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  “My waxer likes to add his flair.”

  “His?”

  “He’s gay, so I figure he’s not down there for the show.”

  I laughed again. “I love your humor.”

  She stilled and stared at the place where my fingers were circling lower and lower. “Thanks.” She breathed out the word.

  A loud rush of breath was sucked into her body when I stroked my two fingers through her softness, collecting sweetness and using it to massage her clit.

  She moaned as I increased the pressure and speed. “Slowly, tease me like you wanted.”

  I smiled and lowered my head to her breasts. Flicking the rigid tips with my tongue, her whole body quaked, goose bumps cresting from her chest to where my hand was still continuing its movement, but slower and with less pressure.

  “Like that?”

  She nodded, her eyes clamped shut.

  “Tell me how much you like it, Jace.”

  “I love your hands and lips on my body, Kai. I want your fingers inside of me. Please.” With every word her body dripped more sweetness.

  “I want to taste you.”

  She rocked her head into the bed. “Please. One lick and I’ll go off. Please, Kai.”

  I shimmied down her body. “Are you sure just one lick?”

  Her eyes opened and met mine. “For tonight, one.”

  I was going to make damn sure that lick was one she wouldn’t forget. My tongue pressed low, tickling the pliant and swollen softness. I rocked my tongue back and forth across every inch, making sure to dip deep into her body for a moment, drinking a sweetness I’d never tasted before, then sidewindered my way to her clit slowly. I paused and circled my tongue right under her hardened little button. Peaking out at me under its hood, her clit teased me, but I wanted her writhing and begging for release.

  “Shit, Kai, if you don’t go there I’m going to do it myself.”

  I chuckled against her but enveloped her clit with my mouth in the process, sucking with a firm pressure to release that pent-up pressure she had in her body.

  I continued my concentration on that spot, and in seconds she screamed my name over and over. The sound was beautiful and resonated deep inside of me, until the dog started howling, then Jace bounced with laughter and I joined her amusement. I nuzzled my nose along her body and up to her waiting mouth to give her a kiss that made every kiss before it seem like a dream. This was the best reality ever.

  I rolled to lie beside her. Her body flushed and her breathing settled slowly.

  Waffles tried to shimmy under the bed, his usual hiding place, but he whimpered with defeat and left the room.

  She sighed, with a long “hmmm” following behind.

  “You want to spend the night?”

  She pushed from the bed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Sleeping overnight doesn’t seem to stay in the friends-only zone to me. Does it to you?”

  Probably not.

  I stood and grabbed my fluffy robe from behind the door. She was dressed and headed out the bedroom door by the time I turned around. Following her, the urge to stop her and ask her to stay again was overwhelming. I grabbed her hand and spun her toward me.

  I pushed her long hair over her shoulder and clasped the back of her neck. “Please don’t go,” I mumbled into the soft surface of her delicate neck.

  She jerked back. Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “I was clear. Sex and sex only. If you can’t keep the boundaries straight, then I will.” She wiggled away from me. “Maybe I’ll see you around at Triple R.”

  My feet froze to the floor. I stared as she closed the door with her shoes in her hand.

  That’s why she really wanted to drive herself. Quick getaway.

  It was already after midnight, and I had to be up at four a.m. But there was little sleep. The scent of her perfume saturated my sheets.

  And my head.

  ****

  Jude finished with his last client of the day and strolled in that cocky Jude way to the desk. “So, how’d last night go?” He held up a hand before I had a chance to say anything. “And you know I’m asking more because Presley will pepper me with a million questions than wanting to be invasive with your love life. If you don’t want to say anything, I can tell her I didn’t see you.” He covered his eyes. “It wouldn’t be a lie now.”

  I rocked back in the front desk chair. The position of receptionist had been open since my roommate, Emerson, was fired from Triple R back in April. The two replacements had been short-term failures. But the personal trainers had stepped up, and when the desk needed someone we parked our asses there—mostly answering phones and taking appointments, and it was a great way to find new clients.

