Was this a trick to make the man date me? Maybe… but I needed to pull out all the dirty tricks if I wanted a chance with this man.
I held my breath, waiting for him to answer.
Please say yes.
My heart thrummed nervously in my chest while I waited for him to consider it.
He went quiet for a second, his eyes dragging over my face like he was seeing me differently.
He was quiet for a beat. “One week isn’t going to cut it. I’m going to need more time than that.”
I looked at him and felt something reckless bubbling up inside me that felt suspiciously like hope.
“Thirty days,” I announced. “We fake date for thirty days and I’ll teach youeverythingI know. And when it’s over, we’ll go back to normal. No expectations.”
I expected him to laugh or make a joke out of it.
But he gave me a grin, his bravado sneaking back in. “Deal. You’re mine for thirty days. I like it.”
His gaze didn’t leave mine, steady in a way I wasn’t used to from him.
I laughed, “You’re looking at it the wrong way. It’s not a thirty-day fuck-a-thon. And we start now. Your first lesson is aftercare. Cuddling is a requirement after what you just did to me. You can’t wreck a woman and then send her packing. It’s rude.”
Amos laughed. “All right, Shelly-Rae. That means you need to strip out of your clothes again. Because I only cuddle naked with my girlfriends.”
I laughed and shook my head. “No, sir. Remember thefakedating part? I don’t think we should mix sex in the middle of it.”
His eyes flickered. “Thirty days without sex?”
“You think you can handle that, big guy?”
His mouth dropped open, and I realized he’d thought sex was part of the deal. But I couldn’t handle that. He’d wreck my heart at the end of this if I let him.
“You can back out if you want, Amos.”
He groaned and tugged me into his arms. “Naw. But I might disintegrate if I have to go thirty days without sex. I reserve the right to renegotiate at a later point. But right now, tell me more about this after-fuck cuddle thing. Is that real?”
Oh, he had alotto learn.
Chapter 6
Amos
Morning light crept in through the curtains, and I lay there watching Shelly sleep.
I told myself last night didn’t mean anything. But the second I looked at her, that lie didn’t hold up worth a damn.
I’d known she mattered before I ever touched her.
Last night just proved how much.
I’d walked away from a hundred women without a second thought. But the idea of doing that to Shelly sat wrong in my gut.
What was it that she did to me that no other woman ever had?
Normally, after sex, I was itching to get free again.
But I didn’t want to let her go.
