by Melanie Rose
One hand still holding mine securely in my lap, he raised his free hand to my mouth and traced the outline of my lips with his fingertip, before traveling down my neck and coming to rest at the zipper of my jogging top. His eyes looked questioningly into mine, and I nodded infinitesimally, paralyzed by the glorious sensation of his touch.
Slowly, the zipper traveled downward, revealing my white lace bra, breasts rising and falling within as I struggled to catch my breath. He lowered his head to my cleavage and I felt his tongue flicker across my skin, sending prickles of delight up and down my spine.
He let go of my hands then, and used both his to ease the silver-gray top from my shoulders and down my arms, until it slipped away behind me. When he paused to shrug off his own jacket I reached across and unbuttoned his shirt, thrilling at the sight of his suntanned, well-muscled chest.
I reached back and unfastened my bra, and he slid it off deftly, lowering his face to my breasts as he did so. I closed my eyes and arched my back against the softness of his warm mouth.
I found the belt buckle of his trousers and undid it quickly, then I wriggled out of the rest of my clothing and dropped it to the floor. I could hardly believe what was happening to me. It had been more than two years since I’d slept with anyone, and it had never, ever been like this.
“Dan,” I gasped as he pressed me to him. I felt the warm skin of his chest, bare against my naked breasts as he lowered himself onto me. He was so hard and warm and strong, I thought I was going to burst with happiness. His lips found mine, firm this time, his tongue probing, searching. I opened myself to him and felt him inside me and I moved against him, rocking gently, our mingled perspiration glistening on his face and neck.
I clung to him as passion overtook us, and at some point later we made our way to the bedroom, where we lay giggling in each other’s arms before beginning all over again.
The afternoon light began to fade, casting a gray sheen over the room, and I risked a quick glance at the bedside clock. It was five o’clock. Teddy had thankfully slept through most of the night without disturbing me, and I was eternally grateful for small mercies.
We drew the covers up around us as the air began to cool, and as we lay entwined in the snug warmth of the duvet I stroked his shoulder and smiled into his eyes. “I’m glad I didn’t go to work today.”
“So am I,” he replied with a grin. “I think I can honestly say this is the best afternoon I have ever had.”
I leaned up on one elbow and studied him closely. “Really?”
“Well, it beats work any day,” he said, and I hit him over the head with my pillow as we fell back laughing.
chapter seven
I was lying comfortably in the crook of Dan’s arm when I heard Frankie whine from the kitchen. She’d obviously gotten fed up with snoozing in her basket.
“Poor Frankie! She’s been shut up in there for hours.”
Grabbing up the duvet, I wrapped it around me and headed for the door, looking back at Dan’s naked form stretched out on my bed.
“I’d better let her in.”
“Yeah,” he said, swinging himself to the edge of the bed and getting to his feet. “And I’d better put some clothes on before I freeze to death.”
We had a quick meal of smoked salmon I took from the freezer together with some scrambled eggs, then sat on the sofa drinking tea, with Frankie lying across our legs.
“Frankie didn’t seem to care much for your boss,” Dan commented as he stroked the terrier’s ears.
“She doesn’t really know him. I bought her from a shelter when I moved in here after moving out of Stephen’s flat. I thought she’d be good company, and I was right.”
“She’s a good girl. She behaved impeccably while she was staying with me on Saturday night.”
“Did your dog mind her being there?”
“Bessie? No, she loved the company. The two of them curled up in Bessie’s basket as if they were sisters.”
“Is Bessie a young dog?”
“She’s only two. Dad bought her for me, he thought she’d be company for me when I’m out and about on my travels.”
“What do you do for a living?”
“I own a company called ‘Brennan’s Bandits.’ I hire out slot machines to pubs and clubs. I have people working for me who service and empty them and that leaves me free to drum up new business. You could say I’m a kind of salesman, as I drive all over the country, though I’m hiring the machines out, of course, not actually selling them.”
“So you spend a lot of your time in the pub,” I said with a giggle. “And you’re with a girl who doesn’t drink.”
