Page 59 of Darling

“Oh, baby, don’t you worry, I will.” Cole winks at me.

Christian holds out a pair of sweatpants to me, his eyes dancing with what looks like awe as he says: “Well, that was quite something.”

“He sure was,” Cole says good-naturedly.

“Um, thanks?” I feel stupidly shy as I pull the bottoms on.

Christian studies me. “So what usually happens now?”

“Now I get cleaned up and order some food. I’m starving.”

He nods, giving me an empathetic look. “Well, I can handle that. Would you like a bath? I could run it for you now.” Then, stepping closer and lowering his voice, he says, “Are you in anypain?”

“Uh, no. I’m good. Really good.” Some shadow flickers over his eyes before he nods again. “But a bath sounds really great, if you wanted to run it, yeah.”

“I would love to. What would you like to eat? I can go and fetch something for you, whatever you like.”

I don’t know why, but the idea of him leaving right now, after watching me get fucked by someone else, makes a pit open up inside me. I don’t want him to go anywhere.

I shake my head. “Room service is fine.”

He nods again before flicking a brief look over my shoulder at Cole. “Okay, then I’ll go draw you a bath, and then we can order.”

“You’ve got him well-trained,” Cole says when we’re alone. When I look over, he’s smiling wryly.

“Um, it’s not like that. It’s just a casual thing.”

He gives me a look of bewilderment. “Uh, okay, if you say so.”

He’s dressed now and begins packing his equipment away into its case. “You guys in town for long?”

“Not at all. We’re heading back to DC tomorrow.”

“Got it. Well, send me whatever you got from your phone and I’ll send you the video as soon as it’s edited. Probably gonna be next week before I get to it, I have like three more shoots this weekend.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m really grateful, man, editing is the bane of my life. Three shoots? You’re a machine.” I can hear Christian moving around next door, and I really want to go in there and make sure he’s not freaking out now he’s alone.

“Gotta get that money, babe. Me and Charlie are heading out to Europe next month, we’re taking like a month off, so it’s just work work work right now.”

“I get that. Europe sounds great, though.”

“Yeah, it should be cool. We’re gonna travel around for acouple months, hit up France and Germany, Italy and Spain. Then over to London and home.”

“Sounds incredible. Well, have the best time.”

“No doubt.” He’s pulling on a T-shirt now and moves for his shoes.

“Do you… wanna use the shower?”

He waves me off. “Nah, I’m like a ten-minute drive. I’ll get cleaned up at home.”

I’m relieved he isn’t hanging around. When he’s almost at the door, Christian reappears. He has the sleeves of his sweater rolled up and a friendly smile on his face, and I think maybe I’m not giving him enough credit here; he looks totally fine with what went down.

“Chris, really nice to meet you, man,” Cole says, reaching to shake Christian’s hand. “Look after this one.”

“Oh, I will. Thank you for letting me… watch you at work.”

Cole laughs. “Hey, anytime. I’m Ten-inch-Cole on OnlyFans.”