She deflated. “This is your idea of fun? Tormenting me?”

“Look,” I said. “I meant what I said back at Pollard. I’m done with relationships. Fuck ‘em. But I’m not going to pretend I haven’t wondered what it’d be like to… you know.”

Her brows crinkled. “You know? What does that mean?”

I felt myself smiling. I leaned close to whisper in her ear. “I’ve wondered what it’d be like to fuck you. No strings, of course.” I pulled back and saw her face had gone bright red.

“Dean.” She muttered the word like a silent curse.

I shrugged. “I prefer honesty and openness. All I’m saying is there’s clearly a lot of tension between us. Especially on your side. I think we’d both be able to relax and handle this more like adults if we got it out of the way. That’s all.”

“Especially on my side?” she hissed. “You’re the one who kissed me.”

“That frosted glass in our room is see-through both ways, you know. I’ve seen you looking.”

“Only because you flaunt yourself!”

“I could flaunt a steaming plate of broccoli in front of someone who has no interest in eating it. You think they’d stare at it? Face it, Pearl. You want my broccoli. You want it bad.”

“I’m not even going to pretend to know what any of that meant. All I know is we both swore off relationships. And more importantly, we both have a lot on the line here. If we… did what you said, just imagine how messy things could get.”

I considered that. “We could lay out towels if you’re worried about getting something on the bed.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes for a long moment. I couldn’t help grinning a little.

“Messy. As in, what if one of us caught feelings? What then? Pretending this thing’s real is hard enough when we’re like this. What if one of us gets our heart broken or something?”

“You’re worried about catching feelings for me?”

“I don’t know,” she said, sounding frazzled. The people at our feet had moved on to a weird little punching massage that went up our calves. “But I’ve never treated sex like some kind of casual thing to just do for fun.”

“Oh, you’re actually considering it?”

“I didn’t say that. No,” she added after a second of thought. “I’m just saying your suggestion is stupid. Because feelings could get involved, and then it would turn this already huge mess into an even bigger one.”

“You’re worried you couldn’t sleep with me without falling for me. Got it. That’s all you had to say, Pearl.”

She turned her gaze back to the ceiling and folded her arms. “I’m done with this conversation.”

She wasn’t bluffing, because all my attempts to strike up conversation during our spa treatment were stonewalled.

We got some kind of creamy mud rubbed all over our faces. Then they led us to a blue-lit room and brought out IV treatments. Apparently, it was a vitamin infused drip followed by cryotherapy. To wrap it all up, we were finally led to a sauna and left alone for the first time all day.