Presque Vu

Chapter 34

"I don't know if that's such a great idea, Jared," Raina told him as she stood up to carry her takeout container back to the kitchen. She was already starting to regret the resolution she had just made as visions of spending the night lost in pleasure with both of them swam through her mind, but she gave her head a little shake to clear it. It was a good decision. It was for the best. She could only hope that Shannon and Jared would see it that way.

"Why not?" Jared asked her with a frown.

"Because I don't think we should continue sleeping together right now."

"What?" Shannon asked, immediately rising to attention in his seat. "You just mean him, right? Not me?"

"I mean all of us," Raina said a little more firmly. She turned to Jared. "What you said earlier, about making everything about the sex...."

"Oh my God, Jay," Shannon grumbled, throwing his head back. "What did you say to her?"

Jared's eyes met Raina's and he paused. "Maybe not what she heard," he said evenly.

"I heard you just fine, Jared. You're right. We started with sex and then just kept going."

"But we kept going. It's not all about the sex, not anymore..."

"But isn't it?" Raina set her things back down on the table. "We don't really go anywhere or do anything together. We just make arrangements to hook up that occasionally have a meal added into the mix."

She could hear Shannon spluttering behind her, whatever visions of a wild night he'd been entertaining slipping away in the light afternoon breeze. "We go places. We have had dates and hung out and watched movies and talked...." he pointed out. "This isn't our problem, Raina. Don't throw me under the bus too."

Raina sighed. Shannon was right, of course, their relationship didn't have the skewed sense of priorities that hers and Jared's did. They had other problems, but that wasn't one of them. "No, I know. But we can't very well even things back out between the three of us if I'm sleeping with you and not him, can we?"

"Yes, we damn well can!" Shannon protested.

Raina turned her attention back to Jared, who was giving her that same unblinking stare he always pulled out when he was displeased. She was startled to find that she was already becoming immune to it. "I'm not trying to punish you...." Jared gave a little huff and she realized what she had said. "Yeah, Jared, way to move past the kink for a minute."

"Hey, I am who I am," he shrugged, flashing her that grin that was supposed to charm her. When had she caught on to his little tricks, she wondered, and when did they stop bowling her over the way they used to?

"Did you not just sit right over there and tell me about how you were trying to take things more slowly? How you wanted to try focusing on the relationship instead of the sex?"

Jared went back to giving her that stare of his again. Raina set her jaw and waited. "Don't you think it's possible to take it slow and still share a bed?" he asked, his voice evening out again.

Raina took in his narrowed eyes and suddenly calm exterior. He was leading her somewhere with this, asking questions he had already formulated the answer to again. She was determined not to be led by the nose this time. "For some people, maybe. Not for us."

"Clarify "us" please," Shannon implored her but she wasn't about to have her attention divided right now. Only battle on one front at a time, she reminded herself, keeping her focus on Jared, waiting to see what his next move was.

"Don't you have any self-control, Princess?" he challenged.

"Do you?" she shot back.

"Are you testing me?"