Chapter Eight

“Are you sure I won’t be crashing your date?” Marina asked for the eighty millionth time as she fretted in front of her closet, looking for something to wear.

Lexi was sprawled on the floor of Marina’s bedroom, petting Tulip along his back, scratching him under his chin. “One, you’re specifically invited. Two, Jake’s going to be there too, so you won’t be a third wheel. And three, Eric and I aren’t dating. So it is impossible for you to be crashing a date between us.”

Marina turned, a beige sweater in one hand and a gray sweater in the other. “Not dating?” she asked with a sly look on her face. “Is that why you came home with sex hair and a bite mark on your shoulder?”

Lexi’s mouth dropped open. “What are you talking about?” She scrambled up and eyed herself in Marina’s bedroom mirror, yanking the collar of her shirt to one side. “Well I’ll be damned.”

There it was, a deliciously purple set of teeth marks right above her collar bone. Lexi ran her fingers over the mark and couldn’t help the shiver that raced through her.

“For the record, this isn’t evidence that we’re dating.” Lexi paced over to Marina, took both of the boring sweaters out of her hands and tossed them into the hamper. She started pawing through her closet, looking for something mildly interesting for her friend to wear.

“You’re just fooling around then?”

Lexi huffed out a breath. “Well, we’ve fooled around a few times. And we’re friends. That’s about it.”
“Are you going to do it again?” Marina asked.

Lexi wasn’t usually big on sharing this kind of information with people. But there was something about the way that Marina was asking. She wasn’t asking to get the dirty details. She was asking because she didn’t understand. Because she really wanted to know how these things worked.

“I want to,” Lexi admitted. “But I also know it’s not a great idea.”

“Why?” Marina asked, leaning against the door jamb of the closet, watching as Lexi dismissed almost every piece of clothing she owned. “Eric’s such a good guy.”

“Exactly,” Lexi agreed. “He’s so good that if I get in too deep with him I might not be able to get back out.”

“You’re afraid you won’t want to leave in August,” Marina guessed, hitting the nail on the head. “Is it possible to keep doing what you’re doing with him and not get too wrapped up in it?”

Lexi turned to her, intrigued. Something told Lexi that Marina was definitely asking this question because she was trying to find similar answers for herself. Despite Marina’s determination to call a halt to anything that was happening between her and Dylan, was she reconsidering? “Do you mean is it possible to have sex without falling in love or wanting more with that person?”

Marina nodded, her eyes wide and slightly embarrassed.

Lexi shrugged and turned back to the clothes. “Sure. I mean, I’ve been doing it for pretty much my entire sex life.”

“So why can’t you do that with Eric? Have sex and still keep a part of yourself closed off.”

Lexi considered. “I think that gets harder when the sex is really good, you know? And the sex with Eric is really, really good.” Understatement of the year, there. “It’s so good in fact..” Lexi hesitated, then decided to be honest even as she continued to inspect Marina’s clothing. “You have a point, Mari. And to be honest, it’s something I’ve been asking myself. That maybe I can keep sleeping with Eric this summer as long as it didn’t get too, I don’t know what word I’m looking for… Too soft?”

Lexi turned to Marina, a pile of clothes in her hands.

“Um. Maybe?” Marina said. “You think that’s possible?”

“Yeah,” Lexi said, considering her answer and shoving a little purple T-shirt into Marina’s hands along with some cut off jean shorts she’d found shoved in a drawer. “He knows how I feel. And we’ve already set ground rules. Maybe we just need to set a few more.”

“What kind of ground rules?” Marina asked and then looked down at the clothes Lexi had chosen for her. “I can’t wear these. This shirt is so small I only wear it when I’m cleaning the house and these daisy dukes were for a Halloween costume.”

Lexi ignored her friend’s protests about the clothes. “I’m not sure of the additional ground rules. I guess we’ll have to come up with them between the two of us.” Something black and silky caught her eye. “Marina, why do you have an evening gown like this?”

It was beautiful, perfectly tailored and sexy as hell. It must have cost a fortune.

Marina’s face went bright red. “I bought it for a… fancy event. But I chickened out and never ended up making it inside.”

Something on Marina’s face told Lexi that this wasn’t the time to push. So she patted Tulip on the head, stepped out of the closet and went to change her own clothes. “The boys will be here in twenty minutes.”