I groan. “Yes, I promise. Damn, you’re needy.”
She laughs and pushes my shoulder, the light back in her eyes.
I pause, doubting if I should ask this question but desperate to know the answer. “If you’re so scared, why did you come to my room tonight?”
“I don’t know,” she says quietly, and I lift a brow. “Because… because I wanted to.”
My heart does a flip in my chest. I’ll never get tired of hearing her say she wants me. I give her a little tug, and she falls onto my lap, legs going to either side of mine. Her mouth is an inch away from mine when I whisper, “Good. I wanted it, too.”
Our lips touch, and I combust all over again. Will she ever not wreck me completely? I can’t imagine a day when even the smallest touch from her won’t electrify every cell in my body.
An idea comes to me, one that will probably leave medestroyed at the end. I never should have kissed her, never should have let myself see what I’ll spend the rest of my life missing, but it’s too late for that now. The damage is done. Shouldn’t I take as much happiness as I can while it’s available to me? If she wants me for now, I’ll gather as many of those memories as possible, like a squirrel hiding away food for the winter.
I pull back so I can see every microscopic reaction to what I’m about to suggest.
“I have an idea,” I say.
She blinks away the haze in her eyes. “An idea…”
“We have another five weeks here. We’re too busy to meet other people. And even if we did, it’s not like it could go anywhere since we’re leaving. What if we… don’t stop?”
“Don’t stop having sex?” she asks, her eyes wide.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to continuously fuck you for the next five weeks, but I appreciate the vote of confidence,” I say drily, and she punches my arm.
“You think we should keep hooking up for the rest of the summer?”
“Why not?” Besides the inevitable heartbreak coming for me in five weeks’ time. “Neither one of us wants to stop. We know and trust each other, and we’re together all the time anyway, so it’ll be convenient.”
“You sure know how to make a girl feel wanted,” Quinn deadpans. “Convenient may be the sexiest thing I’ve ever been called.”
“Do you want pretty words, Quinn? For me to wax poetic about your dark eyes and soft skin?” I ask, and her eyes go wide as she frantically shakes her head.
She looks away, and for the first time in our friendship,I’mthe one fighting to keep my mouth closed. I want to give her the space to think about this, not steamroll her into a physical relationship.
“If we’re going to do this, I think we should set some ground rules,” she says.
My heart soars. She’s in—or at least seriously considering it—which means I’ll have five more weeks of this. Of the connection and heat that comes with being with Quinn, so much deeper than anything I’ve experienced with any other woman.
“Rules?” I brush her hair back from her shoulder, letting my fingers play over the sensitive skin where her neck and shoulder met. She shivers on top of me.
“To avoid confusion about what this is. So that neither of us forgets that it’s casual.”
I freeze and look up at her. She’s worried that I’ll get too attached, and it’s a fair concern. What she doesn’t understand is that I’m already too attached, so attached that I’ll cling on after she leaves me because a life without her is inconceivable. I’d rather watch her live her life with someone else than not have her in mine.
I run my tongue over my teeth. “What do you need?”
She blinks rapidly for a couple seconds, then seems to steel herself. “Nothing physical except sex. No snuggling up for movies or sweet goodbye kisses. No holding hands while we walk through the market. All heart-to-hearts need to stay clothed. Our friendship and our physical relationship stay separate. This is just sex.”
I ignore the way my ribs constrict my internal organs at her words. She can’t offer more than this, and I won’t try to force more from her than she’s willing to give.
“Got it. Just sex.”
I remind myself of that while we go another round, Quinn pushing us back to a fast, punishing pace any time we veered toward something sweeter.
Just sex.
I chant it as we lay next to each other, sweaty, exhausted, and more satisfied than I’ve been in my life.
