Dark

by Rachel Harley

  He’s continually touching me, his hands drifting lightly over my body. He strokes my hair, the lobe of my ear, my lips. His hands are never still and whatever they’re doing, his soft lips are never idle either, meeting with mine every few seconds before breaking regretfully away. He can’t help himself, I can see that he’s powerless to stop it and he’s not even trying.

  I bring the conversation back to Toria.

  ‘What did she say when you told her about me?’

  ‘She cried,’ he mutters, his face regretful. ‘Told me that she still loved me, always would.’ He twists a smirk at me now. ‘She doesn’t love me, Pearl. Toria loves one thing only and that’s cold, hard cash and what it can buy her. She knows that due to my education and my earning potential on the back of it, she’d have a life of luxury if she could snare me.’ He looks disgusted.

  ‘So, how were things left?’

  ‘She’s coming back to Liverpool tomorrow,’ he says with a sigh. ‘She asked if we could stay friends, keep in touch, but I know what she wants and it isn’t happening. I can’t be in her life as anything other than her cousin.’

  I know immediately what he means and I have the same problem. He regards me thoughtfully now, shifting closer again and I feel one of his feet gliding lightly up my shin. I’m glad I shaved the things this morning. Legs like a Russian wrestler would completely turn him off.

  He smiles at me. ‘So, Aaron…?’

  Yeah. Flaming Aaron.

  I still can’t believe what he did tonight. I wouldn’t have minded so much had we not had the talk at the bar, him telling me that he was fine and not to flatter myself. He was lashing out, that’s clear, but I had hoped that he had enough affection for me to at least try. Maybe it was too much for him, I dunno. I’ve never been in the awful situation of unrequited love, so maybe I need to cut him a bit of slack. I think perhaps I do.

  I sigh myself now. ‘I’m so sorry for that tonight, he was completely out of order.’

  Carter looks at me steadily. He doesn’t give a shit.

  ‘He’s in love with you,’ he says quietly and his eyes are threading emotion again. His voice has thickened, deepened – is it the use of the word love? The thought of another man loving me, when he… can’t? Won’t?

  I shrug. ‘I’m not sure if it’s love,’ I say but Carter’s eyes harden for a moment.

  ‘Yeah, he does. He loves you. It was written all over him,’ he says. He bites his lip. ‘Come here,’ he whispers, tugging me into his body and starting to kiss me slowly. I’m not sure what’s triggered this – the thought of another man being helplessly in love with me, probably. I need to reassure him that Aaron’s no threat, never will be. That he means nothing to me aside from a good friend and if he doesn’t keep a lid on his behaviour, he won’t be that any longer either.

  But within five seconds of Carter’s stroking tongue, I’m a soaked mess of desire underneath him again, all thoughts of Aaron and his still smouldering torch shoved immediately from my mind.

  Twenty Six

  ‘If you don’t stop kissing me like this, I’m never going to leave,’ Carter grumbles, but his smile blinds me as he breaks away from my mouth. We’re standing on the doorstep – he’s supposed to be leaving but he’s finding it a struggle and I love it.

  All talk of Aaron, Toria or anything else for that matter stopped as soon as Carter began kissing me last night and I was glad. I didn’t want to talk about either of them anymore, I wanted another dose of Carter’s incredible lovemaking and boy, did I get it.

  We both revelled in every new sensation, every throb of our joined bodies, every shared gasp and frantic kiss. Carter’s technique stayed gentle, lying between my legs and stroking slowly and sweetly, his lips dropping soft groans and kisses alternately on my own. As I reach up to kiss him one more time, I clench my thighs together, trying to stop the approaching arousal. He has to leave and I need to be at The Guardian.

  Just one more…

  I snake my arms around my neck and he grins against my lips, at the evident desire in me to splatter myself all over him.

  ‘I don’t want you to go,’ I whine childishly. Why am I doing this? He gives me a pained look, finally breaking away from my eager mouth.

  ‘Baby, don’t? It’s hard enough as it is, leaving you.’ A soft kiss on my nose now and a half smile which makes his dimple appear. I stroke his face, taking pity on him. He has work to do today – a lecture he can’t miss and a paper to finish. Next time I’m at his, I’m going to ask him to show me some of his work. Even if I won’t understand a word of it I’m keen to learn more about his studies, his intended career.

