Kara cleared away the plates and brought out the fruit salad.
‘This is delicious,’ he said, taking another mouthful.
‘You sound surprised,’ she laughed.
‘Well, I kind’ve noticed that you don’t cook much.’
‘How did you notice that? There was nothing wrong with the food, was there?’
‘No, it was delicious,’ he laughed. ‘But your cupboards are just so empty!’
‘What’s the point of cooking for one?’
‘I do. I cook casseroles and lasagnes, divide them into portions and freeze the rest.’
‘Wow! You’re gonna make someone a lovely wife,’ Kara laughed.
They finished with coffee, sitting in the kitchen. He loaded the dish washer and put the left overs in her empty fridge. Kara watched as if she was looking at what could have been. Once she had gotten over her initial awkwardness it had turned into a wonderful evening.
‘Tell, you what, Kara – come to work with me tomorrow and I’ll show you exactly what I do for a living.’
‘I’m not getting involved in a threesome,’ she bit back but she was joking and he rolled his eyes and ignored her.
‘It’s time I left. I have an early start in the morning.’ He put their coffee cups in the dish washer and Kara walked to the door with him.
‘Thank you for coming,’ she said. ‘I’m glad we cleared the air between us.’
‘I’ll pick you up at eight in the morning,’ he said as he walked out of the door. ‘Unless you’re too busy.’
‘I thought you were joking.’
‘No, deadly serious. Wear suitable clothing.’ He kissed her cheek and jumped into his van.
Kara watched him reverse down her drive and take off down the road. She thought he might’ve asked to stay. She thought she might’ve said yes. He hadn’t even touched her – apart from that brief kiss when he left and even that had sent a spark of electricity straight to her groin.
Kara looked at her tidy kitchen – he’d even folded the t towel over the oven handle – before heading off to bed. She set her alarm for seven o’clock and fell asleep wondering what suitable clothing was.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Kara didn’t want to get up. She rolled over and bashed the alarm with her hand but her eyes refused to open. It was the frantic ringing of the doorbell that finally got her out of bed.
‘I’m sorry. I overslept,’ she told William when she opened the door.
‘You go and get dressed and I’ll put the coffee on.’
Kara came back downstairs in a dress and high heels and he laughed at her.
‘What?’
‘We’re going to be working on a building site not a boudoir.’
‘What should I wear, then?’
He followed her back upstairs and inspected her wardrobe. The jeans and t shirt he’d given her were folded neatly on the shelf.
‘Wear these,’ he said, throwing them at her.
Kara stripped off her dress and pulled on the jeans and t shirt.
William was still ferreting through her wardrobe.
‘And these.’ He threw a pair of walking boots Kara had bought for a holiday in Scotland.
He poured coffee into two mugs and they took them with them in his van.
‘I got you these, as well.’ He pulled a pink high visibility waistcoat and hard hat from the back of his van.
Kara laughed and put them on.
They drove out to the suburbs where William explained he had bought an old house that he was in the middle of renovating.
Kara had half expected to arrive at a building site with a crew of builders but William pulled the van to a halt outside a grand old, double fronted house. Ivy had grown over the rotting wooden windows and the roof had seen better days but it stood in the centre of an expanse of established garden overlooking the estuary. It was a quiet haven, in an idyllic position.
‘My builders are working on another project. This one I’m doing mostly on my own because it’s personal. This is where I’m going to raise my family.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know you were planning a family?’
‘Well, it’s early days, yet. There are a few things that I have to acquire first.’
‘Such as?’
‘A wife.’
‘I hear they’re easy to find,’ Kara replied.
‘The good ones are trickier to tie down.’
Kara snorted but she didn’t reply. She didn’t want to make too many assumptions. They weren’t even an item, yet. She wasn’t even sure she could trust him.
‘It’s a beautiful place to raise a family, William.’
‘It used to belong to my grandparents. I virtually grew up in this garden; making dens in the bushes and fishing down in the estuary. I had kind of hoped it would stay in the family but the old guys sold it, bought a tiny concrete box apartment in the city and spent the rest of their lives cruising around the world. The person who bought it hoped to get planning permission for a housing estate. I’ve been campaigning against that for years and last year he finally gave up and put the old house back up for sale.’
‘That’s brilliant. The place has history for you.’
‘Right, we’ve got work to do.’ He unlocked the door and she followed him into a large square hallway lined with oak panelling.
‘That’s got to come down.’ He gave her a sledge hammer and pointed at a wall.
‘Ok.’ Kara wielded the hammer at the half felled wall and a chunk fell off. ‘This is very therapeutic,’ she laughed.
They worked together, swapping jobs when her arms got tired and then she filled the wheel barrow and dumped the debris outside.
At lunchtime they stopped and William pulled out a box of sandwiches and a flask of coffee. They ate on the porch, sitting on an old swing seat that creaked every time they moved. The only other sound she could hear was a herd of cows munching grass in an adjoining field.
‘I think I could stay here forever,’ Kara whispered, afraid to raise her voice in case it broke the magic of the moment.
‘It got me that way when I first sat here, but I’m afraid you’ve got work to do.’ William laughed and pulled her to her feet and they got back to work stripping out old kitchen cupboards and pulling up ancient carpets.
At five o’clock William called time.
‘I don’t know about you, Kara Kavanagh, but I’m done in.’
‘Thank God! I thought you were never going to stop. I’m exhausted,’ Kara laughed.
‘I’m impressed,’ William said as he drove Kara home. They were both covered in dust and grime and sweat.
‘With what?’
‘With you. I didn’t think you’d make it until lunch time but you’ve kept up with me all day long without a single word of complaint.’
