“No, I don’t trust you. I told you that from the start.”
“I know I lied to you.” He paced away. “But I haven’t lied to you since, have I?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “This isn’t about trust. This isn’t a relationship. It’s just…” She tried to think of a word that wasn’t insulting. “Casual.”
“Right. It’s so casual you don’t want people to know about it.”
“What?” she yelped. “You don’t want people to know, either!”
Eric ran a hand through his dark hair, messing it up even further. “I know. But it’s not that I don’t want people to know, I just…”
She raised a haughty eyebrow.
“I just want this to be private.”
“That’s the same thing, Eric.”
“Regardless, we made that agreement when it was only one night. But now…”
“Then we should stop,” she said quickly.
He crossed his arms and stared down at her as if she were an insolent child.
She shrugged. “What? You’re right. I don’t trust you and I never will. We only meant it to be one night. Then we agreed on two. But it’s getting out of control.”
His eyes slid toward the hallway.
“I like it out of control,” he muttered.
Beth closed her eyes. So did she. She was getting wet just thinking about how bold she’d been last night, and how wild it had made him. And how he’d fucked her on the floor like a beast. They’d barely made it through the front door. “I like it, too,” she admitted. “But I don’t know what you’re asking for.”
He sat down facing the hallway. “I don’t know. Maybe I want to feel like I can call you.”
“Of course you can call me.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “I want to call without feeling like I’m intruding on your real life.”
“Yet you don’t want to talk to your sister in front of me.”
“I was trying not to wake you.”
She lay down and stared at the ceiling. “That’s hardly the whole truth, Eric. Don’t pretend it is.”
He cursed softly and she felt the bed shift as he moved closer to her. “All right. Here’s the truth. My sister figured out who you were. Luke and I were talking about you and he said your name. She recognized it and connected the dots. She knows you’re the woman who came into the brewery. The one I…” Beth nodded.
“And as soon as it came out, they were looking at me with different eyes. Wondering what we’d done. Imagining what you might see in me. You’re almost like a celebrity.”
Yeah. She could understand that. Because it had always felt like that on her side, too. Except she lived with it on every single date. At least Eric could walk away if he wanted.
She was suddenly painfully glad he didn’t want to walk away. “It’s the same for me, you know,” she murmured. “It’s the flip side.”
“I get it.”
“You’re nothing to hide, Eric. But I want it to be private. Like you do.”
“Are you still
dating other men?”