Page 9 of Forbidden Temptations

“How’s Alex?” she asked, setting the cup down on the side and crossing her arms over her waist as he reached for the wine.

“Sleeping peacefully, thank God, and if we’re lucky, he’ll stay that way till morning. I swear that kid has a set of lungs on him that could wake the dead.” Watching her carefully, he brought the glass to his lips and drained it in one swig. It tasted bitter, and he openly shuddered in disgust.

Alice, however, paid no mind to his displeasure. A few stray strands came loose from her thick mane to hang over her eyes, but she brushed them back into place without taking her gaze off him. “So, are you going to help her?”

“Of course I am.”

She gave an approving nod. “It’s shameful the way he treats her. The sooner she moves out of there, the better.” They’d often heard Rebecca talk about moving out, going to live with friends or whatever boy teased her heart. Sometimes she even mentioned renting a little place of her own. However, she never seemed to be able to find enough money and after a few weeks, she’d lose her enthusiasm for the idea until the next time her father lost his temper and threw something at her. “Though I think she will miss you, Richard.”

The remark caught him by surprise, and he coughed so hard the wine in his belly almost repeated on him. “Me? I have no idea what you mean, Love.”

A sly smile lit up Alice’s features and her throaty voice developed a noticeably playful tone. “How could you miss it? She’s got a crush on you, Richard,” she chuckled. “You’re clueless. She watches your every move and smiles whenever she sees you. If she knows you’re home, the poor girl gets dolled up just so you’ll say she’s pretty. And you know, I can’t say that I’m not a little jealous.” Stepping forward, she took the glass from his hand and placed it on the counter before closing the gap between them, her finger tracing invisible symbols over his chest. “She really is quite beautiful, isn’t she?”

Richard’s throat ran dry. Was she serious? Was she baiting him, or just stating a fact? Alice had always been blunt, and nobody could deny that Rebecca was certainly very pretty, but how could he agree with her without inadvertently risking her wrath? “Alice, I-”

Her lips silenced him as she suddenly went up onto the tips of her toes, their mouths crashing together in a devouring embrace as her hands moved to encircle his neck. Fierce and demanding, she held nothing back and quickly took the kiss deeper, the passion of it setting a fire in his flesh as her slick tongue invaded the moist warmth of his mouth to meet his own in a feverish dance. He felt his trousers growing tight as his cock sprang to life, powerless to resist his wife’s errant ministrations as she drew him against her, one long shapely leg rising, curling around him.

His heart hammered in his chest as he wound his arms around her waist, drawing her closer. Her full breasts pressed against his chest, pebbled nipples poking through the satin like diamonds, and he could feel the heat of her desire against his thigh. His hands, so large upon her tiny frame, trailed down her spine to seize her buttocks, causing her to gasp into the kiss as he pulled her against his hard arousal. It had been so long, he needed her. Now, atop the counter, against the fridge, on the floor, he didn’t care. He just had to have her...

“She really is quite beautiful, isn’t she?”Her words echoed in his ears, sending a hot shiver down his spine as an image of Rebecca appeared before his eyes. She was arching in pleasure, locked in his arms, whimpering softly as he tasted the hollow of her throat. It was only a momentary lapse, but the mental image was enough to make him jump back, breaking the embrace.

Flushed and breathless, Alice almost lost her balance, and she flashed him an insidious look that both chilled and enflamed his ardour. “What’s wrong?”

Fighting to catch his breath, Richard couldn’t meet her gaze as guilt’s cold fist turned his innards to ice. “We ca-can’t do this now. I promised to help Rebecca; her father will be home tomorrow. If I don’t go now, it’ll be too late.”

For a moment she looked as if she were about to protest, but she had always been fond of the girl and after a moment her face softened. She gave a short, defeated nod before turning away. “Fine, just don’t be too long.”

Her frosty tone was as much a dismissal as a slap in the face, yet as he departed the kitchen, he distinctly heard her declare, “I’ll be waiting.” The words were rich with promise, and he didn’t know whether to cheer or weep.

Heknockedthreetimesand then waited as the sound echoed nine times off the tower’s inner walls. The air was thick with the sickly-sweet reek of drugs and somewhere a couple were shouting, their thunderous curses echoing through the walls like clangs on a bell. However, he was too distracted by the painful ache in his groin to take much notice. Digging his hand into his pocket, he tried to relocate his still swollen erection, but the trousers were barely large enough for him to thrust himself down the right leg. The inner pent-up agony persisted, nonetheless.