  “It went really well, until Jace ran from my house after the ‘really well’ portion of the evening was over.” I tapped a pen on the counter.

  “Huh. That’s weird. Jace never struck me as the type that didn’t face something head on.”

  “Oh, she faced things head on, but she was clear about there being nothing for us after. The old FWB. But after we were done, I realized I wanted more than that, and unfortunately, hindsight isn’t 20/20 clear. If anything it’s a pair of mirrored sunglasses covered in mud, and the only thing you can really see is your own self-loathing. I feel like an idiot.”

  “Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself.” He lowered his voice. “Friends-with-benefits is a very hard thing to pull off. My ex and I tried it for a while one summer a couple years back, but it wasn’t easy. You have to stay away from topics that are over the friendship line.”

  The shimmer of a blonde ponytail caught my eye. Jace rushed in the front door, around the corner to the yoga studio. I would’ve never noticed her, but now her presence dug deep in my gut.

  “Like?”

  Jude picked up a personal training clipboard and made a few marks. “No family, finances, or the future. Keep to friends, food, and fucking.”

  “Wow, thanks for the demarcation in a very f’d up way.”

  He chuckled while filling out a VIP client sheet. “No problem.” His hazel eyes came up to meet mine. “Jace’s biggest problem is she’s married to her—”

  “Work. Yeah, I heard that speech.”

  But is that a way to keep people at a distance?

  Chapter Seven

  Jace

  I saw her talking to Jude, but I needed to get to class.

  The whole day I’d been running behind schedule. I’d slept through my morning three-alarm system. I’d stared at the wall in the shower for forty-five minutes. I’d made no progress at work on a marketing proposal that was due in three weeks, but the pressure to get it done ahead of schedule rambled in my head. After a six-hour day Saturday at Wattier & Buchman, I’d driven to work out in zombie-manner, sitting in the parking lot of Triple R for twenty minutes before stepping from the vehicle.

  But once in the gym, my mojo zipped back, and I rocketed into the yoga room. The fifty-five minute workout cleared the fuzz from my head. I grabbed my mat and water bottle, chugging a good half of it. I’d at least take the time to say hello.

  But Kai wasn’t at the receptionist desk anymore. Probably off for the night.

  I walked outside to find a tall brunette leaning against the back of my Jeep.

  “Wanna get something to eat?” In the setting sun her short hair sparkled with diamond highlights.

  “I’m all sweaty.”

  “I have a change of clothes in my car. I could follow you to your place and then we could go out for dinner after we shower. I mean, after we fuck each other into a screaming state again.”

  I slid to stop three feet from her and glanced around the parking lot. Everyone had earbuds in or was oblivious to the proposition and my thundering heartbeat.

  “I’m sorry, what did you say?” My face flushed with heat and not just from the workout.

  “That’s what this is, right? FWB. Nothing more, right? So why don’t we take advantage of it. From what I could tell last night,
we’re very beneficial together in bed.”

  True.

  “Oh … okay,” I mumbled trying to process the overload of both desire and anxiety.

  “I’ll follow you then.” She headed off to her car, and I fumbled my way into my vehicle.

  What the hell did I get myself into?

  ****

  We walked up the stairs to my apartment in silence. I’d grabbed the mail and fidgeted with the key when I got to the door.

  “Something wrong, Jace?”

  “No, but wondering what the change from last night is all about?”

  “Guess I’d rather have you as a friend with something extra, than an acquaintance with nothing at all.” Her voice never waivered and her back straightened.

  I opened and let her in first. She walked the hall with purpose and entered the bathroom. I stared into what seemed miles long, but was really only a ten-foot-long hallway. Water pinged off the shower and my ears tingled at the sound.

  “Shower’s warm, feel free to join me,” she called out.

