Page 54 of Roleplay at Randy's
“I'm six years older than you, not sixteen.” I narrow my eyes at him as he rolls his.
I choose not to think too hard and press my palm to his cheek. It’s instantaneous how he melts into a sweet smile which then morphs into a pout. Still, I pull him back to me and let my lips rest over his.
It takes a beat, but he sighs and gives in, molding his mouth to mine.
Can’t we just solve all of our problems like this? Kissing and touching each other unhurriedly. His hands fist my shirt, mine stay on his cheek and thigh.
I’m sure we could find some sort of compromise if we kept at it long enough.
“I’m scared,” he whispers when he eases away to catch his breath. “I’m scared of how quickly I’m falling for you and of what it’s going to do to my heart when this doesn’t work out.”
I hate the way he says that.When.Not ‘if’.
Unfortunately, my own worries aren’t buried all thatdeep. At thirty years old, the most serious relationship I’ve had was the platonic one with Nora, Cal’s mother. I played around in college and was too busy with grades to bother much with dating in high school.
I like Matty. I like him more than I’ve ever liked anyone, but something in my gut is still holding me back from asking him to jump in with me.
“The feeling is mutual.” I slide my hand down to his knee and squeeze. “I have an idea, though.”
His brow quirks, and I really want to kiss him again. “Fire away, troublemaker.”
Sassy little sass pants.
“We already agreed to put on a show for my sister.”
He nods slowly. “Uh huh. At her wedding.”
“But she’s here now.”
There's that look again: suspicion wrapped in curiosity.
“Are you trying to suggest we put on a show for hernow?For the next … three weeks?”
“Hear me out?”
Matty scoffs but tucks himself back into my chest, and I’m so startled by the sudden move that my brain blanks out harder than a scratched up DVD.
“I should note,” he mumbles, “that after really intense orgasms, I crave cuddles like a motherfucker. Since I had to skip out on that earlier …”
“You are being very unfair, you know that?”
His chuckle blows air down the collar of my shirt, and I shiver, arms coming naturally to wrap around him.
“Okay. Here’s what I’m thinking, Princess. We humor my sister; We give this thing a trial run up until the wedding. If one of us decides this isn’t working, or if we need to step away for any reason, there’s no hard feelings.”
“That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”
I stroke my hand through his hair and lean back on my pillows, taking a squawking, fumbling Matty with me.
“It sounds better than us tiptoeing around each other trying to pretend like we aren’t dying from our own attraction. Thinking you were mad at me the last couple of days was brutal.”
He props up on an arm, bearing his weight on my chest, and I don’t mind it for a second.
“I’m going to be honest,” he says, voice made of gravel. “I don’t think I believe in forever anymore. Maybe it can be weeded out in the beginning, maybe it takes a couple of years, but there’s always something that can’t be compromised. Something that would tear us down no matter how badly we want to fight.”
“It’s a good thing we aren’t trying for forever.” I stick out my tongue—mimicking the face I often give in my late night work photos—and it brings out the bright smile he’s been missing since the tryst in the bathroom. “If we find we do want to have something more when all is said and done, then I guess we’ll have something to talk about.”
I can almost convince myself that this is entirely reasonable. That putting on a front that really isn’t much of a front for my sister’s sake is a good, sane idea. That neither of us is going to get hurt, and if we put an end to it, we’ll both be good to walk away.
