Page 68 of Friends With Benefits

After they’d made love that night, Kerri curled into Mitch’s side and petted his chest.

“Let’s go to Paris,” he said.

She lifted her head, stunned. “Huh?”

He smiled and stroked her hair. “We should go. You want to go. When’s the last time you took a holiday?”

“Ha. I don’t even remember.”

“Exactly. But now you have people who could take over your classes, and Sela could cover for you for a week if we went away, couldn’t she?”

Kerri considered that. “I suppose she could.” Excitement bubbled in her. “Really? You really mean it?”

He nodded. “I’d love to take you to Paris. So let’s go.”

“Oh my God!” That was so incredibly exciting! Then she had a thought. “But maybe we should wait.”

“Wait for what?” His hand still idly stroked her hair.

“We should save Paris. Save it for our honeymoon.”

His hand stilled. She felt his body tense beneath her, and the temperature in the room dropped several chilling degrees.

Kerri’s stomach tightened and she lifted her head. “What?” she asked hesitantly.

He just looked at her. “Honeymoon?” He shook his head slightly, gently moved her off him to the side. She flipped over and sat up, pulling the covers over her naked breasts, still tender and swollen from their lovemaking.

She stared at him, sensing something really bad but not sure exactly what. Her fingers shook and her stomach churned.

“Yeah,” she continued, softly. “What…what’s wrong with that?”

He closed his eyes. “Kerri. You know I don’t believe in marriage.”

She took that in and turned it over in her mind. “But that was before,” she said, distressed. “Before…us. Before we fell in love.”

Eyes still closed, he sat up and leaned back against the headboard. He rubbed his face with both hands, then opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.

“That doesn’t change how I feel about marriage,” he said flatly. “It’s still a mistake.”

She stared at him in stunned disbelief. How could he say that? Yes, she knew what he thought about marriage, but she’d been sure that now he’d fallen in love—or so he said—he would of course want to get married. Wasn’t that the next natural step in a relationship? She’d thought maybe they would move in together first, but she assumed that if they loved each other they’d get married. One day.

Oh God.

Her stomach tightened painfully and her heart thudded.

“Mitch.” She reached out and put a hand on his forearm. It was hard as a rock. “You can’t mean that. Not now.”

He ran a hand through his hair, clearly disturbed by the conversation. “I don’t really want to talk about this,” he growled. “We’ve talked about this before and we’ve agreed to disagree. Marriage is not in my future. Not ever.”

Her heart squeezed painfully. “No. But…what about me?”

He looked at her. “What about you? I thought you loved me. Isn’t that enough?”

She shook her head slowly, her head spinning. This could not be happening. She clutched the sheet tighter in her hands. “I want to get married,” she whispered. “You knew that. I want a family. I want kids.”

He just looked back at her, his face grim.

“No,” she whispered, head whirling. “No, don’t do this to me, Mitch. We finally found each other. I finally found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with and you’re telling me you won’t marry me?”

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