Page 34 of The House on Blueberry Lane

“You were right, Jaye.”

He lifted a brow. “About what?”

“All those times you would tell me that love wasn’t for everybody. It took me two years, but I finally get it.”

“You do?”

“Yes. And just like it wasn’t for you, I can now accept it’s not for me.”

Something flashed in his eyes. She wasn’t certain what, but he tilted his head and looked at her for a moment, then said, “No, Velvet, I believe love is for you.”

“Maybe, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. What I am going to do is continue to move on.” She leaned forward to make sure he heard her next words clearly. “I don’t love you anymore, Jaye, so if the thought that I do makes you uncomfortable, then don’t let it. It took me a while, but I’ve gotten over you. However, what I haven’t gotten over is the good times I spent with you. Especially in the bedroom.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I believe I can do just like you.”

“Do what like me?”

She was glad he’d asked since she had no problem telling him. “Engage in loveless, insignificant, inconsequential, not to mention irrelevant, affairs as long as the sex is good.”

He shook his head. “No, Velvet, you need more. You deserve more.”

She chuckled. “There was a time I honestly believed I did, but now I’ve taken the blinders off and see that I don’t. It’s been a little over two years since we broke up, Jaye, and it was time I needed for my heart to heal. It has and it won’t ever be hurt again by any man, because I won’t let it. I’m no longer interested in an ever-after. I’ll just take the now.”

“The now?”

“Yes. I’m going to start listening to my body and not to my heart. And lately my body has been going through some things.”

He frowned. “Some things like what?”

She decided to be blunt. “It’s craving sex.”

“Sex?”

Why was he saying that word like he’d never heard it before? “Yes. You know, that loveless act you introduced me to.” That should remind him she’d been a virgin until that night they’d made love for the first time...just in case he’d forgotten.

What she was about to tell him might come as a surprise, and some might consider it too much information, but she needed him to fully understand her dilemma and her position. “I haven’t slept with a man since you, Jaye. And the way I see it, since you are responsible for my present state, my sexual cravings, I think it’s only fair that you and I get it on a few times and then I should be good for a while.”

He stared at her for the longest time before saying, “Good for a while?”

“Yes, good until any sexual aches return. Hopefully, that won’t be for another two years. By then I should have decided who my next sex partner will be after you.”

JAYE COULDN’T BELIEVE what he was hearing. The woman sitting across from him looked like Velvet, but she sounded nothing like her. The Velvet Spencer he knew would never engage in meaningless sex. But then, he had to painfully remember what she’d assumed was meaningful sex had only brought her heartache.

He recalled every time she’d told him that she loved him, but he’d never said it in return. He’d been convinced he hadn’t when deep down he truly had. If he told her that now, chances were she wouldn’t believe him. Nor would she care because the bottom line was that she didn’t love him anymore. That was something she had so eloquently stated. In essence, Velvet was giving him a taste of his own medicine. She was willing to engage in affairs that went nowhere, too. He was getting just what he deserved.

However, it was not what he would accept.

“So, Jaye, will you accept my proposal or offer, whichever one you want to think of it as?”

He drew in a deep breath. Whether she knew it or not, just knowing that no other man had shared her bed and her heart since him gave him hope. Regardless of what she said, he was considering what she wasn’t saying. Yes, he would accept her offer but it was not with the intent she had in mind. He was a strategic planner, and his mind was already working on one to counteract her proposal.

Jaye had no intention of engaging in an insignificant, inconsequential or irrelevant affair with her. Just the opposite. He intended to make things so good between them that their affair would become as meaningful as it could get. Meaningful and permanent.

“Because what you’re proposing is so unlike you, Velvet. Regardless of everything you’ve said, I want you to sleep on it and think hard about it.”

She shrugged. “I’ll sleep on it and think about it as you’ve insisted, but I won’t change my mind. Like I said, Jaye, I’m a different person now. I don’t see things through rose-colored glasses. I see things a lot more clearly than before, and what I don’t see happening is for me to ever fall in love again. Love and marriage are no longer in my future.”

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