Page 83 of Wild Stars

But if I don’t, I’ll be stuck out in the cold.

Fucking weather.

Matty turns the car on, but there is no music.Just the utter darkness and silence.

“Sex is an intimate thing for me,” he says firmly.

“Um, yeah, that’s kind of the definition, there, Matty.It’s intimate foreveryone,”I bite, looking out the window.

“I need your explicit consent,” he says.

“Pretty sure me asking for it,ismy consent, sir.”

“In writing,” he says, and the car gets quiet.

“Like a...a NDA?”I ask.I’m not stupid, I know plenty of people have them, but I never thought I’d need one.

“Yes,” he says as he swallows harshly.“Among other things.”

I narrow my eyes at him.“What kind of other things?”

The car grows quiet once again, and I think he’s purposely avoiding my question when he says, “Prep testing, a status of our arrangement, your safe word, and a list of hard and soft limits, of course.”The way he says the words is methodical.Removed.

But I can see the way his jaw tenses, and the way his lip quivers, and I know whatever this is—it’s monumental.

“Testing, right.Yeah, of course, I mean, that’s like, the responsible thing to do, when you’re like, dating someone, right?”I start to ramble.

Are we even dating?

Are we just fucking around?

What are we?

I don’t even know.

Shit!

“Safe word, I don’t even know what that is, and limits?I don’t fucking know, I’ve slept with like two people...okay, three...four, probably, if you include you in that mix...And, I mean, what are yourlimits?”

Matty’s arms tense as he stares at the road, his jaw clenched.

“I can’t disclose that without a contract, Dare.”

Oh.

Oh.

Realization hits me at what he is getting at, and his words from before, echo in my brain.

I can’t legally tell you.

“So it’s a kink thing.”I say nodding slowly.“Like Fifty Shades of Gray or some shit?Did your, uh, other...Did you make Eddy Spaghetti sign a contract?”

The car comes to an abrupt stop at a stop sign.

Matty is only inches away from me, but it feels like a canyon.

“What did you call him?”

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