Page 63 of The Wedding Pact

Turning my head, I see Ida is already awake and is gazing back at me with a crooked smile on her face.

So here we are. In bed together. After only meeting each other in real life a few days ago. The off-the-charts chemistry between us has been undeniable and unignorable.

I guess that’s not something we could have predicted from our random chats about computer games in an online forum.

But then most couples seem to meet on the internet these days, don’t they? Through dating apps, or whatever.

When you’re as busy as I am, there isn’t time to go out and meet women at bars and parties.

If I’m being honest, I’m too busy for whatever this is too, but I don’t seem to be able to say no to it.

‘Last night was fun,’ I say to her, aware of how croaky my early morning voice is.

‘Yup. Not in any way boring for me either,’ she says with a smirk.

‘Nothing worse than being boring.’ I let out a yawn, which I cover with my hand.

‘Agreed. I clued in from an early age that the best way to get people’s attention was to be entertaining.’

‘Yeah, well, you certainly are that.’

Sitting up a little, she props her head on the heel of her hand. ‘Well, thanks.’

‘You know, I loved chatting with you over DMs,’ I admit. ‘I’ve never done that with a stranger before.’ I fold the pillow and use it to support my head whilst looking back at her.

‘Really?’ she says, seeming surprised by this.

‘Yeah. I’m usually too busy for new people, but I liked that you seemed to be on the same wavelength as me about a lot of things. It was like we had a short-cut to the heart of what we were talking about. That’s what made me think you’d be a good date to bring here. I figured, even if we didn’t have chemistry in real life, at least we’d have good conversations.’

‘But we do have chemistry.’ She grins at this.

‘Yeah. We do,’ I agree. ‘But I want to be straight with you. I’m really not looking for a relationship right now. My life is crazy and I don’t have time for anything outside of work at the moment.’

‘But you’re happy to keep having sex with me while we’re here?’ She waggles her eyebrows then gives me what I think is meant to be a sultry smile.

I laugh. ‘I definitely am. But are you happy with that?’

There’s an infinite pause before she shrugs and says, ‘Yeah, sure. I’m always up for a bit of fun. I’m not in the market for anything serious either. I have enough on my plate right now with my show blowing up. I can’t let anything distract me from making the most of that. A week away is one thing, but having someone expecting me to repeatedly show up and put a relationship with them first is another. I’ve made a promise to myself to keep things light and fun at the moment. So don’t worry, you’re safe with me. I’m not going to be hounding you for more dates after this. We can ringfence it as just sex while we’re here and go back to being DM buddies once we’re back.’

I’m feeling a strange mixture of relief and something a bit like regret as she says this, but there’s no point in analysing it. Obviously, we both need to keep things fun and casual between us right now. ‘Seriously? That works for you?’

‘It does.’ Extracting her arm out of the bedcover, she spits on her palm then offers me her hand to shake.

I pull a face. ‘You don’t actually expect me to shake your hand now you’ve gobbed on it?’

‘Sure I do. You’ve already kissed me so we’ve swapped saliva. What’s so weird about having it on your hand now?’

‘You’re a strange person,’ I say.

‘I’m known for it, dude. And proud of it too. As previously discussed, who wants to be dull?’

I laugh. ‘Good point, well made.’

‘But okay, fine.’ She wipes her hand on the cover then offers it to me again.

I put my hand in hers and squeeze it gently.

She nods slowly, like that’s decided then.