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This time, his laugh was one of disbelief. “Sophie, the occasional day of shopping isn’t going to break me, provided you’re not buying up companies. Although someday, if there were one you particularly wanted to buy and you came to me with a solid investment strategy— you’d really have to have more experience behind you—”
“Off topic, baby,” I interrupted.
“What I’m trying to say is...” He blew out a long breath. His eyes fell on the drawers on my side of the closet. He went to the top one, opened it, and pulled out the flat box that contained my collar. He held it up. “May I?”
A twinge of desire made me clench my thighs.
He fastened it around my neck, and I looked at myself in the mirror. The diamonds winked in the light like the droplets of water suspended from the ends of my hair.
Neil’s big hands splayed across my stomach and my chest. “Remember when we were fighting, and I told you that you could ask me for a million dollars and I would give it to you?”
I reached up to touch the collar. “This isn’t—”
“Three point six.” His gaze met mine in the mirror as his hand came up to cover mine, over my throat. “Why did you accept this?”
“Because you wanted to give it to me.” I had missed this intimacy, the purposeful touches. I’d missed submission. “Because it meant something to you and I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“I wanted to give it to you because I love you, and I wanted to express it to you in an extraordinary way. To give you what no man in your past ever has. Perhaps it’s insecurity, perhaps it’s immature and selfish and insulting to you... but there is a part of me that wants you to have everything you want. Things you didn’t know you wanted. And I want to be the one who gives them to you.”
“That sounds like you’re buying my love,” I pointed out.
“No. You’d give me your love anyway. If I thought otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.” He slipped his hand down my body.
My knees went weak, but I knew he couldn’t hold me. I caught myself with my palms against the mirror, my fingers clenching and unclenching. I watched their reflections, then the reflection of Neil’s hand between my legs. My arousal, awakened by Neil’s touch, reached an unexpectedly quick high. I soaked up every delicious sensation.
God, I’d missed his hands on me.
I turned in his arms and pressed my body full-length against his. “It’s cruel to get this started when you’re not going to be able to finish it.”
“I feel like I might be able to finish it, today,” he said with a grin.
“I’m not going to fuck you right before I go out shopping with your daughter.” I giggled. “And definitely not if I’m going to be spending your money. That would make you my sugar daddy or something. Ick.”
“Emma gets dressed much quicker than you, anyway, so she’s probably waiting already,” he said with a rueful smile as he reached behind me to unclasp my collar. “How about I spend today resting, and we can try tonight. I actually feel... healthy. Or at least as close to it as I’ve felt in a long time.”
I wasn’t going to count my chickens before they were hatched. Neil could feel fine one moment, tragically ill the next. But I beamed at him and said, “It’s a date.”
“A date makes it sound like we’d be going out. I’m planning on going in.” he said with a smirk.
“You must be feeling better,” I teased. “Get out, let me get dressed.”
When I came downstairs, Emma was waiting beside the door, texting. She held up a finger before she finished, then looked up brightly and said, “Ready?”
I followed Emma to the car. “I like your coat,” I said, considering the dove-gray wool. It couldn’t really be wool, though.
“Totally synthetic,” she reassured me. “Just as warm.”
“But what about all the chemicals that come from making synthetic stuff?” I asked, and immediately wished I hadn’t.
“You don’t really want to argue about saving the planet, do you?” Emma asked with the lift of an eyebrow.
“No. No, actually, I kind of want to get drunk.”
“Ooh, let’s do that, please. Much better than shopping, even if it is ten in the morning.” She clapped her gloved hands together. “I know this great pub, it’s about twenty minutes away but they have vegan food. We’ll pretend to be there for lunch and get super drunk instead.”
She gave the address to the driver before we got into the car, and I settled back. What the hell were we going to talk about?
“How is my dad doing?” she asked, point-blank, before her door was even shut.
“Oh. Um.”
“I’m sorry to ambush you,” she went on. “But I haven’t had two seconds alone with you to ask, and all dad will tell me is, ‘I’m fine, better than expected, don’t worry about me.’ He’d say that even if the Grim Reaper were standing right next to him.”
