Page 17 of Ask Me Something

“Hey yourself. What are you doing?”

“Sitting on an empty beach. I have about an hour before I need to get back to the house and go to church with the family.”

“I hope you’re not sitting there regretting that kiss last night.”

Considering it was quite the opposite, I eased his mind. “Oh, I’m thinking about the kiss, all right, but not with regret.”

“It’s all I’ve thought about the entire day.”

His voice was doing that husky thing that made my stomach flutter. “Then why didn’t you stay last night?”

“I told you, we need to set rules.”

“Okay, how many are there?”

“There are a few, and you would have the option to choose your own so long as they don’t directly conflict with mine, of course. We can make them up as we go, revise if needed.”

“And no one outside of us would know about this, um, arrangement?”

“I think it would be best, both professionally and personally, that we keep it between the two of us. Neither of us need the extra pressure.”

“So you wouldn’t tell Josh?”

“No, as long as it didn’t affect our professional relationship.”

I let out a long breath.

“You’re overthinking this, Sasha.”

“Hi, have we met? Of course I am.”

He chuckled. “Even more reason to have an aspect of your life where you don’t.”

“Hmm, maybe. You indicated this is more than one night. Okay, good, I don’t do one-night stands either, but what kind of time frame are we talking?”

“Do we need to define one?”

“Neither one of us are exactly known for long-term relationships.”

“Then putting a time frame around it isn’t going to make a hell of a lot of difference, is it?”

“True. Okay, what are the rules?”

“I’m not trying to sound like a broken record, but I want you to be certain this is something you want first.”

“Don’t I have to know your terms before I can decide that?”

He was quiet and then answered. “Yes, I suppose.”

“I’m not signing a document with the rules, right?”

“No. Not at all. We’re both smart and capable adults, and we’ve known one another too long to start talking contracts.”

“Okay. Tell me the first one.”

“Rule number one is that if we are angry with each other, we fuck before we fight.”

I couldn’t help my intake of breath.

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