CHAPTER 173

"I couldn't do it," she whimpered in abject misery. "I couldn't do it. I'm so sorry I couldn't do it."

"Shhh," I shushed her soothingly. "I know you tried your best."

Bleary eyed, she turned to look up at me. "If I did, would it change the way you feel about me?"

I gave her a reassuring smile and began to say the same thing I'd said to her last night. "I told you: I won't love you any le-"

I stopped as I was suddenly seized with the sense that I was about to make a huge mistake. I remembered what Sam had said to me the last time I'd said those words, complaining that I wasn't listening.

But I was listening now, and I realized that last night I'd gotten everything backwards. So instead, I tilted her face to look up at me and stated evenly, "Deep-throating me isn't going to make me love you more. I don't need you to do something like that... or even have sex with me... to try and make me think of you as 'my favorite'. You can't buy my love with a blowjob. I care a great deal about you a