Flings were supposed to be fun. Flings were supposed to be string-less. Pregnancy sounded downright stringy.
He stroked her thigh now, but not in a sexual way, just with the tips of his fingers. Just to let her know he was here while she worked through her meandering thoughts. His touch felt so good, she wanted to curl into him and purr. Except that he wanted her to talk. And she wanted to talk about something other than pregnant girlfriends and her haphazard emotions. There was one foolproof way to douse that fire.
“Tell me about yours and Lissa’s relationship,” she blurted.
His fingers stilled halfway up her leg before starting back down again. “You want to talk about Lissa?”
She didn’t answer.
Taking a breath, he spoke. “Lissa and I didn’t have a romantic relationship.”
He’d told her about their “arrangement,” but their relationship hadn’t been a romantic one at all? The thought hit her like a dead fish to the face. A slimy slap that made her want to scrub her skin with both hands. At least when she’d been with Mick she’d convinced herself she loved him at the time.
Is that what you’re doing with Landon?
She refused to answer that question.
Trailing his fingers back down her leg, he let a few seconds pass, even though she was sure he saw her unfavorable reaction to his admission. “I met Lissa at a party for RedAd,” he continued. “I was employed there right out of college. Stayed ten years. They still want my head for branching out on my own.” He smirked, proud of that achievement, she could see. “Anyway, the cocktail party celebrated some account we’d landed and they’d hired pretty girls to hand out drinks at the event. She was one of them.”
“I’d ask what drew you to her, but I think that’s fairly evident,” she said, picturing Lissa’s long, honey-colored hair, slender, tanned body, perfectly proportioned breasts, and an ass that defied gravity.
“She’s very beautiful.”
Why it hurt to hear him confirm the obvious, she had no idea.
“In a commercial way,” he added.
He was downplaying her. For Kimber’s sake. That was nice of him, but she didn’t need coddling. “Is this the part where you tell me I’m beautiful, too, so I don’t get jealous? Because I don’t need you to.”
He didn’t have to move much to reach her lips since they were nose to nose on the pillow. He kissed her, a soft brush of his mouth over hers. “Sure you do. I’ll make you a promise. When we’re done in here, I’ll take you to my bed and kiss all the parts of your body I like better than hers.” He watched her, gaze steady. “Will that convince you?”
“Will it be more than my nose and my earlobes?”
The twitch of his lips told her he was about to smile, but he reeled it back in and had her on her back a second later. Startled laughter tittered from her throat. He tucked her beneath him and spread her thighs with one knee. Eyes on hers, he nudged her. She wasn’t surprised to feel him half-hard already. She wanted him again, too. To show it, she rubbed against him like a shameless hussy.
But he backed away, laying a harmless kiss on her forehead as he did. “Don’t break the rules. This is the talking bed.”
She pouted. “I hate this bed.”
He rolled off her but stayed close. “And to answer your question, I’m planning on kissing you everywhere but your nose and earlobes.”
Flattered, she smiled.
“Since we’re massacring the rule of discussing exes in bed, tell me about yours.” Back on his side of the bed, he shoved an arm under his pillow.
“My ex…”
Where to start? Not with the truth. She couldn’t very well tell him that she’d gone out after a particularly bad breakup with a guy she thought she’d loved with frightening intensity only to find out he’d cheated on her. At Gloria’s suggestion, Kimber had sought out a one-night stand to scrub Joey from her mind. She couldn’t tell Landon that she’d spotted shaggy, disheveled Mick Stringer across the room and decided yes, that will be who I turn and burn. Or that she’d failed on every level with Mick. She’d been attempting a fling with him, too, and had blurted out an I-love-you not in a dissimilar fashion as she’d done with Landon. And she sure as heck couldn’t tell him that.
But she’d been wrong when she’d made that declaration to Mick. She’d fallen into lust and had mistaken it for love. Had been trying to make him permanent since he’d moved in to her place and bought a business with her. Because without a commitment, all of that had seemed… wrong.