“Your rules don’t mean shit if you don’t trust me to tell you the truth,” I snapped. “I’ve held nothing back!” I added. I hated that my voice cracked when I said, “That first time in the motel room I let you see things…” I shook my head. “You know what, forget it. The sex was great, but not worth this bullshit.”
I had my hand on the door handle when Memphis grabbed me and spun me around, slamming me back against the door. “My second rule is that you don’t lie to me. Ever!”
He kissed me hard and as much as I wanted to resist him, I couldn’t. When he tore his mouth from mine, he said, “No one comes as hard and as beautifully as you do for just great sex,” he snarled. He kissed me again until I felt boneless, but I managed to pull my mouth from his so I could try to get control of myself.
“My first rule is that you don’t assume I’m like whatever asshole who treated you like shit in the past,” I bit out.
Memphis stilled, though he still had me pinned to the door, his big hands holding onto my upper arms to prevent me from escaping. But the last thing I was interested in was escaping.
“Fair enough,” he finally said as he eased his grip on me and stepped back. “I’m not interested in starting up something. This thing between us – it just stays physical.”
The statement wasn’t a surprise since I knew things with Memphis wouldn’t be easy, but actually hearing him say it still hurt. “Not good enough,” I finally said, though it nearly killed me to say it.
“Brennan-”
“You don’t want a relationship, fine…I get that. But I’m not going to be just a hook-up. Some toy for you to play with and walk away from without even a word.”
Memphis was quiet for a moment before finally nodding. “Fine. What else?”
I bit back my surprise at his acquiescence. My mind raced at the shift in conversation. “Every time we meet, I get to ask you questions about yourself.”
“No.”
I wanted to both laugh and gnash my teeth at the clipped answer. God, this man was frustrating. “Memphis,” I murmured with a sigh.
“Three…you can ask me three questions each time, but I may not answer them.”
I figured that was the best I was going to get out of him so I said, “Agreed.”
“My first rule stands. You don’t see anyone else while we’re fucking.”
The fact that he made sure to use the crude word to describe the relationship wasn’t lost on me, but I pushed past it and straightened and stepped forward until I was in his space. “I have the same rule,” I declared and then I reached up to drag him down for a kiss.
“No one finds out about this…us,” Memphis added between kisses.
It was another reminder that what was happening was only marginally above being a cheap hook-up, but it wasn’t a huge sticking point. I wasn’t exactly excited about the prospect of having to admit to anyone in my family that I was seeing a guy purely for sex...well, to clarify, that sex was the only reason he was seeing me. I was hoping sex would lead to something more.
“Okay,” I said and I pulled back. “Can I ask you my first three questions?”
Memphis was breathing hard as he leaned back and studied me. “Can you talk and get naked at the same time?” he asked as he reached up to tug at the buttons of his shirt.
“Hell yeah,” I said as I kicked off my shoes and threw out the first of what I hoped would be many questions to come.
* * *
His favorite color was black.
His second favorite color was white.
I hadn’t bothered to ask his third because I had a sneaking suspicion of what his answer would be. And of course, he’d counted my questions about his favorite color and second favorite color as two separate questions. When I’d upped the ante with my third question about whether or not he had a family, he’d simply said, “Veto,” and then had silenced me with a kiss.
I got smart about what kinds of questions to ask after that. I steered clear of topics I knew he probably wouldn’t be open about including work and prior relationships and stuck to the basics.
He loved jazz.
He hated comedy movies.
He read…a lot.
And while the questions hadn’t necessarily helped me figure out what made the man tick, I’d gleaned a lot just from his other habits. Like the fact that he never seemed to sleep. While I was always out within a few minutes after the many rounds of marathon sex we’d had in the past week, I’d never woken up with him beside me. But he never left the bed before I drifted off either, so that seemed like progress to me.