What kind of a question was that? Of course he liked Jett for things other than sex. He wouldn’t have her staying with him at his parents’ house if that weren’t the case. Hadn’t he been vocalizing…?
Fuck.Maybe he hadn’t.
“I, uh, yes. I like you, Jett. A lot,” Trask managed, setting aside his discomfort over how she’d brought this up and blindsided him. Couldn’t they have had a reasonable discussion over cornflakes in the morning, after a good night’s…?
Shit.He was doing it again; exactly what she’d accused him of.
“Well, thanks for that,” she snorted. “So, I’m not just aregularcock-warmer. I’m alikeablecock-warmer. Good to know.”
Now she was just being ridiculous.
“What do you want me to say, Jett?” Trask ran a frustrated hand over his head. It needed to be buzzed again. He didn’t like it when his hair got even the slightest bit out of control.
“How about where we’re going from here?” she suggested roughly.
Fuck.
She forged on. “When we first met, you were talking about finding a place to live that wasn’t your folks’ house. Where has that idea gone? I can answer for you. Nowhere,” she clipped. “And I believe it’s because you don’t know what to do with meif you move.”
Dammit.Jett wasn’t wrong.
Hehadbeen looking for a house before she came along, and he’d put it on hold because…he liked her in his bed and readily available. So he’d figured why rock the boat and…
Alright. Alright. He needed to be honest with himself.
Had he stopped house-hunting because he wasn’t sure where Jett would fit into his plans?
Yes.
Was he afraid that if he found a place, she’d want to move in with him, permanently?
Maybe.
He felt tension rise within him. That was dishonest. It had given himsignificantpause; the thought of living with Jett. Sure, her presence had become something he looked forward to, so why would it…?
The future, he answered for himself, somehow managing not to groan out loud.
If Jett moved with him to a new place, it would redefine what they were doing. It would bring things from fun and light, to an actual…relationship.
And he couldn’t do that.
He just couldn’t.
Trask had gone that route just once, very briefly, and look how he’d crashed and burned. He wasn’t about to risk that again.
Jett had been staring at him for so long, Trask knew she was waiting for a response, and he struggled to come up with one.
“I, uh, thought things were good between us the way they were?” he postulated. “I didn’t know you were unhappy with the status quo.”
He dared a look at her, and noted the minute she went from angry to crestfallen.
“Your right. I’m…sorry,” she said, dropping her head to her hands and scrubbing them up and down “To you, this sounds like it’s coming out of the blue. For me…? Argh!” she emoted.“This is so much more difficult than I thought it would be. And do you know why?” she asked.
Trask remained silent, hoping the question was rhetorical.
“It’s because wedon’t talk,” she bit out. “We discuss business and surface things. We tease each other once we’re alone. We have sex. We sleep wrapped up in each other’s arms, then we start our new day as if we’re…colleagues. We don’t show affection in front of your parents. We don’t do anything at work indicating to your brothers that we’re ‘seeing’ each other. Then we go home, have dinner, and retreat to your room to fuck some more.”
Trask heard her. He did.
