Page 61 of The Sadist and the Brat

The words were faint, and slightly slurred, so he wasn’t surprised when a moment later, her breath puffed out in the slow, deep rhythm of sleep.

And watching her, he wondered what came next.

* * * *

“Then what happened?”

Sadie shrugged and reached for her wine. “Nothing. I woke up in the bed and he was gone.”

Olivia frowned. “He left?”

“About seven-thirty,” Amanda confirmed. “That’s what James said, anyway. I was still sleeping, too.”

“It’s no big deal,” Sadie said, glancing around the room at her friends. They were all crowded around the coffee table, Olivia and Rebecca crammed in next to her on the couch, Sam and Amanda in the chairs opposite. “It’s not like I needed aftercare at that point.”

“I always need aftercare the morning after a hard scene,” Olivia put in and reached for the plate of cheese and crackers on the table. “Even if it’s just extra cuddles.”

Sadie shrugged and sipped her wine. It might have been nice to wake up to cuddles, but she didn’t expect it. “He put a pillow on my feet. That was enough.”

“Did he call you at least?” Rebecca wanted to know.

“He texted me Sunday afternoon,” Sadie said. “To check in.”

“He called James, too, to make sure you ate breakfast before you left our house.”

Sadie blinked at Amanda. “He did?”

“Has he called you since Sunday?”

“No.” Sadie turned to look at Rebecca. “Why would he? It’s not like we’re going to play again.”

“You’re not?”

“No.”

Rebecca grabbed the plate of crackers from Olivia. “You don’t sound very sure.”

Sadie smothered a wince in another sip of wine. “Well, he didn’tsayanything about playing again.”

Sam popped up to snag the bowl of grapes, then sat back down. “Do you want to play with him again?”

Sadie pondered the question. She’d thought of little else since she’d woken up alone on Sunday morning, and she still wasn’t sure what the answer was.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I mean, I had a good time—”

“That sounds like the understatement of the year,” Rebecca muttered.

“—but we’re completely incompatible.”

“You sound pretty compatible to me,” Olivia said around the wedge of cheese she was nibbling.

“I’m still kind of shocked he planned a role-play scene,” Amanda put in. “I don’t think he’s ever done that before.”

Sadie frowned. “Do you think he did that just for me?”

“Well, notjustfor you,” Amanda gestured with her wine glass. “He got something out of it, too.”

“I know, but…”

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