  My heart had never pounded this fast. I wasn’t sure if I was having a panic attack or a heart attack. Either way, I needed the feeling to end before it sucked me under. I tried to calm myself with some deep slow breathing like in yoga. I could hear her singing along to music coming from her phone, the bass sound lacking, but she had a lovely voice, and my heart rate braked to a smidge over crazy.

  I put away a few things, then stepped into the bathroom.

  She had her back to the glass door, the bubbles pouring down her ass in an effervescent tail. “Coming in?”

  I nodded, staring and speechless. Which never happens.

  I stripped and slid into the shower. The air coated my body in a sheen of sweltering hot mist, but I shivered, gazing at her svelte body.

  Every moment seemed to be in slow motion as she turned and faced me. Her brown eyelashes glistened with drops of water. I reached up and ran a hand into her shampooed hair, the clean strands squeaking in my hand. Grabbing the conditioner, I poured a dollop into my hands. She bent her knees and allowed me to work the lotion into her hair. The strands slickened and reminded me of things we’d done the night before.

  She soaped up a small washcloth. “Can I wash you?”

  I nodded again, my mouth agape.

  “Are you okay?” she asked with a twisted smirk.

  I really don’t know.

  I swallowed as her soapy hand slid down my front. “Kai, I don’t know what’s happening, but I can barely think right now.”

  She smiled and her bubble-covered hand disappeared between my legs.

  I moaned into her shoulder and bit down as she played my clit like a tiny instrument. I liked the tune, it reminded me of my favorite love songs.

  Oh, crap…

  Chapter Eight

  Kai

  If there was a day in my life that I thought I might die, it was this one. The sounds Jace made were killing me. A delicious combo of a whimper, a sigh, a groan, and a moan, the tormenting sound was my kryptonite. My own wetness trickled down my leg. Every second listening made my insides quiver and pulse, but my needs came secondary to hers. To watch that intense moment of release shudder through her body, I’d never wanted to see anything more.

  “Kai, harder.”

  I wrapped my other arm around her back, pulling her to my body. Our bodies melded and she gasped against my shoulder.

  “Faster,” she demanded.

  I couldn’t take much more.

  “I’m…”

  I dropped to my knees and sucked on her clit, holding her body upright as she moaned in surges. I stuck with her as she rode out the pulses.

  “Fuck, I’m still coming.” She ground down my tongue and I could feel the contractions inside of her, pulling me into her.

  She stopped moving, bracing herself with her hands on the shower walls. “Kai, are you okay down there?”

  I stood and she met me lips to lips. Her hands cupped my breasts.

  I broke the kiss as something tickled inside of me. A flutter that felt both good and weird.

  Butterflies? Oh … shit.

  “I’m all good tonight. I promise.”

  She stared into my eyes. “Are you sure? I’d like to reciprocate, my friend.”

  Her hand trailed lower, and I grabbed it, lifting to my lips and kissing her fingertips. “Promise.”

  I needed to get control back.

  A flash of disappointment crossed through her lowered eyes. “Okay.” She washed her hair. “Want to go get some dinner at Upstream?”

  She lived across the street from the restaurant and brewery combo.

  “Yeah, that’d be great.” I soaped up, watching her movements.

  “I’ll lightly dry my hair and then we can go.” She stepped out.

  I rinsed off and ran through Jude’s dos and don’ts of the FWB. No family, finances, or future. Only friends, food, and fucking.

  I drew a heart in the steam on the door with her in the middle on the outside. I quickly brushed the heart away.

  I’m so screwed.

  ****

  Before we even sat on barstools, the bartender had flicked paper coasters in front of us. “Normal, Jace?” he asked.

  “Please.”

  “What’s the normal?” I slipped off my jacket.

  “Sweet-tart martini.” Jace hung her bag over the back of her chair.

  Not a martini fan.

  “I’ll take the seasonal brew,” I offered to the bartender.

  “Sixteen or twenty-two ounces?”

  My body tingled with the self-inflicted remnant of pent-up release. “Twenty-two.”

  More the merrier. Hopefully.

