Page 73 of Tangled Like Us

“No.” I’ve been around her every day for nearly a year. If any of that surprised me, then I’m not paying attention.

Jane likes her life structured and planned out. It gives her a sense of control that she’s inherently lost as a celebrity.

Feeling protected and confident in this plan to fake-date is important to her, and so it’s critical to me.

I watch Jane slowly rise to her feet, and I tell her, “I have two ex-girlfriends.”

“Two.” Her eyes drift along the rug before lifting up to me. “Did you experience love with them?”

A rough laugh catches in my lungs. “Hell no.” I shake my head. “They weren’t relationships I’d model anything after either.” I pause. “Not unless you want to cheat on me.”

Her lips break apart. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s way back.” I can see she’s interested in more. So I push forward. “Through all of eleventh grade, my high school girlfriend was sleeping with a guy she knew I couldn’t stand. I had no idea until graduation.”

She softens her gaze. “Teenagers can be particularly cruel.” She cups her hands in front of her. “I’d say we’re both equally awful at relationships, but you will be my first.Fakerelationship, that is, but first nonetheless.” Red blemishes her neck.

I nod. “We’ll pull it off, Jane.” I breathe in a lung full of her fresh flower, spring scent.Wrong move.

My whole body reacts to the smell. It drives me fucking nuts, muscles contracting. Veins blistering. Cock straining against my slacks.

She wafts her blouse, clearly hot. “We will,” she agrees. “So what…um, kind of relationship should we have in public?” She talks quickly. “Should we be inseparably cute? Piggyback rides and sharing snow cones. Or scandalously flirty? French kissing and ass squeezes.”

My hand is clamped on my jaw and mouth. Trying not to think about my hand on her ass. Three Hail Marys is not enough to atone for what I’m feeling about her.

She hooks an arm around her bedpost. “I think being an inseparably cute couple would be easiest, but also not necessarily true to me.”

I drop my hand. “Not true to me either.”

A smile dimples her cheeks. “To us, then. We are highly…physical?” she asks tentatively.

“Affirmative,” I say.

The confirmation cranks the heat another hundred degrees.

“Okay…” She motions to me. “So cute couple is out then. The media might pick up on the deception. The other option is scandalously flirty. But how do we kiss? Not like the mechanics of kissing, which we both, I’m sure, understand.” She rambles on. “But the idea of kissing without screwing. Because usually I screw the people I kiss.” She presses her lips together like she’s forcing herself to stop talking, but our eyes stay glued on each other.

“We’re both adults,” I remind her. “I think we can kiss and stop ourselves from having sex.”

“Normally, I would agree. But it’s been six months.”

I’m inferring she’s talking about how long since she last got laid. I have her beat. “Ten months for me.”

She sways back in surprise. “Really? You didn’t hookup with anyone during the FanCon?”

“No. I wouldn’t fool around with tour crew, and I was busy.” I was focused on protecting Jane. I nod to her. “Been used to long dry spells.” I hear my Philly lilt come out thicker. “It’s not a big deal.”

She’s quick and smart and I’m not surprised when she connects the dots. “When you were in the military?”

I nod again. “I was deployed to combat twice overseas during my four-year tour.”

It feels like another lifetime, and since we’re talking about sex, I’m thinking more about the drawn-out dry spell I had.

Say more.I try to chisel my jaw open. “Staying celibate wasn’t an issue,” I explain. “I have no problem pushing myself into hard situations. I like testing my strength—but I couldn’t convince my girlfriend that I was faithful, not while I was on deployment.”

I explain briefly how my second ex-girlfriend was adamant that someone like me would attract a lot of other women, and she believed I’d struggle to resist and then slip up and cheat. When I got back home, I found out that she’d slept with her ex.

Now they’re married and have two kids.