“Yeah, I noticed that,” he said, snuggling closer to me and nuzzling my neck. “You’ll be nice and cheap to date.”
I was about to exclaim indignantly when my eyes flickered over to the clock. Oh, no! It was half past seven already.
I looked at him anxiously, not sure what to say or do. It was obvious he was expecting to stay for the evening, if not the whole night, but soon I’d be needed elsewhere. I wondered how Grant was feeling this morning, or even if he was awake yet. The thought dawned on me that he might be in a bad way after the condition he’d been in the previous night. Suppose the children were awake with no one to supervise them?
I pictured the twins running amok while Nicole and Sophie tried to rouse first their father and then their mother without success.
“I’m really sorry, Dan, but there’s something I’ve got to do this evening.”
He stared at me in surprise. “Really?”
“Yes, I, er… I said I’d meet my friend Clara. We go to, um… a class in the evenings.”
“What sort of class is it?”
I glanced around the flat trying to think of a subject I might be interested enough in to do as an evening class. My eyes alighted on the row of potted plants on the high sill.
“It’s a gardening class. You know, learning when to put in spring bulbs, what to feed them with, that sort of thing.”
“Oh, right.”
He shifted Frankie’s weight off his legs and stood up, flexing his shoulders.
“Can I see you again tomorrow?”
“I’ll be out tomorrow evening as well.”
“I meant during the day.”
“Shouldn’t you be at work?”
“That’s the glory of owning the company,” he said with a shrug. “I can choose my own hours.” He looked at me with the faint stirrings of suspicion. “How often do you go to this class?”
“Er… it’s a bit flexible. It’s in someone’s house, so we go when it suits the teacher, usually late in the evening.”
Dan frowned, and I could see he didn’t entirely believe me. He shrugged again and picked up his jacket.
“If you’re sure you want to see me, I’ll come around again tomorrow lunchtime then. I assume you’re definitely not going to work?”
I knew he’d heard me tell Stephen I’d be back to work on Monday morning. He must be checking that I wasn’t just making excuses in case I didn’t want to see him again.
I stood up and went to him, putting my arms around his waist and resting my head on his shoulder.
“I had a wonderful day today,” I told him sincerely. “I’m at home again tomorrow on doctor’s orders, and I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather spend the afternoon than here with you.”
He smiled, presumably reassured, and kissed me, then headed to the door. He paused there and looked back. “I’ll see you tomorrow then. Enjoy your class.”
As soon as he had gone, I fetched Frankie’s lead and gave her a half-hour walk around the block. Back at the flat, I gave her supper, took a quick shower, brushed my teeth, and climbed back into the rumpled bed. It still smelled of Dan and me, and I smiled contentedly as I closed my eyes. I had been right about Dan from the moment I’d first set eyes on him. He was definitely something special.
Grant was being sick in the en suite bathroom when I hurried past the guest room door. I’d leapt ou
t of bed the moment I’d opened my eyes, afraid of what the children might be getting up to, and had run down the long landing to look into their bedrooms.
All four of the children’s beds were empty. I stopped at the guest room door, listening to Lauren’s husband retching, and decided that at this moment he probably didn’t know or care where the children were.
Wrapping the silk negligee closely around my waist, I hurried downstairs, noticing how quiet the house was. The kitchen door was open, dirty cereal bowls lying on the countertop. Sophie must have given the boys their breakfast, I thought, as I crossed quickly to the playroom.
Nicole and Toby were slumped on the couch watching morning TV. Teddy was lounging on a beanbag holding his ball and staring into space, mouthing silently to himself. He was still in his pajamas, the trousers drooping with the weight of the large nappy he had to wear to bed.
“Where’s Sophie?” I asked from the doorway.
Nicole and Toby both glanced up, slowly registering my presence. Teddy continued to stare into space and chant wordlessly.
“She went to see her rabbit,” Nicole replied. “I wanted to go see Ginny, but bossy-boots Sophie said it was too cold out there.”
