Chapters (50)
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Ninteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Epilogue
- Letter From the Author
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
As I washed up, Charlie and Sasha had a civil, though stilted, conversation about Breaking Bad. They were both one glass short of drunk and Sasha seemed a lot more relaxed than she had been. Pretty soon, she announced that she needed to go. We called a taxi, because I didn’t want her to walk home on her own in the dark.
‘Lovely to meet you,’ Charlie said, moving in for a hug, after the taxi arrived.
Sasha held back for a moment before accepting the awkward embrace.
‘I’m sure we’ll see each other soon,’ she said.
I saw Sasha out. At the front door of my flat, at the top of the stairs that I couldn’t get down without extreme difficulty, she said, ‘You really love her, don’t you?’
I was taken aback. ‘Yes. I think she’s amazing.’
Sasha looked like I’d just told her I was moving to the other side of the world.
‘She’s too good to be true,’ she said.
‘What do you mean?’ I had said these words about Charlie myself, but I didn’t believe it anymore.
Sasha frowned. ‘I don’t know. There’s something not right about her.’
‘Your taxi’s waiting.’
‘Don’t hate me for saying it,’ she said.
‘I don’t. Come on, you’re drunk. I’ll call you.’
I watched her go down the stairs, trying to keep my anger locked down. When I went back inside, Charlie said, ‘I told you.’
I wished I could tell her she was wrong but all I could do was say, ‘I’m sorry. She’s not normally like that.’
Charlie walked over to me, balancing with one crutch, and said, ‘Do you think I did something wrong?’
‘No, not at all. You were lovely, as always.’
She kissed me. ‘You’re lovely.’
The peck on the lips turned into a longer kiss, with me leaning against the wall. When Charlie broke away she was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling.
‘Let’s go to bed.’
In the bedroom, where she had already lighted the candles, she pulled her dress up over her head while I sat on the bed and watched, unbuttoning my shirt. She was wearing red underwear, her milky skin flickering in the candlelight. She straddled me and ran her hands over my chest, kissing me again as she unbuckled my belt. Carefully, she pulled my jeans off and, kneeling on the floor, took me in her mouth, her tongue and lips so warm, gripping the base of my cock in one hand, stroking my balls with the other.
I closed my eyes, lost in bliss. She crawled onto the bed and unclipped her bra, pulling me up so I could lick her nipples, flicking my tongue across them rapidly in the way she liked.