by Olivia Fox
He was the one to break the moment. He pulled back, gratified, watching confusion snake its way across Lily’s expression.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said, to herself, to him, to nobody in particular.
“I know, sweetness, but I do. That’s the beauty of you and me. All you have to do is let me take over.”
“You tried to pay for me, Christoph.” She couldn’t look at him as she said it. What was wrong with her. She hated him, didn’t she? Why had she just let him kiss her? Why had she enjoyed it so fiercely?
“You’re right. They asked. I paid.”
“They asked?”
He shrugged. “I might have suggested it if they hadn’t. Money means very little to me, Lily. A means to an end. I’m sorry if that offends you.”
“It does.”
He took her face in his hands. The action stung, reminding her painfully of Seb, and she raged against the tears pricking her eyes.
He pressed his lips to hers once more, sighed, then eased back to pull something from his jacket. Another cigarette, she thought, but instead, he drew out his wallet, removed a card and slid it neatly into her shirt pocket. “For when you change your mind.”
He waved nonchalantly to something or someone behind Lily, and a polished black car pulled in close to the curb.
“I won’t change my mind,” she said, too quietly to be convincing.
“Too late, sweetness. You already have.”