  “You come here often for dinner?” I slid a coaster closer to Jace.

  “Couple of times a week. Usually have my computer out and am working. This is different and feels weird.”

  “Did you bring your computer?”

  She spun the coaster. “If I said yes, would you judge me?”

  “No. No judgments.” I examined Jude’s list. Work or career didn’t start with an f, so maybe it was safe? But work might lead to finances. “So why do you like to be working all the time?”

  “Like?” she mumbled. “I mean I love my job, and not like I want to change anything, but I don’t know what else I’d do with my time. Plus, my bosses have kind of come to expect my level of output. If I backed off, they’d be mad.”

  “Mad?”

  “Well, not like mad-mad. But you know … disappointed.”

  Disappointed?

  “Do they expect the same from everyone?”

  She ignored my question and sipped her aqua blue colored martini. “Dang, those are good. Tad, you make a great drink.”

  “Thanks. Sorry, I missed your name?”

  “Kai Thomas.” I shook his hand.

  “I think you’re a trainer at Triple R?”

  I took another look at him. “And you’re one of Matt’s clients. You’re a beast on the leg machine.”

  “Thanks. What do you think of that Porter?”

  I gave the beer another taste. “Not bad. Chocolately.”

  “So what do you do in your free time, Kai?”

  I got a good feeling from Tad. He was relaxed with the Nebraska good-boy charm that a few of the trainers at Triple R had, which put me at ease.

  “Gardening, hunting Craigslist for bargains, and playing with my dog, Waffles.”

  “I have a German shepherd, Duke. What kind of dog is Waffles?”

  I opened my phone and held up the picture. “Crazy, mutty kind, but we think sheepdog-sheltie mix.”

  He opened his phone and that’s when I heard the scratch of a barstool with a “Fucking unbelievable” muttered loud enough for both of us to hear.

  And Jace marched to the bathroom.

  Tad stopped with his phone held out, showing me his dog. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to take over your … um, date? Do you think that was for us?”

  I took
a long drink of my beer. “Not sure.”

  Oh, I’m sure.

  And the adorable display of jealousy gave me the slightest hope.

  Chapter Nine

  Jace

  I took the big stall in the bathroom. Room to vent.

  My artificial fingernails dug into my palms and the burning blood rushed back into my fingers when I unfisted.

  Why am I so mad?

  It wasn’t her questions. I enjoyed talking with her. She brought my normal defenses down to just under neurotic, and her touch calmed me. But yet, she could make me explode with the power of five nuclear stations.

  Hell, that was a major benefit.

  But friends-with-benefits had … problems. This thing between us was more like friends-with-potential, but I wasn’t allowing us there. I’d been there, in a relationship. Many times. But since we had similar friends, a relationship ending with Kai would be harder. My previous girlfriend and I ran in different circles. I wouldn’t have the luxury of that separation. I’d see Kai.

  My chest tightened, and I leaned back against the bathroom door. I jumped away from it quickly imagining the gross germs.

  “If you’re just going to use that space for huffin’ and puffin’, could I maybe use it for peeing?” a crackling voice inquired.

  I opened the door to an oversized, red Panama hat and a cane motioning me out of the way.

  “And yes, you should go for it. Whatever it is, do it. Life’s too short for regrets. Now move.”

  The arched-back woman crept into the stall, and I washed my hands.

  Twice.

  “Go! Do what you need to do, so I can do what I came in here to do.” The cane battered the door. “I can’t do my thing with people in the room,” she mumbled.

  I giggled and left the bathroom.

  The way Kai talked to Tad still got my pulse racing, but maybe that was a good thing. The intense rush of emotion didn’t scare me or inspire anger, it only made me want to be the one she was talking to.

  Kai cocked her head to me. “Everything okay?”

  “Tad, can you give us a minute?”

  He pointed to Kai’s drink. “Another?”

  “Yes, sixteen-ounce this time, please.”

  “Got it.”