Paying Her Debt by Emma Shortt Page A

in her hair. She tried to recall
if she’d ever felt that way with Pete but if she had she couldn’t remember it. The
main thing on her mind when they’d fallen into bed had been sleep.
    “Andrea?”
    What was he thinking she wondered? Did he find it as odd lying
next to her as she found it lying next to him? Or was he well used to this, a
different woman in every city? He was Greek after all. They were reputed to be
quite filthy. And weren’t you just as filthy yourself… “Yes?”
    “Tell me something about yourself.”
    Shock stabbed her, and Andrea froze. “What do you want to know?” she
asked, slowly.
    She felt him shrug against her. “Whatever you want to tell me.”
    “Erm….” What could she tell him? Nothing came to mind and Andy
shifted slightly. “I’m not sure what to say.”
    “How many men have there been in your life?”
    Andy laughed, a little hysterically, and lifted up to turn and
look at him. “Alex, are you seriously asking me to give you the whole history
thing?”
    He growled and squeezed her hip. “Why not? I’m entitled to ask am
I not?”
    This was getting a little too close to the whole
more-than-a-good-fuck-scenario Andy had worried about, and her overwhelming
thought was to put some distance between them. Lying next to one another, about
as intimate as they could possibly get, she knew it would be so easy to start
romanticizing everything. Andy couldn’t help it. That was her personality. Vamp
it out, Andy. Vamp it up!
    “Don’t be silly, Alex. You don’t want to know that really.”
    “Yes, I do.”
    Andy frowned. “What if I told you there’s been a hundred.”
    “I’d know you were lying. You’re far too tight for there to have
been that many men.”
    Blushing, Andy looked away from him. Why did men always want
there to have been few men in their woman’s life? Not that she was Alex’s woman
of course. Still, it was like the default mechanism. Not for one moment did
Andy think there was any more to it than that. And it wasn’t like she wanted to
know Alex’s history. They’d probably be here all week.
    “It’s none of your business,” she said.
    “So I can fuck you silly but not ask a simple question?”
    Andy shifted again, a blush travelling over her body. This was
not going the way she wanted. How could she explain to Alex that the only way
for her to deal with this, their weird sexual desire, was to keep it as
emotionally detached as possible. Asking those sort of “date questions” was not
going to do that. “Erm….”
    Alex lifted himself up so that he loomed over her. “Here’s
another one then,” he said, a strange undercurrent in his voice. “How about you
tell me why you’re so hard up. Why you have to work two jobs and still live in
such a shitty apartment. We pay well. I made sure of that. Surely you could
afford to live somewhere a little nicer?”
    Andy made to pull away but Alex kept a hold of her. “Andrea,
answer me.”
    Unease crept up her spine, and Andy shook her head. “It’s none of
your business.”
    “You are my business. It really is time you realized that.”
    Andy pulled herself out of bed, shot a glare in his direction,
and stalked off towards the bathroom, bright red of course, because she was
buck naked. She grabbed her robe off the door hook, before slamming the door
behind her.
    How the hell had a one time sex session turned into a several
time session and now the history conversation? Andy clenched her fists around
the sink and looked in the mirror, staring into her own stormy eyes. She’d been
right to think Alex was to hot to handle, to doubt her own abilities to play
the vamp. Tomorrow she was going back home. Maybe a little distance would
clarify her mind. At the very least it would give her some space.
    A knock at the door made her jump.
    “You can’t avoid me forever, Andrea!” Alex shouted through the
closed wood.
    She sighed. State the fucking obvious.
     
     

 
    Chapter
Nineteen
     
     
    Andy made