Page 27 of Raging Fires
Kelli shrugged. “Well, a girl’s got to protect herself.”
“Yeah.” There was something almost sad in his eyes, but it was gone in a flash. “Okay, so what are the rest of ‘our’ rules?’
“No dropping your clothes around everywhere. And no leaving your shoes all over the place. Or dirty dishes in the sink.”
“I knew this was going to be all about me.”
“It’s not. We’re just agreeing to keep our messes out of the common living areas. We can be messy, just confined to our bedrooms.”
“Okay. So all my mess in my miniscule bedroom.”
“Hey, you’re the one that picked it out.”
“I’m presuming this also means no purses in the living room. Or those little flats kicked off as soon as you walk in the door. No coat or sweater draped over the back of a chair. No bras on every available doorknob.” He paused a second. “No wait, I take that last one back.”
“Too late,” Kelli crossed her arms, looking disgruntled, but said, “I’m agreeing to those terms exactly.”
“All right. Then let’s say we split the bathroom counter evenly. No make-up or lotion or cream or eyelash curlers or hair dryers or curling wands on my side.”
“But you hardly have anything. You said you were going to do all that at the stadium.”
“I have a toothbrush and toothpaste, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll always shower and shave over there. I might be here all day and need to go out or something. I know it might be too much temptation for you.” He leaned back, bracing his hands on the box behind him, and grinned. “But you can always go over to the Blue so you won’t get overcome by your hormones.”
Kelli narrowed her eyes at him. “And no running around half-dressed.”
“Why not? I’m okay with you running around half-dressed.”
“Is this how it’s going to be? You being obnoxious all the time?”
“I don’t know, Kell, you can’t ask a man to change his whole personality.”
Kelli let out a little frustrated shriek and stood up, throwing her phone down on the couch. “Damn it, Jake! I thought you said we could make it work.”
“Okay.” He reached out and snagged her hand, tugging her back down onto the sofa. “I’m sorry. I’ll behave. But you have to cut me some slack here. Sometimes I don’t know that I’m being obnoxious.”
“Seriously.” She leaned forward, an earnest expression on her face. “Couldn’t you stop with all the sex jokes? If we want this to work, we have to respect each other.”
“I respect you.”
“I mean, respect our boundaries. It’s not like before. I can’t slap you on the arm when you annoy me; you can’t pick me up and throw me over your shoulder and run to the bedroom. I’m not going to be talking you out of a bad mood or asking you for advice. I’m not your wife anymore. I’m my own person. We can’t—we can’t do what we did last night.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Okay. So now we’re getting down to the real issue.” Jake stood up and walked away. It really burned him that she was blaming him. Again. His headache had sort of gone away while he and Kelli were talking, but now it was back full force. “What do you think, that I have designs on your virtue or something? You’ve watched Pride and Prejudice too any times. I’m not trying to lure you back. I don’t want you back.”
“Same here.” She glared. So that had zinged her a little.
“Good. Then we’re agreed.” But he was too pissed to stop there. “I didn’t seduce you last night, you know. You were hot and ready to go.”
“I wasn’t thinking. I was feeling some nostalgia.”
“Nostalgia? That’s what you call it?”
Kelli’s face tightened. “Look,” she said carefully, as if she was being patient with a deranged person. “We were both drunk.”
“You had two beers.”
“Okay. We’d been drinking. It had been a very stressful day, and we were really relieved it was over, and then there was an old song, and you were being nice, and...” She swallowed. “We just made a mistake. And that’s what I am trying to avoid in the future. We can’t allow sex to get into this situation. It might be easy—close quarters and all—but the result would be disastrous. We’d be at each other’s throats and rehashing all the same arguments. Surely you don’t want that either.”
