat in that respect.

He groaned. “You want to know, don’t you?”

All my adult reasoning went poof.

Yes.

I froze. “Not if you don’t want—”

“Fine, now that I’m thinking about ghosts of lovers past, all I can see is massive numbers of men I need to kill.” His face fell. “It’s not massive numbers, right?”

“We really opened Pandora’s box, huh?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yep. But I guess if we’re gonna open it all the way, we should do it together.”

“What? Like blurt our previous lover tally at the same time?”

“Exactly.” His face darkened. “That way, we won’t be swayed to lie depending on what the other person said.”

This could backfire so bad.

My sexual history was one big dry spell. There’d been Owen who earned my virginity, John who lasted two months before his failed sex skills annoyed me, and me, myself, and I. Oh, and wait, there’d been Scott at university, but he didn’t count as he’d only been one night.

You can’t lie.

Okay, fine. I was twenty-four.

Three men was low right?

Nerves ricocheted down my spine.

I bundled up all the sincerity and love I had for him. “I want to pre-caveat this by saying that whatever number we admit, you’re the only one I’ve ever felt myself with. You’re the only one I think about, dream about, and want every hour of every day.”

He swallowed, looking slightly ill. “I was just about to say the same thing. Sex was just sex before you. What we have is fun and pleasure and freedom all mixed up in one kickass fucking bliss.”

I smiled softly. “In that case, let’s go. On the count of three.” I took a deep breath. “One, two…”