Page 112 of The Paid Wife: A Lesbian Romance
to buy if they ever decided to go to the beach again. Especially
after that kiss, because a kiss like that was dangerous. It was
the kind of kiss that could lead to an intimacy Dani had been
carefully avoiding for a very long time. Dani was proud of the
fact that she could take care of herself. She liked being alone.
Things were easier that way. She shouldn’t want Emily staying
at her place, complicating things for her. Being a temptation.
“Why would you help me?” Emily finally asked. “I know
you don’t even like me.”
“I never said—”
“No, but it’s obvious,” she interrupted. “You think that I’m
young. Spoiled. You think my problems are, what did you call
them, first world? Meaning ridiculous and insignificant. My
mom likes using clichés and she’d say that I’m making
something out of nothing, but she’d say a mountain out of a
molehill. You think I’ve been so sheltered that I can’t possibly
know what real frustration, real pain, real issues are.”
“Okay…” Dani grasped a strand of her hair and twirled it
around her index finger, something she did when she was
nervous or upset. “Yeah. I did think that. But then I heard your
dad, and no one should be able to talk to someone like that.
He’s your dad. He should want to protect you.”
“In his mind, that’s what he’s doing. That’s what they’re
both doing.”
“Well, if you won’t give it a week, give it a few da
ys. Let
things settle down. That includes your parents’ tempers. We’ll
lay low. That picture will come out, there will be a small stir,
and I mean small. Your dad isn’t a celebrity, and this is just
two people who look like they’re sharing a special moment
