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No one had ever spoken to Alison like Harker just did. She’d always been the plain girl, the smart girl, the friend. She’d never been the one the guys fell for and yet, here he was pouring out his...love? No. He hadn’t said that. It was more like lust but damn it she was so pathetic even that made her happy. No one had ever lusted after her either, not like this, but what he’d done had hurt. “You still shouldn’t have lied.”
“I disagree.”
“I bet you do.” She stood and started for the door. She couldn’t make him understand or force him to feel badly about lying to her.
“No, listen.” He grabbed her arm and then dropped his hand at her glare. “I wanted you. Telling you something that’d piss you off wouldn’t have been smart.”
“Hiding it is even dumber because everyone gets caught eventually, including you. If you’d told me everything earlier. I would’ve been mad, but I would’ve forgiven you.”
“Will you now?”
“I don’t know.” She didn’t usually put up with this kind of stuff from anyone, but everything was different with him. She hated jealous and possessive men, but when he’d acted like that it’d made her insides turn to mush. She sat back down. “Is there anything else Harker? Anything you need to tell me?”
“Yeah, you should kiss me.” He smiled sheepishly at her.
“You think this is funny?”
“No. Not at all.” His smile disappeared.
“You hurt me. Twice last night.”
“I’m sorry.”
“But you’re not. You don’t listen to me.”
“I listen to you all the time.” He put his hands in his hair and tugged.
“No, you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t have snuck into bed with me. You knew I didn’t want to be around you.”
“We’re married. We sleep together. It’s that simple.”
“It’s not simple. If I’m mad and don’t want to sleep with you—”
“We’re married. We sleep together. I’ve seen a lot of couples marry and divorce. One of the things I've noticed is that they stop sleeping together for one reason or another. He works late. She fidgets in her sleep. He likes the room cold, and she likes it hot. Whatever the reason, it’s bullshit. You and me”—he pointed at her and then himself—“we sleep together.”
“Is it in the contract?” She knew it wasn’t.
“It should be.”
“But it isn’t. So that means I don’t have to do it.”
“Maybe we should say fuck the contract on this issue and decide as a married couple.”
“Sounds good. I say I can sleep by myself whenever I want to.”
“And I say we sleep together. So we sleep together.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m the man. My vote counts more.” His lips turned upward in a silly grin.
Damn him. He was trying to be cute and succeeding. “It so does not. I’m the woman so my vote counts more.”
“I would suggest we bet on it but we both know how that’ll turn out.”
“Yeah, with me winning.”
“No, with us fighting.”
“Before I win.” She gave him a look, daring him to disagree.
He nodded slightly, admitting again that she’d beat him.
“We fight enough. I don't think we need to make our life more difficult.
“I agree. How about you concede on this one and I’ll concede on the next?”
“You can’t promise that. You don’t even know what the next argument will be.” She studied him. He was up to something.
“I just did promise it and it doesn’t matter. I’ll concede. I promise.”
“I want that in writing.”
“A woman after my own heart.” He smiled. “So we agree that we’ll concede to every other argument?”
“Only major arguments. Not what we’re having for dinner.”
His eyes narrowed. “We argue a lot about what we’re going to eat.”
“Oh my god. That's what you were planning to use as your concession, wasn’t it?”
“No. Or at least not until you mentioned it.” He smirked. “It would be perfect.”
“No. Absolutely not.” She laughed. “The concessions have to be over a major issue. A big fight.”
“I can argue a lot over food.”
“This has to be a fight where we’re so mad we don’t have sex.”
“That's not going to happen again.”
“It might if you don’t stop being a jerk and lying to me.”
“It won’t.” He stalked toward her. “It shouldn't have happened last night.”
“Well, it did, and it might happen tonight too.” Although by the wetness between her legs, she’d bet on sex tonight, but she didn’t have to let him know that. At least not yet. “I'm not sure I'm ready to let you touch me.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Her heart thudded fast and furious as he took that final step toward her.
He towered over her, his dark eyes gleaming with desire and amusement. “I'll take that as a challenge.”