His words should comfort me. Instead, they hollow me out.
‘It’s more than just contracts,’ I say softly. ‘It’s us. Our friendship. The before, during, after…’
‘I told you, we keep it clean. No getting cosy. No?—’
‘No kissing?’ I say, one brow raised, because Iknowhow stupid that line is with him. I’m living proof.
‘Yes.’
‘No impromptu fucks in the pool house…?’ I raise both brows now.
‘So that’s what this is about? Because you weren’t complaining this morning.’
‘Because you came onto me and I— I couldn’t say no.’
He takes a step forward, his energy shifting. ‘Are you saying I forced you? That I?—’
‘No!’ I cut in fast, before he can twist it into something ugly. Something worse.
‘Then what?’
I drag a hand through my hair, eyes shifting towards the glass doors. The night beyond is black, endless, but it’shisreflection I see. Tall, dark, brooding: his midnight-blue shirt, worn jeans, adding to the magnetic effect that’s all him.
How the hell did I ever function with this man in the same room as me?
‘Then what are you saying, Stone?’
Yes, what are you saying, Miss-I-don’t-know-my-arse-from-my-elbow-right-now?
I force my eyes back to his and…
‘I just don’t know how tobearound you any more,’ I allow myself to admit. ‘Not when we’re not…’
I wave another helpless hand, the heat climbing into my cheeks.
‘Fucking?’ he says with annoying ease.
‘Yes!’
Because it doesn’t matter whether it’s his arms around me, or his dick buried deep inside me; it feels right.Soright. And everything comes easy.Tooeasy.
‘I’m still me, Tay.’ The mouth I’m desperate to taste draws tight, a storm brewing behind his eyes. ‘I haven’t changed.’
But you have, I want to scream,in every way that matters, you have.
And it’s changed me too.
I’m not just thinking about a baby. I’m thinking about him. Dreaming of him. A future as impossible as it should be unthinkable.
And that’s not okay.
I take a wide berth around him and open up my laptop,determined to anchor myself in practicality and do what I set out to before he insisted we do itright now.
‘What are you doing?’ he says, coming up alongside me.
‘Making a plan.’
I smooth the hem of my dress under me as I take a seat and create a blank document. ‘We’ll list the complications. Agree on boundaries. Draw the line.’
