Gossip! That’s it. She was just after was a bit of gossip.
She wanted to know if Deacon and I were together, because the last time she saw us, we definitely weren’t. Well, the spectacle Deacon just treated her to seems to have satisfied her curiosity. I watch as she clambers back into her Land Rover and pets the little dog who is waiting for her in the passenger seat.
“Do you think we got away with it?” I ask, as she drives away. I set the casserole down on the kitchen counter, and try not to stare as Deacon slides back into his jeans.
“I think so. I don’t think she would have hung around otherwise. Besides, she’s a little hard of hearing if I remember correctly. I don’t think she would have heard Alicia unless she’d come inside.”
“I just hope you’re right.”
“Hmm… hmmm,” comes Alicia’s muffled cry from the bathroom. She still has the tape over her mouth.
“We’d better go and get her.”
“Do we have to?”
“Afraid so.”
“I need to stretch my legs,” she whines, when Deacon removes the tape. “My legs ache. My ribs ache. Everything aches. I’ll get deep vein thrombosis.”
“Come on then. We’ll walk you around the living room for a bit. No funny business though, or you’ll go right back in the chair.”
Marjorie’s casserole is delicious. There’s plenty left over but Alicia refuses to even taste it. She’s still on hunger strike. Hasn’t drunk a drop of water all day. I wonder how much longer she’s going to keep this up for. How much longer we can hold her.
“Would you like a glass of wine?” Deacon asks me, as we finish washing and drying the dishes.
“We probably shouldn’t.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”
But I have just got out of prison. Don’t I deserve to relax?
“Perhaps one glass won’t kill us?”
He grins. “I’ll get it.”
We snuggle on the sofa and watch old movies, back to back. We don’t really notice when one glass of wine becomes two but soon, we’ve finished the entire bottle.
“Shall we open another?” he asks, but I’m already up and reaching for the corkscrew.
“What are we going to do about her?” he murmurs, coming over to take his glass. “We can’t keep her tied up like this forever. It isn’t right.”
“Why isn’t it right? After everything she’s done to us.”
“You know we’ll have to let her go sometime. We’ll just have to figure out how we’re going to do it.”
“But we can’t!”
“There’s no other option. We’ll have to go to the police. Ask for their protection.”
“You think I’m going to put my life in the hands of the police, after everything that’s happened to me?”
I feel the heat rising inside of me.
“Isabel…”
“No, don’t touch me. You obviously don’t understand a thing I’ve been through.”
“I do understand! I just want what’s best.”
“That’s the problem with you, Deacon Frost. You always think you know best!”
My eyes blaze with fury. But instead of rising to my anger, a smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.
“You’re so sexy when you’re angry.”
“Shut up! This is hardly the time. I could throw a chair at you!”
But my anger only fuels the flame.
“That’s it. I have to have you right now!”
“What, here? Pressed up against the kitchen sink? With her watching?”
“She’s asleep.”
“Are you sure?”
I can never figure out if her snores are real.
“Quite sure.”
He tugs at the tie at the side of my wrap dress and it falls wide open.
I try to look outraged and indignant, but I make no move to cover up. He does not touch me. Not yet. Instead, he takes a step back, his eyes drinking in the first glimpse of me in my underwear. My nipples harden under the intensity of his gaze and he licks his lips in anticipation. His fingers trace the soft straps of my bra, toy with the clasp at the back. I am not even aware that he has unhooked it until my breasts spill out and they are in his hands. I kiss his lips, his shoulders, stroke the muscles that define his chest. if Alicia were to wake up right now, I would not, could not stop.
“Do you… want to go upstairs?” he asks tentatively. “Unless… you want to wait?”
Wait? Wait for what? Alicia? She doesn’t deserve our consideration. She doesn’t deserve anything.
“Let’s go.”
I glance at her as we pass, but Deacon has tied her securely to the chair. Even if she does wake up, there’s no way she can escape.
We make it to the hallway before we start kissing again, tugging at each other’s clothes. We start our way up the stairs but fall into a heap on the second step.
“Your legs are so smooth.”
“Hmm…”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking how glad I am that I shaved them yesterday.”
He smiles, and his hand disappears between my legs.
Clothes go flying; shirt, dress, trousers and underwear litter the staircase and the hall. By the time we reach the bedroom we are both naked. He takes my hand in his and kisses it tenderly, before leading me over to the king-size bed. The warmth of our bodies contrast with the unexpected coldness of the room. I pull back the cover and lie down, waiting expectantly as he crawls on top of me, careful to avoid pressing on my bandages.
“You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this.”
“Shh!” I press my finger to his lips.
But he is insistent. “I’ve wanted to do this since the first night we met, when I threw you out of Millennium. You were so brazen, so stubborn.”
“And you were such a pig!”
He refuses to take offence. We laugh like idiots and the duvet forms an envelope around us, like the warm embrace of invisible hands.
“Is this OK?” he asks softly.
“It’s wonderful.”
My stomach smarts a little, but I kind of like it.
“I don’t ever want this to end. You’re so beautiful.”
“I know.”
He smiles with amusement as I roll him off me and climb on top. I sit astride him, look deep into his warm, intelligent eyes and rock gently back and forth. The bed creaks with each motion. I don’t know if Alicia can hear us downstairs, but a voyeuristic part of me hopes she can.
“Oh, that’s so good…”
I grip the headboard with both hands, as my pleasure grows more and more intense. I can’t speak. His touch sends a shiver through my soul.
We tremble together.
It’s… unbelievable. And yet, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of foreboding, like the evil outside is waiting to be let in. That, by this very act, I’ve let it in. I lie down by his side; feel his big strong arms around me, protecting me.
“I wish we could stay here forever.”
“Me too, but we have to go back down before Alicia wakes up.”
“Just a few more minutes?”
I close my eyes.
As I start to drift off, I picture the little robin who visited me yesterday morning. He hops up onto the kitchen table, looking for more crumbs, but the table is sticky and he gets his feet stuck. The poor little thing is unable to fly away, and the more he struggles, the more the goo sticks to his feathers. I’ve no idea what to make of this image.
Maybe it’s just the residue of whatever Alicia used to drug us.
I wake up with a jolt.
“Deacon!”
“What?”
“I thought I heard something.”
He rubs his eyes. “I can’t hear anything.”
“I’ll just go downstairs and check.”
I am already out of bed.
“Wait. We’ll both go.”
We pick our way down the stairs, pulling on our clothes as we go. To my relief, the living room is just as we left it. Alicia still curled up in her chair in the corner.