Page 32 of Neighbors With Benefits

She cocked her head to the side. “One night of sex and you think I’ll tell you all my secrets?”

“Well,” I replied, “I was planning on making your favorite. But if you don’t want me to go to the effort…”

“Counter offer.” Jazz finished her ball of raw cookie dough and picked up another. “Bake me all the chocolate desserts you know, and I’ll tell you when you’ve guessed correctly.”

“That just seems like a ploy to get me to bake you assorted chocolate dishes for the next month.”

“Exactly!” she exclaimed. “It’s a win-win situation. By which I mean I win multiple times.”

I wrapped her in my arms and gave her a slow kiss. “I wish I had made a move sooner,” I said, pausing to take another bite of cookie dough. Itwasgood. “Why didn’t we do this that night when we almost kissed?”

“Because,” she said with a groan, “we both agreed it was a bad idea for neighbors to hook up.”

I let my fingers slide down across one of her bare cheeks. “That sounds familiar, but for the life of me I can’t remember why.”

“Because if it goes poorly, things would be awkward between us!” she replied. “Think about your ex-girlfriend.”

“Which one?”

“Any one. No, actually, think of the one that ended the worst.”

“Kathleen Avoca. We broke up two years ago.”

“Imagine if you lived next door to Kathleen,” Jazz insisted. “And after you broke up, you still had to be neighbors. Wouldn’t that suck?”

“That would suck,” I agreed. “It would be much easier for her to burn all our plants.”

“Exactly—wait. Burn your plants?”

“Kathleen came over in the middle of the night, poured lighter fluid in a bunch of our pots, and lit a match,” I explained. “Nearly caught the porch on fire. We had to call the police. It was a whole big thing. The worst part was they weren’t my plants, they’re my roommate’s. Bash and I have never seen him so mad. We thought he might actually track Kathleen down and slash her tires. Or her throat.”

“I was thinking about things being awkward,” Jazz said. “I wasn’t expecting you to bring up arson!”

“But I get your point,” I said. “Being next door to an ex would really suck.”

“That’s why I was so resistant, in spite of my friend’s encouragement,” Jazz continued. “But it doesn’t matter now. We’ve already slept together.”

“I guess we’ll have to stop,” I said sadly. “At least we had our fun.”

She stared at me with a blank expression.

“I’m joking,” I finally said.

“You’d better be!” she exclaimed. “I don’t know how long I want to do this, but I’m positive once isn’t enough.”

“We’re in complete agreement about that. How about this,” I said, seizing on the opening. “We keep things casual. No expectations, no pressure, no commitments. Honestly, I’m notlooking for a serious relationship right now. I travel way too much for work.”

That was the truth. I was out of town a lot of the time. This past month was a rare exception, but I had several Midwest trips coming up that would keep me away for a while. It was the reason all my past relationships had fizzled out.

Jazz crossed her arms under her breasts, a gesture that made it difficult to continue looking her in the eyes. “So we make dinner together, play some board games, and then if we feel like it, we have sex?”

I spread my hands. “Sure. Why not?”

She reached around and gave me a loud smack on my ass. “I agree to these terms.”

“You needed to smack my ass before agreeing?”

“Yes,” she emphasized. “I did. Any other rules or stipulations?”

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