Page 44 of Spark
Giggling had to be inappropriate, but that hardly stopped Chloe’s from escaping.“Oh.Oh, my God.That’swhat stopped you?You thought I wanted some big romance?”
“Well, I didn’t think you were expecting a proposal or anything,” he clarified, “but we’re friends.We see each other all the time.I couldn’t exactly bang it out with you and carry on like nothing happened the next day.”
“Not even if that’s what I wanted?”
Tyler dropped the contents of the bag he’d been assembling to the floor beneath him, his eyes going wide.“Wait.You wanted to have a one-night stand.With me.”
“That was the goal, yeah.”
“Chloe Ferguson.Explain yourself.”
A quick stab of vulnerability spread out in Chloe’s chest, and she bit down on her lip.But her pride had already gone through the woodchipper once, and anyway, she sucked at anything other than pure, uncut honesty.
“I guess this would be the part of the conversation where I admit to you that I’m sort of a virgin.”
His brows shot upward, and she barreled on, suddenly wanting the whole thing off her chest.“I mean, technically I’m not.The deed was done a couple of years ago.But I feel like when the sex is that bad, an allowance should be made for a do-over.”
“Bad how?”Tyler asked, his voice going low.“This guy didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“No, no.Nothing like that.”Chloe shook her head.Jeremy might have been entirely lackluster in the sack, but he’d been a nice guy, and everything they’d done had been consensual.“We’d gone out on a bunch of dates and decided we wanted to have sex, so we did.And it wasn’t reallybad-bad.The whole thing was just sort of… meh, I guess?”
“Meh?”Tyler repeated the word as if it had personally offended him.“Chloe, doing laundry is meh.Scrolling social media?Also, meh.Gas station coffee?You get where I’m going with this.But sex?Let’s just saymehisn’t exactly a ringing endorsement.”
Chloe shrugged.“Well, it’s accurate.Parts of it were kind of nice.Or they started to be nice?I don’t know.It was all a lot faster than I expected.The guy I was with seemed to enjoy himself, so I thought maybe it was me.Anyway, the relationship fizzled before I could try again, and then everything happened with Myles.I wasn’t really in the right headspace to think about trying sex again.Until recently.”
Tyler’s eyes lit with understanding.“Like, St.Patrick’s Day, recently.”
“Yeah.”Chloe was certain the heat on her face translated to an obvious blush, but there was no point denying the whole truth now.“I didn’t want anything serious—just a sexual palate cleanser to clear the slate a little, you know?”
He snickered, breaking her nervousness.“It’s not sorbet.”
“Fine.Call it a sexorcism, then.Either way, I didn’t feel great about hooking up with a total stranger.I’m not knocking one-night stands,” she added.“They totally work for some people, but after being stalked, I knew I wouldn’t be one of them.”
“Seems fair,” Tyler said, and she kept going.
“You always like to keep things casual, and you seem like you’ve got experience.”She paused to clear her throat at what was probably a ginormous understatement.“So, I thought you’d be the perfect person to help me out.”
He looked at her with a flash of doubt.“I’m Ryan’s best friend.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.My brother might be overbearing on occasion, but he’s a good guy, and he definitely doesn’t suffer any assholes.”Chloe grew a little more stern with this next part, but it had to be done.“Plus, I’m an adult.As much as I love Ryan, my private life is none of his business, just like his is none of mine.”
Realization of several things hit Chloe simultaneously.How close Tyler’s denim-covered knee was to hers.The back of his knuckles less than an inch from her forearm.The way his pupils had just flared, black cutting into the stormy blue, as she shifted the tiniest bit closer.The way he’d been so adamant—are you crazy,he’d asked her—when she’d said she thought he didn’t want her, and oh.Oh.
Tyler did want her.Then.Now.Still.
He was just hiding it.
“You know,” she said, treading carefully but still treading.“I still think you’re the perfect person to help me out.”
His exhale made an audible sound that sent sparks, low and bright, between her hips.“We can’t have a one-night stand.Things would get awkward afterward.”
Laughter popped to Chloe’s lips, but she didn’t cage it.“You do realize we’d be in control of that, right?If we’re both upfront with our expectations, nothing gets weird afterward.We both get what we want, no strings attached, and the world keeps turning.”
“And what do you want?”
The words rumbled out of Tyler, his eyes brimming with heat she’d only seen once before but had somehow deeply missed, and she said the first thing she could think of.
“Orgasms.Please,” she tacked on.
