“I’m not sure I’d put it quite like that.”
“Well”—Jennifer gave a you-do-you gesture—“you can always take your pants off again.”
“That was once. And there was context. And, for the record, I’m not super into the hard fucking thing?”
“Oh? Good to know.”
“I mean,” Audrey babbled, “a finger’s fine. But…I don’t really like. Anything more. Or hard. In there. It just feels weird.”
“Then say, ‘I’m at a bit of a loose end, do you fancy bending over and I’ll fuck you so hard you’ll piss yourself’?”
Okay, off-script no longer covered it. “Must there be piss involved?”
“No, Audrey.” It was Jennifer’s most sardonic voice and most sardonic face, both of which were extremely sardonic. “The piss is optional.”
“Okay, good.” And then the traitorous part of Audrey that hated her and didn’t want her to have nice things seized control of her vocal chords and added, “But you don’t actually mean it, though?”
“You’re really hung up on this piss thing aren’t you?”
“Not the piss,” Audrey kind of yelled. Realising a fraction too late that Jennifer was taking the—well, taking the mickey. “You wouldn’t really be okay if I showed up at your workplace and was like, ‘Do you want to have sex now?’”
“Try me,” suggested Jennifer.
“Now?”
“Well isn’t that what all this is about?”
“But what if you’re busy or…or not in the mood or…”
“Then I’ll say, ‘I’m busy,’ or, ‘Not in the mood.’ This isn’tcomplicated. Don’t make it complicated.”
Jennifer was right. There was no need to make this complicated. And while Audrey wasn’t keen on being used for sex, having a mutual using-for-sex agreement felt a lot more equitable.
Also hot.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m at a loose end.”
* * *
After what wound up being slightly more than ten minutes of disarranging Jennifer’s sheets (although this time they had at least removed the quilt to a safer distance), Audrey got up, smoothed out her dress, and made polite I-should-be-going noises.
“Will you be around for the weekend?” asked Jennifer with way more casualness than she’d earned.
“Isn’t that your call?”
Jennifer gave her a look of infuriating nonchalance. “The Lodge is booked for the whole run. You can have your room if you want it.”
Chances were, this was as close to an invitation as Audrey was going to get. “Yeah,” she said, “okay.”
“Besides, I assume you’ll want to catch up with the granny.”
Okay, maybethatwas as close to an invitation as she was going to get. “I thought you told me to stop doing that.”
Jennifer was still radiating a studied apathy. “Where you’re concerned, Lane, I’ve learned that telling you not to do things doesn’t get me very far.”
Studied apathy was not in Audrey’s repertoire. She stared at Jennifer so hard it was practically a gawp. “Seriously? You’re letting me do this?”
“I’m admitting I can’t be fucked to stop you.”
