Page 101 of The Paid Wife: A Lesbian Romance

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strong. So, so strong. But she was also gentle. The way she’d

so lovingly pet her cat, chopping that chicken into such tiny

pieces. She was gentle.

I definitely have a crush on her. On my fake wife.

Emily felt her face heating up again. It got so hot that it

finally felt like it matched what was going on with her body.

She felt overheated, like the sun was at its full height, beating

down on them, and not nearly sunk in the ever-changing bed

of colors for the night.

Emily nearly groaned. She wanted to lean forward. She

wanted to touch Dani again. She wanted to kiss her. She

wanted to taste her lips, to savor them, to drink her in. To let

her know that she wasn’t so alone anymore.

The air between them shimmered, like there was a second

sun in the sky and it was right above of them, creating heat

waves like those that so often shimmered off the asphalt in the

distance. The silence stretched on between them, a chasm

Emily didn’t know how to bridge.

Suddenly, Dani leaned over and cupped Emily’s face. Her

hands were warm and dusty from the sand. She tilted Emily’s

face and her pulse turned into a frenzied thing, like a writhing

animal trapped under her skin. Her heart leaped into her throat

and the hair on the backs of her arms stood on end. What was

Dani doing?

“I don’t talk about this,” Dani said in a thick voice. “I’ve

told you more right now than I’ve ever told anyone. I realize

that I’ve barely said anything, but you don’t know me. I’m this

closed off…thing.”

“You’re not a thing,” Emily protested. “You do believe that

you deserve to be happy, don’t you? That you deserve

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