Dear Rose 3: Winter's Risk Read Online Free

bereft.
    “I’m clean. I tested about six months ago, and I haven’t been with anyone since then. And I’m a safety girl. Condom always.” Was she babbling again? Trying to justify her actions?
    More silence. Why wasn’t he saying anything?
    “Quinn, are you okay with that?” Was he going to walk away now that the facts had been presented? He’d been okay when it was intangible stuff. This was something real and needed to be discussed.
    “Huh?” He seemed to come away from his thoughts. “Yep. Yep, I’m okay with that.” He let out a small laugh that sounded embarrassed.
    She gawked at him, trying to figure out his mind. She’d thought Quinn would be the one most okay with this arrangement. But where had he been just now?
    He glanced down as though the table was the most interesting thing he had seen all day. “Since we’re making confessions…”
    She waited, her breath suspended. What did he have to confess? This was unexpected.
    “I’m…well, not technically strictly hetero.”
    She blinked at him, trying to catch his eye, but he wouldn’t let that happen. He was still staring down at the table. “You’re not?”
    He lifted his head slowly, and he tapped his fingers madly on the corner of the table. “I’m not. I’m considered bisexual, I guess.”
    “So you like men and women.” She clarified the point Quinn was making to be sure she got it. She hadn’t known that about him.
    “Yep. Yep, I do. A lot.” He shrugged. “I had a brief relationship back about five years ago where we shared. It was with a guy and a girl. But she moved away, and then the guy and I broke up. Since then, it’s been either-or. Either I’m with a guy. Or I’m with a girl. But I do…like both sexes.”
    She rubbed her neck, the pain from her temples coming down into her muscles. “So would you ever be happy with one sex?” Maybe Quinn would be walking away for other reasons.
    Again, he avoided her eyes. “I don’t know.”
    She had to applaud his honesty. But what did that mean for her? She’d come here expecting to tell him about her worst secret. And instead he’d dropped a bombshell on her. She’d never be able to grow a penis. That wasn’t doable. She couldn’t be both sexes at one time.
    “I’m happy with you. Don’t doubt that.” He reached out and took her hand again. “Very happy. I like you a lot, and I think it can be more than we have right now. I think we can do wonderful things together.”
    “But you don’t know if you can commit to me. To just me. Or if you’ll always be happy with just a woman in your life.” She could have an issue if she let herself fall in love with him and then he met a man he liked. Would he say good-bye? Ask her to be okay with him being with that guy?
    She sat up straighter. That wasn’t a lot different from what she was asking of him. She had no right to deny him that, not when she was asking for her cake and eating it too. Her hackles had come up, and she had no real reason for them to.
    “Fair enough. No, I don’t. But you’re having trouble choosing between two guys, and nothing says you won’t wake up tomorrow and decide the other guy is better than me. So who knows what will happen?” He had another good point.
    No one knew what the future held for them. Maybe this could work. If she had Zach and Quinn, and then Quinn… She shook her head. How would that work? He’d be off with someone she didn’t know or trust. Would she be okay with that? After all, if she slept with Quinn and he slept with the unknown lover, then in one sense she’d be sleeping with the unknown lover too. Of course, Quinn didn’t know Zach and didn’t trust Zach, but somehow that seemed different. Oh, this was getting way too complex. She rubbed her head and jammed her nails into her temples. “We don’t know what will happen.” It was all she could think of to say.
    “All we can do is try it and see. It may work, and it may not.” He peered at her with his eyes