“All right, but no strings and no comebacks. If we’re just coasting on fumes and it’s not good, either of us can call it over.”
“Agreed.”
“Protection.”
He snorted. “Of course. I had a full battery of tests for the insurance company before I flew out. All clear, but happy to suit up.”
She grinned, so far so very good. “I have an implant and I just got tested too. Cleared for take-off. Anything you want to add?”
“I won’t see anyone else while we’re doing this.”
“Me either.” She tap-danced her fingertips on the padded arm of the chair. “I have one last thing.”
“Surprise me.”
It might. “No kissing.”
He laughed, a sharp, insulted sound. “No deal.”
“You can’t call no deal on that.”
“Watch me.” He g
rabbed for his water bottle, the other hand out for the handle of the door.
“I wouldn’t survive this if we kiss. It has to be—” slam-bam, no emotions allowed.
With his back to her, he said, “Clinical?”
That covered it. “Mechanical.”
He faced her, both big smooth calloused hands strangling the bottle. “No deal. I can’t not kiss you, Evie, that’s like asking me not to breath when I’m with you.”
Ah, she hadn’t thought this through properly. The fact that he could say things like that was the reason she couldn’t kiss him. “No kissing on the lips.”
“You’re saying I can kiss you anywhere else but your mouth?”
She nodded. He cursed. “Jesus suffering fuck, Evie. You’re going to kill me.”
But he wasn’t saying no. “So you’re in?”
“I have one condition.”
Reasonable. She gave him the come-on gesture with the hand not grasping the chair arm in excitement.
“If I don’t get your mouth, you don’t get my cock.”
Up came both her hands, like she was at the top of a roller coaster and it was all downhill from here. “What, I can’t—”
He cut her off again. “You can stroke it, lick it, suck it, gag on it, but you can’t have it in your vagina.”
She pounded the chair arm with her fist. “You can’t be serious?” Had he been so pigheaded, so ready to cut off his own orgasm to spite himself ten years ago?
He pointed the bottle at her. “You have your conditions and I have mine.”
“But your condition means we’re both denied pleasure.”
“And so does yours. There’s still plenty of ways we can make this work.”