The Marriage by K.L. Slater (any book recommendations TXT) 📕

eradicate the altercation in the shop from my mind but it wasn’t working. Audrey Denton’s shocked expression was still in my head. I’d told her exactly what I’d seen, given her the date and time, and she was unable to deny it. She knew I was on to her now.

When Jill turned up at the shop like that it was my turn to be shocked. She’d had her hair styled and coloured and she was actually wearing make-up for once. It seemed to give her a new confidence. I’d beat a hasty retreat but now I’d have to think of how I was going to explain it all to Tom.

I stepped out of the shower, towel-dried my hair and wrapped a soft white bath sheet around me. Still damp, I padded through to the master bedroom, luxuriating in the soft cream carpet beneath my bare feet and the weak sunlight streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling window, drenching the room in a pale golden glow.

I gasped when I almost walked straight into Tom. He’d obviously crept up and waited for me. He looked like a cowboy, stripped to the waist. I spotted the small scar on his chest he’d told me was from a childhood op. Tousled hair, a five o’clock shadow and a slight smirk on his full lips. He looked … edible, and within a second, my entire body ached for him.

‘Hello. Is there something I can do for you?’ I said saucily, letting the towel drop to the floor. He didn’t say a word but pulled me towards him, his fingers tracing the back of my neck down to the damp, warm hollow at the bottom of my back. Everywhere they touched, they left a tingle of electricity. God, this man made me feel so alive.

Suddenly impatient to show him I was worth ten of those ditsy young women he’d no doubt seen at the gym today, I tugged at the waistband of his jeans and he took a few steps back as I shimmied forward. He lost his footing and stumbled backwards onto the bed, and we giggled as I launched myself on top of him, lost in the passion surging through me.

Then the doorbell rang. A long ring followed by a couple of staccato blasts.

Tom pulled his face back an inch, but I grabbed the back of his head.

‘Ignore it,’ I gasped, sealing my lips over his again. He smelled of nutmeg and soap.

He flipped me over so that he was on top, his muscular arms holding his weight off me, and I closed my eyes, feeling myself unwinding inside. A couple of seconds later, someone started to hammer on the front door.

‘What the hell?’ Tom froze above me.

A fist banging, then the doorbell, then the fist again …

‘Jeez!’ He rolled off the bed and went to the window. He looked out, cursing in disbelief.

‘What’s wrong?’ I sat up and reached for my damp towel from the floor. ‘Who is it?’

His strong, tight body seemed to deflate in front of me. ‘It’s my mother.’

‘Oh, perfect timing.’ I groaned but my mouth went dry. I hadn’t even mentioned my run-in with Jill to him yet.

‘I’ll have to go down,’ he said, starting to dither around looking for his T-shirt. ‘She’ll see the cars and know we’re in.’

‘Tell her we’re busy.’ I gave him a little grin, tried to relax. ‘Say she’ll need to come back another time because you have some very pressing business to attend to.’

He didn’t laugh. He made a sort of heavy puffing sound before muttering, ‘I don’t know about that. My mum can be very determined.’

‘Yeah? Well so can I.’ I was in no mood for Jill’s power games right now. Her stalking into the shop like she had authority over who stepped through the door. I knew she’d hate to think I’d been speaking to Audrey, because Audrey was her friend and I was in the shop she worked at. Her urge to control everything and everyone around her was frightening.

Still, thanks to her impromptu visit, I had to think on my feet. I wasn’t ready to tell Tom what I’d confronted Audrey with yet.

I slipped on some underwear and a loose white cotton shift dress and combed through my wet hair while Tom scuttled off to get the door. It infuriated me, the way he still jumped to attention when Jill clicked her fingers. No wonder she still thought she was in with a chance of telling him what to do with his life.

Tom might spend his life being nervous of her, but I’d be damned if I let Jill Billinghurst put me on the back foot. It was the perfect chance to put her in a bad light. What did Jill know about my chat with Audrey, really? Nothing! I would front this out, and hopefully, if I did a good enough job, Jill would come out of it looking much worse in Tom’s eyes.

I walked across the expanse of biscuit-coloured carpet and descended the stairs, standing barefoot where I’d be able to listen to what was happening but I wouldn’t be seen.

Tom had already opened the front door, and I heard a muted conversation taking place inside the hall. After a short time, their voices became louder, more heated.

‘Something’s going on with those two and I’m not leaving until I find out what it is,’ I heard Jill hiss.

I took a step out into the open.

‘Hello, Jill,’ I said.

She glared at me and resumed her conversation with my husband without even acknowledging my greeting. ‘Like I said, I just need to know if she’s here, Tom.’

‘I already told you, Mum,’ Tom said firmly. ‘She’s not.’

‘Who are we talking about?’ I said innocently.

‘Audrey.’ Tom shrugged his shoulders, confusion furrowing his brow. ‘She’s gone missing from the shop, apparently. You didn’t say you’d been there.’

‘I called in when I was in town earlier. I didn’t even realise it was the place you worked, Jill, until I saw Audrey behind the counter.’

‘Rubbish!