Page 100 of His Pretty Little Duet

I hum in the clutches of my fatigue, but I hear his heavy exhale. My hair wisps around, tickling my skin. “Tell me those tears were from pleasure, sweet girl.”

I barely stifle a sleepy laugh; my ballooning heart loves the hints of concern he tries to smother. “I orgasm best under a level of duress, Sir.”

He chuckles, deeply, and it is the best damn soundtrack to accompany the humming of my body. It's emotional intimacy. It's beingcomfortable.“You impress me, little deer."

I beam, even though my smile goes unseen. He has no idea how much that means to me.

Fawn

I slicethrough the centre of the chicken, creating a pocket for the cheese to go into. The heat from standing near the oven while Maggie bakes bread has formed a thin coat of perspiration over my skin. I wipe my forehead with the back of my hand. Behind me, the pool is like a siren—all welcoming and seductive.

“Can I go for a swim?” I ask hesitantly because I hate offering to help and committing to something and then flaking out. “I just want a little dip and then I’ll be?—"

“Sweetie, you do not work here. You can come and go as you please. I love your company, but you should enjoy yourself too. You’re so young. Go shopping. Go to a movie or read a book.”

“A book.” I glance across the pool and think about sprawling out like a kitten, soaking up the warmth, reading something smutty all day long until the sun descends, spilling colours through the trees. Then he’ll get home and I’ll tell him what I was reading. I wonder if he’ll be happy about sharing me with book boyfriends. “Sounds so luxurious.”

“Can we talk?”

I twist to see Jasmine with her chin cast low, her eyes on her scuffing feet. She looks uncomfortable in her own world, whichI don’t want at all. “Sure.” I follow her through the French doors and stand on the grand stone veranda where I first met the Devil’s prototype.

My Clay Butcher.

She peers out over the pool for a few contemplative moments before turning her solemn eyes to meet me. “I’m so sorry you lost the baby, Fawn.” Shaking her head with regret flickering in her glossy eyes, she says, “I didn’t know. I would have come to see you. I swear I would have.”

My hair tussles in the dense warm draft. Hooking my finger around a strand, I pull it from sticking to my lips. “It’s okay. I'm okay. It wasn’t meant to be.”

“That’s a line.” She sighs. “It still sucks. You can say it.”

I tip my shoulders, a defeated little shrug. “It sucks.”

“There you go.”

“Should we start again?” Holding my hand out for her to take, I say, “Hi, I’m Fawn. I've never had a real female friend before. Girls rarely like me. Or they used me to get to my brothers.”

Her hand wraps around mine, and we giggle as we shake them. “I’m Jasmine, and I think it’s their loss for not using your brothers to get to know you.”

We slump down on the steps and talk for a while before she heads back to finish her shift, and I wander down the steep decline to meet the pool’s edge. Enjoying the breeze even though it is warm, I close my eyes and breathe in deeply.

Then I hear a sound coming from the bushes—a shuffling or a sprinkler or?—

“Psst!”

My eyes flash open, and I spin to face the dense gardens surrounding this section of the pool. Squinting through the vast webbing of trees and shrubbery, I make out a black figure crouching behind a hedge.

“Don’t look straight at me,” the voice says. “They will be watching you through the cameras.”

I square my shoulders, stepping backwards to put more distance between me and the boundary. “Who’s in there?”

A hushed voice says, “It’s Lee.”

My stomach churns, and while part of me wants to apologise for being the reason he had a gun shoved in his mouth, another part of me—a strong, loyal part that belongs to Clay—just wants to tell him to go away. “It’s best if you leave. You don’t know what he’ll do.”

The foliage in front of him rustles when he adjusts his stance. “What did I do wrong?”

“Fine then, come out. But don’t hide,” I say, peering around the greenery to get a better view of his hiding spot.

“Don’t look over here! Just look at the flowers.”

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