The Best of Winter Renshaw - An 8 Book Collection - Winter Renshaw Page 0,560

and studies me instead.

If I knew him a little better, I might give him the full rundown on everything, but honestly, I doubt he’d care. I’m just some girl he likes to screw and he’s just disappointed that we won't be beating our high score tonight.

“All right.” He walks me to the door. “You want to do this again sometime?”

“Do what?” I ask, playing coy. “Have sex?”

“Obviously. That’s kind of what we do ...”

“Have you given any more thought to what I said earlier? About the exclusivity thing?”

His hands rest at his hips and his chest rises and falls, slow and deep. “I thought we were on the same page with the whole not-dating thing.”

“We are,” I say. “I don’t want to date you. I’m not here, with you, doing this, because I expect anything magical to come of this. But I refuse to be told that I’m not free to sleep with someone else, that I’m confined to the moral and ethical restraints of a relationship … without actually being in one. You see how that’s not fair, yes?”

His lips move to one side. “Yeah, but ...”

“So that’s where I stand.” I smooth the wrinkles from the front of my dress.

That was another thing—he tried to tell me what to wear tonight, so I showed up in a dress to spite him; a pale pink number with a fitted bodice that accented my breasts while nipping my waist and showing off just enough leg to draw the eye.

If he’s smart, he’ll never tell me what to wear again.

“So it’s the label you’re wanting?” he asks, scratching the side of his nose. “Because I don’t understand the difference between what you’re asking for and two adults agreeing to be monogamous fuck buddies.”

“There is a difference.” All screwing around aside, I need to come clean with him. “My mother found out I lied to her the night I stayed with you.” I lift a hand because he looks like he’s going to cut me off and I want to finish. “And I know what you’re thinking … I'm twenty-two. I’m a grown woman. It shouldn’t matter what my parents think or say. But my family is a bit more complicated and this is how it is for reasons I’ve never really gotten into with you. Anyway, my point is … if we’re going to keep doing this, if I’m going to keep spending time here. With you. My parents are going to want to meet you. I'm going to have to tell them we’re dating.”

“So you want me to be your fake boyfriend, in front of your parents, so I can keep fucking you.”

“I know how it seems—”

“—okay,” he interrupts me.

I’m speechless for a second. “Really? That’s it? Okay? You’re in?”

“Yes,” he says. “But I have a couple of conditions. First … don’t ask me to change. Don’t ask me to put on a polo shirt or fucking boat shoes. Don’t ask me to pretend to be anything that I’m not.”

I draw in a breath. He’s not exactly parent-charming material and far from the kind of boyfriend my parents likely had in mind for me, but this might be good for them.

“And the second?” I ask.

“Don’t fall in love with me.” He keeps a straight face, though I’m positive he’s joking.

I laugh.

He doesn’t.

“I’m being serious,” he says. “All this spending time together, all this pretending … it could get confusing. Lines might get blurred. If at any time you start feeling a certain kind of way, we need to stop and get off the ride.”

“Fine,” I say.

“I need you to promise me.”

I lift my pinky. “I’ll do you one better. I’ll pinky swear you.”

“I’m not kidding, Brighton. I need you to promise that if you start feeling something toward me, we’ll end this. Immediately. No questions asked.”

“I promise,” I say. “And for the record, I’ve kept every promise I’ve ever made.”

He exhales, almost as though he finds relief knowing there’ll be no love, nothing real between us.

And honesty, I find that a little sad.

While I’ve never been in love in the romantic sense, I imagine it could be quite nice if the circumstances were right for it. If he denies himself this sort of thing, he’s only punishing himself.

“What do we tell Devanie?” I ask. “If she finds out we’re spending time together, she’s going to ask questions.”

“We’ll just tell her we’re dating. We’ll tell everyone we’re dating, just to make it easy. Only we’ll know the truth.”

“Okay, so then it’s