Page 70 of Take the Plunge

“How can you be sort of seeing someone?” Aria asks.

“We’re not dating. It’s casual. He lets me know when he wants to hang out.”

“Fuck, you mean?” Nathan says.

“Don’t be so crude,” Elouise says.

“He lets you know?” Aria raises her eyebrows. “So it’s a booty call?”

“What? No. It’s not like that.”

“It sounds exactly like that to me. You’re worth more than that, Kian.”

“We’re having fun. What’s wrong with that?”

“Do you want more?”

I shake my head and look away at the same time.

“You do. Does he?”

“I don’t know. Not yet. He might.” I pick up a beer mat and fiddle with it. “He needs time.”

“Why?”

“Give the guy a break,” Nathan says. “If Kian’s happy having no-strings sex, all power to him.”

Aria tilts her head. “I’m not sure he is happy with it.”

“I’m sitting right here,” I remind them. “If you want to talk about me rather than to me, at least wait until I’ve gone.”

“All right. I’m not sure you are happy with it. You like him, don’t you?”

“Yeah. But he’s not ready for a relationship.”

She narrows her eyes. “With anyone or with a guy?”

I lower my gaze. I don’t know how to answer that. Jett isn’t out, but he wasn’t exactly looking for a relationship with a woman either. But none of that is Aria’s business.

“He’s not out,” she says bluntly. “So he doesn’t want to date a guy but is happy to fuck one.”

“You’re making it sound worse than it is.”

“I don’t think I am.”

“You are. No one gets to decide when he comes out except him. No one. Besides, I’m completely okay with our arrangement. I like spending time with him. I don’t care that it’s behind closed doors. End of story.”

“So you’re dating behind closed doors?”

“No. It’s just sex.”

She glares at me. “Just to be sure I’ve got all my facts right, he’s what? Bicurious?”

I nod.

“He’s happy to fuck you but not date you?”

“I haven’t asked him to date me.”