He had intended to talk to her, to propose that they took their fake relationship to the next level. A temporary friends-with-benefits arrangement. One where neither of them could get hurt because their only promises to each other would be pleasure and discretion, both things at which he was eminently talented. But he hadn’t counted on walking into their hotel room, finding her naked with a toy between her legs, and losing his damn mind. He hadn’t counted on how raw he would feel after they’d both come, like his skin was all tender and new, the pink flesh that forms over a wound.
And I haven’t even been inside her yet.
He wasn’t sure when they’d fallen asleep, but it was still dark out when he woke so they hadn’t slept for long. Callie’s back was pressed to his front, the ripe curve of her ass nestled against his half-hard dick. He had one hand banded across her chest, clasped around her breast, and the other buried between her thighs, cupping her pussy.
Does it count as cuddling if it’s so overtly sexual?
He untangled himself from her, lying on his back at her side, and dragged his hands through his hair. Soon she would wake up and they would have to talk about what they’d done. Where to start?Well, Callie, I know you’ve had feelings for me since you were a teenager, but I’m only looking for a sexual arrangement. I’m a heartless bastard, you remember.
“Noah,” she said, rolling over and nuzzling her cheek against his chest, “you’re thinking too hard.”
“I’m sorry. I fucked up.” She lifted her face to look at him, her eyebrows high on her forehead, eyes wide.Shit.He hurried to reassure her, skating his hand over her arm. “I mean, we should have talked before we…”
“Got naked?”
He exhaled a laugh. “Yeah.” He turned to look at her—she deserved eye contact at least after she’d had his cock in her mouth—and instantly realized his mistake. She was still naked, her breasts red from his facial hair and her hair tousled in that just-fucked way that made him want to ravage her all over again. “Shit, I suck at this.”
She sat up, pulling a sheet around her chest to partially cover herself, though her nipples were still visible through the thin fabric. Somehow the sight of her half concealed was even more distracting. He cursed under his breath as his cock twitched, preparing for round two.
“Then I’ll start,” she said. “I’m not naive, Noah. I don’t think that my magic pussy—” He nearly choked at the phrase. “—has suddenly turned you into a relationship guy. So maybe we just don’t think so much.”
He scanned her eyes, trying to get a read on if she meant it. It seemed too good to be true. “Just to be clear, you’re proposing that we…?”
“Keep having sex. Yes.”
“I can’t give you more than sex.” He hated each word as they left his lips.
“I’m not asking for more,” she said, settling back on her side next to him. “We have a few days left here. I say we enjoy ourselves while it lasts.”
“And when we go back home?”
Something flashed in her eyes—there and then gone before he could identify it. “You won’t be home for long.”
He winced. “IfI get the job.”
“Whenyou get the job.” She trailed her fingers through his chest hair, her touch too light, and yet he felt it everywhere. “We leave it here, in this room. What happens in Aster Bay, stays in Aster Bay.”
“I don’t know.” He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, let his hand fall away, dancing over the perfect curve of her waist until it settled on her hip. “We’re already pretending to be a couple, lying to everyone. This keeps getting more complicated.”
“Maybe this uncomplicates things, at least a little. It makes the lie a little more truthful.”
He didn’t know how to respond to that, or why he was arguing at all. Wasn’t this the exact arrangement he had been hoping for when he’d come up to their hotel room? It was hard to think clearly when her fingers were drifting lower, following the trail of hair over his abs.
“Unless you don’t want to do it again.” She pulled her hand away before it reached his cock, her eyes narrowing.
His dick kicked in protest, and he resisted the impulse to grab her hand and place it on his shaft, his chest tightening uncomfortably at the thought that he had put that look of insecurity on her face. Instead, he reached for her, cupping her face and pulling her towards him. The sheet fell away as she leaned closer and neither of them made a move to right it.
“There has never been a question that I want you,” he said. She sucked in a breath, her eyes darting back and forth between his. “Jesus Christ, Callie, you have to have known.”
She closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, they were glistening, the evidence of her emotion like a knife to his gut.
“I can’t be the guy who hurts you,” he said, his thumbs stroking her cheeks.
“I’m not made of glass, Noah. I can decide what I can handle, what I want. And I want this. With you. For however long I can have it.”
He wanted it, too. He wanted every second with her. Every sigh, every moan, every sweaty, frantic moment. He’d never thought of himself as the possessive type but lying there with her, skin to skin with the scent of their sex still hanging in the air, the idea that anyone else might ever touch her like this was enough to drive him insane.
He should tell her no, put an end to this before that feeling had a chance to grow, to consume him. He’d been an idiot to think he could sleep with Callie, that he could know the taste of her and the way his name fell from her lips when she came, and not want it again and again. That he wouldn’t let this thing destroy him in exchange for a chance to be with her again.
