Till We Pretend

Chapter Four

"That's good, it'll keep you guessing and the mystery of it all will make me utterly irresistible." I joked but his face looked oddly serious. Still he didn't respond, simply grabbed my hand and led me to our original destination. But the hot tub, previously occupied by Ree and Carter was empty, which meant that we'd be getting in there alone.

I gulped.

"Where'd they go?"

"Your friend's kind of strange, did you know that?"

"Ever since she told me she likes to put orange juice in her cereal."

Kyler made a retching sound, "That's disgusting."

"I agree. But what does that have to do with this?" I gestured around the entirely empty space around us.

"She told me to make it worth your while because God knows you haven't seen any action for ages."

"Excuse me?" I nearly shouted, "She did not say that!"

Kyler held up his hands. "Okay, maybe not the last part but she did say she was giving us some privacy to get to know each other better. Then she did something with her eyebrows I didn't get."

I was going to kill her. No, first I'd circulate pages from her sixth grade all around school and then I'd kill her.

"You're growling, it's cute." Kyler was grinning as I balled up my fists. "I'm not some kind of prude and I'm not a total looser. I just...I don't have time to date right now and Ree doesn't understand why I don't stick my tongue down someone's throat every time I get a chance."

She was really into boys at the moment and I on the other hand barely had time to eat let alone date.

Kyler's face became somber pretty quickly. "Hey, look at me." He tipped my chin up to meet his eyes. "I get it and I respect your choices. You're working hard right now and don't have time for a relationship. Trust me, I get it."

"You don't think it's weird that just thinking about going on a date makes me exhausted?"

"No, I'm right there with you. But..."

"But what?" I tilted my head, wondering what he was going to say that made him hesitate just that much.

"But we can make each other feel good tonight, just tonight with no strings attached. No dates, no commitments, just two people who're obviously attracted to each other."

A knot the size of a tennis ball got stuck in my throat at his proposition. I hadn't expected him to be so forward. Of course, I'd gotten hints that he might be interested and i'd flirted back but this was entirely new territory for me. I'd heard of friends with benefits and I knew what one night stands were but I also knew that sometimes the repercussions of the choices you make can follow you forever. So I didn't really choose my words carefully when I told him, "I'm not sleeping with you."

He sputtered, actually looked like he was about to choke on something and then shook his head vehemently. "I would never expect you to...Jesus, Ella what kind of a guy do you take me for?"
"The kind that has a lot of one night stands? Not that there's a problem with that but I'm just not...I don't do that kind of thing."

"And I'd never ask that of you if I knew you weren't consenting. I just want to talk to you more, get to know what makes Ella Grace tick and just see where the night goes.

"That I can work with."

***

I blamed the hot tub and my traitorous best friend for what happened next. I said that because I knew I was more than capable of keeping my hands to myself even when a cute guy was involved, especially a cute guy I knew nothing about. Still, there was something about the water that made me move closer and closer to Kyler as we talked. I could sworn the man was a snake charmer in a past life, the way he got me to open up and I lapped up the attention like I'd been starved of it.