Page 12 of Bait Me
“I need to sleep,” she says quietly, and I hold her as she closes her eyes, covering us with a blanket, praying that when she leaves tomorrow she doesn’t say goodbye.
Chapter Eleven
BONNIE
My phone pings, and I feel like a lead weight has dropped in my stomach, because as I look at the notification, I see that the remaining amount of money has been deposited into my bank, and just like that, after one weekend, I’m one hundred thousand pounds richer. So why do I feel so icky about it all?
Why doesn’t it feel right?
Why does it feel like accepting this money is totally wrong on every level?
I gave him my time, I gave him more orgasms than I thought possible, including three more last night and two this morning, I gave him the two nights and two days, like the contract said, but I feel sad. Like it’s the end of something special, something I never expected to find.
I’m waiting for the car service to get me, to take me back to my shitty life with my shitty family, where I’ll go back to doing the shitty waitress job, because there is no way I can be an escort to anyone else. Not after this. I don’t even know if you can come back from having sex with the boss, anyway.
“The car service is here,” he says, as he walks up behind me on the balcony, his hands in his pockets, his expression looking just as grave as mine.
“Okay.” I swallow the lump that has formed in my throat, because how is it even possible for me to be missing him already? How is it possible that I’ve fallen so hard and so fast for a man who a few days ago was just my sister’s ex? I can’t even fathom how quickly my heart has let him in.
It can’t just be down to the amazing sex, can it?
I already know that it isn’t, because between the sex, we talked, got to know one another, and it felt like he was the missing piece of me. Ugh. I need to get out of here and clear my head, be away from him, maybe then I’ll see that it’s just the post-sex haze clouding my thoughts.
He walks me to the door of the penthouse, carrying my bag for me.
“Thank you for this weekend,” he says as I turn to look at him.
“Thank you to you, too,” I manage to say, keeping the lump in my throat at bay and wondering why all of a sudden I want to cry. “I guess, uh, I’ll see you around?”
“I guess so,” he grates out, like he’s struggling to speak. I take my bag from him with a sad smile, turning and opening the door, feeling like I need to shut this part of my life away in a box and never look at it again, because it’ll hurt me if I do.
“I’ll be here again next weekend, just so you know,” he says as I walk out of the door, desperate to turn back around but knowing I can’t, because if I do, then I’ll lose myself in him completely.
Chapter Twelve
BONNIE
“Where have you been?” my mother asks as soon as I step through the front door. “And whose car was that?”
I sigh as I kick off my shoes and close the front door. I knew I should have got the car to stop away from the house, but my mind was so muddled from being with Darius that I didn’t realise we’d stopped outside until the driver announced it to me.
“I was with a friend,” I tell her, making my way to the stairs.
“You missed Sunday lunch,” she scolds, and I scoff.
“I’m sure you managed to enjoy it without me.”
“That’s not the point. Sunday lunch is the one day of the week that we all sit together and catch up.”
“Catch up?” I say, my voice high-pitched as I turn around and look at her incredulously. “And by ‘catch up’ do you mean pointing out everyone’s faults bar yours and Kelly’s, or putting me down at every opportunity, telling me I’m not good enough to be in this family?”
“How dare you,” she starts, but I just roll my eyes and turn around to continue walking up the stairs. “You’ve never been good enough, not like your sister, and you never will be.”
And as I enter my room, leaving the bag by the door and kicking it shut, I fling myself on the bed, the tears I’d kept at bay all day leaking out now, but it’s not from my mother’s words. No. It’s because I’ll never forget the look on Darius’ face as we said goodbye, the haunting look in his eyes, the same look I know was reflected in mine.
It’s been five days of hell. Pure hell. My mother isn’t speaking to me. Kelly has been spitting acidic insults my way all week after hearing my mother’s version of events. And my father has been, well, crap as usual, saying nothing, keeping his head down and ignoring all of the drama that my mother and sister create.
I’m tired, fed up, and I’m sat on Sadie’s sofa, bawling into a bucket of ice-cream, finally telling her about last weekend and this week.
