Lured into Love (Blossom in Winter #2) - Melanie Martins Page 0,62
when he bent me over to satisfy his urge and asked me if I was okay with it. There’s a part of him that yearns for that kind of control, that intense feeling of possession, while the other seems to try to avoid it at all costs. My heart speeds up as I imagine being punished again, but this time with his belt. It must hurt like hell, for sure I’d cry. But the idea is more alluring and enticing than it should be…
“By the way, do you mind if we postpone our next meeting from Friday to Saturday morning?” Matthew asks me.
“Um?” I blink twice, returning to planet Earth, and find the entire group staring at me.
“We’ve got some extracurricular stuff to do on Friday,” Sarah adds, before taking a mouthful of her spaghetti.
“Oh, um, okay,” I tell them, a bit sad as I was planning to go to Bedford Hills Friday evening.
Taking my phone, I text Alex very quickly: Hey, my classmates have just postponed our next meetup to Saturday morning. Can you pick me up Saturday instead? X
“Petra,” Matthew says. “I’m sorry, is this cheese?”
Looking at the spaghetti dish sitting in front of him and then at mine, I say, “Um, I think so. Why?”
“Do you want mine?” he asks, showing me the cheese he put aside. “I don’t eat cheese.”
“Really?” My brows lift instantly. “But I recall you used to, no?”
“Matthew wants to become vegan,” Sarah teases as she takes his plate and puts the cheese on hers.
“I don’t want to,” he protests. “I am.” And he looks back at me and says, “It’s the least I can do to save the planet.”
A quick laugh escapes me, but the curious side of me has got to know more. “And how hard has it been saving the planet?”
“Super easy, actually. You’ve got substitutes for everything. There’s vegan cheese, eggs, milk. Like, everything can be switched.”
Sarah rolls her eyes as she eats his slices of mozzarella.
“I’m really impressed,” I tell him as I reach for his hand. “That’s very brave of you.”
“I’m not being brave”—he looks at Sarah—“just not being a selfish bastard.”
“Watch your mouth, boy,” Sarah yaps. “I’m sacrificing myself to eat your mozzarella.”
I lean back in my chair, my eyes on the mozzarella, and assess whether I should eat mine or not. “You know what? I’m not eating mine either,” I tell him. “Janine?” I call, my gaze searching for her.
“Yes, Miss?”
And for some odd reason, maybe because of the traumatizing experience of the trophy room and the hunt, I say, “From now on, we’ll eat only vegan food. Vegan cheese, vegan eggs. We’re gonna support Matthew in saving the planet and the animals.”
While Matthew claps his hands in excitement, Janine gapes and blinks twice. “Um, I’m not sure your dad wants to ditch his meat and fish, Miss.”
“Your dad eats meat?” Matthew asks, like it is a crime.
“Yeah…”
“But you’re vegetarian, no?”
“Since birth,” I tell him. “Mom is too, and Dad respected her choice to raise me vegetarian.”
“Wait—you’ve never tasted meat?” David asks, matching Matthew’s judgmental tone.
“Nope.”
“Not even bacon?” he asks.
“Ugh…” I cringe at the image. “No.”
“Wow. Your mom seems awesome,” Matthew praises. Not really, no. “I wish mine were like that too. It’s disheartening when not even your friends or family support you.”
Sarah rolls her eyes, teasing him. “Oh, poor baby.”
“Sorry, mate, but bacon is life,” David chides.
“I support you,” I tell him with my biggest smile.
“Finally! After the bloody battle over objectivism, you guys have found some common ground,” Katrina points out.
And as my eyes fall on him, I pinch his arm for fun, and say, “Yep, we might be philosophical enemies, but now we are also vegan besties.”
“Vegan besties…” Matthew repeats a bit nostalgically, his gaze still pinned on me. “Sounds great to me.”
Chapter 16
Rotterdam, September 16, 2020
Tess Hagen
My nonprofit has been growing into something beyond what I expected. Since my interview was broadcast live, I have gained many new donors and, a bit surprisingly, many women have reached out to me with very similar cases to the one of Leonor—wives of powerful men who would like to get a divorce but don’t know what to do or how to do so. I wonder why they haven’t hired a lawyer from a top firm, but it seems like my message resonated with them and they feel safer with me to open up about their lives.
Today, Carice and I are signing on a new client, a friend of Leonor, Allison. The poor woman is