I’m not used to seeing him so uncertain. ‘Really?’

‘Really. We’ve been in far more compromising positions than this, haven’t we?’

‘That’s what I’m worried about. I might get confused in my sleep. What if you wake up to find me dry-humping you?’

He looks so worried that I laugh. ‘I’m sure whatever you do to me, I’ll sleep right through it.’

‘Rude,’ he grumbles, but he pulls back the covers on his side and climbs in.

The memory of the last time I was in bed with Brendan is such a happy one. I may have been horrified when I woke up to find I’d slept through the lunchtime rendezvous he was paying me for, but I also rejoiced in the amazing, unfamiliar feeling of having a gorgeous man’s warm limbs wrapped around mine.

That can’t happen today.

We settle on our sides, facing each other. I tuck my hand between my cheek and the pillow.

‘I have some things I need to say,’ he says. ‘I wanted to say them as soon as I got you alone, but I also didn’t want to dump on you. I need you to know how sorry I am for the way I behaved last week—the way I treated you. It was fucking disgusting.’

I stare at him. The regret on his face is undoubtedly genuine.

‘Thank you,’ I whisper.

‘Do you know what the worst bit is?’ He screws his face up. ‘I didn’t even feel bad afterwards—I was pissed off with you for not playing along. Really pissed off and self-pitying and immature. I was so shitty to you all last week, but I didn’t regret it until I found out the truth about Tabby.

‘Since then, I’ve been recalibrating every single interaction with you in my mind and I’ve felt sicker and sicker and sicker. Jesus. When I think about the things I made you do, knowing that all the time you had no choice—no real choice, anyway, that you just had to suck up all my shit and demands so you could get your hands on that money to save your daughter’s life… God, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. I actually puked at Gabe’s when Athena told me the truth, you know? I’ve never, ever felt so despicable in my life.’ His voice drops to the quietest whisper. ‘I’m so fucking ashamed, and I’m so desperately sorry, love.’

We stare at each other across the sea of pillows.