“But”—I pause, sucking in yet another deep breath—“you want me to sleep with you.”

“It’s simpler that way,” he says smoothly.

“How so?”

“Neither one of us is at risk of becoming attached.”

I force a laugh. “So just sex.”

“This is my test, Bell. It’s not difficult to pass.”

“Okay.”

Travis’s eyes light up with lust and triumph as he reaches for me, but I sidestep him, putting distance between us. “Okay,” I say again, “but not now.”

“Why not?” he asks, a little bemused, a little irritated. “You have to work up your nerve? Or perhaps you really do have to decide where your loyalties lie.”

“Or perhaps,” I say, mimicking his tone, “I don’t want to have sex with you while your wife is dying of alcohol poisoning in the next room. I like things dark, but even I have my limits.”

“She’s not dying—”

“It’s close enough. I’m not doing this now and I’m not doing this here. Not with her nearby like that.”

Travis’s jaw moves from side to side. If it completely unhinged right now and he turned out to be some kind of predatory alien being, I don’t think I’d be surprised. “Do you have a date in mind?”

I shrug. At this point I’m just stalling for time, giving myself room to think. I try to come up with an answer that will appease him while still procrastinating for as long as possible when someone knocks on the front door.

Travis looks surprised for a moment and then shakes his head. “If they didn’t have to ring from the lobby it means it’s the nanny. She must have forgotten something.” I follow him out of the room as he goes to the door, flings it open, and is confronted by Lander.

“Hi, bro,” Lander says, his smile easy and his posture relaxed. “Jessica called me, said she needed some last-minute help with this political fund-raiser.”

The sound of his voice immediately calms me. I can’t help it. I can’t make him affect me in a different way than he does. Things were getting out of hand and now, just hearing him speak, knowing that he’s occupying the same space as me . . . I can breathe again.

He once told me that we’re all just puzzle pieces needing to make our connections, linking our lives to others to find out where we fit best. Lander and I fit. I don’t want that to be true, but all other connections feel unnatural and awkward. Together, we form a picture that makes sense.

“Since when have you been interested in helping Jessica with her fund-raisers?” Travis asks, jarring me out of my thoughts. I’m standing behind him so I can’t see Travis’s face, but I can see the tense position of his shoulders.