Page 138 of Gin and Lava

I pull her forward and kiss her again—chastely. And by her definition, that means I kiss her like I’m about to go downtown. And when it comes to my tongue in her mouth, that’s exactly what I’m communicating. She pulls back and looks at me with flushed skin and lust in her eyes.

God, she’s intoxicating. But that’s all she’s going to get from me.

Hot kisses.

Kisses that make her wet.

But no sex.

“Your fake boyfriend says, you look like sex on a stick, but I’m not going to lick everything I want to lick.”

She practically moans in my arms.

“You’re such a tease,” she whimpers.

“Yup,” I nibble her ear lustfully. “Get used to it, Tate. I’m going to demolish you at this game.”

We head back into the beach house, arm and arm, but somehow all our flirtatious and not-so-chaste kisses makes it feel like we’re back where we started.

Faking it, yes.

Not a real couple, absolutely.

But telling each other we’re not going to have sex … that feels like a promise both of us will fail at.

44

MASON

“So you’re telling me that the two of you have decided to stop fucking?” Connor asks, as we round the next bend in the trail and catch up with Ned.

Ned looks back at me with a frown. He doesn’t approve of this friends-with-benefits scenario, but that didn’t stop him from planting false hope in my brainif it was real. You know what, I’d love for Santa Claus to be real too, but I’m not a six-year-old child.

“Essentially, yes,” I say to Connor, confirming his statement.

“But you’re still pretending to be boyfriend-girlfriend?” Conner asks.

I nod, to which Connor glances at Ned like he has some magical insight on this situation. Ned shakes his head, not wanting to get in the middle of it.

“Why?” Connor asks me. “What’s the point? Make the ex-boyfriend jealous?”

“I guess,” I say weakly.

“Sam’s a putz,” Ned grumbles. “The guy spent half an hour trying to one-up me as if medicine and law are comparable. The guy’s got a damn ego.”

“Like you don’t have an ego,” I jab.

“But the exisalready jealous,” Connor continues, pulling out his water bottle and taking a drink. “It worked. You two don’t have to keep rubbing it in his face and torturing yourself. He already wants her back, you said so yourself.”

“Quit while you’re ahead,” Ned says, with a frown. “It’s only going to get toxic if you two keep this up.”

“Quit?” I give Ned my best glare. “The king of having to win everything is telling me to throw in the towel?”

“I wouldn’t play this game with Olivia,” Ned says.

“You two are married,” I vent. “It’s not the same. Plus, Naomi hasn’t decided what she wants yet.”

“We weren’t always married,” Ned reminds me.

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