‘Fast and loose,’ I said. ‘A bit like you.’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Perfect. Fast and Loose. We can have a little brass plaque on your bedroom door. OK, then. Email me over that document, will you? I’d better get going.’
My dismay must have been palpable. He was going? Now?
Apparently so, judging by the purposeful way he embarked on the search for all his discarded garments.
‘Sorry, kid,’ he said. ‘I want to stay. But I’ve got a breakfast meeting and I can’t turn up in a top hat and cravat.’
‘I could set the alarm for…’
He shook his head, buttoning his shirt with fingers that must have smelled of me.
‘I’ve got stuff I need to look at first,’ he said. ‘Bit of business after pleasure. I’ll call you tomorrow, OK? In the meantime, come up with a fake profile for some of the kinky social networks. See if you can hook any professional types with a J initial.’
‘All right,’ I said, still feeling somewhat bleak at his sudden withdrawal. ‘Tomorrow, then.’
‘Tomorrow.’ He shrugged on his coat and grabbed the top hat and cravat. His kiss goodbye was sweet but too fleeting. ‘I promise.’
And away he went.
Chapter Four
‘Christ, Ella, you look knackered.’
‘Thanks.’
I gave Tilda a sweet smile and a middle finger. But she was right.
I should’ve slept like the dead, given the thorough workout Tom had put me through, but instead I had lain awake fretting about his sudden departure.
Had it been something I’d said? I’d pulled together every scrap of our interactions from the recesses of my memory to analyse them for possible offence, but nothing seemed to make sense. Had he really only stayed for the Mia mystery? Had that been his whole plan in coming back with me? The sex was incidental. The discovery of our mutual kink was interesting to him, but only in terms of the investigation. He should have known I wouldn’t let him down.
I should have known he would.
‘What’s the limp about?’ Tilda brought over a coffee from the machine and plumped herself down beside me.
She was Tom’s ex. She’d never mentioned it.
I found myself looking at her in a different light, picturing her with Tom.
‘Wrenched my ankle tottering about on high heels last night,’ I said. ‘Thought I’d sprained it, but it seems better this morning. Just a bit of a twist, probably.’
‘Oh, you went out? You didn’t tell me. Where did you go?’
‘Oh, just a bar. With my flatmates,’ I said, feeling sure my evasion hadn’t got past Tilda. She’d notice the colour that was heating my cheeks, for one thing.
‘Just A Bar. Yeah, one of my favourites. Cheap Street, isn’t it?’ she teased.
‘You know. My local. It wasn’t a big night out or anything.’
Change the subject, for God’s sake.
‘If you say so. I’d have said it was an all-nighter, though, judging by those rings around your eyes.’
‘I need this coffee, that’s for sure.’ I lifted it to my lips and cast around the office, desperate for an alternative topic of conversation. ‘Is Miles in yet?’
Tilda wheeled back her chair a fraction, giving me an uncomfortably keen look.