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I shrugged. “The main focus at the house right now is patching all the plaster and redoing the crown. There’s not much for him to do at the moment.”
My face went warm because that was whyIwas here.
Burke. Doing things. Wanting to do things with him.
“Out with it,” Daphne murmured. “Your face is turning hot pink.”
“I think I’m having sex feelings for Burke.”
Richard choked on his gazpacho, but he recovered gracefully, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin. Daphne’s eyebrows rose slowly.
“Are we fifteen? I’m not sure anyone over the age of fifteen calls them ‘sex feelings.’”
I huffed. “I called them that on purpose. You know what I mean.”
She set aside the cross-stitch. “Well, I’ve never heard you proclaim something like this about any man you’ve ever met, so I’m not sure that I do.”
I took another sip of soup and let my thoughts settle into a coherent pattern.
“We have this ... tension, right? Anyone can see it when we’re together. And at first I thought that maybe I was having real feelings. Butterfly feelings.”
“You don’t think that anymore?” Daphne asked.
I tore off a hunk of bread, dipped it in the soup, and ate it slowly. That was a harder question to answer as the weeks went on.
Sometimes I wished there were a different name for it.Tensionwasn’t quite right. There was a slightly negative connotation to the way it sounded in my head. Something tight and uncomfortable, a rigidity that didn’t fit the situation I found myself in.
Tensionsounded likestress. Something that might break irreparably.
And that wasn’t quite how I felt whenever Burke and I were together.
All I knew was that it was thrumming underneath every single one of our interactions, whether we were getting along or not.
Butterflies, I’d realized, weren’t the right descriptor either. Those were innocent and sweet, unfurling their wings and flitting happily about.
“I think that it’s been so long since I’ve been really, truly attracted to a man that I am confusing sweet, lovey feelings with I-kinda-want-to-rip-your-clothes-off feelings.”
“Animal lust has a way of messing with the brain waves,” Daphne said. “What do you plan to do about it?”
“That’s why I need your advice.” I set my soup bowl down on the coffee table and took a deep breath. “I have never, not in my entire adult life, had a no-strings-attached relationship with someone I knew I wasn’t going to end up with long term.”
Daphne’s face sharpened with interest. “And you want to have one with Burke?”
“Maybe? I mean, we’re both single.”
Richard sighed. A long-suffering kind of sigh.
Daphne gave him a look. “Calm down. We haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet. If you can’t hack it, feel free to vacate the room.”
“No way,” he said. “If I leave her to your devices, who knows where she’ll end up?”
He wasn’t wrong. If Daphne was the devil on my shoulder, whispering encouragement to do all the things I wanted, then Richard was the angel. He was the voice of caution when she wanted me to plunge headfirst into action.
“You don’t think I should?”
He paused before answering. “I think you should weigh all the pros and cons before you cross this line in a professional relationship.”
My shoulders sank. “I know. I would hate for anyone to think I make it a habit to sleep with clients, because that’s definitely not me.” I held up my hands. “It’s hot in fiction, but this is my life.”
