“So not have sex?”
“Of course have sex.” His face fell. “I mean, if you want to. But the other stuff too.”
The other stuff. They’d been doing a lot of that lately. Without realizing it, they’d been breaking rule after rule, and breaking them was a lot more fun than keeping them. It was all fine and good until her belly started flipping and her heart fluttering.
She didn’t appreciate those little knee-jerk reactions from her other organs. She was doing just fine. She had it under control. Whatever that stupid little fit was over Cass was a fluke.
Dylan was a fun time. He was a summer night, and she had this overwhelming feeling that fall was setting in her life and she was so afraid to end up alone when the air cooled and that beach bonfire went out. And that’s all it was, the fluttering she kept getting. Like Dylan’s chemical reaction spiel, that’s all it was. Loneliness and proximity conspiring to trick her into seeing something that wasn’t there.
And yet, she wasn’t going to leave. She was going to let herself sleep in Dylan’s bed and she was going to warm herself with his fire, and she certainly wasn’t going to think about the way he’d accused her of being jealous of Cassidy.
Or how painfully, devastatingly jealous she’d been of Cassidy.
Dylan’s lips turned up in that Good Boy grin, eyes like emeralds. His hair was flat from the baseball cap he’d been wearing. She ran her fingers through it, spiking it back up, and his eyes slipped closed, the weight of his head settling in her palm.
He pressed his lips to her wrist. “Stay with me tonight.”
She closed her eyes too, shutting out the feeling of free fall that had come over her in favor of soaking in that tiny touch of lips on skin. “Okay, Dylan.”
Twenty-one
Dylan: I left my tie at your place last weekend. When you’re done smelling it before bed, can I have it back?
Dani: Ha. Ha. I think I sent it home with someone else by accident.
Dylan smiled. That wicked mouth would be the death of him.
He and Dani hadn’t spoken about the whole Cassidy thing—what he’d admitted in Josh’s bathroom. Or what Dani’d admitted by sleeping in his bed that night. She’d stayed longer, they’d had coffee in their underwear and shared a shower, and neither of them said a word about it. As soon as she’d left the next morning, he’d moved Cass’s number from his personal to his professional contacts list.
Then last weekend, he’d gone to Dani’s house Friday night, stayed for the entire movie, and talked himself into her bed for the night. Any time he’d wondered if she had a date the next night, he shoved it away. He certainly wasn’t going to torture himself with details again.
Dylan: That was an expensive tie. I guess you’ll have to owe me something in return.
Dani: Let’s call it even since you drank half of my gourmet coffee before you left.
Dylan: That coffee wasn’t even that good. I only left you two stars on Yelp.
“What are you doing?”
Dylan looked up from his phone at the smirk in Josh’s voice. He’d pulled up to a red light and was staring at Dylan over the center console of his Jeep, his head cocked.
Dylan considered his options. Lie or bend the truth. Bending was a lot easier.
“Texting a woman.”
“Really?” Josh laughed.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’ve just never seen you do that with that look on your face before.”
His neck went hot. “I don’t have a look on my face.”
“You do.” Josh laughed again.
“I don’t think so.”
“Trust me. You have a look.”
Jesus Christ. Now he did. He put the phone in his pocket and turned away, irritated at the way his skin burned. “I think you might have just forgotten what the look I had meant, Joshua. Married sex must be getting pretty boring by now.”
The light turned green, and Josh stepped on the gas. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”
Dylan chuckled. The best way to piss Josh off was to call into question the institution of monogamy that he felt so strongly about, and getting Josh riled up was a good way to deflect the attention off of whatever “look” Josh thought he’d seen. A dirty trick by some people’s standards, but not Dylan’s.
“You saying you’re still hitting it like you used to now that you’re married up?”
“I’m saying that’s none of your business, but if it were, there’s only one of us who has a woman in his bed every night.”
That serve was begging to be spiked back, but after his fit over Dani’s overshare with some guy named Benji whom Dylan had never even met, he figured he should shut his mouth. Besides, Josh still had him beat. Until a few weeks ago, Dylan only had Dani in her bed—sometimes her couch—and only on Fridays.
Great. The good mood his flirty texts with Dani had put him in just disintegrated into an unproductive rivalry over something he didn’t want in the first place. Was he really competing with Josh over who had to share their bed? The joys of someone stealing your covers and snoring? No thanks.
Okay, he did sort of like sharing a bed with Dani. The way she sprawled out over half the mattress, her arm thrown over his stomach in an aggressive-even-in-her-sleep embrace was adorable. He caught himself smiling at the memory, but quickly rearranged his face before Josh saw him. “Whatever, man. Let’s drop it.”
“So you’re not going to tell me who she is?”
“I’m not.”
Josh shrugged. “Your call. I’m sure she won’t be around long anyway. Unless you’re bringing her camping?”
In a couple of weeks, they were spending two nights tenting oceanfront for Shawn’s birthday. Dylan had been counting down to it all month. He could practically feel his muscles relax in anticipation of doing nothing but enjoying the water and the fall air for the whole weekend. He’d already scoped out some hiking trails, and knowing Shawn and Minnie, the food was going to be fantastic. It was just the kind of re-charge weekend he needed.
“First of all, a weekend away with a bunch of married couples isn’t anything I would invite a woman to. Second of all, have fun killing scary bugs and listening to Cat whine about not being able to blow dry her hair the whole weekend. I’ll be fishing and paddleboarding. Working on my tan.”
“Cat doesn’t whine, and it’s not just couples. Sonya is coming without Marcus, and I don’t think Dani is bringing anyone.”
Dylan’s head snapped up. Dani had better not be bringing anyone after that little tantrum she’d pulled at Josh’s. His mood took another nose-dive at the thought of some jerk killing scary bugs for Dani. They might not be going on this trip together, but he would be killing Dani’s big scary bugs, thank-you-very-much.