angry. I’d just buried my more tender emotions underneath a furious exterior. And now that I knew that Owen had never betrayed me, I was realizing that my fondness for him had never really completely gone away.
He still got to me, and I knew I could end up falling hard for an adult Owen who wanted nothing more than some kind of teacher or . . . grown-up playmate.
But I didn’t want to say no, either.
Because I did care about him, I wanted to spend time with him, see how he’d changed and how he’d stayed the same. For some reason, I craved that after not seeing his face or hearing his voice for over a decade.
And if hanging out with him meant sharing a kiss or two, it wouldn’t exactly be a hardship. Much as I tried desperately not to be, I was ungodly attracted to him.
Okay, maybe we needed to talk about the whole kissing thing.
We’d have to stick to a timeline, because I’d need an end to remind myself that it was all a limited-time deal.
“Two months?” I questioned. “Is that the time limit?”
“Unless you dump me before that if I act like an asshole,” he said playfully.
I rolled my eyes. God, some things never changed.
Obviously, Owen could still pop in goofball one-liners when we were supposed to be having a serious conversation. But I wasn’t going to complain about that. I’d actually missed those silly comments. A lot.
“No sex,” I insisted. “I can’t do that in a make-believe romance.”
Oh, hell yes, I’d probably end up wanting it because I was attracted to Owen, but we needed to set down some rules right now.
“Not a problem,” he agreed readily. “As long as you don’t tell me that you won’t kiss me, I’m flexible.”
I swallowed hard. That was going to be my next request, but was a kiss or two really that big of an issue?
“Okay,” I said reluctantly, wondering if there was anything we hadn’t discussed but should. “Then I guess we have a deal.”
“Are you still a virgin, Layla?” Owen asked. “You don’t have to answer that question if you don’t want to, I’m just being a curious friend.”
“No,” I had no problem admitting. “You?”
“Nope. I’ve never actually dated, but I did get laid,” he said candidly.
His honest reply had made me want to share my past with him, but I wasn’t ready for that. I might never be ready to share that part of my life with anyone.
“Now that we’ve got all of that settled, what are we doing first?” I asked, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
“You tell me,” he suggested. “I want you to enjoy this, Layla. It seems that I have more money than I know what to do with, so nothing is off-limits. Let’s do some of the things we couldn’t do when we were poor teenagers. Just do one thing for me,” he requested.
“What thing?” I queried.
“Stay the hell away from Jax Montgomery, at least for the next two months. I guess once this is over, you’re going to end up doing whatever you want to do, but I can’t try to romance you while you’re drooling over some other guy,” he said tersely.
I snorted. “Owen, I was never drooling, and I don’t think he’s interested in me, either. We had a friendly conversation, but I’m just not attracted to him that way.”
“If that’s true, you’re probably one of the few single women in the world who feels that way,” Owen said dryly as he stood and held out his hand.
I shrugged once he’d pulled me to my feet. “I doubt that. I mean, he is good looking, insanely rich, and very smooth. But there was zero romantic chemistry between us. I would have to argue with you about him being trouble, though. He was pretty nice to me.”
“Probably because he knew it was the only way to get you to drop your panties,” he said, sounding disgruntled.
I rolled my eyes as we slowly made our way back to the guests on the beach and the patio. “You said you have a list of things you’ve never done, and of things you feel inept at doing. Can you show it to me?”
“I’ll give you a copy,” he agreed, sounding a little bit reluctant. “It’s kind of a long list.”
Later that night, Owen did give me a copy before I left his house. My heart nearly broke as I looked it over, and I suddenly couldn’t wait to get started.
CHAPTER 9
OWEN
“There’s no