Page 29 of Fake Date with the Mountain Man

I lean in, kissing her deeply again while keeping my pace on her clit. She melts into me. I can feel it building in her again.

“Do you need more?” I whisper into her mouth.

Marlow nods, whimpers, squirms as I push a third finger into her. She’s so tight, but she wants it so badly. I want it so badly.

“Good girl…such a good fucking girl …taking another finger for me…”

I’m whispering all the dirty thoughts that float through my head, hoping one of them will be the one to push her over the edge. Marlow laps each of them up, clenching, pleading, moaning my name. Driving me wild. Getting so, so close.

And then I feel it slip away again.

I pull my hand away, but I’m not giving up. I could do this all day. Fuck, I could do this all week.

“Where’s your bedroom?” I ask. Maybe she needs to lie down and relax into it.

Marlow slumps against the wall. She draws in a breath so long that it must reach her toes.

“I can’t,” she says on a long exhale. When she opens her eyes, a tear rolls down her cheek.

I’m jolted back to reality. I reach up, cupping her face and lightly brushing the tear away.

“Marlow, what’s wrong? Tell me I didn’t hurt you.”

“No.” It’s a hiccup of a word. “But you will. I can’t do this with you.”

I take a step back and scrub my hand over my face. Marlow is already fixing her underwear and smoothing her dress back into place. Her lips are swollen, her skin is flushed with heat, and her breath is ragged. It’s a picture I’ll never get out of my head, just like her undressing in the hotel room last night.

But I know it’s all I’ll ever get, and I need to hear her say it. I need the woman in front of me to tell me that I don’t have a chance in hell with her ever again so I can get past this...thing…I’m feeling.

“Talk to me, Marlow. Tell me what’s going on.”

She tenses and looks everywhere but at me. It feels like shit to ask this beautiful woman to let me down, easy or not.

“I’m sorry,” she starts. Her voice is sympathetic, maybe even a little sad. “I shouldn’t have asked you to kiss me. I knew it would make things messy between us.”

“It doesn’t have to be messy,” I say. It comes out with no conviction at all, probably because I know it’s a lie the minute the words leave my mouth. I do this sort of thing all the time – uncomplicated hookups with uncomplicated women. None of those women are my coworkers. None of those women are Marlow.

She sighs. “But it will be. I’m a relationship girl. I get attached. If you and I do this, I’ll get attached. I know that makes me sound a little crazy, or like I’m not a modern, empowered woman, but it’s just the way I am when it comes to sex. I don’t know how to do casual, and I don’t want to risk making a mess of things with you, especially since we work together.”

She’s right, of course.

Why does Marlow always have to be so right about things?

I admire the fact that she refuses to pretend to be something she isn’t. But it also doesn’t change the way I am. And it doesn’t change the way this would end.

“I’m sorry, I just want to be honest with you,” she says.

I see the uncertainty in her eyes. She’s wringing her hands nervously in front of her. She needs to hear me say it, too.

“You’re right,” I say, “and I appreciate your honesty. But can I ask you something?”

She nods slowly.

“Do you think we could try being friends at least? Being your mortal enemy is wearing me out.”

“I think we can manage that,” Marlow smiles half-heartedly.

I take a couple steps forward and press a kiss to her cheek before turning to leave her apartment.

---