LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER NINE

      Abby

      I HURT. In places I’ve never hurt before.

      Even now, fifteen hours since I left Tanner’s bed in the wee small hours, my muscles twang as a reminder of what I’ve done.

      And how much I enjoyed it.

      I didn’t know whether to be relieved or annoyed when Tanner didn’t front at Le Miel today. Whatever his reason, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.

      What we’d done at the club, and later at his apartment...defied logic.

      I should never have had sex with Tanner.

      So why did I not give a damn that I had?

      When he’d taken me to that private room at his club, I’d anticipated having a drink, then leaving. Then he’d got angry, taken off his shirt and I’d lost it.

      I didn’t usually ogle guys. Sure, I appreciated a fine male body on Bondi Beach in summer like any woman with eyes in her head, but I didn’t fantasise about what guys looked like underneath their clothes.

      Yet the second Tanner had shrugged off his shirt in defiance I’d wanted to see more. I’d wanted to see all of him.

      I must’ve said the wrong thing and his misplaced anger had prompted him to strip. That was the point I should’ve called for a cab. Or laughed it off as a joke. Or done anything other than practically drool all over him.

      He’d been a good sport about my naivety. Had tried to put me at ease with banter and I’d appreciated it. What I didn’t appreciate was my own stupidity wishing I could have more of him.

      When I quashed my voice of reason and my inner vixen insisted I deserved one night of sexy fun, it should’ve ended there. One night.

      But after he’d pleasured me countless times with his mouth, his fingers and his very talented and sizeable appendage, I wanted more.

      Of course, I hadn’t said anything. Instead, I’d been the epitome of casual, like I had one-night stands every day of the week, when he’d kissed me goodnight. If he’d seen through my bravado act, he didn’t call me on it. For that, I was grateful.

      Because I’d bolted in the wee small hours when he’d been asleep, and during the twenty-minute ride from his penthouse apartment in the city to my apartment over Le Miel I replayed every single moment of our night together and knew that acting like last night didn’t mean anything the next time I saw Tanner would take monumental acting skills I didn’t possess.

      Bardley had always taunted me for being too readable. But he’d been wrong. If I were that easy to read he would’ve seen my loathing for him on my face every single day.

      Thanks to Tanner, I now knew our lacklustre sex life hadn’t been my fault. How many times had Bardley called me frigid or cold or worse? Saying I didn’t turn him on. That I was as useless in the bedroom as I was in the kitchen.

      I hadn’t cared about the sex, but insulting my cooking had been a low blow, particularly since I knew I baked like a dream even back then.

      Screw him.

      Though thankfully, I’d never have to do that again and courtesy of last night I’d replaced memories of a sad sex life with phenomenally amazing erotic ones.

      ‘You’re daydreaming again.’ Makayla bumped me with her hip. ‘You sure you didn’t pick up at Embue?’

      I felt heat flush my cheeks but I feigned nonchalance as I scrubbed my station. We’d been busy today, frantic, supplying a local private school with pastries for a teacher conference, so I’d managed to avoid Makayla’s interrogation. Until now.

      ‘I’m not the one with a story to tell,’ I said, pasting a bright smile on my face. ‘You and what’s-his-name looked mighty cosy when I left last night.’

      Makayla screwed up her face. ‘There’s a reason you date a guy and don’t go back.’ She held up her little finger and let it droop. ‘I’m smarter than that.’

      I laughed, wondering what Makayla would say if she knew that a pinkie wouldn’t come close to describing Tanner.

      ‘What about you?’ Makayla grinned as she dried her hands on a dishcloth.

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