The lines weren’t supposed to blur. This thing could only be temporary.
I had a son. A life I’d built with careful, deliberate boundaries. The past week had already turned that world into a minefield. One wrong move and everything could detonate.
Wanting Eric the way I did…that was already dangerous.
Feeling anything more than that? That could be catastrophic.
Still, I couldn’t pretend this was just sex anymore. Something had shifted. Something that wasn’t going to disappear just because we’d both come.
Call it fear. Call it self-preservation. I wasn’t ready for anything bigger than this. My life didn’t have room for complicated. Not now.
But my body hadn’t gotten that memo.
What we’d just done felt like a beginning, not a finish. A taste. Enough to wake the hunger, not quiet it.
My mouth left his on a slow exhale, and his finger traced down the side of my face.
“I think I like being in your club.”
A laugh burst out of me, sharp and reckless. I slipped my hand under his shirt and pinched his nipple hard.
“Fuck.” He jerked. “That hurt.”
“Who said you’re in?”
His eyes narrowed in mock offense, but there was heat under it. “I thought an orgasm was the price of admission.”
“You thought one would do it?” I smiled as I adjusted my bra, reaching for my shirt where it hung from an evergreen branch.
He stepped closer as I pulled it over my head, crowding my space without touching me. “So what’s the buy-in?”
“New deal.” I met his gaze. “You get temporary full-time membership, along with all the usual rights and privileges. Revocable at my discretion. But you have to come back to my room at the resort, right now. We skip the hospital until tomorrow.”
The playful edge in his expression faded just enough for me to see the calculation behind it. “I can live with that. But one question first.”
“Of course.”
“How many members are in this club?”
I lifted a brow. “Past or present?”
“Both.”
“You really want my entire sexual history right now? That’s a heavy conversation for a man I barely know.”
“I’d argue you know parts of me pretty damn well.” His jaw flexed as he seemed to come to a silent decision. “Fine. Past can wait. But present is non-negotiable.”
It wasn’t jealousy or insecurity talking. Eric had standards. And even though I was slightly worried about not living up to them, I had to admit I was glad he did.
“That’s fair. For almost a year and a half, there’s only been one member.”
His expression sharpened. “Dylan?”
The name hung between us.
And for the first time since we’d started this little game, Eric wasn’t smiling. Maybe there was a hint of jealousy there after all.
“No. Not Dylan.”
