Page 99 of Meet Your Match
I laughed through my nose, but didn’t say anything more.
“Have you two been…”
“Fucking like porn stars every waking minute of the day? Yes.”
He smirked, wiping a hand over his mouth. “Not what I was going to say, but good to know.” He fell quiet for a moment before adding, “So, what’s wrong?”
I didn’t even try to saynothing, because the fact that he could read me well enough to follow me up here told me I didn’t stand a chance of convincing him of that.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “We’re having a great time. She’s…God,she’s fucking phenomenal. Funny. Smart. Stubborn as hell. That woman knocks me on my ass daily.”
“She’s a good one.”
I nodded.
“So… again, what’s the issue?”
I swallowed. “The issue is that I think you might be right.” I looked at him then. “I think I love her.”
Saying the words out loud felt like stabbing my own chest with a dull, rusty knife. I felt the air leak out of me along with them, and I stared down at my shoes on the bike pedals.
“When are you going to tell her?”
“Never.”
He sucked his teeth. “Don’t be an idiot.”
“She doesn’t want that,” I said. “She doesn’t want…me.” That made the knife twist deeper. “We’re just having fun, friends with benefits, no expectations.”
“Good God,why?” Will wrinkled his nose. “Don’t tell me that was your idea.”
“Hell no,” I said quickly. “I don’t know, it just kind of… happened. The first time we hooked up, she said it wasa one-time-only thing. We didn’t even last two weeks before we hooked up again, and then she put these… I don’t know, theserulesin place.”
Will was silent for so long that I turned to look at him, and found him slow blinking at me like I was stupid.
“What?”
“I’m just trying to figure out if you really are an idiot.”
“She doesn’t want anything more. She told me as much. She said she just wanted us to enjoy the time while we have it and then…”
I didn’t want to finish that sentence.
“And you didn’t fight her on it?”
“Of course not,” I said quickly.
“Dumbass.”
I leveled him with a glare. “What was I supposed to do? Tell her I didn’t care what she wanted, that I don’t respect her boundaries, and I want to be the one calling the shots?” I continued before he had the chance to answer. “She had her heart obliterated by a rich asshole athlete, and she lumps me into the same category.” I ground my teeth. “I saw it in her eyes when she told me she just wanted this little arrangement.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, some pussy golfer.”
Will wrinkled his nose. “I bet I could beat him.”
“Your swing is weak, Daddy P,” I said, tilting my head to the side. “Me, on the other hand.”
