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Thrusting her fingers into his hair, she dragged his head back, and sent him her best ‘don’t-mess-with-me’ stare. “Behave yourself, counselor.” She prodded her index finger into his breastbone, to press him back further and stop any more extracurricular nibbling from occurring before the rules were agreed upon. “Rule one. We share your bed for the duration of my stay.”
“That rule I can abide by, one hundred percent.”
“Don’t be too sure, rule one comes with a but.”
“A butt, huh?” The wicked tilt of his lips sent the heat south to throb between her legs as he caressed the naked butt in question. “I’m a big fan of your butt.”
“That would be a but with one ‘t’ you pervert.” She knocked his hand away. “Which is that if we share the bed, it is strictly for the purposes of down and dirty sex and sleep. No cuddling or canoodling or snuggling or lovey-dovey looks allowed.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw, the naughty twinkle in his eyes going feral. Exactly the way she wanted it.
“What’s your position on spooning?”
She pushed out a laugh, her throat dry with lust. “Spooning is permitted, but only when erections are involved.”
“Understood.” His thumbs glided back down to the slope of her backside. “I can guarantee that when spooning against this butt with two ‘t’s…” He gave her butt cheeks another squeeze making the throbbing heat settle in her clit. “Erections will definitely be involved.”
“Excellent. We have an agreement on rule one.” She stretched, rubbing herself against the hard ridge growing in his shorts. “Rule two.” She raised a second finger against his chest. “This is a three-day fling, tops. No bargaining for extra days, from either one of us.”
Not that she would want to. She hadn’t gotten past three days in the past five years. But she wasn’t taking any chances.
He nodded. “I’ve got a court date on Tuesday morning, so three days tops works for me. No exceptions.” He smiled. “Or buts.”
“Rule three.” She had to do this, even though it felt kind of sneaky. “We don’t tell Faith now or in the future. If she asks, I’ll say you helped me out with the citation and that’s all.”
Faith looked up to her brother. And Faith was a romantic who had always believed the best in Zel, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Maybe it was selfish and dishonest, but Zel didn’t want Faith to know she had used her big brother for down and dirty sex—it might make Faith, and by extension her other friends, uncomfortable. And that she couldn’t bear.
Faith and Dawn and Mercy had been there for her when she’d needed them the most at St. J’s. Then Mercy had dragged her out of the pit five years ago, Faith had always been on the end of a phone line with words of support and encouragement during the most painful days of her recovery and now Dawn was back in all their lives.
The four of them were just beginning to rebuild the unbreakable bond that had been her salvation on the day they’d all been hauled in front of the Mother Superior. The bond which she was sure—if she hadn’t been kicked out of St. J’s that day and exiled from them in the years that followed—might have stopped her from going off the rails so spectacularly. She wanted to help make that bond strong again. As strong as it had once been. And she certainly wasn’t going to put a possible dent in it over something that would mean nothing a week from now.
She edged back, a horrifying thought occurring to her. “Assuming of course you haven’t told Faith already?”
“I don’t generally brag to my sister about my sex life,” he said, wryly. “But I’ve gotta say I’m not great at lying to her either.”
“Really? So what exactly did you tell her about missing the Sullivan Family barbeque today then?”
His darkly tanned skin flushed again. “All right. Point taken. White lies I can do. But if she asks me a direct question…”
“She won’t, why would she? Especially if we abide by rule four.”
“Rule four? Seriously? How many rules are there? This is beginning to feel more like a contract negotiation than a weekend booty call.”
“This is the last one, I promise.” She took a steadying breath, knowing this rule was the most important. She couldn’t cut loose with Ty Sullivan unless she knew she could control the fallout. And she really, really wanted to cut loose. “No contact after we’re through.”
His eyebrow lifted. “Define no contact?”
“No texts, no emails, no phone calls, no chance meetings. No extracurricular booty calls for old times’ sake after our three days are up. No nothing. Once I leave on Tuesday morning, we go back to being strangers. Our worlds don’t exactly collide,” she added. “So it shouldn’t be too hard to pull off, logistically speaking.”
“Except at the pub. You and Faith and Dawn and…” He clicked his fingers a couple of times. “The other girl, whose name I can never remember…”
“Mercedes, or Mercy for short,” Zel added helpfully, wondering where he was going with this.
“Mercy!” He said, exasperated. “That’s the one. You guys hang out at the pub. I can’t guarantee I won’t ever go there.”
“I don’t hang out there on a regular basis,” she said, knowing this was another golden opportunity to apprise him of her recovery. She never hung out in bars to socialize casually, because it would open her up to temptations she might find it hard to resist. She only went to Sully’s when she had a specific reason to be there—namely the monthly meet ups with her friends and the odd celebration, such as Dawn and Finn’s party. But somehow she couldn’t bring herself to tell him. It was too personal. Too revealing. And still way too much information for a casual fling. “We have a scheduled girls’ night out there on the second Thursday of every month. That’s the only time I’ll be at Sully’s. So as long as you make a point of steering clear of arranging family time on that day, we’re good.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re serious about never wanting to see me again? Even accidentally?”
