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caught Tommy. He knew there was more. Of course he knew there was more but she
had to trap him tighter still. She had to be wily, because he was wilier.
And then nothing. What more would there have been?
A flicker of a smile danced across his face then. Caught, she thought but no, not
quite.
Well, I m guessing you came across him. Where was he, in the shower maybe? Out
on the balcony, spying on the lady across the road with her nightie off?
He was in the study. Talking to someone on the internet.
Heat had started creeping its way up her neck, and worse she knew it was visible.
There he sat, as cool as a cucumber, while an inferno raged through her body.
Bad boy, he said, shaking his head. But there was more than a hint of a smile on
his face now.
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All Other Things
It could have been worse. He could have been talking to a woman.
His eyebrow didn t even go up at that. Not a single solitary flicker of surprise
crossed his features.
You think talking to a man is better then?
It is, when the man in question spends all his time talking about me.
His smile moved from faint to halfway for that. And he at least had the decency to
glance away as he bared some teeth.
So let me be clear on this. Your husband spends his furtive alone time talking to
some man about his delicious but frustrated wife?
She took a drink of apple juice before she answered, and for the first time in her life
found herself wishing it was something stronger.
The man he was talking to spoke about me. About things he d like to do to me.
Kieran s eyes almost flickered closed at that. Just a little flutter of his eyelashes, and
then a flash of teeth again. It was the kind of look she imagined he had when over some
woman, body slowly sinking into hers to the hilt.
But then he straightened, and the expression vanished, and when he spoke his voice
came out clear enough.
Well. There you have it then.
She thought about all the things she could possibly have, in a rapid succession an
admission of his guilt, a confession of his desire, an understanding of what s truly going
on here. But they all melted away when he next spoke.
He sees you as his perfect, virginal wife. He can t sully you himself, so asks
someone else to do it for him.
It sounded like something he d thought long and hard about. But just because he d
spent God only knew how long thinking about it and hatching a plot in his head and
maybe even searching out her husband, it didn t mean this virginal theory wasn t solid.
In fact, when he said it aloud it just seemed obvious. She felt almost stupid for not
thinking of it sooner.
Great. Easily fixable then. I ll just put on a leather catsuit and attack him in the
middle of the night.
Well, that might put paid to the virginal thoughts. But
She couldn t help cutting in, though her words sounded too brittle and bullish to
bear. But what?
He shrugged one shoulder, as though he couldn t even hear the resentment in her
voice. As though it meant nothing to him.
Might make him take off like someone s lit a fire under his arse.
Maybe I want to light a fire under his arse.
She watched him toy with his glass, turning and turning it. Most of it was still
untouched, but he didn t take another drink. Strange, really. She d always thought of
25
Charlotte Stein
him as a big drinker. The kind of man who went out lairing it on a Friday and Saturday
night.
So do it then. Though might I propose something a little less obvious than a
leather catsuit?
She thought of flimsy nighties, smoldering looks, low lighting. Though somehow
she suspected he had other things in mind entirely.
Oh, so even my ideas of filthy perversions are virginal now? The words didn t
come out half as mean as she d feared they would. But she couldn t resist adding more.
Or are they just hackneyed?
Both, he said, but with too much mischief in his voice for her to hate him. Don t
worry though. I m neither.
You re a regular Fairy Godmotherfucker.
When he bared his teeth this time, it felt like less of a threat. It had a casual air to it,
a hint of carelessness, and his words were the same. Aren t I just.
She took another drink, but this time it wasn t the apple juice she brought to her
lips. She picked up his glass instead just to see. Just to get a taste, for once, of
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