Page 46 of In The Dark

Jo lay stillas she blinked her eyes open slowly. Her heart was already pounding before she’d even fully woken up or moved an inch, and she was sweaty under the covers. Embarrassed. Actually, she was fucking mortified. She sat up suddenly, her chest tightening as the memories of last night surged to the front of her mind in an unforgiving rush.

The sound of Amelia’s voice when she realised what Jo was doing. The sexy little moans from thembothas Jo did the unthinkable.Go on. Give it to me. Jo shuddered and clamped her thighs shut.

“Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck!” She pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead. “You are fucking crazy! It’s official! You’ve lost the fucking plot!”

What the hell had she done?

She reached blindly for her phone, checking to see if Amelia had messaged. Maybe a follow-up, a sarcastic remark, anything…somethingto take the edge off what had happened.

But there was nothing there.

No new messages. No missed calls. No dots typing.

Jo’s stomach roiled. What on earth had she been thinking?

Well, she hadn’t been thinking, andthatwas the problem. She’d been swept up in the way Amelia had looked while they were at Satin, in the way her mind wouldn’t stop circling back to that fucking lingerie, or the tilt of her mouth, or the shadow of her thigh…

She’d let her body take over, and now she couldn’t undo any of it.

She groaned and flopped back against the pillows, dragging the covers over her face. Maybe if she held it there for long enough, she’d suffocate and die. That seemed like the best outcome right now.

But the guilt was too distracting.

Because she hadn’t just gotten herself off. She’d let Amelia hear every second of it, she’d asked if she could come for her, and Amelia hadn’t hung up.

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

There was only one person she could call.

She flung the covers off, rushed into the kitchen, and hit Ada’s name on her phone. It was barely six in the morning, but she didn’t care. She paced barefoot across the tiles, one hand in her hair as she waited for her best friend to pick up.

“Jo?” Ada sounded groggy and full of sleep. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not. I… Fuck. Are you alone?”

“Um…yes. What’s going on?”

Jo’s mouth moved, but no words came. How was she supposed to explain this? How was she supposed to say, ‘I moaned Amelia’s name as I came on the phone with her, and now, I want to walk out in front of a bus?’

Ada, as usual, filled the silence with gentle coaxing. “Jo, babe, what’s going on? Just breathe and tell me what happened?”

“I did something really fucking stupid,” Jo finally blurted out. “Ridiculously stupid!”

Ada sighed. “Okay…what kind of stupid are we talking about here? Are we talking ‘texting the ex at 2am’ stupid, or ‘accidentally slept with your boss’ stupid?”

“Neither. It’s so much worse than that.”

Jo heard the rustle on the line as Ada said, “Okay, I’m up, and I’m listening.”

“I took your advice and went to Satin last night.”

“Okay…”

“I didn’t tell Amelia I was going to show up, but when I got there, she was in the main lounge…lingerie and everything…with another woman.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry. The moment she saw me, the other woman was the least of her concerns.” Jo recalled the moment Amelia had excused herself, ultimately spending the remainder of her time with Jo instead. “She just…she was lounging there like she wasn’t the hottest fucking woman I’ve ever seen in my life.”