Page 44 of Reckless With You

“Sure, hon. Whatever you say.”

“Why are you doing this?”

He looked into my eyes, and I didn’t know what he saw there. I couldn’t read him, but I’d never been able to read Tucker. He was always the nice guy, the one that could make anyone smile, the one who would always be there for you. But I didn’t know much more about him. I only knew facts. I didn’t knowhim. So, I didn’t know why he was doing this. But I honestly didn’t know why I was doing this either.

“Let’s just make sure they know I’m okay, and then we can end it slowly. No hard feelings. No one needs to beat you up because it’s just casual, and we’ll make sure that they know we’ve never had sex.”

He snorted, shaking his head. “Yeah, your brothers know how I am with women. They’re probably going to guess that we’ve slept together.”

“Okay, we’ll make sure they know. I’ll tell them.”

“So you’re going to tell your brothers that we’ve never had sex. They’re not going to believe you.”

“They’ll know. As will the others. They’ll know that we’ve never had sex.”

“But, like you said, I did see your boobs.”

“Oh, shut up. We’re not talking about that.”

“And you saw me in a towel. And that’s practically naked.”

I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. I would not be thinking about that ever again. Except for in my dreams. No, not even there. God, I had to stop thinking about that. And everything else that came to mind when I thought of Tucker. What was wrong with me?

“Okay. Enough of that. They’ll know, everyone will know. We’re only casual. And that’s totally not a lie. Because it’s what we are. We’ve eaten together. We’re going to family events together. It’s practically the truth.”

“Okay. I’ll make sure that nobody gives you pitying looks. And ensure they think you can make your own choices without making mistakes. Because I know you’re worried about that. And when the time comes, we’ll say you ended it, and that it was completely casual, and I never touched you. How’s that?”

“Sounds like a plan. The perfect plan, right?” I knew my voice was a little high when I asked that last part because it was totally not the right thing to say. But I was already going down this wrong-decision path, I might as well keep going. After all, I had shown my boobs to Tobey, and then to Tucker. Might as well keep piling my bad decisions on top of one another.

“You’re going to be okay,” he said, slowly running his fingers down my cheek. I froze, and he just clucked his tongue.

“Okay, you have to stop doing that.”

“Stop doing what?” I asked, my voice oddly breathy. That wasn’t good.

“Don’t flinch or freeze when I touch you. They’re going to know everything’s a lie, and then they’re going to wonder why you’re lying.”

“Well, how much touching are you going to do in front of my family?” I asked quickly.

“Not that much. But I might want to hold your hand.” He lifted his hand from my cheek, ran it down my arm, and then slid his fingers through mine.

I swallowed hard, but then laughed when he grinned at me, giving my hand a squeeze.

“See? You’re doing fine. You’re getting used to my touch.”

“Not too used to it. Remember, we’re not doing the whole sleeping with each other thing.”

“Oh, I know. Don’t worry.”

He gave my hand one more squeeze, leaned down, and kissed me on the tip of the nose. Then he led the way out of my house.

I had no idea how I had put myself in such a situation, I only knew that if it had to be with anyone, I was glad that it was Tucker. I trusted him. I just hoped he wouldn’t get hurt because of my choices.

By the time we got to the house, we were the last people there. I’d kind of wanted to slide in without anybody noticing, but it wasn’t like we were a huge group. Dimitri and Thea weren’t able to make it because they had a Montgomery family dinner, so that meant it would only be the three Carrs plus Erin and now Tucker. Zoey was coming as well since everybody had wanted it to be even, but I wasn’t going to touch that idea with a ten-foot pole. Plus, Zoey was a friend, so it wasn’t reallyeven. In terms of couples anyway.

“Okay. We can do this. It’s not going to be too hard. We can totally do this.”

“Are you talking to me or yourself?” Tucker asked as I opened the door without knocking. He wasn’t holding my hand but was standing near me. As soon as we walked in, everyone was suddenly there. Caleb and Zoey were glaring at one another in the middle of some conversation, but they turned to look as we walked in. Erin and Devin were whispering in the other corner, nearly kissing, but they paused to look over at us, too.