Page 58 of One Touch

Plus, I still had the Vladmobile to sort out. The damn thing had been sitting in the corner of my garage hidden under a tarp. It was so badly mangled that I had to cover it up; having a wreck like that on display wasn’t exactly good for business. And besides, it was so ugly and so . . . Vlad . . . that I couldn’t stand to look at it.

Still, in spite of all the jobs piling up around me, it was good to be in the garage. Training had been full-on recently—a lot more physically demanding than I’d been expecting, too. Strength wasn’t my issue. I did plenty of calisthenics—push-ups, crunches, burpees, and so on—at home, and I worked out with Cole at his place once or twice a week.

The cardio, though, was insane. By the end of the average training session at the yard, I’d be puffing and wheezing like an out-of-shape bison.

It had crossed my mind, more than once, that it was a good thing Lily and I hadn’t slept together because I genuinely might not be able to keep up with her. I was like a badly done-up car—just about passable on the outside, but with an engine like a hamster on a wheel.

Damn. There I went again. Thinking about having sex with Lily.

I felt like I needed to talk to someone about it. I had nobody to confide in. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t get these circling thoughts out of my head. But who could I talk to? Jack was . . . well, he was too busy being Jack. Ida would probably be overprotective of Lily and tell me to shut down all my perverted old-man thoughts immediately. And then there was Cole.

If Cole knew, he would laugh so hard at me. I’d ribbed him mercilessly about Elara before they got together—even bet him that he’d fall for her. Still, maybe I had to bite the bullet. Talk this thing out. Put it out of my head once and for all.

Because no matter how many times I repeated the million reasons why sleeping with Lily Lane would be a disaster, I still wanted to do it.

An approaching figure jolted me out of my brooding. Tall, willowy, red-haired.

Well, shit.

Lily strode towards me, a flowy green skirt swishing around her long legs. My pulse kicked up a notch.

She halted in front of me, hands on her hips. Her white blouse was cut low and I could see the soft curve of her chest. Fuck.

“Lily. I thought you were at work today.”

“I was. It’s fine. Work’s good. Sold some books. No macchiatos yet, but. . . .” She fluttered her eyelashes at me. Seriously. She fluttered them.

“Been busy,” I grunted. “So, what’s this about?”

She took a deep breath. “I have an idea. A proposition for you.” She handed me a cup. “And there’s your coffee, by the way.” She handed me a cup and I took it, bemused.

“Another proposition?” I took a sip of the coffee. It wasn’t the sort she usually made me. It was black and strong. The kind of coffee a girl gives a guy when she wants him to be up all night.

“Ethan, there’s something going on between us. I feel it. You feel it.” She stepped a little closer and pulled a sheet of paper from a pocket on her skirt. Damn. How deepwerethose pockets? She really was Mary Poppins.

“I thought we talked about this.”

“We did. But I can’t stop thinking about it. About us.” For just a moment, her bright white teeth bit her petal-pink lips. “Are you the same?”

My breath caught in my throat. “I think about you, too. From time to time.”

“I want us to have a physical relationship. No strings attached. I want to get you out of my system, Ethan. I need it. I need you to, uh, destroy me.”

My heart pounded, making my ribcage feel like it was being thumped by a jackhammer.

“You think that’s how it works? You fuck someone and get them out of your system?”

“Maybe. Maybe we’d have to do it more than once.”

“So, your proposal is that we fuck? That’s what’s written on your sheet of paper? One or two times in the sack and then we’re over each other?” Once again, I could feel my hard-on returning. For fuck’s sake.

“Not exactly.” A wry smile twisted her lips. “As a romance expert, I’ve seen the ways that casual flings go wrong in books. People make the same silly mistakes over and over. And, inevitably, they end up falling for each other against their will. And when that happens, as you know, that’s when things get dangerous.” She held up the sheet of paper. “I have something here that guarantees that’s not going to happen with us.”

“You’ve got the cure for developing feelings on that piece of paper, have you?” I wiped my greasy hand on my jeans.

“Cure? I’ve got the fricking vaccine.”

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