Page 18 of The Hideout

Juliet looked up from the coffee machine, smiling. “I am. It’s a favourite of mine.”

“Mine, too. I think I’m on my eleventh re-read.” Paige adored lesbian romance novels. She couldn’t own them in paperback because of James, but she had a wide selection on her eBook reader…always prepared to switch to another if her husband was close by. “Favourite scene?” Paige asked, watching Juliet stir the coffee. Even that was sexy. Jesus Christ!

“Oh, the one in chapter seventeen.”

Paige knew exactly which scene Juliet was talking about. Her cheeks flushed, her hands tingling as Juliet walked towards her. “The one when she’s—”

“Fucking her against the table in the photocopying room?”

Oh, Lord. Paige instantly clenched her hands into fists at that, her nails almost drawing blood from her palms. Juliet didn’t mince her words. “Yep. That’s the one,” Paige said, forcing out a breath. “So, how has your morning been?”

“It was going very well until it wasn’t.” Juliet sat down beside Paige, her thighs more exposed than before. She turned her body away ever so slightly, giving Paige a chance to calm her breathing. “Rachel turned up. I think I upset her.”

“Really? She didn’t seem upset when she was leaving. At least, not until she realised I lived two doors from you.”

“I think we’ve just ended our client/escort relationship.”

Paige wanted to pretend she was sad about that, but she wasn’t. Why would she be? Juliet was potentially free of all women, and Paige was sitting in her apartment. Yeah, because you’re in a position to have an interest, right? “I’m sorry about that.”

“It needed to happen. I just didn’t expect it to happen ten minutes ago. I wanted to call her and meet up. Maybe have dinner and end it on better terms. You know?”

“I can understand that. How exactly did it end today?”

“She came here to tell me she’d crossed the line. That she enjoyed being with me…and not as an escort.”

Paige felt for Rachel. While escorting was her line of work, it surely happened from time to time that some got attached. Rachel was only human at the end of the day. “That must be hard for her. For both of you, actually. I see how you are with one another, and honestly…I thought you were together when I first met her.”

“Rachel isn’t who I see myself settling down with.”

“But you said yesterday that you wished you could settle down, no?” Paige noted the pain behind Juliet’s eyes when they’d shared lunch. As much as Juliet brushed off the past, what she’d lost out on by focusing on her career, Paige knew deep down that Juliet wished for far more. “Unless I got it wrong…”

“You didn’t. And yes, I do want to settle down. But Rachel and I don’t really have anything in common. She’s great—really, she is, but I want a quiet life now. I don’t want to be out drinking and dancing every weekend. That’s the kind of person she is, and I’d never want to suppress that, you know? And then there’s the fact that she’s an escort.”

Paige’s brows rose as she exhaled a breath. “I don’t know how you do it. I know I’d become far too attached just from going out to dinner. It’s not something I could do. Knowing she’s going to meet someone else, give them all her attention…and whatever else she gets up to.”

Juliet lifted a hand. “Rachel doesn’t sleep with any other clients.”

“You’re sure about that? You believe her?”

Juliet nodded, bringing her cup to her lips. “I do.”

“Fair enough. I don’t know her so…”

“I started booking her a week before my mother died. I’ve had a few escorts over the years; my job meant it was difficult to find a relationship, let alone hold one down. She was with me when I got the call to say my mum had passed away in her sleep. Rachel stayed, helped me through it, and then a month later, we started sleeping together. She doesn’t usually sleep with any clients, but she must have recognised that it was what I needed at the time. I didn’t think it had changed our contract or our relationship. It just worked for us.”

Paige wished she’d had someone with her when her mum passed away. James had taken the afternoon off work to be at the hospital—to show his face to Paige’s adoring family—and then told her to pick herself up because her mum wouldn’t want her to be miserable. To…get on with it the way everyone else does. “I’m glad you had her with you. It had to make things easier. Not being alone.”

“It did. Perhaps that’s why it’s taken me so long to let her go if you will.”

“Well, if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m only down the hall.”

Juliet reached out a hand, placing it on Paige’s knee. Her body fizzed with something she’d rarely had the chance to enjoy. Arousal. Appreciation for another woman. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

“I should probably head off.”

“You didn’t tell me why you’d come here.”

Paige lifted a shoulder. “Honestly, I just thought it might be nice to have coffee together. Outside of work, you know?”

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