Six of Hearts(68)

At this Jay steps out into the garden, his hair damp and his clothes changed. Michelle eyes him as he pulls up a chair and sits. “You read my mind, Watson. I’m starving,” he says, grabbing a sandwich and eating it in one huge, hungry bite. I stare at his mouth, all too aware of where it’s just been. The heated look he gives me in return tells me he knows exactly what I’m thinking.

“Oh, yeah, help yourself,” I say sarcastically. I don’t really know what way to be around him now.

“Don’t mind if I do,” he replies, giving me a loaded stare.

When I glance at Michelle, I see her looking between the two of us, a smile tugging at her lips.

“So, you both just had baths at, hmmm” — she glances down at her watch — “two o’clock in the afternoon.”

I pretend not to get what she’s getting at, frowning. “What? I had a bath. Jay had a shower. He has his own en-suite. And why are you so concerned about our personal hygiene habits?”

Jay’s smirking, but he’s not looking at me, focusing mainly on seriously depleting our sandwich situation. I know why he’s smirking, too. I just got a little overly defensive at Michelle’s statement.

“O-kay,” says Michelle, taking a sip of her juice. “I was only making an observation.” She pauses and dusts some crumbs from her lap, then asks randomly, “So, is Jessie coming over today?”

Now it’s my turn to get curious. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something in her tone that’s different. Like she’s trying too hard to sound casual. I look to Jay.

“Is she?”

He shakes his head, his hand moving sneakily to rest on my thigh under the table. I gasp in a tiny breath but try not to make a big deal of it, not wanting Michelle to notice. “Not that I know of, darlin’.”

His voice is slicker than usual, lazier. Is this what he sounds like after making women come? He seems so…satisfied.

“Oh, well, that’s a shame. She was so much fun last week after your show,” says Michelle.

Jay raises an eyebrow, looking at Michelle in an intense way for a second. “That’s interesting.”

“What?” she asks, sitting up straighter.

Oh, no, is he reading her?

“Your pupils dilated when you were talking about Jessie,” Jay explains casually. “Do you know what that means?”

“My pupils weren’t dilated,” says Michelle in a rare moment of self-consciousness. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like this before. She scratches at her neck.

“They were. They got fucking huge, honey.” He leans in on his elbow. “It means you were aroused. You like Jessie, don’t ya?”

I nudge him in the side. “Leave her alone, Jay.”

“We’re having a friendly conversation, Matilda,” he replies, moving his hand up my thigh and squeezing hard. I clench my fist to keep from physically removing it.

“You two are being weird,” Michelle observes, picking up another sandwich. “What’s going on?”

Her questioning makes me mildly defensive. “We’re being weird?” I reply, laughing. “You’re the one whose pupils got dilated at the mention of a girl. I thought you left your experimental days behind you when you finished college.”

She sighs and slumps back in her seat. “Whatever. I like to think there’ll always be a part of me that’s fond of the ladies. Like ten percent of my vagina is into clam while the other ninety percent likes a good sausage.”

I practically choke on my laughter. Trust Michelle to always know how to put me in my place. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

“Jessie got you back to her place last week, didn’t she?” Jay surmises.

Michelle gives him a demure look. “She might have.”

“What!?” I interrupt in a fake voice of insult. “Something happened between you two and you didn’t tell me? This is an outrage!”

“Oh, calm down, Jemima. Not much happened. We had a little…fumble. That’s all. I enjoyed it, though. Wouldn’t mind a round two.”

“Jessie likes to turn the straight ones,” says Jay to me. “It’s her thing.”

“Well, she can turn me for a night any time,” says Michelle, licking her lips.

“Just don’t go leading her on,” I say, frowning now. Jessie might have a thing for turning straight girls, but Michelle has a thing for playing with the mice she catches before she eats them alive.

“Pffft.” Michelle waves away my concerns. “I couldn’t lead that woman on even if I tried. She’s a total stud. Probably has a new girl every night.”