“What?” His voice was a yelp. He lowered it and said, “I told you both Noah and I are fine. It’s nothing bad. At least I hope you won’t think it’s bad or weird or...”
He looked at the desk, then at her. Maybe she was imagining things, but was Alex blushing?
“Just blurt it out,” she told him, suddenly intrigued by whatever it was he had to say.
“That’s probably the best way,” he said, then cleared his throat. “I was wondering if, well, if you would want to or consider or had ever thought about...”
He paused. She waited. And waited.
“Just say it!”
“I think we should have sex.”
She stared at him, confident she’d misunderstood him. Sex as insex? Them?
“You seem surprised.”
She had no idea what her expression was but she knew for sure she wasn’t surprised. She was whatever was fourteen light-years past surprised. She was two universes away from where surprised was and while she was on the topic, later she would figure out why she was suddenly all into space metaphors.
“You want us to have sex?” she said, pleased she was able to speak. “I don’t understand. We’re friends. We’ve never been flirty or anything like that.”
“Agreed. It’s not a conventional request.”
She blinked. “Thank you for the understatement.”
One corner of his mouth turned up. “You’re welcome. I can explain my reasons if you’d like.”
“I would.”
He leaned toward her and she noticed the nervousness seemed to have faded.
“I’m not ready for a real relationship. We’ve talked about that.”
“I remember. You said you were thinking you’d like to have sex though.” Apparently with her, which was a concept she couldn’t wrap her mind around. Yes, Alex was good-looking and fit and she liked him, but as a friend. She’d never once thought of him “that way.”
“I would. But as you pointed out at the time, that’s a more complicated proposition than just wanting to date. I’m not the sort of guy who enjoys random sex with strangers. I want to like the person.”
“And you like me.”
“I do. Very much. I got to thinking how you’re getting over Dustin and how I want intimacy without commitment. Which made me wonder about being your rebound guy.”
She thought about mentioning she was pretty sure she would have to have cared about Dustin a whole lot more than she had to need a rebound guy, but decided to just let him keep talking.
“You’re thinking about moving,” he continued. “If you do, that puts a time frame on us being intimate. Neither of us has any expectations romantically, so it’s not as if we’d fall in love. You understand that I’m still emotionally connected to Kim. We’d stay friends and enjoy the added benefit of great sex.”
“How do you know it’ll be great?” she asked before she could stop herself.
Alex looked startled for a second, then gave her a slow, sexy smile. “I have mad skills.”
That made her laugh. “And an ego.” She drew in a breath. “You’re serious about this.”
“I am. If you’re interested.”
Interested? She was still having trouble understanding the concept. Sex with Alex?
“I’ve never thought about it,” she admitted.
“I get that. You were Kim’s friend. You’re part of the family. It would be a big change.” He met her gaze. “I don’t want to lose what you and I have. That’s too important to me. But I also think we could be great together.”
