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The words, half-absent, undid her It had to be tonight, or the tension would likely send her into a nervous decline She sank her hands into his shirt

‘Not soon Now, Edge’

He’d taken his ti her hair, but her dress was off before she even realised It slithered to the ground and the flower-scented air snaked up her stockinged legs and under her thin chehtly over her shoulders, curling over the straps of her che that made her breasts ache She wanted to lean into him and disappear into his warmth But she also wanted to tear away his hands and run

This wouldn’t stop with Edge’s bone- kisses She knehere this was heading—into that bed, into that

She couldn’t

She’d hated it with Ricki Perhaps not at first, she’d been too anxious for everything to work that she’d ignored the disco, pushing and prodding and Ricki’s wine-scented breath and his tongue ht? That despite the fire that ra utterly wrong with her? That this, too, would end with her lying resentful and tense under Edge as she had under Ricki felt obscene, like defiling a tee did not deserve that from her

‘I’m awful at this Awful’

His hands stilled She closed her eyes Hard

‘Awful,’ she repeated for good measure and wished the world would suddenly and unequivocally end

His hands ently on her arms, but she didn’t open her eyes

‘Sam I don’t understand’

‘I don’t wish to speak of it I can’t I’o back there now and tell them this was a mistake you could yet demand an annulment I never should have done this to you You deserve better and I’m the most horrid person in the world to have foisted myself on you’

She continued talking as he led her into the bedrooht of that monstrous bed she took two steps backwards

‘Don’t worry, Sa, I promise Only lie down and rest’

He brought her to the bed, peeled back the cover and then pressed her down very gently,her to one side so he could move her hair out from under her, like a child

‘There Now close your eyes’