a second thought. Give Bev a shout, the dinner’ll get cold, he’d said to her, brushing it aside, brushing that look in her eyes aside, that look of purest fear. God how he wished that he had taken her more seriously.
But Suki was gone.
He relived it. Suki turning away, saying yeah sure, but there was something in her eyes, a darkness, a terror. Because in her gut Suki knew about Lily King, she knew there was big trouble coming, and he shouldn’t have laughed at her all those times when he did, he should have given her more attention, taken more notice.
Too late now.
Suki was gone.
The pain of it hit him all over again.
All that was left was the death woman. Dealing out vengeance, dealing out a world of hurt to Bev, who might even now be going about the hard business of dying, and Suki…Jesus, he’d loved that woman. Loved her to bits.
Now she was gone.
And all because of this woman, and her lust for revenge.
The fire. Oh Jesus, the fire.
Somehow he’d got Bev out, and he’d been going back for Suki, all the while heaving and choking, the smoke – the horrible, rolling black smoke – snatching the air from his lungs; but the flames had been too much for him. The flames had driven him back.
Well, now he was here, and so was she. Lily King was opening the door, pushing through fast, and then pausing, freezing as she saw what was sitting in the chair. Winston’s hand tightened on the bloody machete in his strong right hand. Now he was going to put an end to her evil ways. She moved in further, breathed out ‘Jack…’ and Winston was so close he could hear how fast and panicky her breathing was, and he thought, Yeah. Now I’ve got you.
He surged forward, raising his hand to strike her dead.
She heard the movement as he pulled away from the wall. Turned, her eyes widening.
Here it comes for you, bitch, thought Winston.
She liked revenge? Well, so did he.
Revenge was sweet.
1996
LEO
Leo King could never resist blondes. Ash, golden, strawberry, Nordic – he loved them all. Hell, he had even married one. Of course he loved his old lady, Lily. Of course he did. She was the mother of his children, he loved the bones of those two girls of his and he loved Lily too, but sometimes…well, he guessed it was a weakness, but sometimes he just got the urge to stick it in something new.
Like he was doing now. And it was being appreciated, too.
‘Oh, honey,’ the blonde he was humping doggy-fashion in the hotel bed was crouching on all fours, moaning and gasping, clutching the French headboard with long, elegantly manicured nails.
She’s going to scratch the damned thing, thought Leo.
Which was okay, fuck it. But if this had been at home, in his own bed – and sometimes, oh yes, sometimes he did that, and he felt bad about it but he did it anyway – then scratching the furniture was a no-no. Because he’d felt just lately that Lily wasn’t entirely in the dark about his little extracurricular bits of bedroom activity. Marks on the headboard would blow the whole thing wide open, and he didn’t want that.
What Leo wanted was to carry on having his cake and eating it – this delectable little bit of fluff right here, who had been the first but who most certainly was not the last.
‘Oh Leo sweetheart,’ Adrienne screamed as he pumped away.
Actually she was a bit theatrical about sex, this one. Not like Lily, who was a real slow, sensual burn. He loved Lily, but this…ah, it was the thrill of the chase, the cornering of the quarry, the proof that he still had it, in spades.
Of course women never understood that.
They never appreciated that extramarital sex was simply fun, something a guy would do if he could, with whoever – the whoever scarcely mattered; it was just the doing of it that was the good bit.
Forbidden fruit, he thought. That’s what it was. Forbidden, and therefore twice as desirable.
But now she was moving, he was slipping out. Fuck it, he’d just been getting into his stride there. She turned on the bed, great breasts, high and firm and brown-nippled, slim waist, brown pubic hair, so not a natural blonde, but who gave a fuck? She lay down on her back and clasped him with her wide-open thighs, smiling up at him dreamily.
‘Let’s do it this way for a change,’ she panted.
That annoyed him. He liked doggy-style the best. He’d thought about why over the years and had concluded that he liked it best that way because the woman in the bed could be anyone, anyone at all, you didn’t have to see her face, you didn’t have to tell her you loved her (that came later, or earlier if she was proving resistant to all his other best lines), or have it rammed home to you that it wasn’t Lily: doggy-style, you could be shagging anyone or anything, you could be putting it in a hole in the fence. It was simple, and it was – nearly – guiltless.
Okay, he was nearly there anyway. He pushed back into her warm wetness and she pulled him in close, skin to skin. She was a fabulous lay and so he was willing to forgive the interruption – this time.
‘Jesus!’ she was yelling in his ear now. ‘Oh God – Leo!’
And now she was applying those nails that had marked the headboard to his back.
‘Ow!’ he complained as she ripped the talons down his flesh. ‘Jesus, take it easy…’
Marking him was completely out of order. She knew that. She knew the rules. No love bites, no tooth marks, no scratching. No evidence for Lily to find and start to complain over. Although Lily was a good girl, never really nagged. Lily wasn’t an in-your-face sort of woman. She was quiet. Restrained.
A doormat? sprang into his brain.
No, not that. Was she?
Anyway, here was this stupid bitch Adrienne, breaking the rules, flouting them in his face, but oh Jesus, that felt so good, she was a fantastic lay; she was just the best.
‘Arghhhh!’ shouted Leo as he came.
He collapsed onto her, gasping.
‘Jesus, you’re heavy,’ she complained mildly.
Leo was a big bull of a man, dark haired and dark skinned and tipping the scales at eighteen stone. Considerately, he heaved himself off her and collapsed onto the bed.
‘That
