The Arrangement (Erotic Novella) Read Online Free Page B

going to realize that
without a push. Not that she'd let Celia off the hook without at
least some remorse. Hell, it wouldn’t help Celia if she did .
    As I search for
my keys I feel my phone vibrating, still silenced from our
lunchtime chin wag. It's Lily calling, but no matter, we're home
now. And I'm just putting my key in the lock when something catches
my eye... a bright orange Beetle parked twenty yards or so down the
road. An orange Beetle that looks uncomfortably familiar. But I
don't make anything of it. Not at first. Not until I push open my
front door into what can only be described as my worst fricking
nightmare.

    *****

    For a moment I
can’t move, can’t even breath.
    Lily surges
toward me, frantic. "I tried to stop her! I've been calling you!"
she says, shooting daggers over her shoulder at Cayley, who doesn’t
even have the decency to look ashamed of herself. "They just
started showing up and I... oh God..."
    I walk past
Lily, straight up to the manipulative, interfering cow who
evidently orchestrated this insane gathering. I make every effort
to ignore the male eyes watching me from every angle, but it’s not
easy. Their stares bore into my peripheral. Well, in a moment their
stares can bore into my butt as I walk out the way I came because
I’m buggered if I’m sticking around.
    “Cayley?! What
the fuck?!!” I fume, low and slow and bubbling with fury.
    “It’s an
intervention,” she says, confident as you like, and somewhere in
the room Celia yelps with glee.
    “A what?! A what?!! ” Words are failing, and my knees aren’t feeling as solid as
they were a moment ago.
    “It’s good to see you, Em. Come, sit down,” says a familiar
husky voice from my sofa. Brett. Brett is on my sofa . Oh Christ.
    “We’re not here
to judge you. We just want to talk,” drawls a smoother male voice
from the beanbag on my left. Anders. Anders who I slept with, off
and on, two Summers ago, whilst - of course - in my
non-relationship with Harry.
    Cayley nods at Anders like he’s said the right thing. She’s
prepped them well for this intervention, apparently…
‘ Keep the pressure off, that’s it boys. No
accusations. We’re going to wheedle our way under her skin then eat
her alive from the inside!’ … Oh God.
    I can’t ignore them any longer, not now they’ve started
talking to me. Though I’m tempted. I didn’t ask any of them to come
here, and I never led a single one of these bastards on. So what
right do they have to - aw crap - I’m going to faint. I’m suddenly a damsel in
distress and - ooh lucky me - here’s a room full of arseholes ready to rescue
me.
    ‘Gotcha!’ says Iain, as he catches me mid-fall, and pulls me
to the sofa next to Brett and Simon, and that’s the problem isn’t
it?! They’re not arseholes at all. They’re nice . And, yeah, I know ‘nice’ isn’t
the most expressive word I could choose to use, but right now
‘nice’ just about covers every single one of them. Sure, I felt
something for one or two - or three - that might have inched toward
passion, but for the most part these fellas are all just decent
guys who wanted a bit of fun.
    “I hate you,
Cayley,” I murmur, but Simon’s got my head pushed down between my
legs and he’s rubbing my back in soothing little circles, so my
words don’t have the impact I’d hoped for.
    Lily and Celia
stand awkwardly at my side. I tell them to go talk. They’re no good
to me here, caught up in the tension of their own issues. And I
seem to have enough of my own. Seven to be precise. Seven unwanted,
testosterone filled issues, draped around my living room, drinking
beer and watching me.
    “We won’t be long,” Lily tries to reassure me as she leads
Celia out to the kitchen. And I think Celia says chin up cuz but my chin’s
lodged safely on my thighs.
    Cayley clears
her throat delicately. "So, who wants to start?"
    "Wait," I murmur, because I can't be this pathetic little
wretch with her head down any longer. I