“You did.”
Several beats of silence follow.
“It was the best for me too,” I say finally. “You know your way around a woman’s body.”
He cocks his head like he knows what I’m thinking. “I know my way aroundyourbody,” he says. “I don’t want you thinking it’s always like this.” He kisses my neck. “It’sneverlike this, and that’s the God’s honest truth.”
I rub his facial scruff affectionately.
Louie meows.
We ignore her.
She meows again. Louder this time.
When she strolls up to our heads and meows right in our ears, we both laugh.
“I’ll go take care of her little box and get her fresh food.” Jared kisses my cheek. “Don’t move.”
Oh, I won’t.
Jared isn’t gone long, but it’s long enough for my mind to start whirling with doubts.
I’m sitting up with the sheet tucked around my breasts when he slips back into bed and sits next to me.
He kisses my forehead, and I put my hand over his.
But then, silence sets in. And I feel the sudden need to fill the space.
So, I turn to face him and impulsively ask, “Do you want to set some rules?”
He furrows his brow like he’s genuinely confused.
“Rules?”
“Yes. I’ve never done this before, so I’m just making it up as I go.”
“You’ve never had sex before?”
I swat at his hand, and he laughs.
“I’ve never been in a friends-with-benefits kind of situation.”
Jared stills for a fraction of a second. If I wasn’t watching him so closely, I would have missed the pause.
But then, instead of answering me, he just nods noncommittally.
And I deflate a little inside.
I broached it as friends-with-benefits because I’m not sure what else to call what we did over the last twenty-four hours, but part of me was hoping Jared would label what we’re doing as—if not a relationship because I know he doesn’t do those—somethingreal. Having sex with him sure feels more meaningful than a mere benefit.
But his neutral expression gives nothing away, so I storm ahead—no pun intended. “Okay, so here’s what I think we should do.”
His eyes haven’t left mine.
“We keep having sex as long as we’re sharing this cabin,” I stammer out. “Which is supposed to be around a month, but if it’s less than, we stop at that point. And if it’s longer, we keep going. Until one of us gets our own place.”
Yes, I’m aware that I sound like I’m thirteen but I can’t stop talking. Now that I’ve word-vomited this much of my ridiculous proposal, I have to see it through.
