“Perhaps you are.”
Billie regarded Debra with a rueful smile. “You shouldn’t flirt with someone who’s no good at pretending she doesn’t notice.”
“And there I was…thinking you were very good at pretending.”
Billie’s gaze lingered on her, the intensity of it sending a shiver through Debra. “Maybe not with you.”
Billie may have tried to sound cool and collected as she said that, but Debra saw through it. That hint of truth Billie hadn’t meant to share. “Then why hold back?”
Billie looked away and pulled her coat around her. “Because I know what happens when I don’t.”
And there it was. A trace of something raw beneath all the polish.
Debra didn’t want to push, she didn’t know Billie well enough to do so, but she wasn’t sure she’d get the chance again. “Someone hurt you.”
Billie’s hand flexed once against her thigh before stilling. “We all have our history.”
Debra wanted to reach out, to touch her hand and tell her she wasn’t whatever her past had made her believe, but there was something in Billie’s posture that told her it would be too much.
Instead, she shifted a little closer and said, “You don’t have to protect me from you, you know…”
Billie scoffed. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, Debra.”
“Maybe not.” Debra slowly rose to her feet and looked down at Billie. “But I would have liked to know you a little more, given what’s already transpired between us.”
Billie rose too. Just when Debra thought she was going to walk away, she lifted a hand and held Debra’s chin in her palm. “Forget about me. I’m not worth knowing.”
As Debra watched her turn to leave, her pulse rapidly picking up, she felt a mixture of hope and warning hold firm in her chest.
“Hey, Billie?”
Billie glanced over her shoulder, a brow lifted.
“I think I’m going to stop by the shop in the next few days. I could do with a nice shirt to go with my suit.” That wasn’t true, she had plenty to choose from already, but it gave her the perfect excuse to see Billie again.
Billie scuffed her boot against the ground and shoved her hands in the pockets of her overcoat. “Please, don’t make me want this.” And then she turned and walked away, leaving Debra stunned on the banks of the Thames.
By the timeBillie had reached her flat, the storm that had been brewing throughout the day had finally broken. Rain struckthe windows of her apartment, lashing with fury, and her first thought was whether Debra had made it home safe. She was sure she had, they’d parted some two hours ago now, but she wished she could reach out to check.
Just another thing to add to the growing list of things you wouldn’t usually do!
She dropped her keys on the counter and shrugged out of her coat. She hadn’t expected to bump into the very woman she ached to know on a deeper level, but in some ways, she was glad. She’d only meant to go for a short walk, something to help clear her head, but she’d ended up by the river…and in turn, ended up sitting on a bench next to Debra Allen. She was just there, sitting alone, as though the universe had decided to cruelly toy with Billie’s temptation levels.
She shouldn’t have stopped and said hello. She shouldn’t have said a word. But she had, and now she was paying for it.
The conversation had been nothing, really. On the surface, nothing more than harmless words. Two people talking about life, loss, and control. But it wasn’t nothing. Not when Debra looked at her in that curious way, unafraid of what she could unearth if she kept digging.
Billie pressed her palms against the counter and tried to control her breathing. She’d spent years building walls around herself, brick by brick, until only a select few were allowed even aglimpseover the top. And one of those few was Ella.
The thought must have summoned her because the intercom buzzed.
When she answered, Ella’s voice came through the speaker. “Are you planning to stand me up, or can I come up?”
Billie sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. She wasn’t sure she had the brain capacity for this tonight. “I forgot we’d arranged tonight.”
“Of course you did,” Ella said dryly. “You’ve probably been holed up in there with your self-loathing since the last time I spoke to you.”
Billie pressed the button to let her in. “Nobody else would get away with that.”
