Page 34 of The Hot Shot
“A problem?”
“It gives me a rash.” I glance down at my lap with meaning.
A look of sympathetic horror washes over his face. “Oh, shit.” He shifts around in his seat. “Yeah, say no more. Please.”
My lips quirk. “It started a year out of college. Suddenly, it was like my body was turning against me having casual sex.”
It turned against me in more ways than that, but he doesn’t need to hear everything.
“Killed the free love, eh?” Finn steals one of my fries and eats it. “There are nonlatex condoms, you know. Some of those ultrathin, barely there brands? They feel great...” He trails off with a slight flush. “The point is, options are available.”
I snort on a laugh. “Yeah, I know, but it became a kind of mental thing. I’d see the dude rolling on a condom, and my lady bits would seize up in remembered horror.”
He winces, and I nod.
“I knew those condoms wouldn’t irritate me, but my ladybird was all,Nope. That’s a no-fly zone.”
Finn snickers, but his gaze travels over me with thoughtful appraisal. “So that’s it for sex? God, please don’t tell me that.”
“No, but it’s become...”
“Complicated,” he finishes for me.
“I can protect myself from getting pregnant, and I do. But now I have to trust the guy when he says he’s clean. He has to trust me when I say I am, too. It’s just not a good casual sex situation.”
Finn nods in sympathy.
“Stop looking at me like that,” I say. “I still have sex. Just not casual hookups. Which is a good thing, since I want to get to know the guy before having sex with him. Iwanta relationship.”
“I hear you.” But he still stares.
“I’m not a pity case.”
“Didn’t think you were.”
“I’m going to ping you with a fry if you don’t get that look off your face.”
Finn’s lips curl, but his gaze turns calculating. “You know, I’m clean—”
“No.”
“Consider it a ‘friend helping out a friend’ service—”
“No,” I say with more emphasis.
He grins. “Worth a shot.”
“I think we should refrain from talking about sex from here on out.” In truth, I have no interest in hearing about his hookups.
Finn lets out an expansive sigh. “Thank God for small mercies. I’ll keep thinking about your mournful pussy and want to comfort it.”
He looks so disgruntled that I roll my eyes and chuck a piece of fish at him.
Finn catches it midair, pops it into his mouth, and munches away without remorse. “Hey, Chess?”
He steals another fry off my plate.
“Yes, thief?”