“Did she take a coat?”
Nicole shrugged, her attention returning to the television set.
Hurrying back upstairs, I peered out of my bedroom window, where a light frost had powdered the grass and bushes white, but as I had promised Grant, the animals weren’t visible from the house. Worrying that Sophie had gone out alone and that she might be cold, I grabbed a casual tan overcoat from Lauren’s wardrobe, slipped it over the negligee, being careful not to snag my bandaged shoulder, and went back downstairs.
The utility room door was ajar, letting in an icy blast, and I closed it behind me as I set off briskly down the garden in a pair of ankle boots. To my relief I found Sophie sitting in the gardener’s shed, wrapped in a thick sweater with her rabbit nestled in her arms. She looked up as I opened the door and I perched on the upturned crate next to her.
“How is she?” I asked, reaching out and stroking the rabbit’s silky back.
“I thought she might be cold,” Sophie explained. “Do you think we could move the hutch in here?”
I nodded. “I think that’s an excellent idea. I hadn’t realized it was going to get so cold so quickly. We could shift all the tools to this side then I think the hutch would fit along that wall. Maybe we could get some sort of table or bench to stand it on to keep it off the floor.”
Sophie was looking at me strangely.
“What?”
“You’re different,” she said simply. “Before you got struck by the lightning you hated animals. Now you’re being really nice.”
I felt myself blush as if I’d been caught with my hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
“You’re lucky I don’t remember I hate animals,” I said with a smile. I made a mental note to be more careful in the way I acted in front of the children. The trouble was, I reminded myself, I didn’t know Lauren at all. All I could do was be myself.
Sophie smiled back, then shivered, holding the rabbit closer to her chest for warmth.
“Come on, she’ll be okay in her hutch now,” I said, standing up. “The sun’s coming out and melting the frost, and there’s loads of straw in there. She can snuggle up with Ginny while we get things sorted out indoors. We’ll come down later to see her again.”
Sophie nodded and put the rabbit back in her hutch before skipping up the garden ahead of me. I watched her feet dancing across the brittle grass and felt something stir in my heart. I was happy for her, of course, I reasoned, but it was something more than that. Could it be that I was experiencing some sort of awakening maternal instinct?
Any ideas I’d had about the joys of motherhood were quickly banished as I walked back into the warmth of the playroom to be assaulted by the most horrible smell.
“Teddy’s pooped in his pants, Teddy’s pooped in his pants!” Toby chanted, in a voice muffled by the fact that his face was hidden inside the collar of his dressing gown. Nicole had her hand clamped over her nose and was pretending to gag.
My gaze rested on Teddy, who was sitting where I’d left him on the beanbag, appearing completely unperturbed by the commotion he had caused. I looked to Sophie for guidance and she shrugged.
“You have to take the nappy off as soon as he wakes up,” she explained. “When it’s on, he thinks he doesn’t need to use the toilet.”
So it was my fault. I ran a hand over my face while I contemplated the awfulness of the task ahead of me. It was almost ten o’clock, I wasn’t even dressed yet, and now I had to deal with this.
“Stay there,” I ordered Teddy. “Don’t move. I’m going to run you a bath.”
While the bath was running, I rummaged in Lauren’s wardrobe for something casual to wear.
“You must have an old pair of jeans or something,” I murmured, searching through the racks of glamorous designer clothing despairingly. “What do you wear for doing jobs like this, for heaven’s sake?”
A movement behind me made me jump. I turned around to find Grant standing in the doorway.
“Talking to yourself?” he commented dryly.
I felt myself blush again. I would have to be more careful or I’d wake up one morning and find myself in that padded cell.
“You can talk,” I countered. “After the state you were in last night.”
He had the decency to look abashed. “I’m really sorry, sweetheart. I think I had a bit too much to drink.”
“You frightened me.”
An anguished look passed across his face and he came toward me, his hands held up as if in apology. “I said I’m sorry. I just want us to be close again. I miss you, Lauren.”
