Page 32

So, I told her everything, from going to his house, his fancy, fancy car, buying the dress and shoes, Wolfe’s joke about it not being his size.
“You’ve still got it?”
“Yeah.”
“Put it on. I want to see it. With the shoes!” She called down the short hallway when I went to do what she said.
When I came back out, I felt a bit silly all dressed up in my trailer.
“I can’t wait to hear how this night ended and exactly at what point he ripped that dress off you, because holy fuck, my little cream pie…” She went off in a peel of laughter. “I didnotmean that, and I sincerely hope you were not cream pied, because, you know, safety first.”
“I actually have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know. You’re cute like that.”
With the neckline of the dress being lower than my shirt, the diamond necklace shimmered in the dim light, catching Stef’s eye. She jumped to her feet and, with her dinner bowl still in hand, stepped forward, peering at the necklace, reaching out to touch it reverently.
“It was the cheapest in the store.” I don’t know why I said that, or why I didn’t mention that I’d first turned down a much more expensive necklace. Maybe it was just that the whole thing was starting to feel and sound so crazily extravagant. Like it was something that had happened to someone else.
“It doesn’t look cheap to me, but hey, I’m no expert. It’s very pretty, though. So, let’s recap.” She sat back down, crossing her legs and taking another bite of Mac and cheese. “Crying over cake, I’m taking you out, fancy car, amazing dress and fuckable shoes, gorgeous necklace…”
“Beauty parlor.”
She groaned in ecstasy. “Where is this man? I need to find him and marry him.”
I knew she was totally joking, but it made my stomach feel weird. “I’m just gonna get changed. Be right back.”
Stef watched me closely when I came back, dressed in pj shorts and a singlet top. Fuck, she knew me too well. Time to distract her. “After that, we went out for dinner, then he took me to his sex club. We left too late to drive home from Raleigh, so I stayed at his place.”
Her eyes bugging out of her head, Stef nearly choked on her pasta. “Okay, that is seriously mean! You would not beliiiiieve the self-restraint it’s taken me not to jump straight to the sex club bizzo. Now I find out you spent the night with him? I don’t know which amazing-completely-unlike-Esme fact I should focus on!”
Good. That’s exactly how I wanted her.
Narrowing her eyes at me, she said, “Okay. First up. Did you like the sex club?”
“Yeah, I didn’t mind it. It was interesting.”
“Just interesting? Nothing, you know, getting your pulse racing?”
I looked away, the memory of that woman strapped to the X burned into my brain. The way it made me feel was too intense, too personal, for me to share with anyone, even Stef. “No. Wolfe thinks I’m not a voyeur.”
That had her raising her brow. “Does he now?” I thought she was going to say more about that, but again, she just gave me that long, narrow-eyed look that made me squirm, before changing tack. “Second up. Did you fuck him?”
I shook my head.
“What? How is that even possible?”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t for lack of trying, let me tell you.” Throughout the day, more flashes of memory from the night before had come to me. I remembered more about how hard I threw myself at him than I had this morning, and it made me blush. “I threw myself at him.”‘Goddammit, Esme, I’m trying to be honorable.’
“Oookaay,” she said slowly. “I’m confused. He took you back to his place, you let him know in no uncertain terms that you were up to fucking, but he…didn’t? What’s his game?”
“Honestly, I don’t think he has a game. He just said he doesn’t fuck women when they’re drunk.”
“Oh right, well, that makes perfect sense.”
I left out the fact there were two reasons he wouldn’t, because I had no idea what the second one was.
“Finally, what happened this morning? Since you clearly didn’t get to have my favorite kind of sex…”