  He gives my hand a final squeeze, taking a step towards the driveway and he raises his as he trots down the steps.

  ‘I’ll see you tonight.’ He gives me a huge smile. ‘Have a good day – text me?’

  I nod. ‘Without a doubt!’

  He jogs easily to his Audi and within thirty seconds, he’s at the bottom of the drive and turning into the road. I sigh happily as I close the door, touching my lips with the tips of my fingers for a moment. I can still feel his mouth on me, the slow stroke of his tongue and I smile as I make my way through to the kitchen.

  Jus and Ellen are up and I can hear Jared squawking as I walk into the room. He sounds like his normal self, bless him, he’s been red cheeked and dribbly for a few days now. There’s nothing worse than toothache, even if he doesn’t have many of his, yet.

  Justin’s buttering toast and he grins at me over his shoulder as he sees me approach. Ellen’s on her phone, to her mum I think and Jared slaps his starfish hands onto his highchair tray excitedly as she places some sliced fruit in front of him. Justin holds up the bread bag.

  ‘Want some toast?’ he asks and I shake my head.

  ‘No thanks, Jus, I had some breakfast with Carter.’

  He grins again. ‘I didn’t think he was coming back until today?’ he says, shoving two more slices of bread into the toaster, buttering the two that have just popped up.

  ‘He wasn’t,’ I say, taking one of the stools at the island. ‘He just appeared in Heebies last night, I nearly fell over when I saw him.’

  Justin wanders over, eating his toast and I think for a moment. Should I tell him about Aaron? I chew my lip. No. That’s unfair. Justin is Aaron’s boss, he employs him. The situation between Aaron and I is a personal one, it has nothing to do with his work at The Guardian and I shouldn’t be involving Justin. At least, not for now. If things worsen, then I may have no choice, but that’s a last resort. I hope Aaron isn’t stupid enough to push this any further and I also hope that he takes on board what I told him last night and gives me a very wide berth for a few days, otherwise I’m likely to say something that I will bitterly regret.

  Ellen finishes the call and calls good morning at me as she goes over to butter the toast that Justin’s made for her and he sips his coffee, looking over at me.

  ‘Could you go over to the safe house this morning to see Sophia?’ he says. ‘I spoke to Shona yesterday, she’s doing much better, but she’s been asking to see you.’

  I feel a flicker of pleasure. This is good news and now that she’s asking for me I need to try to draw the rest of her story out of her. There’s more, I know there is, and although I’m not going to press her too hard, I need to get to the bottom of why she was so terrified of her husband a few days ago. I nod at Justin, sliding off the stool and throwing my bag onto my shoulder.

  ‘Absolutely. I’ll go now – I’ll come and see you as soon as I’ve spoken to her. Hopefully she might be able to give me a bit more this time.’

  Justin gives me a long look. ‘You think there’s more to this, don’t you,’ he says quietly and I nod.

  ‘I do, Jus – yeah. She’d put up with brutal shit from that little runt for a while – months, maybe even years. He’d been beating her to a pulp regularly and it doesn’t explain why she was so petrified of him. There’s something more, something worse.’

 
; Justin’s blue eyes darken for a beat and he gives me a thin smile. ‘I’ve been thinking the same. Something’s not sitting right with the whole situation.’ A pause and then he smiles. ‘See you later, good luck!’

  I make my way out of the house and slide into my Mini, driving quickly to The Guardian. It’s a blustery day, the clouds iron grey and scudding along above me, so I don’t put the roof down. I slide into a space at the rear of the car park and glance at my watch. It’s only half past eight. Sophia will be having breakfast, I’ll check my emails here first for an hour, give her the chance to eat, get washed and dressed. I hope that Shona’s got her into a routine by now and I don’t want to put a spanner in the works.

