The Undoing Of Daisy Edwards

She shook her head, giving me another of those tragic smiles. ‘Nothing works any more.’

‘No.’

She touched my face, running her fingers over my forehead, my cheeks, my mouth, as if she was trying to read something from it. ‘That did. For a moment, that did.’

I touched her the way she had touched me. Forehead. Cheek. Mouth. ‘It did. Maybe we should give it more of a chance.’

She stared at me with those big eyes. Then she shrugged, and leaned back in to me. ‘Why not?’ she said. ‘I’ve tried everything else.’

Daisy

I couldn’t believe what I’d just said, but it was the one thing I hadn’t tried. It wouldn’t be the same. This man was nothing like Anthony. But that was the point, wasn’t it? I didn’t want gentle. I didn’t want loving. I wanted raw. I shuddered as I looked at him. That particular twisting, wrenching kind of shudder that comes from low inside you. Raw was exactly what I wanted, and I was pretty sure raw was what I would get from Dominic Harrington.

Maybe it was shameless of me. Calculating, even. Maybe I was still under the influence of that stuff. I don’t know. I didn’t think about it. It was as if something inside me had been caged and I’d opened the door just a tiny bit, but already it was pacing, anticipating. I could have shut it back up again at that point. I’m pretty sure I could have. But I didn’t. I wanted this. I needed it. But at the same, I was scared I wouldn’t have the courage to go through with it. So I did what I’ve always done—I played it. I imagined myself as Poppy’s friend Theda Bara, and quite deliberately I let out my own version of the Vamp.

I wriggled free of Dominic and got to my feet. The fastenings on my Lanvin gown were at the side. I undid them and let the whole thing slither to the ground. He was watching me. He couldn’t take his eyes off me. Daisy would have been blushing by now, but it wasn’t Daisy standing here in her stockings and her cream silk underwear. I leaned back over the bed to unfasten his shirt, but he caught me, rolling me down beside him onto my back. And then he kissed me again, and it was what I wanted. Exactly what I wanted. Raw. Rough. Hot.

He slid his leg between mine. I could feel the weight of his chest pressing against me. He still had his shirt and trousers on. I tore at the shirt, kissing him back just as roughly as he was kissing me. His tongue slid into my mouth. I touched mine to his. It was a shock. A good one. Like being jolted into life. Our mouths opened. Our kisses were wild. It was like fighting. Not anything like before. Not anything like anything