Page 83 of I Am Sin

“So Dragon really tried to pick up a prostitute last night?”

“He says he didn’t.” I cup my hand over the phone and speak softly. “He says she propositionedhim, and then said that she really needed the work because she hadn’t eaten or something, so he just…gaveher some money.”

“Uh…okay.” She scoffs. “Diana, have I told you about this great real estate opportunity I have for you? In a fucking swamp?”

“Ha. You’re hilarious, Ted.”

“Don’t tell me you believe him.”

I think for all of a few seconds before I say, “Yeah, Teddy. Idobelieve him.”

She pauses before continuing. “You seem pretty sure.”

“Well… I guess I am.” I scratch my arm. “I mean, if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have gone to bed with him this morning. I’m not about to play second fiddle to a hooker, for God’s sake.”

Teddy laughs into the phone. “That’s for sure, Dee. You’re usually pretty discriminating. When is the last time you got any, anyway?”

“About an hour ago,” I deadpan.

“Ha! You know what I mean. Jason Majors was after you big time, and you didn’t so much as bite.”

She’s right. Jason Majors is an architect at Teddy’s firm, and he was my immediate supervisor for my internship. Really good-looking too, in a clean-cut way. But work is work, and I don’t fraternize with coworkers.

“No, I didn’t.”

“I would have.”

“Jason wasn’t my type.”

She chuckles. “Diana, Jason isexactlyyour type.”

She’s not wrong. And I was—am—attracted to Jason. But Dragon… It’s so different, the way I want him. I can’t explain it to Teddy. I can’t even explain it to myself.

“He’s not, really,” I say. “Not that Dragon is either. And now things are weird. I feel like I have to walk on eggshells around here. Like he’s going to think this can be a regular thing with us.”

“I thought you said he explicitly said he wasn’t offering a relationship.”

“He did.” I press my lips together. “But he might think I’m an easy lay for whenever he’s in the mood. And I live all of a few feet from his bed.”

“If you don’t want to be his fuck buddy, you just have to tell him that’s the case…unless you don’t want it to be.”

“No, of course not.”

But the lie is bitter on my tongue.

Because already I’m thinking about the next time I can go to bed with Dragon. How it will be even better now that we’re beginning to learn each other’s bodies and what we each like. Which, in my case, is anything he chooses to do to me.

“I bet he likes it rough,” Teddy says.

I can’t help a sly smile. “Not as rough as you might think. I mean, he told me it wouldn’t be gentle, so I was expecting him to want to tie me to the bedposts or something.”

“Rough doesn’t necessarily mean bondage, Dee.”

“I know that.”

Except maybe I don’t. Maybe I’m still naïve even at my age.

“There was something freeing about having him take charge,” I say. “I didn’t have to think about anything. I let him do what he wanted to do to me. I mean, I think he would’ve stopped if I told him to, but I didn’t. I didn’t have any desire to.”

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