Free The Tied Man by Tabitha McGowan

room that had been designated as Lilith’s studio, and waited for my heart to stop hammering quite so hard.  I needed to knock on the door, walk in and get on with it, but right now my legs were holding an official protest. 
    An hour earlier Blaine had come to find me in the sanctuary of the greenhouse, and casually suggested, ‘ I think it might be a good idea to call on Lilith this afternoon, darling ’ , and that would be the end of it.  The end of some bollocks about a long-dead author and knowing where my dog got her name from.  That was all.  Nothing, in the universal scheme of things.  Inconsequential words that she had probably already forgotten, and just  part of the panoply of small talk that such people  possessed.  Nothing at all.  And yet here I was with my arse still glued to the floor.
    It didn’t get too much to get me moving again.  Just the thought of a dog-eared photograph and a one-paragraph filler from an old newspaper.  ‘Twat.’  I wiped my palms on the back of my jeans, and knocked on the door.
    ‘Come in,’ Lilith called, and I returned to work.
    To my dismay, it wasn’t even the same Lilith.  The one I had learned to recognise the previous evening, the polished, ballgown-clad socialite, had disappeared to be replaced with this tiny barefoot girl in tracksuit bottoms and t-shirt and her silken hair hidden under a dark red bandana.  Words shrivelled in my mouth.
    ‘Hi there!’  She smiled in welcome, and what appeared to be pleasure at my arrival.  ‘ Blaine sent you after all, then?’
    ‘I’m sorry?’
    ‘ Blaine .  She said she was going to send you in to look at my work.’
    ‘Oh.  No, nothing like that.’
    ‘So, what can I do for you?’ She brushed a stray lock of hair from her face and looked up in expectation.
    ‘Look, Blaine – she mentioned that you found me attractive.’
    ‘Oh, did she now?’  By the instant coldness in Lilith’s voice I knew this one was lost before I’d even started.
    ‘I just wanted you to know that it’s mutual.’
    ‘You what ?’
    ‘I think you’re an incredibly sexy woman.  And I thought that if you wanted to…’ I took her hand in mine and ran a finger down her cool palm.
    ‘Right.  That’s enough.’ Lilith snatched her hand away from me and rounded on me with such fury that I had to take a step back.  ‘What the fuck’s going on in this place?’
    ‘Nothing’s going on.  I misread the signs, that’s all.  If I offended you…’
    ‘Bullshit.  I’m being played here.  I don’t know how, or why, but I really don’t like it.’
    I tried to recover my ground.  ‘It’s like I told you -’
    ‘Yeah, I heard you.  So look at me and tell me you’re here of your own accord.’
    In my sordid excuse for a life I had probably told every lie in existence: Yes, you’re beautiful, yes, I want you, yes, it feels good .  All as effortless as breathing, but this one killed me.  ‘I’m here because I want to be.’
    ‘You’re an appalling liar, Mr Strachan.’ Lilith stalked to the far side of the room, as far away from me as she could get.
    I didn’t dare stop.  I decided to try the conciliatory approach. ‘Okay, look, maybe she did suggest I come to see you.  Would that be so bad?’ 
    ‘Yes.  For more reasons than you could ever understand.’ 
    I didn’t know which of us I hated more.
     

Lilith
    When Finn first appeared in the room, looking like the boy next door in his blue jeans and white t-shirt, I was genuinely pleased to see him, and that made the subsequent betrayal all the harder.   It could have been a joke, this ridiculous, awful intrusion by someone I foolishly thought I had begun to know.  ‘Finn, what the hell do you think you’re doing?’ I finally managed to ask.
    ‘I’m here to ensure your needs are met.  Making sure your stay at Albermarle Hall is as pleasurable as possible.’ 
    No matter how charming the accent, the words sounded hard.  For a moment his