‘You could always close your bedroom door.’ He grinned mischievously.
‘You know what I mean.’
‘Yeah. So you want to come here?’
‘Yes, so I’d have a vested interest in you not getting your electricity cut off and stuff,’ she mumbled, her eyes roving around the living room.
‘Right. Gotcha.’
‘Only if that was okay with you, of course,’ she added, suddenly realising he might not want her there.
‘Not having my electricity cut off? That’d be fine with me.’
‘No. I mean, me coming here. We could go to a hotel if you’d prefer.’
‘No need for that. It’s fine for you to come here.’
‘So… you’ll do it?’ Claire asked hopefully.
He sighed. ‘Yes, okay,’ he said, sounding reluctant. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘Thank you.’ She sagged with relief. At least all that excruciating humiliation hadn’t been for nothing. ‘We can work out a schedule. I’ll be very respectful and I won’t intrude on your personal life. I mean, I wouldn’t want to complicate things with your girlfriend or anything.’
‘I don’t have a girlfriend.’
‘Oh – well, that could change.’
‘It won’t. I don’t really do girlfriends. And that’s another thing.’
‘What?’
‘This is going to sound unbelievably arrogant, but if we’re going to do this, we need to sort out some ground rules.’
‘Okay.’
‘And number-one rule is you don’t get hung up on me.’
‘You’re right!’ she said, with a harsh laugh. ‘That does sound unbelievably arrogant.’
‘Sorry, but I just want us both to be clear what this is,’ he said, waving his hand between them. ‘Women tend to be more emotional about sex, and if you’re as inexperienced as you say you are… We’re going to be doing things, intimate things, and it might make you feel – well, I just don’t want you to confuse sex with love or to start thinking about me like a boyfriend.’
‘Don’t worry. The fact that I’m paying you will take care of that.’
‘Yeah,’ he nodded, ‘maybe it’s a good thing you’ll be paying me. It’ll be a reminder that this is a business relationship.’
‘Maybe we should draw up a contract,’ she said stiffly, needled.
‘No need for that. I just don’t want you accusing me of misleading you. I don’t want you to have false expectations.’
‘I won’t. Anyway, I’m doing this because I want to be with Mark, remember?’
‘Okay. So what’s the going rate for this sort of thing, then? What were you going to pay the escort?’
‘They mostly seem to charge a hundred euro for half an hour.’
Luca gave a low whistle.
‘I know!’ She rolled her eyes. ‘So I wouldn’t be able to afford that many lessons anyway.’
