“So—” Claire smoothed the napkin in her lap before she folded her hands and rested them on the table “—while you were changing clothes at your place, I was reading up on how to have a fling.”
Jason paused from taking a sip of his coffee and set the cup down. He felt the urge to smile but he was sure Claire had taken the hunt for information seriously. “Only you would do that kind of research.”
“Not necessarily.” Her chin had a defiant tilt. “I will have you know that there are pages and pages of articles on the subject. How to have a vacation fling, a summer fling, a fling while you’re married to other people.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “It’s an endless topic.”
“And what did you find out?” He wasn’t that curious but he sensed Claire had some concerns. She wouldn’t have brought it up if she didn’t want to discuss it.
“Well, it turns out that we’re doing it all wrong,” Claire announced.
“Are you sure?” he asked. “It felt right to me.”
She dipped her head to hide her smile. He liked to tease and flirt with Claire to get a reaction out of her but she often tried to conceal it. When was she going to learn that she didn’t need to hide anything from him?
“Who writes these articles?” he asked. “How do they consider themselves experts?”
Claire shrugged. “I didn’t go that in-depth with the research. It was a quick search. Still, every one of them—”
“How many articles did you read?”
“I was just skimming,” she explained. “But all the articles said that you should not have a fling with someone you know well. They also said you shouldn’t do things outside of bed, like go to brunch.” She motioned at the table as they waited for their order. “Or be seen in public together.”
“Our circumstances are different,” Jason said. “We need to be seen together to help reinvent your image. That’s what started this.”
She bit her lip. “True,” she said quietly and looked out the window.
They were headed for some complications if she wanted to keep their fling strictly physical. If it was only about sex then he wouldn’t have stayed the night or held Claire in his arms as they slept. He wouldn’t have curled her against his chest and talked with her late into the night.
But he wouldn’t be that cold and uncaring with Claire. He had felt tenderness toward her from the day they’d met. It had always been an undercurrent to their conversations, even when she annoyed him. He was very protective of Claire, and that was getting in the way of their temporary fling.
“What do these so-called experts think we’re doing right?” he asked.
Claire’s eyes darted to the ceiling and she shook her head. “You are such an optimist. You automatically assume we’re doing something correctly.”
“Are you saying we are doing everything wrong?”
“No,” she admitted. “A few said that if you’re going to have a fling, you should go against your usual type. I didn’t really understand why.”
“They recommend that because it’s easier to end the fling,” he explained. “If you can’t see yourself with that person for the long-term, you won’t be invested in the relationship.”
“That makes sense.” Her smiled wavered. “Oh, and they all recommended having an exit strategy. Which we do.”
Jason propped his chin against his hand and watched Claire. He could tell that his quiet study unsettled her. “Why were you researching how to have a fling when you’ve already started one?”
“I know, that’s not like me. I usually gather all the information before I take a step,” Claire said. “But since I’ve already stepped, I decided to check and see if I was forgetting something.”
“Are you sure you weren’t having second thoughts?”
She sat up straight and her gaze clashed with his. “No, not at all.”
“If you had researched a fling before you propositioned me...”
Her cheeks turned bright red and she leaned over the table. “I did not proposition you! I...well, I had offered—”
“If you’d known all the warnings beforehand, and if you’d known that I didn’t fit the requirements, would you have considered a fling?”
“With you? Yes.” She frowned when her phone rang in her purse.
The tension in his rib cage relaxed after her automatic reply. With him. Only with him? he wondered as he watched Claire retrieve her cell phone from her purse.