Shifting uncomfortably, he raised his hand to knock again, only to hear theclickof the lock’s inner mechanics unlocking before the door swung inward to reveal a vision of such beauty that Richard’s breath caught, his engorged flesh growing ever more painful. Gone were her tight blue jeans and pink floral top. Instead, Rebeca had changed into a lacy, black robe that was tied around her narrow waist and barely covered her pale ivory thighs. She had also taken her hair out of its braid so that it cascaded down her back in a tangle of lustrous dark curls and framed her soft features.

She lit up at the sight of him. “Oh Mr Martin, thank God, I was starting to worry you weren’t coming.”

Once again, Alice’s words echoed in his ears and Richard felt the heat rising in his cheeks as he realised he was staring. Flashing a hollow smile and praying she wouldn’t notice the bulge straining against his right trouser leg, he said, “Rebecca, how many times have I asked you to call me Richard? Mr Martin makes me sound like some whining old geezer.”

“Well, you are an old man, Mr Martin.” Giggling playfully, she stepped aside to let him enter. “Would you like something to drink? Tea? Coffee?”

“Ahh…tea, milk and two sugars please and,thanks,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm at the joke as he moved into the flat. The layout was almost identical to that of his and Alice’s and he quickly moved down the hall into the Blaire’s living room. With dim, off-cream walls and filled only by a small jumble of cheap mismatched furniture, it looked larger than it actually was.

A grubby old grey and blue denim sofa faced an even more ancient Panasonic television that had been mounted upon a near modern looking glass and steel stand that was certainly more functional than decorative. There was a single, three-tiered, mahogany veneer, bookcase, its shelves sagging under a dozen piles of dog-eared military and spy fiction paperbacks, a ceramic bowl atop a walnut look-alike end table under the window, as well as a massive opening night poster from the 80’s hit-moviePredatorthat had been framed and hung on a wall. At the back of the room, a tall display case of solid teak stood in stark contrast to the items of veneered plywood scattered around it and held an impressive collection of Rebecca’s swimming trophies. From a young age, the girl had been an avid swimmer and had even gone on to represent Gloucester in three county events, but after her parents’ divorce, she had lost much of her enthusiasm for the sport. Now she rarely went more than once or twice a month.

The computer desk stood opposite the display case, the laptop already open and booting up. It was an ancient HP that hadn’t been updated beyond Window’sVista. Sitting on the threadbare ottoman that the Blaire’s employed as a chair and grimacing at the uncomfortable sensation in his semi-hard manhood, he logged into Rebecca’s account and was immediately confronted by the problem as a virus conjured up an obviously falsified police lockdown. He tapped a few select keys, but to no effect. Next, he tried to open the start menu, but the virus brought up a warning box and cancelled the command. Finally, he logged out and entered Derik’s account. The result was the same.

After a moment, Rebecca entered with his tea and placed it on an oldTop Gearmagazine lying beside the laptop. “Any luck?”

“Does this happen every time you log on?”

“Yes. It’s been like this now for two days,” she replied, her voice trembling as she peered far enough over his shoulder for him to taste her scent, reminding him of the first breath of spring. The scent steeled his length. “Can you fix it?”

Richard didn’t answer. Instead, he pressed down on the power button until the screen went blank. Restarting the machine, he quickly switched to safe mode before letting it load up. Again, logging into the girl’s profile, he waited a moment to make sure it didn’t change again before going into its control panel and initiating a system restore to the pre-set point. It was a pretty routine trick that would work 99 times out of a 100. However, when he logged on for the third time, the scowling face of the law immediately opposed him.

“It might take a while.”

Repeating the process of placing it in safe mode, he then filed through the recent system downloads and found that there were more than two hundred from the past thirty-six hours. He deleted them all, sipping his tea and cursing under his breath every time one or a dozen would randomly regenerate. When all of them were finally put down for good, he restarted the laptop and was finally met by Rebecca’s normal background of a ‘Hello Kitty’poster.

Exhaling a long breath, he gratefully pushed away from the desk and stretched his legs out to relieve the cramp building in his knees. It felt like he’d been at the desk for hours, but his tea was still lukewarm, so it couldn’t have been any more than twenty minutes.

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