Page 20 of Friends Who Fake It

“We enjoy one another.”

Her skin prickled all over. Her breath seemed to be coming too hard and fast. “Enjoy one other,” she repeated, just to feel the words in her mouth, to appreciate them to their fullest.

His response was a sort of growl. A throaty noise that indicated agreement. Her pulse leapt.

“Okay,” she said, though what she meant by that, she didn’t know.

“Have you never been with a man just because you wanted to, in that moment?”

She swallowed, that damned lozenge sensation in her throat getting stronger.

“It’s just sex,cara.Beautiful, addictive, fun, pleasurable sex.”

“You make it sound as simple as slipping on a pair of shoes.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s more than that,” she said, struggling for words. Struggling to understand her own feelings, then, because he was muddling her up so completely.

“Not if neither party wants it to be.”

She massaged the inside of her cheek, trying to calm her rioting nerves.

“So, you only fuck women who are as cavalier about this stuff as you are?” The curse was satisfying to throw at him in that moment. It cheapened the conversation, the concept of sex; it was crude and base, and it felt damn good.

“I only fuck women who know what I am offering,” he threw it right back to her though, and damn it if hearing the word in his accented voice didn’t make her stomach go all twisty and loopy.

“One night.”

“Two, three, four. Maybe a week.”

She let out a low whistle, hoping it sounded scathing, or sarcastic, orsomethingthat would conceal the way her insides were fluttering and heating.

“You think this is problematic?”

“It’s none of my business.”

“I never had you pegged as a prude.”

“I’m not a prude,” she retorted quickly, her insides flashing with something like pain and embarrassment. Memories of high school, parties where boys tried to kiss her and she demurred, flooded Willow’s brain. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been interested, but Meredith had made sure she knew how precious her reputation was. Even then, she’d known she was expected to come home, meet the right sort of man and get married. But she garnered a reputation as an ice queen, and those silly high school boys had loved to try to prove they had what it took to seduce her. She blinked away. Francesco wasn’t one of those guys. He wasn’t a jerk. He was her friend, and this conversation was entirely inappropriate. She forced a smile, made herself look him in the eyes. “We should get back to the house now.”

But frustration was clearly visible on his face. It was written in the way his features tightened and his eyes darkened, in the way his lips pulled slightly to the side, and a muscle throbbed at the base of his jaw. It was a wave, rushing towards her, a tide she couldn’t outrun.

“You have a habit of doing that, you know.”

She didn’t know. She didn’t follow, at all. “Doing what?”

“Shutting things down when it gets too real.”

Her brows shot up. “I disagree.” Her eyes dropped to the console between them, more spaceship than car. “You know more about me than pretty much anyone.”

“Sure. I have an academic understanding of the things you are happy to share. But when it comes to actually getting in here, you push me away,” he said, tapping a finger to the side of her head before letting it drop a little lower, to her cheek. She drew in a deep breath, as he moved it sideways, to her mouth, and let his fingertip just hover there. Goosebumps tingled over her spine.

“We’re friends,” she disputed, a little unevenly. “What do you want from me?”

An excellent question. And an excellent point. They were friends, and he’d always been glad for that. As for what he wanted from Willow? Well, that was both easy and hard to say. Because he knew, on a physical level, that he wanted to drag her body against his and kiss her senseless. But she wasn’t just some woman in a bar. She wasn’t just someone he could kiss and flirt with a little, take to bed and make love to all night and then say goodbye to without a backwards glance.

This wasWillow,she of the magic wand wielding, family friend, supported him in his darkest days fame. They had a long history. An important history. She was more to him than sex.

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