Free Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire Page A

you can’t afford your lifestyle.’
    Sarah flicked the fifty at Jamie’s lap. ‘You can keep your money and your judgements thank you very much.’
    ‘Sarah, come on.’
    She jumped off her stool. ‘I’m library bound.’
    He held out his hand, his face an illustration of regret. ‘Take the money, Sarah, please.’
    ‘I don’t need it. I just remembered I had some money stashed somewhere.’
    Jamie came towards her, the note waving in front of him. ‘Bullshit.’
    ‘No, really. It’s true,’ she said, running out of the bar, and if it wasn’t true at that moment, it would be.
    *
    Jamie arrived at Sarah’s door just as it opened. A grey haired man in a pinstripe suit stood in the doorway.
    ‘What?’ The man touched his chest. ‘Why are you lurking out here?’
    ‘I’m not– Um, is Sarah–’
    ‘Yes. Excuse me,’ the man said, stepping past Jamie. ‘I’m in a hurry.’
    ‘Sarah?’ Jamie stepped inside, locking the door behind him. ‘You decent?’
    ‘Yeah. In here.’
    He stepped into her bedroom and immediately gagged as he inhaled a lungful of semen and sweat. He concentrated on takingshallow breaths to minimise the amount of sexual waste product breathed in. Sarah was lying on her side, her glorious, messy hair covering half her face and all of the arm which held her up. She was wrapped in a burgundy sheet, which clung to her jutting hipbones and emphasised rather than concealed her round little breasts.
    Jamie looked away from the terrifying magnificence of postcoital Sarah only to be confronted with something far more awful. On the floor beside her bed lay a shrivelled, cloudy condom, a pile of scrunched up tissues and – Jamie felt like his lungs were going to explode – a neat pile of twenty-dollar bills.
    Jamie stared at her. ‘Is this the spare money you had stashed away?’
    ‘Yeah, it was stashed in Joe’s trousers.’ She laughed, showing Jamie the shiny wet inside of her mouth.
    Jamie had long ago stopped reacting outwardly when Sarah did something like this. Inwardly, it was like a tiny shard of glass stabbing him in the heart. So small that it didn’t really hurt at all, except that there were now so many tiny shards that his heart kind of ached all the time, and every little new one made it that tiny bit worse.
    He forced his face into what he hoped was an expression of exaggerated shock. ‘You robbed that poor old man I saw hobbling out of your apartment?’
    ‘You’re hilarious, really. Joe happens to be a genuine old-fashioned gentleman. More than happy to help out a financially needy young girl, asking nothing in return.’
    ‘What a saint.’
    ‘You don’t know the half of it. Not only did the darling man give me enough money to pay all this month’s bills, but then he let me fuck him for, like, three hours.’
    Feeling very, very sick, Jamie grinned at her. ‘The selflessness!’
    ‘I know.’ She yawned, looking small and young and in need of a mother’s goodnight kiss. ‘I’m a lucky girl.’

4
    ‘I have big, big news.’ Jess twisted her plait around her finger, smiling coyly at the table top.
    Shelley put down her diet coke and leant forward. ‘So? Tell, tell.’
    Sarah watched the couple at the next table, trying to ascertain their relationship. The man was easily thirty years older than his companion and their matching red hair and pale skin allowed the possibility of shared genes. But the girl was mesmerised, smiling and shaking her head at the bloke as though she’d never seen anything like him outside of her dreams.
    ‘Sarah? Are you paying attention? This is important.’
    Sarah nodded at Jess. ‘Yes. Absolutely. Full attention.’
    ‘Okay, well…’ Jess smiled, looking from Shelley to Sarah and back again. ‘I’m getting married!’
    Shelley screamed, throwing herself half across the table and catching Jess in an awkward embrace. ‘Congratulations! Oh, that’s so wonderful!’
    ‘I know, I know! He asked me last night, and of course I