He looked so forlorn that my heart went out to him, but my sense of reason prevailed and I kept the distance between us while giving him what I hoped was a sympathetic smile.
“I’ve got to go turn off the bath, or we’ll have a flood,” I said, walking past him.
He followed me along the landing to the family bathroom and watched while I turned off the faucets in the nick of time and let some of the water out of the drain.
“Have you really lost all your memories, Lauren?”
He was leaning against the frame of the door, contemplating me speculatively. The question startled me, and I felt my mouth drop open slightly.
“You heard what Dr. Shakir said about my temporal lobes being damaged,” I said, straightening up. “It’s hardly something I could make up.”
He eyed me doubtfully. “You muttered something in the hospital about having other memories. And the nurse told me you thought you were someone else when you first woke up.”
“I was confused,” I lied. “Don’t forget I almost died, Grant. Maybe I’d been dreaming or something.” I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
He was still staring at me speculatively and I began to wonder if he knew something. Had he sensed that I wasn’t really Lauren after all?
“I’ve got to go and fetch Teddy,” I said, ending the discussion. “While I was sleeping in and you were sleeping it off, Teddy stayed too long in his night nappy, and now he’s messed himself. Fine parents we’ve been.”
We were saved further recriminations by the arrival of Sophie, who announced that Teddy was downstairs crying. I left Grant leaning against the bathroom door and hurried downstairs to find Elsie standing over a distressed Teddy.
“Just look at him!” she was saying, her voice raised in indignation. “He’s not fit to be in a nice house like this. Look what he’s done.”
“It’s all right, Elsie, I’ll deal with it.”
The cleaning lady turned to stare at me with disapproval written all over her face, and I realized I still hadn’t found the time to get dressed.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Richardson, but the smell is intolerable. And it’s not just him, either. There’s straw tramped all over the utility room floor, and dirty breakfas
t bowls dumped in the kitchen…”
“Elsie,” I said in a placating voice. “This is exactly why we need someone as experienced and professional as you. As you know, the nanny has left, and I’ve just come out of hospital. Mr. Richardson isn’t feeling well this morning, either. Now, I’ll deal with Teddy here, if you could help with the other things as best you can. We really appreciate everything you do. You know we simply couldn’t manage without you.”
I watched as Elsie pursed her lips and nodded her head, obviously appeased by the praise.
“I’ll go and start in the kitchen then,” she announced, with one last disgusted glance at Teddy. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Mrs. Richardson.”
She waddled off and I went at last to deal with Teddy.
“Sshh, don’t cry. It wasn’t your fault. Daddy wasn’t feeling well and I was still asleep. Come on, it’s bath time again, and you can have your favorite ball in there if you like.”
I turned to the others as I led Teddy from the room.
“While I’m getting Teddy cleaned up I want you each to draw a picture of the thing you like most in all the world. I don’t mind if it’s a place or a person, or a toy, but it must be colored in and as neat as you can do it. I’d like to remember what you like best. And then we’ll go out to see the animals and play in the sandbox, okay?”
Sophie and Nicole nodded enthusiastically and went to the toy cupboard, where I assumed they had paper and crayons.
“You too, Toby. I’m sure you’re good at drawing. I’ll be down later to see what you’ve done.”
Cleaning Teddy up was no mean feat, but with the help of almost an entire toilet paper roll and the bath to finish off, he was soon respectable again.
“There,” I said as I finished dressing him. “Does that feel better?”
He nodded and I gave him a hug, despite the fact that he remained rigid and unbending in my arms.
“Will you go downstairs by yourself while I get dressed?” He nodded solemnly.
“And draw me a picture, Teddy. Draw a picture of what you like best in all the world. Your ball, maybe?”
Grant was nowhere to be seen as I scrubbed the lingering smell off my hands, selected an outfit, and dressed quickly. I wondered how Lauren had coped with Teddy or whether she had left it all to the nanny. I began to feel an affinity with the poor woman, whoever she had been. This was certainly parenting at its most challenging, and I couldn’t say that anything in my own life had prepared me for it.