He grinned. “We’ve been on a date before. This will be our second. Or maybe it could be our third if you count this outing to the beach.”
“I don’t. And we’ve been on afakedate. Which was…complicated. A real one would be even more so if we aren’t all super clear with each other.”
“Clarity is your hot-button topic, I see.” He was laughing now. “Okay. Jessica, I’ve been attracted to you for some time. And I would like to spend more time with you in a social setting, in a romantic way.”
“So you suggested tacos.”
“Tacos are fun.”
“Are they?”
“Tacos with me will be the most fun you’ve ever had.”
“That’s a bold claim.”
“I’m a bold man.” He took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. Oh, that felt nice. The look he gave her felt even nicer. Nice in a sinful sort of way. “Jess, I think we can get past the complicated parts and have a lot of fun. If you want to.”
She did want to. Very much.What about Brent?What about him, indeed. She swallowed hard. “If I say yes, you have to know that Brent is still very much a part of my life.”
“That’s okay.” He squeezed her hands. “I’ve shared before.”
She did a double-take. “Pardon?”
His mouth fell open. “Oh.”
“I mean, I kind of want to know more…” Heat swarmed across her chest. “But I think you meant that in a different way.”
He groaned. “Yeah.”
“Because threesomes are really like a third-date conversation.”
He traded her hand for her neck, his fingers tracing the sensitive skin there. “I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not.”
“At this point I’m just trying to hang on to a conversation that has taken a very different turn than I expected it to,” she whispered. “But I’m not kidding, I don’t think. I’ve been with someone who kept sexual desires from me. I don’t want to do that again.”
“Then we’ll shelvethatsharing conversation for two more dates,” he murmured. “Can I kiss you?”
“Sure.” She swallowed hard as he closed the gap, his warm hand guiding her to him as he leaned in as well.
His lips brushed against hers, soft and gentle. Nothing like their first kiss. This was a courting kind of kiss, one that promised more dates down the road.
“You told me you weren’t a repeat kind of guy,” she said against his mouth.
“I’m not usually. This is…different. Somehow.” He drew back and brushed a strand of hair off her cheek with his fingertips. “You’re different.”
“You kissed Brent.”
“I did.”
She hesitated for a second. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“I don’t think the chances are high he’ll want to do that again.”
She laughed. “I immediately want to leap to his defence here.”
“That’s okay. I see you, Jess. I see how much you love him. I’ll try this again. When I said I’ve shared before, I meant I don’t need a relationship to be monogamous—if you don’t want to be. One of my longest relationships in the past was a long-distance thing with a guy in Toronto. He wasn’t interested in relocating, and he had another partner there. They were both polyamorous, and I was fine with that. I’d never used that word myself, but it didn’t feel wrong. And after that, I used the same principles—consensual non-monogamy is a bigger mouthful for it—in most of my relationships. It’s freeing to know that dating someone doesn’t mean I have to be their everything.”
“Do you ever get jealous?”
