Dreamspell Romance Volume 1

At the age of twenty-eight, virginity is highly over-rated.
Propping herself up on her elbows, Vicki Dennis opened the top of her suntan lotion and poured some into her palm. As she smoothed the lotion over her face and neck, she made herself a promise. The same one she’d repeated for the past six days that she’d been on countdown. “In two days and twelve hours, this little ole’ problem will be history.”
“What problem’s that?”
Vicki watched her best friend Ronnie roll onto her side, knocking sand off the side of her beach towel. “No more ‘sleeping single in a double bed.’ No more solo Jacuzzi dips in the nude. No more dreaming of multiple orgasms. In short, I am leaving Tahoe with one less item—my virginity.” She slowly applied more lotion to her arms.
“For heaven’s sake, Vicki, don’t be stupid. You can’t just go up to some stranger and say, ‘Excuse me, but will you be my first? One roll in the hay and you can be on your way.’ I mean you’re obviously not that kind of girl. Not to speak of what diseases may say ‘hello’ along the way.”
Vicki shoved her sunglasses up onto the top of her head. “No diseases, please. I’ll be very careful in my selection.”
“Sweetie, I hate to break this to you, but you can’t tell who’s clean and healthy just by looking at them.”
“I know that. As for going up to a stranger, correction, I wasn’t that kind of girl. This weekend, I am. After Sunday I won’t be branded as the ‘oldest living virgin’ ever again.”
Vicki bit her lower lip. Truth was, the thought of going to bed with someone, especially someone she didn’t know, scared her. It had for years. However, everyone, she concluded, has a breaking point. Last week was hers. Ty Carter had winked at her and said, “Honey, this conversation might be a little too risqué for your virginal ears,” once too often.
Ronnie bolted into a sitting position. “First, you’re not the oldest living virgin. After all, there are all those nuns. Furthermore, would you please explain, why this issue’s suddenly become an acute problem? I mean, you’ve always said you didn’t care how long you had to wait. You said you planned to be a virgin on your wedding night.”
Vicki pushed herself into a sitting position and stared directly into Ronnie’s eyes. “I now realize I’ll be the Bride of Dracula before it happens. You’ll be looking at my corpse in a casket and have to say ‘Wait, she can’t go through eternity this way!’”
“Come off it. If you weren’t so damned particular, you’d be married with child. What about Clifton Crabtree? He was desperate to date you, yet all he got was refusals. And from what I could see, he was a nice guy.”
She drew a zero in the sand with her toe. “Clifton was the perfect name for him. He and that guy with the same name on Cheers could’ve been identical twins. For instance, did you know that if you place safety pins, the ones 1 ½ inches long, in a straight line, it would take enough pins to diaper every baby born in America in 2010 to encircle the equator?”
Seeing Ronnie’s wince, Vicki erased the zero. “Yeah, I didn’t think so. Imagine a lifetime of conversation filled with nothing but minutia. Worse, you aren’t sure he’s got his facts right and feel driven to check them for accuracy. For the record, his rate was eighteen-percent and the safety pin bit is garbage. I couldn’t help myself. As an engineer, I had to check figures.”
“Okay. I’ll grant you he wasn’t a winner. But there has to be one man you know who can live up to your platinum standard. Take Ty Carter, for instance.”
The hair on her arm stood at attention. Rats. I thought I’d hidden my feelings for Ty from all my friends, especially Ronnie. There’s such a thing as being too good of a friend. If she knew how often I’d fantasized over Ty Carter, she’d become an unrelenting matchmaker. Then any chance I had to accomplish my mission would be thwarted.
“Ty Carter’s okay.” Vicki kept her gaze lowered as if studying the beach towel.
“Okay? He’s o-kay? Are we talking about the same man? Sun-streaked blonde hair, navy-blue eyes, tanned bod with a rippled abs and pecs, built like a swimmer suited up in a white dress-shirt, complete with a Stanford PhD in Engineering and a six-figure income?” She made that little sound she always made with her tongue when she was dismayed. “Vick, you may be sicker than I thought. If Jeremy and I weren’t happily married, I’d make a play for him myself.”
“Yeah, well you are married, although no one’d guess by the way the two of you paw each other on the dance floor. After five years of marriage.”
“Ain’t love grand? You just wait. You’ll feel the same way. And I won’t be surprised if it’s Ty Carter who makes you tumble.”
Once again, upon hearing his name Vicki’s stomach lurched. “He isn’t and never will be interested in me. I’m his little sister. You know, the almost ten years older thing.”
“And, your point is?” Ronnie shook her head. “In case you don’t remember, Jeremy is nine years older than I am.”
She shrugged. “There are exceptions to every rule.” She raised her gaze and met Ronnie’s. She had to make her friend understand it was a fantasy, a lost cause. “Give it up. Ty and I have worked for the same engineering firm for five years. If there hasn’t been a spark by now, there isn’t going to be. My focus is on losing something, not gaining someone.”
“We’ll see.”