Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 63970 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 320(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63970 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 320(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
“Then why did you stop talking to me?”
She was so tired.
He got to his knees in front of her. “I’m sorry I asked. You don’t owe me a reason.”
But they’d been getting so close. If he’d been the one to stop taking her calls, she would want a reason, too.
She hadn’t said good-bye to him. She hadn’t given him a moment’s closure. Why? Why hadn’t she simply gotten him on the phone and lied to him? She could have told him any story, but she hadn’t. “I think I was punishing you. It wasn’t fair of me.”
Untrue. She hadn’t been punishing him. She was saving them both pain. Or putting off the inevitable because telling him the truth might sway her choice. Being with him might make her think she could put it off, wait a few years. What could it hurt?
He was staring at her with those gorgeous eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you. Do you want me to leave? I can send someone to tape your interview. It doesn’t have to be me.”
Was she willing to never see him again? He was her best friend’s brother-in-law. Kori and Kai had become her family in the last few years. Jared needed his family, too. “Don’t leave. You belong here as much as I do. I think that might be another reason I pulled away from you. If we did get together and it went wrong somewhere down the line, what would happen then?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you’re Kai’s brother. If we break up, I’m on the outside,” she explained.
“I would never leave you on the outside.”
“What about holidays? I spend them with Kori and Kai. How would you feel about spending Thanksgiving with your ex-girlfriend? If we break up, one of us loses our family, and it seems like it’s too much to risk. Neither one of us has another family.”
“I hadn’t thought about it that way. But I’m not a vindictive person, Sarah. If for some reason we broke up, I would never push you out. I wouldn’t. I would try very hard to find a way to be friends with you.” He relaxed back, closer to her now than he’d been before. “I care about you. That won’t stop because you pull away from me. Until you tell me to leave you alone, I’m probably going to keep trying to get you to talk to me. I want you badly. I might play dirty.”
There was nothing she wanted more from this man than to see how dirty he could play. “But you would leave me alone if I told you to.”
His eyes became grave. “I would.”
She couldn’t do it. It wasn’t fair. She was planning on seeing another man later tonight. She was interested in Sir. Sir might be someone she could have an actual relationship with, even if it was merely a D/s relationship. It would be something, some connection she could rely on.
“I don’t want you to go, but I can’t promise you anything.” The right words simply wouldn’t come out of her mouth. “And you should know I’m seeing someone at Sanctum. It’s only for the weekend, for Charlotte’s party. Did Kai tell you about that?”
“He mentioned there was a big celebration going on at the club.” He downed the rest of the sandwich.
“Sanctum.” She had to be precise.
He nodded. “Yeah, the club. Wait. Is this about the other club? It’s very confusing.”
She couldn’t help but grin. “I think Master Julian likes it that way.”
He smiled back. God, when that boy smiled he was brighter than the sun. “I’ll have to go see it sometime. The Club, that is. My friend has a membership there. He couldn’t get into Sanctum. I guess he didn’t know the right people.”
Oh, he could flirt. He could flirt for hours, and every word out of his mouth made her heart pound. “I don’t know. Some people think Julian Lodge is pretty powerful.”
“I’m too used to the way Big Tag does things,” he admitted. “I’m going to have to be Team Sanctum all the way. Maybe someday I’ll even be a regular.”
What if they could have a D/s relationship? What if they sat down and went over a very explicit contract that described their roles and what they could expect from the other? They could go over protocols of what had to happen if they chose to break up. If they went into it being honest and forthright, maybe she wouldn’t get hurt. Maybe. She needed time to think about it. She couldn’t make a decision here and now. “So do you want to try for the friends thing? For now?”
In a few weeks she would have a better handle on what her life would look like. She would have had time to examine how she felt. She would know what to tell him.