Page 21 of Breadwinner

Instead, she simplywaited.Letting Sarah sit in the space where somethinghadbeen and now was not. But Sarah could play this game, too. If Nell had something to add, she would.

Finally, Nell spoke.

“Tell me how that felt.” Her eagerness slipped through the smoothness of her demand, but Sarah could hear it, and hearing Nell excited like this? That excited Sarah.

She could deflect. Could brush it off, shift the power back to herself. But instead, she let the moment stretch. Let itbreathe.Then?—

“Like a choice.”

She didn’t know what answer Nell had expected, but something shifted in the other woman’s expression. A flash of pleasure. Brief and subtle, but there.

And then, that smile appeared again. The rare one that Sarah had only caught glimpses of.

“It was, wasn’t it?”

Sarah exhaled, realizing she desperately wanted to know what the next choice would be.

The following morning, Sarah sat in the back of a sleek black town car, her fingers carelessly grazing over the rim of the takeaway coffee cup. The driver navigated the road toward the airport, the Washington skyline fading behind them.

Sarah had expected the car to take her back to the same private airstrip where she had arrived, but Nell had adjustedfor Sarah’s comfort, and that meant something to her. She had asked for a commercial flight instead of the jet, and Nell had listened.

Allowing herself a brief moment to absorb the past twenty-four hours, Sarah pressed her temple against the cool glass of the window. Nell had given her alotto think about.

Nell’s proposition—the arrangement, as she had put it—was unconventional at best. It was so different from anything she had experienced before.There was no seduction in the traditional sense, no pretense of romance. Nell had made that clear. This wasn’t about finding love; it was about power. Control.

And, of course, pleasure.

Sarah had spent the entire night lying awake in a bed too comfortable to waste on sleeplessness, but unable to stop asking herself whether or not she wanted to step into whatever game Nell was offering.

She hadn’t come to a full decision. Not yet. But she hadn’t ruled it out either.

As the car rolled to a stop outside the terminal, Sarah shifted slightly in her seat, her gaze flicking to the driver as he moved around the car to open her door.

“Ms. Gallagher,” he said smoothly. “Flight details have been sent to your email. Let me know if you require anything else before you board.”

Sarah glanced at him, momentarily thrown.

Nell had taken care of every single detail of every minute she had spent in DC. From the travel plans, to making sure her favorite wine was waiting for her when she arrived at The Prescott, to her coffee this morning being a triple-shot, exactly the way she liked it. Nell had covered it all without ever needing to ask her, because Nell had a way of knowing—or a thoroughly comprehensive assistant.

With a curt nod, Sarah stepped out, smoothing the fabric of her linen blazer before adjusting the strap of her bag over her shoulder.

There was no doubt in her mind. Nell was testing her.

Seeing if she’d accept the choices laid out before her.

Andthatwas what unsettled Sarah the most. She had never been the kind of woman who let others set the parameters. But maybe that was why she was still thinking about it. Because Nell wasn’t like anyone she had ever met before. She was like her.

As Sarah walked through the terminal, her mind shifted briefly away from Nell, away from DC, back to something else.

ToBeth.To the woman who had shaped her, broken her, undone her, and completed her. To the woman who still, despite everything, owned more of Sarah’s heart than she had a right to.

For nine years, Sarah had tried to move on. She had slept with other women when the need had overcome her, had gone through the motions of casual entanglements. But at the end of the day, at the end of every long night, it had always been Beth she craved.

But standing there, with her boarding pass in hand, her flight back home waiting for her, Sarah had a thought that settled like a stone in her chest.

Maybe Nell was exactly what she needed.

An outlet.