Page 28 of Glitterland
My mouth fell open but no words came out. I gripped his phone in frozen terror as if he’d handed me a live grenade. He grinned encouragingly, and I shot him a betrayed look, which seemed to make no impression on him whatsoever.
“Good morning, Darian’s grandmother,” I said.
“Oooh, ’e’s right,” she said, “you do sound lovely. You can call me Dot.”
“Thank you.”
“What’s your name, young man?”
“My friends call me Ash.”
“That is nice. ’Ow are you, Ash? Is our Darian behaving ’imself?”
“I am quite well, thank you. And, yes, he’s a model house guest.”I particularly enjoy the way he fucks me. “He’s welcome to stay, um, any time.”
“You two be good.”
“Yes. Yes, we will. It was very nice talking to you, Dot. Goodbye.”
I passed the phone back to Darian, with great relief. He chatted a bit longer and then hung up.
“I think I hate you,” I said.
He bounced over and kissed me until I was moaning into his mouth and clutching great handfuls of Show Love. Finally, he drew back.
“Maybe I don’t hate you.”
He grinned. “Ahwight, I’ll be back later, but I’m not gonna eat more of ’em dead mushrooms.”
“We can order in. When we’re not fucking.”
“Aww, babes, you gottit all planned out. You’re so romantic.”
“You’re unbearable in the morning, you know that?”
He did not look remotely chastened. “I’ll cook summin nice,” he went on, and thrust what appeared to be a crumpled train ticket into my hands. “But you’ll ’ave to pick some fings up for me.”
“You need me to pick up the 15:19 from Basildon?”
“Turn it over, donut.”
“This… this is a shopping list. Darian, I do not do shopping.”
“What? Nevva?”
“Well, sometimes, on the internet. When it can’t be avoided.”
He propped his hips against the edge of my table. God, they looked good in those exceptionally clinging jeans. “’Ow abaht just this once?” he said, with what I’m sure he imagined to be a winning look.
“No.”
He fluttered his lashes. He actually fluttered his lashes. “I’ll make it up to you, babes.”
“Oh, will you now?”
“Yeah.”
“You know, for somebody who made such a fuss about being treated like a gentleman of the night, you’re remarkably eager to use sex to get what you want.”