  I head into The Guardian, giving reception a wave. Donna raises her hand and opens her mouth, as if to call me over but then thinks better of it and just smiles instead. I get the feeling that she wants to talk to me about Aaron’s bizarre behaviour last night. Although Donna and Gemma both know that Aaron and I have history, I don’t think either of them suspected that he saw me as anything other than a good friend. Well, they do now!

  Pushing my way into the admin office, I hear Diane giving some poor git on the phone a roasting, for delivering the wrong cleaning products twice in a row. She pulls no punches, ending the call with a muttered ‘cock-end!’ as she replaces the handset. She gives me a wide smile as I pull off my jacket and take my chair, waking up my Mac.

  ‘Morning, Pearl,’ she says, getting up to make me a coffee. ‘How was your night out?’

  ‘Good, thanks Di!’ I call back, fishing my mobile out of my bag and opening Outlook. ‘The best part was when Carter turned up in Heebies, I nearly fell over!’

  She comes over with a coffee for me, and she slides me a dirty smirk. ‘Hardly surprising, is it? Most women would fall over their own feet for that guy!’

  I sip my coffee. ‘Yeah…’ My eyes drift and Diane laughs.

  ‘Lucky cow! I can see the stars in your eyes from here!’ She retreats behind her desk to answer phone and I start to read through the new mails in my inbox, drinking my coffee slowly and trying not to think about Carter. It’s hard, all the delicious memories of last night sweeping slowly across my mind as if projected on a screen.

  Justin comes in twenty minutes later and he and Diane are immediately bantering about skiing tomorrow. I tune them out - it’s the same every day. How has Diane really not thought this through? She evidently hasn’t, though, and I smile as I listen to them taking the piss out of each other. My eyes are dragged to my phone when it pings at me and illuminates with a text.

  How am I supposed to concentrate on Enhanced GNU Compiler Systems when all I can think about is you?

  The hell are they?

  Something far too complicated for my small brain, evidently, but there’s other thoughts poking at it now and I grin at my phone as I reply.

  Are you looking at my picture again, Carter?

  I add a winking emoji and press send but I choke on a mouthful of coffee when his reply flies in front of my eyes. Justin and Diane look over in concern as I swallow frantically. He’s sent me an emoji of a fucking aubergine.

  Really, Carter? I type, my face one huge smile now. Boasting much?

  I can almost hear him laughing as he reads it. I don’t need to brag, baby. A wink. Sadly, there isn’t an emoji of a cock, so I’ve had to improvise!

  He’s absolutely right about the bragging and I snort at my phone as Justin makes his way over to his office. He glances at me, a smile snaking from the side of his mouth as he sees me grinning, my fingers hammering away at my screen.

  So, are you? I type.

  Am I what? comes back.

  Looking at my picture?

  Pulsing dots again and he’s doing his usual, typing and deleting, not able to decide what to say. I put my phone down as I wait, this might take a while and I focus again on my inbox, checking Justin’s calendar for a few moments for a meeting request and then it pings next to me. I pick it up immediately.

  I don’t need to look at your picture. All I need to do is close my eyes. Your beautiful face is burned onto my retinas. I can’t wait to see you tonight.X

  My lips part as I read his message, my scalp tingling deliciously. Again – another declaration of love, if you read between the lines. A man needs to have powerful feelings to say these things.

  Of course he doesn’t, you dick. Men say shit like that all the time to get into a woman’s pants. It’s called wooing, seduction, reeling you the fuck in…

  I shake my head. He’s already got into my pants, so mission accomplished on that score. He doesn’t need to say these things, but still he says them and I bite my lip. I need to give him something back. I am coming to relish these text chats we have, the fact that he opens up so much more to me through written words.

  I decide to up the ante. All I can think about is Carter and his hot hard body making love to me. It’s becoming a tad worrying.

  I can’t wait to see you, either. I’m going to fuck you until you can’t see straight.

  My subconscious is looking at me open mouthed and I remember Carter’s words to me from a few days ago, when he’d just started to make love to me for the first time.

  Christ, what the hell have I unleashed?

  He’s let something loose, that’s for certain and I stare at the words I’ve sent, hardly able to comprehend that they’ve come from my brain, my fingers. Sex. It’s all I can think about.

