More Than Lovers by Jess Dee

There’s nothing more between us than a good fuck whenever we feel like it.”
    “No.” She denied his words fiercely. “That’s bullshit and you know it. We are about way more than sex. I know your favorite movies and your favorite color. I know about your family, present and future, and I know about your best friend. I know you love surfing more than anything in life and I know that catching the ultimate wave is your passion. I know the four items you’d save from a burning building, and more importantly, I know I’d be the first thing you came for, before anything else. You proved it today. You’d sacrifice everything to save me.” She looked at him in wonder. “God, how could I not love you?”
    He shrugged. “Anyone would have done what I did today.”
    “Anyone didn’t do what you did today. You were the one who grabbed me from the wave.”
    “It wasn’t a big deal.”
    “It was to me. And I know it was to you too because you’re still as white as a sheet.” He was. His tanned face was almost as pale as hers was naturally. “I mean something to you, Charlie Hudson. I’m more than a quick fuck on a quiet night, and I need to hear you say it.”
    His shoulders stiffened. “What you need is someone like you.”
    Sarah punched his arm out of sheer frustration and jumped up, out of his lap. Her legs might be shaky from the dumping, but adrenalin flooded her body, helping her stand firm. For the first time, she noticed he’d set her down right beside her towel and bag. Did that mean he’d known she was here all along? Had he seen her arrive?
    “Where do you come up with that kind of crap?” she raged. “Didn’t you just hear me? Your profession has no bearing on mine. If I need support to reach my goals and become a professor, I have it. In spades. At work and with my parents. I don’t need that from you. I just need you to love me.” Why couldn’t he understand?
    Charlie rubbed a hand over his eyes and looked up at her. “It’s not just me who believes it. It’s your parents as well.”
    “What the…? What are you talking about?” He’d met her parents? When?
    He pushed to his feet, pausing only to grab her towel and drape it around her shoulders before stepping away. “I overheard them one day. In the lobby of the building, talking about you. Your mother said you needed to find someone of your own intellectual standing, someone the department would approve of. Someone who would be an equal in every way and aid you in achieving all your goals.”
    “M-my mother said that?” She stared at him askance as she snuggled into the towel, grateful for its warmth. No way. It just wasn’t something her mother would say. Her mum would love her to find a man. Any man, so long as Sarah liked him. She’d even mentioned the good-looking young man who lived upstairs from Sarah as a possibility. Had told her umpteen times to take her head out of her books and make a social life for herself, something separate from her work and her studies. “I don’t believe that. Are you sure it was my mother? My father?”
    “Are there any other Sarahs in the building? Because they mentioned you by name.”
    “What? When?”
    Charlie shrugged. “A year ago. Maybe a little more.”
    She gaped, stunned, and then the penny dropped. “Thirteen months ago?”
    “Yeah. About then.”
    “Well, damn it. Thirteen months ago that would have made perfect sense. Because I was looking for someone just like that then.” Frustrated all over again, she curled her free hand into a fist, closing her fingers around sand and grit. “I was looking for a research assistant. Someone to help me with a project. And well, gee, funnily enough I was looking for someone academic and studious. Someone who would aid me in every inch of my research. Someone the uni would approve of, because otherwise I couldn’t have hired her or him. God!” She cursed out loud. “My parents weren’t talking about a romantic interest. They were