The Love Wager

Jack

He felt like he’d just been jolted with a cattle prod. “What?”

What in the actual fuck?

The smell of her swirled around his head as she leaned on her elbow and said, “Hear me out. I think we can absolutely have a weekend full of amazing sex, and nothing has to change.”

He lay there, frozen in place, as she started rambling.

“We’re adults, Jack, and we’ve slept together before. Since we don’t have emotional baggage, why not sleep together? We obviously have sexual chemistry, so I say we do whatever feels right this weekend and then leave it all in Vail. As long as we don’t feel anything other than sexual attraction, it won’t be a problem, right?”

He was pissed and turned on and disappointed, all at the same time. Because every molecule of his being wanted Hallie Piper. She was all he ever thought about anymore. And when he’d turned around and saw her in that stupid flannel nightgown and hot-as-hell knee-high socks, he’d wanted to drop to his knees and beg her to love him forever.

So yeah . . . it was a sweeping understatement to say he wanted to have a weekend full of sex with her. Especially now that she was lying inches away from him under the same heavy blanket. He wanted to get rid of that nightgown, leave the socks, and explore every inch of his tiny bartender.

But he couldn’t enjoy the thought, because she kept saying shit like we have no emotional attachment and it’s purely physical. She smiled that funny grin—his favorite one—and said, “So why not spend the rest of the weekend doing everything a couple does, Jack? We can promise to tell each other if we start to feel something. Then, if that happens, we’ll stop and go back to how it was before.”

He sighed.

“Think about it. If you start wondering if you have feelings for me, you can just say ‘I might feel something’ and we’ll flip it right back before it becomes a thing. It’ll be like tapping out.”

Too late to fucking tap out, he thought, so he said, “It’s a terrible idea, Hal.”

A flicker of something crossed over her face—hurt?—but just like that, her smile was back in place. “Can I ask you a serious question, then?”

God, he wanted to kiss her so badly. He looked at her mouth and said, “Sure.”

“Are you worried about me, or you? Because I am absolutely positive I will not catch feelings for you. A thousand percent. So . . . are you afraid of falling for me?”

He ground his teeth together so hard that his jaw felt like it might break, but he managed to give her a smile. “Fuck, no.”

Her chin raised. “So why not, then?”

Jack’s chest burned as he looked at her fierce, ornery face as she promised to never fall in love with him. He shrugged and said the truth.

“Because it’s too good with us for it not to become a habit.”

She wrinkled her forehead. “I don’t—”

“How much do you remember about that night, Hal? For real.”

Hallie

Shit.

She’d been casual about the hotel night since it’d happened because she’d been mortified by her poor decisions. She’d teasingly acted like she only had fleeting memories because it was easier to blow the whole thing off, but the truth was that she remembered all of it.

Every. Single. Hot. Minute.

She cleared her throat and said, “Um . . . all of it?”

“Wait.” His eyebrows went straight up. “What?”

She bit down on her lip and nodded.

“You lying little shit,” he said, laughing, tugging on a strand of her hair. “Well, then you have to know what I mean.”

She did. She knew exactly what he meant. But she wanted him so badly that she said, “I don’t, actually.”

His eyes narrowed, calling her bluff without saying a word.

“What?” she said.

“Okay. Y’know what we’re going to do instead of having sex tonight?”

She rolled her eyes. “Sleep, like sex-hating losers?”

He moved his face a little closer and nipped at her chin, then pulled back. “We’re going to talk about that night. In great detail.”

“Why would we do that?” She watched her hand as it reached out, seemingly of its own accord, and wove its way into his hair.

“Because when we’re done, you’ll concede my point that if we sleep together again, we’ll start sleeping together all the time until we die.”

“Cocky much?”

He put a finger over her lips and said, “It all started in the kitchen. You remember? You were sitting on the counter and you said ‘My lips are cold from the Rumple Minze,’ and I said—”

“ ‘Let me warm them up.’ ” She remembered his charming grin. “And then you said, ‘God, please.’ ”

His lips slid into a flirty half smile. “Instead of answering, you climbed onto my lap.”

Hallie’s cheeks warmed as she thought about that moment, about how charmed she’d been by Jack. “I did.”

“Swear to God, I nearly lost it right there,” he said, looking sexy and sweet all at the same time with his head on the fluffy pillow. “You were so fucking hilarious, but then you pulled some wizard shit and turned into a damned seductress.”

“Shut up,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Seriously.” He looked up at the ceiling, like the scene was being replayed for him. “Just like that you were on my lap, in my hands, and my tongue was on your minty lips.”

She felt like closing her eyes and just listening to the sexy bedtime story, but instead she added, “Which was great until you tripped over the box of bananas.”

They’d started kissing and he stood, holding her while she wrapped her legs around his waist. He’d started walking, intending on taking them somewhere, but then he tripped.

“I could’ve crushed you,” he said around a quiet laugh.

“But instead you recovered and stumbled your way to the service elevator.” Hallie closed her mouth, positive she couldn’t talk about the elevator without spontaneously combusting.

“Finally. The service elevator.” Jack gave her a wolfish grin before scooching just a little closer to her on the bed. “I would really like to hear it from your point of view, Tiny Bartender. Tell me about the elevator.”

Jack

Jack would never forget what’d happened.

Between kisses, they’d joked that they should just stop the elevator and go at it. He’d had her pinned against the wall, kissing the hell out of her, and then she’d done it.

She’d hit the button and stopped the elevator.

“We were grinding like teenagers,” Hallie said, grinning, bringing him out of his flashback. “And I stopped the elevator. That’s it. We kissed in that elevator for a very long time.”

“Really.”

“Yes,” she said, nodding.

“That’s your recollection,” he said.

“Yes,” she said, laughing.

“I think it’s more of a matter of what we kissed, don’t you?”

“Oh, my God, Jack!”

“That’s what you said in the elevator,” he said, laughing, “when I was kissing your—”

“No.” She put her hand over his mouth, her cheeks red as her eyes danced. “That’s enough.”

He moved his face from behind her hand. “Are you ready to admit that we would become friends-with-benefits addicts if we slept together?”

She rubbed her lips together. “I will concede that you might have a tiny point.”

God, why was he suddenly obsessed with her mouth? All of a sudden, he was like a predator and her lips were his prey.

He prompted, “And . . . ?”

“And fine. No sex.”

“Are you sure?”

“Am I sure?” She looked at him like he was crazy. “What are you doing here?”

“I just mean if you want to discuss this further, I’d be more than happy to talk about sex against hotel room walls, and sex on hotel room desks—which, if I recall, was your absolute favorite—”

“Why can’t you shut up?” Hallie moaned, shoving her hands over his mouth. “I said you were right, so stop talking!”

He tickled under her arm to get her to let go, and then he rolled on top of her. Instant mistake. He’d done it to remind her he was the winner, to lord his victory over her and pin her down, but the feel of her body underneath his was too much.

She blinked up at him, looking like she felt exactly what he was feeling, and whispered, “It was really, really good, wasn’t it, Jack?”

He looked down at her face, her funny, stubborn, beautiful face, and he couldn’t find his voice.

So he just nodded.