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‘It’s necessary’

‘Are you telling me that I don’t cross your mind on the days e don’t meet?’ he de this relationship?’

‘It’s not a relationship!’

‘No? Then tell me what it is’

‘We’re attracted to each other and we’re…following that attraction…’ Yes, she had laid down the rules, but it still felt awful—cheap somehow—to refer to what they had as just sex Furtherht about hiain Did sheto hi else? Noas telling her that it wasfun twice a week He was branching out froo down any slippery slopes, the little hope thing was rearing its head once again, teasing her with scenarios she knerong

Or were they?

‘And would that be like dogs in heat?’

‘I don’t want you intruding into otten that I’ve been there before I would have done anything for you back then’

This, he recognised, was the sound of her raising the stakes, and it was reflected in the determined expression on her face Take her on board in a full relationship, wherever that ht lead, or else they kept what they had in boxes which were brought out on specific days and returned to their shelves as soon as the allotted time was over

He could, of course, tell her that if the fairy-tale ending hat she was after then it was a promise too far He could tell her that he had tried the total co with Victoria It had crashed and burned, despite the fact that they were so utterly compatible in every way on paper, so there was no hope of it co with a woman who, theoretically, was the diametric opposite of hi what they had, and when he thought about it it wasn’t just theit all to an abrupt end and be left with that sour taste of unfinished business all over again?

Thatsomeone as coolly and unequivocally practical

‘I’h the concept was enticing ‘But I’m not prepared to carry on a situation that involves usa few minutes of passion before we slink back to our separate hideaways I bet you haven’t told anyone about us’