Author's Note: Thanks everyone for your feedback, votes, and constructive comments. I take to heart questions about where this might be going, but I can simply say that there will be a lot of major developments in the next few chapters, as we wind up the first volume of the tale of Kat and John. What you've been curious about I believe will all be answered.
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It was that mutual declaration of love that led Kat and me to our, "Houston, we have a problem" moment. Where did we go from there? What did we mean by it? Our sexual chemistry was off the charts. Could we translate it to and sustain it in a real, traditional relationship? I was an avowed bachelor. Kat was a public figure, albeit a local one, with a sterling reputation. What would it look like for her to dump her rich, old Texas oil money boyfriend for a playboy banker? We also had to consider the fact that, when we were together, we burned the candle at both ends. We only knew one speed, and it was full-throttle. I couldn't keep it up without it having an effect on my professional life.
"We need to talk," I said to Kat one day when we met for lunch at my apartment, after we had returned to Houston from LA.
"I know," she said.
"I'm going to be honest," I began, "I feel like I'm losing a little bit of control here. I'm in deeper here than I ever thought I would be."
She laughed lightly. "Oh, me, too," she said.
"So, I've given this a lot of thought," I said and paused.
"Oh shit," Kat muttered under her breath.
"The way I see it," I continued, "we have three options. We can either keep going like we're going, you end it with James, and we officially get together and probably flame out spectacularly. We are going to get busted by your boyfriend or make some mistake. Or we can end this, and just cut it off before it becomes a problem. But there's another option, I think. We can give ourselves some parameters, some rules. Things that will let... whatever this is burn for as long as it can."
"I can't break up with James," she said. "He's just the picture of everything I need, in a sense. The money is mega, no offense. You do well. But we are looking at a billion with a 'b' eventually from his family. And he's just the kind of guy I imagined having kids with."
"I get it," I said. "I told you in the beginning I wasn't going to try to change you."
"And I told you the same," Kat shot back. "It's not that I haven't been thinking about this, too. I have. A lot.
"I'm a bachelor. I don't want kids," I said. "I don't have that part of me that wants to settle down. I wouldn't be comfortable standing next to you in the limelight. I like being a dirty secret."
"You are so wickedly dirty," she said.
"I guess what I'm saying, ultimately, is that I think we could make option three work," I said.
"You want to be the 'other man' for me?" she laughed.
"Yeah," I said, "that's exactly it. Let's be smart about it. We've got something outrageously good going here. It's the most fun thing I've had in a long, long time. But I also realize we are losing a little bit of control. We are starting to take too many risks."