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My heart is pounding, my temperature spiking as I stare into his eyes, feeling the weight of this conversation. And now…imaginingthatkind of sex with him.
“Very funny,” he mumbles as he turns away.
“All the girls at the dance club you own must be very lucky,” I tease him. Garrett’s been working in nightclubs for as long as I can remember, and I can only imagine how much pussy he must be raking in daily.
“I don’t sleep with the girls at my clubs,” he replies as we continue our walk.
I laugh, glancing over at him. “You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not. It might shock you, but I’m a professional. And I enjoy my job. I don’t do it to pick up chicks.”
I don’t reply, but I stare at him skeptically for a moment. I have to admit that Garrett does strike me as different compared to most men, but if I know anything about men, and I’ve met enough through the app to have a pretty good idea, it’s that they only want one thing. And they are willing to do just about anything to get it.
That’s why I’m happy with my job. I only give what I’m willing to give. No one can touch me or use me. And at the end of the day, I get a paycheck. I don’t have to worry about slime balls who want too much.
It’s the one place where I hold the power.
Our walk grows quiet for a while as we try to beat the sunset back to the house. Finally, he breaks the silence as he mutters quietly, “Masochist.”
“What?” I ask.
“Earlier you called me a sadist for loving to run, but the correct word is masochist—someone who enjoys inflicting pain on themselves.”
“Oh.”
There’s a twinkle of mischief in his eyes as we continue walking, like I’ve brought up a topic he’s interested in talking about. “So, what’s a sadist?”
“A sadist is someone who likes to inflict pain on someone else.”
“Hmm,” I reply, before quickly adding, “like inviting yourself on my walk just to watch me suffer.”
This time his smile is full, and I don’t miss the way it creates wrinkles around his eyes. Then, he turns that warm, sexy grin on me as he replies, “Exactly.”
RULE #6: SEXY PET NAMES ARE ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA.
Garrett
Once we get back to the lake house, our parents are on the porch, my mom with a glass of rosé in her hand and my stepdad manning the grill. The aroma of charring hamburgers fills the air as Mia and I bound up the steps.
“Got yours well done, Mia,” her dad says. She peeks over his shoulder to see the crispy black edges of the last burger on the grill. I’ve eaten with Mia enough to know that if she spots even the slightest pink in her burger, she loses her mind.
“Thanks, Dad,” she says, giving him a peck on the cheek.
“That should be a crime,” I tell her. “Paul, you’re an accessory to burger murder.”
He laughs, but she rolls her eyes at me.
“I’ve been telling her the same thing since she was a kid,” Paul adds.
“You two stop picking on her,” my mother says, putting an arm around Mia, who leans into her. Seeing them together…I’m reminded of the fact that Mia was just a kid when my mother came into the picture. She tragically lost her own mother at such a young age, so she clung right onto mine when they met.
My mother had me at only eighteen, and Mia’s dad had her at thirty-two, which meant when the two forty-year-olds met and fell in love, they each brought a child into the marriage who were thirteen years apart. But I think my mother relished the opportunity to start over with another child, finally having the daughter she always wanted. After my dad left, she devoted her life to me. She rarely dated; in fact, she never had much of a social life at all. I was a full-grown adult, just as her life seemed to begin again.
And then I’m suddenly reminded that the girl my mother sees as her daughter is the same girl I saw naked yesterday and haven’t stopped picturing her naked since.
“I need a drink,” I mutter to myself as I head inside. I go straight to the fridge in the kitchen, pulling out a light beer and setting it on the counter as I fish my phone out of my pocket. I’ve only been gone for a few hours, and I’m already itching to check my work email or any text messages from the team.
There’s nothing new in my email and not a single text from anyone.
