Free Aged to Perfection by Lauren Fraser Page A

it’s not fun anymore.” By the time Rachel finished speaking, she was virtually whispering the words. Choking on them, even though she knew they needed to be spoken.
    “Fun? That’s all this was to you, fun ?” Mark demanded, his tone colder than a Denver winter.
    Rachel squared her shoulders and met his angry stare. “Yeah. I mean, come on, Mark, what else could it be? Like your friends said, I’m a cougar, right?”
    “Jesus, Rach. My friends are idiots. You know that’s not how I feel.”
    “Do I?” She shrugged. “It’s not like we have much in common.”
    “What the hell are you talking about? We like doing the same things on our time off. I’ve never dated a woman that I was intellectually more comfortable with. Even our jobs mesh great. There’s a hell of a lot more to this than sex and you know it.” His voice rose in anger.
    “I’m just worlds away from your friends.”
    “Fuck that. Did you even give my friends a chance? You seemed to enjoy talking to Sheila. You have tonnes in common with her.”
    “How do you figure?”
    “What do you mean? She runs your favourite art gallery downtown. That guy Mike makes the most incredible custom cabinetry. When we went to the flea market, you loved Johnny and Paul’s work. You have a lot more in common with my friends than you do yours.”
    “That’s insane,” she stammered.
    “Is it? Since your divorce, what the hell do you have in common with most of your friends? You don’t like those phony charity things with all those hypocritical people like my parents. You hate book club. Come on, really, what do you have in common with them?” he pressed.
    What the hell did he want from her? He was asking her to embrace a completely different life than the one she had. To leave the security of her acquaintances for the unknown with him. She’d already lost herself once before and what she felt for Mark was so much stronger than anything she’d ever felt with Roger. If Mark found her lacking and left her down the road, she didn’t think she could survive.
    “Look, I need to get out of here. This thing between us just isn’t going to work,” she told him. Without making eye contact, she gave him a half smile and stuck her hands in her pockets to discourage any kind of physical contact. If he touched her, she knew she would break and fall helplessly into his arms.
    This was the smart thing to do. There was no way this could work. They were just too different. She was beef jerky and he was prime beefcake.
    How the hell did she expect to hold onto him? It was just better to leave him before he dumped her for the newer model like her ex-husband had.
    Mark reached out his hand and grabbed her arm. She recoiled, desperate to keep her distance. “Mark, don’t. Let’s just end this before either of us gets in too deep.”
    “Rach, this is stupid. We’re good together. We understand each other. No one’s ever got me like you do.”
    He stepped towards her and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her closer. Her head rested against his chest. Damn it, this was exactly what she didn’t want to do. She pulled back from him.
    “No, Mark,” Rachel told him, placing her hand firmly against his chest to halt his progress.
    Mark threw his hands up in the air. “Fine, whatever.”
    He roughly ran his fingers through his hair. The curls stood on end from the force. Rachel longed to smooth them down with her hand. She clenched her fist to curb the impulse.
    His eyes narrowed. “I never would have thought you were a coward, Rachel. After everything you’ve been through, I thought you would get how rare it was to have a connection like we do. Maybe you’re right,” he said, shaking his head. “I guess I don’t know you at all.”
    Mark turned on his heel and left Rachel standing on her front lawn. He climbed into the truck without a backwards glance. The hemi engine roared to life moments before the squealing tires peeled away from the kerb.