Page 36 of The Law of Attraction

‘I… I don’t know.’

‘Look, I’m offering a warm place with a bed for the night. What are you going to do otherwise? Sleep on the streets in the rain?’

He has a point. I take the biggest drink of my beer yet, and he smiles. It’s a nice smile. The kind that makes me think he really might not be a serial killer.

We have another two beers. Mike tells me about his job working on construction sites as a brick layer. He asks me if I have any hobbies. Nobody asks me whether I have hobbies. When I tell him cooking, he says, ‘You could stay with me longer than one night then. Beans on toast is as good as it gets for me.’

‘That’s really sad,’ I tell him. Only it comes out like, ‘Thasss reeeally shad.’

‘Okay, princess, let’s get you home.’

Princess. That makes me think of Nanna, and for the first time that I’ve thought about her today, I’m smiling. Mike pays the man behind the bar, not asking me for any money, then picks up my bag.

He’s going to take care of me.

* * *

‘Well, this is it.’ I step through the door he’s holding open and see a double bed that’s unmade. The duvet is in a ball at the bottom of the mattress. There’s no base sheet. He has a chest of drawers with sprays and hair gel on top. There’s one small wardrobe, and the doors are open. He puts my bag on the floor by the bed and turns on a lamp.

‘Come here.’ I go to him, anxious and feeling a little queasy from the drinks. ‘Let’s get you out of this wet coat.’

He unbuttons my coat at the neck and unties it at the middle, then slides it down my arms to the floor. I can hardly catch a breath as I watch him.

‘What are you doing?’ My voice trembles.

He reaches up to cup my face. ‘You’re really pretty, Rebecca.’

No one has called me pretty, not in a long time. I close my eyes and lean into his palm. It feels nice to be touched. To be wanted.

His hands move around my shoulders, and he draws the zip of my dress down my back. ‘Take it off, Rebecca.’

I’m not sure I want to, but I don’t want him to stop touching me and talking to me the way he is, so I do it, letting it pool around my flat shoes.

‘You’re gorgeous,’ he says, taking hold of my breasts over my white cotton bra. My heart is beating so hard, it might burst from my chest, and my mouth is dry.

He slips his hands into my tights and cups me. It doesn’t feel right. I don’t really know him. But his finger slips through my lips to a place only I have touched before and it feels so good, I want more.

He takes off my tights and knickers, then turns me and takes off my bra, leaving me completely naked. ‘Now lie on the bed, Rebecca.’

I do as he says, walking backward and sliding up the bed. He takes off his clothes, then fumbles around for something from his top drawer.

I gasp when he tears the foil of the condom. He rolls it on quickly. I’m relieved he doesn’t ask me because I wouldn’t have a clue what to do.

He crawls up the bed, between my legs, forcing them farther apart.

‘Have you done this before, Rebecca?’

I shake my head, unable to find my voice.

‘You’re going to be so good at it. I can tell.’

I force myself to smile at his words. I hope I am good. I have no idea what I’m doing, and I’m so nervous, my body is locked tight like a brick.

‘So pretty.’ He strokes my hair back from my face. ‘I’m going to take care of you, Rebecca.’

‘I’d like you to take care of me.’

11

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