Chapters (45)
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Prologue
- 2046
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- About the Author
He clicks ‘Send’ and settles in for the forty-minute journey but his phone vibrates within a few seconds of sending Steph the message.
Ok
He notes the distinct lack of kisses or any term of endearment. That has been going on for a while now too and it adds to the feeling of discomfort, like a worrying nagging sensation at the back of his mind. You know when someone is turning off from you. The lack of cuddles or kissing with her eyes open. She is having an affair. He knows it now. Not from any feeling of possessiveness or insecurity but simply from an assessment of the evidence all taken together to reach a logical conclusion. It will be her boss. Steph used to speak so highly of him and talked about how cool he was all the time. Ben didn’t mind any of that but he did notice when she suddenly stopped talking about him so much, which was the same time as the affection stopped and the bad moods started. The subtle changes in her appearance. The perfume she uses all the time that she had told Ben how much her boss liked. Little things. Lots of little things, but that is what Ben does. He takes the little things and works them through to find the logical conclusion. The only difference is that this is about his life and not an insurance claim. He hasn’t said anything for fear of sounding like a jealous control freak, and it’s making him feel like shit, with an ever-tightening knot in his gut.
He’d asked Steph what was wrong a couple of times. She said she was okay. He even asked her, just once, if she still wanted to get married, but she snapped and told him to stop being so insecure and needy.
Strangely, it was last night that finally made him realise there was something very wrong. They had sex for the first time in ages but it was different. Very different. It was the early hours and he woke up to find her hand on his penis and her mouth in his ear.
‘Fuck me,’ she demanded almost angrily.
Ben rolled over and started to kiss her neck but got pushed roughly away.
‘I said fuck me,’ she hissed and pulled him on top while rubbing his cock. The second he was rigid she thrust it inside, bucking, grunting and raking at his shoulders while demanding to be fucked harder. It was over quickly then she stared up at him in the moonlight coming through the blinds for a long minute before rolling over and going straight back to sleep. She was different. So angry, and she seemed so full of spite too. Ben didn’t recognise her.
They live outside London. Close enough for property prices to be staggeringly high but far enough to be classed as a Home County.