Page 72 of A Vegas Crush Collection #2

worth it

Zoya

I wake up to the sound of banging. Where am I?

Sitting up, I realize I’m naked and alone in Ty’s bed. There’s a general achiness between my legs and I realize what happened wasn’t just a really amazing dream or a fantasy. I’ve lost my virginity. To Tyler Lockhardt.

There is no time to process, to analyze, because someone is knocking at the door and I can hear water running in the bathroom. Ty must have somewhere to be.

I don’t really know where my clothes are, though I do find my panties close by. As I pull them on, the banging sounds more insistent, so I just grab a Crush hoodie of Ty’s that I find hanging in his closet. Pulling it on, it’s like a dress. I drown in it, but whatever. I like that it smells of him.

I pad out to the living room and swing the door open wide.

My brother standing on the other side looking like an angry god bent on vengeance. Georg is here.

My body goes cold, the color surely draining from my face as my brother takes in the sight of me, hair wild, dressed only in Ty’s hoodie. Oh my God.

“What the fuck, Zoya? What’s going on here?”

“Nothing.” But we both know that’s a lie. Jutting my chin forward, I tell my brother, “None of your damn business. And what are you doing here?”

Just then, Ty comes out, dressed in a nice shirt and dress pants. “I can explain—”

Crack! Georg punches Tyler in the nose. His fist making contact and the sickening sound of bone meeting flesh. Tyler throws his hand over his nose, now bleeding profusely onto his hand and down his arm.

“Get dressed,” my brother growls, teeth bared like an animal. “Get dressed and come with me.”

“No! You hurt him, Georg. No, we should talk about this like adults. Oh my God, we are all adults.”

“I won’t sit here and talk about how he defiled my little sister,” Georg snarls.

“I didn’t defile her,” Ty says, recovering a bit, his voice nasally and wet. “Georg, I care about her.”

“I told you to stay away from him.” Georg points at me sharply.

“You did not. You knew we were friends. That he’s been helping me with stats. You knew.”

“Well then, I told him to stay away from you,” he bites out, switching his pointing to focus onto Tyler. “And you said friends. Friends, Zoya! Not fuck buddies.”

“We are not…” I can’t even say the word. “We are not that. It’s more with us. I care about him and he cares about me.”

“He cares about pussy! You’re just a fresh piece of ass to him!”

Tyler bristles at the accusation. “Hey man, that’s not true at all—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Georg yells. “Zoya, I will not tell you again. You get dressed and come with me.”

There is quiet menace in his voice as his body shakes with rage.

I have only seen my brother this angry a few times in my life and it is terrifying enough that I put up no more fight.

It’s not that I think he would ever hurt me—he wouldn’t—but in all likelihood he would, in fact, do more than just make Tyler’s nose bleed, and I can’t have my Ty hurt any more than he already is.

So, I make a decision. I say nothing to my brother.

I just walk through the apartment, finding my clothing, dressing hastily in Ty’s bedroom.

When I emerge, my head hangs low as I pass Tyler, who gives my hand a clandestine squeeze as I pass him by, leaving him behind, heading out his front door, my brother stomping furiously along behind.

By the time I shove myself into the front seat of Georg’s BMW, I am sobbing.

When Georg pulls out his phone and tells Siri to “Call Papa,” I cry even harder.

My father isn’t going to let me stay here if he knows I’ve slept with a hockey player.

I might as well pack my bags right now. In Russian, Georg rattles off what he has seen, me barely dressed, clothing strewn about Tyler’s apartment.

He knows we slept together, even after he told us to stay away from each other.

I can hear my father yelling on the other end, Georg telling him over and over he has been paying attention, that he told us to stay away from the hockey players.

When he hangs up, he says, “I’ll drop you at the dorm. Papa’s booking a flight now. He’s coming to get you and Irina to take you back.”

“It’s the middle of the semester,” I rage at him. “I have classes to finish. I like it here.”

“Well, you knew the conditions. You knew Papa wanted you to stay away from the hockey players. And…what a hypocrite. You can’t come watch me play because you want nothing to do with hockey, and then you’re up here screwing a player? Real nice, mladshaya sestra.”

“I didn’t mean for this to happen, Georg. He needed a friend. He needed someone to talk to, and he really did help me with my statistics. We became friends. It had nothing to do with hockey. We don’t talk ever about hockey.”

“Yeah, duh,” Georg sneers angrily. “Somehow I’d guess that hockey is the last thing on your minds when you’re both naked.”

“This was the first time.” My voice shakes a little to admit it. “My first time.”

My brother’s mouth hangs open. “I’m sorry? Come again? Did you just tell me you gave up your V-Card to Tyler Lockhardt? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“It was my choice to make. My body. I can make my own choices about this.”

“Well”—he lets out a hysterical laugh—“you obviously can’t, Zoya. Seriously. I might have expected this out of Irina, but you?”

“Me what? I am the quiet one? The good girl. The one who studies all the time and never parties. Well, that may be true, but I also have the right to fall in love.”

“In love?” Georg snorts. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard you say. I can guarantee you that nothing I’ve seen shows that Lockhardt could ever love anyone.”

“Really? Have you not seen him take in his little brother and sister recently? You did not see him take two small children into his home in order to give them a better life? Is that not love?”

“That’s different. Zoya, he treats women like garbage.”

“So did you. You treated women like garbage before Pam. Who says he can’t change, as you did?”

“Even if I thought he could change, which I do not, it’s not up to me. The judge here is Papa, and he will never care about anything other than you disobeyed him. You’ll be on a flight home to Saint Petersburg in twenty-four hours, I guarantee it.”

“You didn’t have to call him, brother. You could’ve had my back.”

“I’d have your back if you got caught smoking weed in the dorm. Or spray-painting graffiti on the side of a building. I am not having your back for sleeping with one of the nastiest guys I’ve ever met.”

“Ty is not nasty. That’s the pot calling the kettle black!”

Georg pulls in front of my dorm, turning off the engine. He runs a hand through his long hair and sighs, then bangs both hands on the steering wheel. “Fuck, Zoya. I can’t believe you did this. And what about Irina? I thought it was Irina who liked him that way?”

I don’t admit the guilt that washes over me.

I made a promise to Irina that she meant more to me than Tyler.

That her feelings were important to me. And yet I waltzed right over to him and into his bed.

I am not sure how to deal with the guilt I feel over that, actually.

Especially when I consider the joy I felt when he showed me how much he wanted me.

Not my sexy sister. Me. And now Georg has taken that away. Pridurok!

Still, there is nothing left to say to my brother, my betrayer, except, “Fuck you, Georg.”

Then I open the door and step out, slamming it before he can say another thing to me. It will be a very long time before I can even speak to my brother again.

As I walk back to my room, the tears continue. Several of my neighbors stop and ask if I’m okay. One says, “Guys are not worth the emotion,” and I nod in agreement, even though I’m not sure I agree.

When I collapse onto my bed, I’m certain I don’t agree. Tyler is worth it. He made me feel special and beautiful. And he made me feel good and desirable and beautiful.

The thought of not seeing him again makes me sick and sad and I can’t do anything but curl into a ball on my bed and cry some more.