  He reads the text and then the dots start. He’s studying, or trying to - I shouldn’t be doing this to him, but in fairness, he started it. I glance at my watch – I’m going to have to leave soon and see Sophia, but I want to see what he comes back with first.

  Jesus, don’t say shit like that to me? You do realise that I’m on the verge of dragging you into my Audi and fucking you in the car park?

  I gulp. He flaming would, too. I shouldn’t be pushing him, I know full well that a rashly typed answer would have him standing in front of me in twenty minutes, GNU Compiler Systems, whatever the hell they are, or not.

  Sorry. An embarrassed face emoji. I know you’re trying to work, but it’s all I can think about. I’ll leave you alone for a few hours.

  I press send. I will. He’s got his finals soon, he needs to focus. There’s a whoop as his reply flies up in front of me.

  Fuck work, but it might piss Justin off if he finds us shagging in his car park. A wink and I smile.

  See you later, I send as a final text, followed by a row of kisses and he sends some back. I power down my phone and push it into my bag and get up off the chair. I poke my head around Justin’s door.

  ‘I’m off to the safe house. I’ll see you later.’

  He gives me a long look. ‘Remember the procedure, Pearl. Make sure you’re not being followed. I don’t think for a moment you will be, but keep a close watch who’s behind you, alright?’

  I nod. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll do a few circles of the streets first, make sure I’ve got no one tailing me. I’ll call you if I need anything.’

  ‘Do,’ he says, getting up and stretching and I flash a smile, making my way out into the car park and sliding into my Mini.

  Twenty Seven

  The Guardian has a few properties that we use as safe houses, courtesy of Daniel Stott and his many homes and the one that Sophia’s staying in is in a quiet residential area on the outskirts of the city. It takes me about forty minutes to drive there, the traffic busy at this time of the morning, but when I reach the locality, I begin to check my mirrors regularly as I navigate the streets. There’s cars behind me, but they gradually all turn off and when I find myself on the right wide road, there’s no one else about at all.

  The property is detached, but small, a dormer bungalow and I park my Mini a few hundred yards down the tree-lined road, keeping a watch, but I don’t see anyone apart from a middle-aged man walking a fat Basset Hound and he smiles at me as I pass him. I approach the door to the house and take one final look around bef
ore knocking. It’s opened immediately by a woman in her forties and she smiles politely at me.

  ‘Hello Pearl, nice to see you. Come in lovey.’ She opens the door and I step inside. She’s wearing a pinny, jogging bottoms on her legs, her hair in a thick knot at the back of her head. She looks like a housewife about to start her cleaning, but Shona McKinley is nothing of the sort. An ex-Police woman, she works primarily as a personal trainer, focussing on martial arts, so this is a special assignment for her and I know that she’s being extremely well compensated. Part of her strength is her disguise. Anyone looking at her wouldn’t expect her to be able to knock the skin off a rice pudding, but she could break your neck in about three seconds with her bare hands.

  She gives me a warm hug. We’ve used Shona before, she’s the perfect balm for a traumatised young woman and she’s nursed three back to health since we’ve started using her occasional services. She’s warm, tactile with a dirty sense of humour and I like her a lot.

  ‘How’s she doing?’ I ask, as Shona leads me down into the kitchen. The house is lovely, but all Dan’s properties are. She pulls a mug from the cupboard, making me a coffee without asking me if I want one.

  ‘Getting there, I think,’ she says quietly, the kettle rumbling as it begins to boil. ‘She’s eating small meals and she slept last night without a sedative, although she did have one nightmare.’

  There’s the tinkle of a stirring spoon for a moment before she comes over. I sit at the scrubbed table and take the drink, thanking her.

  ‘Has she said anything at all?’

  She shakes her head. ‘Nothing significant, Pearl, but I’ve just been keeping it light,’ she says. She needs rest, food and not to be afraid, she starting to relax now.’ She eyes me as I sip the coffee. ‘She’s been asking to see you,’ she says.

  I get up, leaving my coffee on the table, telling Shona I’ll come back for it. I’m eager to see Sophia, hoping that she’ll look better than she did a few days ago. She was at rock bottom, all the life and fight kicked out of her and I need to know why.