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“I understand.” Didn’t he get that she was glad he wasn’t promising her the sun and the moon?
“And from what I’ve seen and understood of your life, your needs are pretty much all covered. You’ve got your ex, who is your best friend. You’ve got all the companionship you could possibly have time for with all the women at the Stand. You’ve got your daughter, and a secure family unit….”
He made it sound as if her life was perfect.
“As far as I can see, the only critical thing missing for either one of us is sex.”
She coughed. It was one thing to think it. And another thing to say it out loud. In the dark. On the beach. With the moon above and the ocean lapping just a few yards away, the waves reaching toward them with a force that was larger than life.
“Do you disagree?” His fingers had slowed on her hand and his head was turned toward her. Their knees were touching, only the thin fabric of her skirt and the heavier cotton of his pants separating their naked skin.
“No.” She couldn’t lie about it.
“Then my proposal is that we remain as friends, but with benefits. When time and occasion permits, we have sex.”
Was the time and occasion right then?
“I… It’s…unusual.” But it resonated with her. Her life was unusual. And he was offering her everything she needed without asking for anything more.
“Agreed.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” His hand dropped, and hers landed…on the bulge in his pants.
The move wasn’t deliberate. On her part or his. She knew it, and her belief was confirmed by his sharp intake of breath.
The bulge beneath her hand moved. Grew. She didn’t squeeze, exactly, but she explored a bit with her fingers while her palm lay still on top of him.
“I expected to have to work harder to convince you,” he said, his words sounding slightly choked.
“You knew I’d agree.”
“I’d hoped you would. And was prepared to resort to begging.”
He wanted her that much?
The proof was beneath her hand.
“I have one condition,” she said. “And it’s nonnegotiable.” No matter how badly her body needed his to end this insane climb toward ecstasy, she would walk away with her legs firmly together if he couldn’t comply.
He wasn’t just hard, he was rock solid. She moved her hand a bit, needing to feel more of him.
“What’s your condition?”
If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was strangling.
The smile that had been lingering on the corners of her lips faded away completely. He had to know she wasn’t kidding.
“As long as we have this…partnership—which is defined as being in place until one or the other of us communicates an end to the other—we are sexually exclusive.”
“Monogamous,” he said, his lower lip jutting out as he nodded.
“You agree?”
“I took it for granted,” he said. “You’ve only had one lover, Lynn. I know that what I’m asking, what we’re doing here, is serious.”
“But not for life. It’s only serious for the sex.”
“Agreed.”
She squeezed. Hard enough to make his hips rise up off the ground. “Then I’d say you have a deal.”
“The best deal I’ve ever made,” he said, his voice lowering as he leaned in to kiss her again.
His lips touched hers. And his hand slid under her skirt to her knee.
“Lynn? Lynn? Lyyynnnn!” Maddie’s voice rent the air. First with excitement, and then with very quickly escalating panic.
“Maddie?” She jumped up, calling out. “Maddie? We’re right here!”
Thank God she was still fully dressed. She rushed around the corner, afraid of finding Darin prone on the ground.
Or gone.
Instead, she found the two of them racing around the beach, looking frantically in every direction.
“Hey!” Grant’s voice boomed. “Over here, bro!”
Darin’s head shot up and, grabbing Maddie’s hand, he hurried her over toward Lynn and Grant, who were running in their direction.
“Where were you?” Darin asked as Maddie, still clinging to one of Darin’s hands, threw her other arm around Lynn and started to cry.
