to buy into that ‘friends with benefits’ crap. We were either friends or we were not. We were either sex-buddies or we were not.”
She didn’t say anything, and in a way, he was glad. It had taken him a long time to get over losing her, mainly because he had wanted to believe they’d become something more. Not just friends, but something much more significant.
He had enjoyed spending time with her and not just in bed. He’d looked forward to their weekends together where they would sit and talk, catch up on things that had happened since the last time they’d seen each other. But she had laid down the law in the beginning, and he had agreed to adhere to it.
She’d come up with the rules of their relationship on that last night of the seminar. They had shared a bed every night, and he hadn’t been ready for things to end. They had been in her bed, and he decided to go for broke and suggest they do something he figured she would be totally against—continue their no-strings affair beyond San Diego.
He remembered that conversation just like it had been yesterday…
“Toni?”
It took her a while to answer. She was out of breath. They had gone five rounds of lovemaking without sleep, and she was exhausted. So was he, but this was a subject he had to broach with her. It was now or never. When they parted in the morning, chances were they would never see each other again. He would have no way to contact her unless he called the police station where she worked.
She finally shifted her body to glance over at him. “Hmm?”
“I don’t want this to end.”
A smile spread across her lips. She always looked the most beautiful after they’d made love. Afterglow definitely suited her. “I don’t either, but I doubt if I can push myself for a sixth time tonight. I have a plane to catch at seven in the morning, and I need to get you out of here so I can start packing.”
She’d misunderstood what he was suggesting. “I’m not talking about tonight, Toni.”
The smile faded from her face. “Then what do you mean, Drew?”
He’d heard the curt edge in her voice. More than likely she would shoot down his suggestion. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see she had commitment issues, but then, so did he. He’d never wanted a long-term relationship with someone...but he wanted one now.
“I mean, you owe me, Toni,” he said, deciding to use that angle.
That obviously got her attention because she shifted in bed and narrowed her gaze at him. “What do you mean I owe you?”
The one thing he’d discovered in the five nights they’d slept together is that she would dominate if he let her. He never let her. He had agreed that they would make love only in her bed because it was some hang-up of hers. Up until now, he hadn’t really cared, as long as he was in a bed with her. But now it did. At least he would convince her it did.
“I want to make love to you in my bed.”
“We don’t have time, Drew.”
“I’m talking about my bed in Alexandria.”
It took her a minute to figure out what he was saying, then her gaze narrowed even more. “That means continuing what we started here, and I don’t do that.”
“You don’t do what?”
“Continuations.”
It was his turn to narrow his gaze. “You said you didn’t do anything beyond one-night stands, but you did. With me.”
“And now I see that was a mistake.”
“I don’t think so.”
And before she could give him the blistering reply he’d figured she had ready on the tip of her tongue, he captured her mouth and gave her the kind of kiss she’d come to enjoy. In no time, she was moaning and pressing him back in the covers to straddle him.
They’d made love again, and when he had broken down her defenses, he had asked her again to visit him in Alexandria. When she still wouldn’t commit, he’d told her that he would leave it up to her. But he’d made sure to leave his address and phone number—just in case.
He had left her hotel room that night, not knowing what she would do or if he would ever see her again. He didn’t hear from her for three weeks and then, out of the blue, she called him one Friday morning to let him know she was coming for the weekend. She