part of me now. He’s in deeper than anyone else, and I have no idea what to expect from that or from the future. I don’t really want to think about it. However, I do know that I’m not ready to lose my best friend again.”
“You should discuss this with him, Joss. He needs to know this.”
I frowned, anxiety gripping me at the thought. “No. No, I’m not doing that. If he wants this to end, then fine, but if it ends, it’ll be easier if only I know the truth.”
Dr. Pritchard sighed. “Why? So you can bury that truth along with all the others?”
You’re such a buzz kill. “You’re such a buzz kill.”
She laughed. “Only because I don’t bury the truth.”
“Always have to have the last word, huh?”
***
I turned slowly to face him. “Yeah, it is.”
Braden pushed the paper off his lap and gave me his entire focus. “How do you feel about it?”
“How do you feel about it?”
His eyes narrowed. “I asked you first.”
I sighed, little ants of uncertainty swarming in my gut. “What are we, five?”
“Well are we?”
I stared into his stubborn eyes. “Braden,” I didn’t even mean for it to come out as a plea, but it did.
His obdurate expression seemed to reinforce itself. “I could answer this one easily, Jocelyn. We know out of the two of us who’s more open here. But I’m not going to. I want, for once, to know how you feel.”
“What do you mean for once,” I snapped. “You get more out of me than most people, buddy.”
He flashed me a quick, cocky, and far too attractive, grin. “I know, babe. Tonight I want more.”
I don’t think he realized it, but right then he’d made his play first. He wanted more. So with some confidence, I shrugged casually and turned back to my typewriter. “I don’t mind if we tear up the agreement.”
He was silent behind me and I waited. Finally, “What if I suggested we stopped pretending we’re fuck buddies too?”
A slow smile spread across my lips and I was thankful he couldn’t see it. “Yeah,” I answered with a good amount of boredom. “I could work with that.”
Did I mention Braden could move fast?
Papers went flying as he lunged across the bed to grab me by the waist and haul me off my chair onto the mattress. Startled, I laughed up at him as he pressed his body into mine. “When will you quit throwing me around like a ragdoll?”
His grin was unrepentant. “Never. You’re so tiny I do it without really meaning to half the time.”
“I am not tiny,” I replied indignantly. “I’m five foot five. There are tinier people, believe me.”
“Babe, I’m almost a whole foot taller than you. You’re tiny.” He bent his head to brush my lips with his. “But I like it.”
“What happened to your love of the long-legged bimbo?”
“It was replaced by my love for great tits, great sex and a smart mouth.” He kissed me deep, his tongue tangling with mine deliciously. Wrapping my arms around his neck I sank into the kiss like always, but for once my mind wasn’t just on the kiss…
In a roundabout way… had that been some kind of declaration of love?
I gasped at the thought, but luckily timed that gasp at the same time Braden stuck his hand down my pants, so he never realized I was freaking out.
***
I told myself that’s not at all what he’d meant, and I shrugged it off, just enjoying each day with him as they came. A few days later I was in the kitchen, taking a coffee break from the novel, when Ellie sauntered in. She was home today, grading papers.
She smiled slyly at me as she slid into the seat opposite me.
I quirked an eyebrow in suspicion. “What?”
“I just got off the phone with my big brother.”
“And?”
Ellie made a face. “He told me you’re going to the wedding together.”
“And?”
“Joss,” she threw a tea biscuit at me and I dodged it. “When were you going to tell me?”
I glanced down at the violent biscuit now littering our floor. “Tell you what exactly?”
“That the arrangement between you and Braden is over? It is right? You’re dating now?”
Dating? That word was a little ‘label-ly’. I refused to be labeled. “We are seeing each other.”
Ellie squealed and I flinched back. “Oh this is fantastic! I knew it, I knew it!”
“I wish I knew what you knew,” I replied in wide-eyed bemusement.
“Oh, come off it. I knew from the start Braden was