Page 68 of Ethan & Grace

“You see?” James said. “I didn’t tell a soul.”

“Great. Now I feel left out,” Nate pouted. He could be so melodramatic.

We talked for a little longer about Henry and the nonsense the press was churning out before the conversation inevitably turned to my dad.

“How was court this week?” James asked.

“Exhausting. One thing’s for sure, these hearings are nowhere near as exciting in real life as they are on TV.” That was true enough, but I found the hearings draining for a completely different reason. Watching my dad’s top lawyers tear apart every argument and scrap of evidence from the plaintiffs was a grim spectacle. I wondered if the three women already regretted not settling out of court. There was no verdict yet, and the outcome was still uncertain, but in just a few days, the tide of public opinion had shifted. Last year, my dad had been portrayed by the media as a devil, but people were now starting to question that image, public confidence in his guilt beginning to waver.

“It’ll be over soon,” Nate said with an encouraging pat on my shoulder.

“Have you seen the statement Charles’s dad gave yet?” James asked.

His question surprised me. Alistair and my dad were friends, but he had recently publicly distanced himself from my dad out of fear the allegations against him would reflect badly on his election campaign. “What did he say?”

“That your dad’s an honest man,” Nate replied. “Now that things are looking up for him, Charles’s dad is probably worried that distancing himself won’t work in his favour. People like loyalty, especially in politicians.”

“Quite possible,” I replied, feigning indifference—I didn’t want my friends to see how much the topic and this trial were getting to me. Not just because of the allegations and all the terrible things I had to hear in the courtroom, but because it had forced me to spend more time in the same room as my dad than I had in years. It was bringing up a lot of things from the past that I’d rather have forgotten.

Luckily, Nate and James didn’t insist on hearing more about the trial and soon changed the topic. I leant back and ate my sushi while James bragged about having succeeded in fucking his hot lecturer, and Nate filled me in on how he’d met up with Reagan a few more times since our night at the club. They weren’t a couple, only hooking up casually, a bit like me and Grace. Deep down, though, I baulked against calling what Grace and I were doing hooking up casually. We didn’t just meet to have sex, after all. Perhaps friends with benefits would be a better term, though that didn’t quite fit either.

“What about you?” Nate turned to me. “Still celibate?”

“I don’t think a few weeks without sex counts as celibacy,” I replied evasively. Not to mention that it didn’t apply to me anyway.

The two of them probably would have leapt up from the sofa in a panic if they’d known what Grace and I had got up to on it just a few days ago. The memory alone was enough to make my cock twitch.

James grinned smugly. “I know that look. That’s the face of a man who’s had good sex. Who is she?”

I smoothed my expression. “You don’t know her.”

“Come on, tell us,” Nate pressed, shoving a nigiri into his mouth.

I hesitated. I wasn’t the type to brag about my conquests like James and Charles. But Grace was so much more than a conquest, and if I couldn’t even talk about her with my two best friends, who could I talk to?

“It’s Grace.”

“Grace,” James repeated thoughtfully. I could practically see the cogs turning in his head as he tried to link the name to some prominent family. For a moment, he looked completely lost, and then surprise dawned on his face. He stared at me. “Wait! You’re not talking about the hot maid, are you? The one from the club?”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah.”

“Ooh,” Nate murmured. “Is she the blond who cleans here sometimes? She’s super hot. Can she blow as well as her hoover?”

I grunted. “Hoovers don’t blow, you arsehole. They suck.”

“Either way, I bet she polished your rod nicely.”

“Shut up,” I hissed. I didn’t like him talking about Grace that way. There was a time when I might have gone along with it, but back then, we’d also have been having this conversation drunk in some club. It hadn’t been that long ago, yet it felt like a different life.

“So . . . how was it?” James asked, his mouth full of sushi.

“It was . . . nice.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Nice?”

Nate eyed me sceptically. “Sounds like you’re into her.”

“Perhaps I am,” I admitted, although I couldn’t really put my feelings for Grace into words. I’d only ever felt lust and desire for women before, but there was clearly something more with her.