AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know…but…”
“Why not save it for Simon, Clements? I think I’ve taught you the ropes by now. You know what goes where. You’ll be fine.”
She stared at him. It was unnerving to have her eye contact for so long. This time, he was the first to look away.
“So that’s…that’s it?” she said, voice wavering a little. The sound of it stung his chest. God.
“If I still get my money by Sunday,” Jay said.
“Yes, of course—”
“Or do I need to put my dick in you first. Because I will. Just say the word.”
“Jay—”
“The contract did say penetrative sex—”
“Jay—”
“And most people would say fingers don’t count, so if you’re feeling unsatisfied—”
He had meant to sound light-hearted. It was all supposed to be a joke. But for some reason it was all coming out wrong, as though he was angry. But he wasn’t angry. Had no reason to be angry. Had no reason to feel anything at all except maybe sexually frustrated, but that’s not quite what this felt like. It felt like tearing out his heart.
“Please don’t end it like this, Jay.”
But that’s what this was. The end. He would never sleep with Sophia. He would never get to touch her again.
“We’re still friends, aren’t we?” she said tentatively, as though reading his thoughts. As though having the same ones. “You’ll still come to my party?”
And watch her together with Simon?
“Of course, Clements. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Sophia
Sophia went home and had a long, miserable bath.
She looked down at her body in the soapy water and thought of all the places Jay’s hands and mouth had been, and all the incredible things he had made her feel. Did other men make people feel like that? Could Simon make her body delirious, send her mind spinning, make her feel reinvented as someone entirely new, someone sexy and desirable, and do all that while making her smile and asking nothing in return—
Except for forty-five thousand pounds.
How could she forget that? Jay certainly hadn’t.
She shifted in the bath, sliding down so her shoulders were under and the water came up to her chin. She wanted to hide, to cringe away from that last awful conversation when Jay had seemed so brittle and hard, as though all that humour and softness came to an end the moment the contract did.
Had it ever been real?
She closed her eyes tight and made herself revisit all the moments they had spent together over the last month, all the words and gestures and the text messages and promises…
I adore you.
Wasn’t it true? Was none of it true? Was she so desperate and lonely for friendship, so completely clueless about how it worked, that she had mistaken it all?
She couldn’t, wouldn’t believe it.
Jay was her friend. He had to be. It hurt too much to think otherwise.
Sophia finished her bath and got dressed. She chose an ankle length dress that buttoned up to the neck and had long sleeves. It was very pretty, Givenchy, and made of silk, but even she knew it wasn’t designed to advertise her body to men. But it felt wrong to show flesh to Simon that hours before had been singing under Jay’s touch.