‘Look,’ she said, holding out her hands. They were covered in blisters.
‘Damn! That looks painful. Why didn’t you say anything?’
‘Because I’m kind of competitive. My father calls it stubborn as a mule, but as long as you were still working there was no way I was gonna stop.’
‘You can come to work with me, again,’ William laughed.
‘Seriously? I would love to. Apart from my hands I really enjoyed it.’
‘Seriously.’
When William pulled into her drive Kara invited him in.
‘We can finish off the shepherd’s pie,’ she suggested.
‘I need a shower and a change of clothes.’
‘You can shower here. I’ll wash your clothes…They’ll be ready by the morning,’ she said with a smile.
‘I’m forgiven, then?’ William asked.
‘I’ve tried disliking you and that didn’t work so, yes, I guess I have.’
‘I’m glad, Kara.’
Kara showed William into a spare bedroom to shower in the en-suite bathroom and she left him a towelling robe to wear whilst she took his clothes downstairs to wash.
He’d left his mobile phone in the po
cket of his jeans. She took it out and placed it on the work top and loaded the machine.
Before she went to shower herself Kara turned on the oven and put the shepherd’s pie in to heat up.
William’s phone rang. She went to the bottom of the stairs to call him but he didn’t answer.
Kara picked up the phone. Laura Finnegan’s name appeared on the screen. Kara had an urge to open the washing machine and shove his phone back in the pocket of his jeans but that wouldn’t make this go away. He was still seeing Jack’s wife. He’d lied to her. Kara sat at the table and waited for him to finish in the shower. She could feel her anger simmering in the base of her belly. She blinked back her tears. She wasn’t going to cry. And she wasn’t going to allow him to hurt her again.
He appeared in the doorway dressed in the white towelling gown, his hair still wet from his shower, his feet bare. Kara wanted to forget what she’d just seen and fall into his arms but she couldn’t. She handed him a carrier bag with his soaking wet clothes in it.
‘You’re going home and you can take these with you.’
‘Why? What’s happened, Kara?’
She gave him back his phone. You had a call while you were in the shower – from Laura Finnegan. When you didn’t answer she texted you. I did a bad thing and looked at that text. It seems the delightful Laura is in need of your special services. You lied to me. You’re still doing that…stuff.’ Kara had walked along the hall and now she was standing with the door open.
‘I didn’t lie. I’m not doing that any more. I should’ve deleted her number. I’ll do it now. He pressed a few buttons on his phone and then showed her the screen.
‘I want you to leave.’
‘Kara, please. It was a mistake to get into that stuff. I should never have done it. Haven’t you ever made a mistake?’
She looked at him and said: ‘Yes, and now I want you to leave.’
William put on his boots and walked to his van in the dressing gown.
‘And you can keep the robe,’ she said and slammed the door but she watched him leave from the window through a veil of tears, and then she went to bed and buried her head under the quilt.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘What did you want?’ William rang Laura from his car. ‘I told you I’ve given up the escort work. I don’t want you to ring me anymore, Laura.’ He was angry. Laura may not have known what she’d done but her call had just broken the fragile trust that he had worked all day to rebuild with Kara.
‘I need you, William. I can’t survive in this marriage without you. I need sex!’
‘Then ask your husband.’
‘You know he can’t do it. William. I told you, he’s impotent.’
‘No, he’s not, Laura. Your husband is an egotistical, delusional bully and a liar but he’s not impotent.’
‘You can’t possibly know that. Why would he lie about something like that? I’m his wife.’
‘I’m sorry you had to hear it like this, Laura but you deserve to know. Your husband kept Kara Kavanagh prisoner in his penthouse. He wanted her to have sex with him but she refused. He had an erection, Laura.’
‘Kara might’ve been mistaken – or lying.’
‘She may have been, but Jack also told her that he liked new things.’
‘What the hell does that mean?’ Laura was crying. It was almost as if deep down she knew that something was wrong with the way her husband behaved but hadn’t wanted to admit to it because that would mean her having to leave the life of luxury she was leading as his wife.
‘He told Kara that he wants to keep you a virgin.’
The line went quiet. At first William thought she’d hung up.
‘That’s disgusting!’
‘It’s the truth, Laura. You should leave him – you deserve better.’
‘I don’t know what to do, William.’
‘You’ll be fine. Go stay with your mother for a while.’ He knew she’d figure it out and would probably ring her solicitor as soon as she’d hung up the phone. She was a strong woman and she had played a part in her own situation. She enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and had been quite prepared to put up with her lot, but she deserved the truth and now she had it.
‘Please don’t call me, again, Laura.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kara dressed in old clothes and went out into the garden. She was going to redesign it. She hated the municipal park look her gardener had created, of neatly curving borders following the perimeter walls and planted with summer annuals.
She found a spade in the shed and started cutting hard angles where there had been curves. Cleaving the spade into hard baked soil cut up her burst blisters but she relished in the pain it caused – anything to take her mind off her broken heart. And when she could dig no more and feared stopping and allowing her thoughts to take purchase in her heart, she took her car out of the garage and drove to the garden centre in search of shrubs.
She hadn’t opened the garage door in months let alone started the engine. There was a cobweb running from the steering wheel to the top of the windscreen. She swept it away and started the engine. It fired into life on the first turn of the key. She reversed out into the road and slammed her foot onto the accelerator. She wasn’t in the right mood to be behind the wheel. She took a deep breath and slowed down.
Two rhododendrons an acacia and six other assorted shrubs later Kara returned home to plant them. She ripped out the bedding plants and was about to throw them in the rubbish heap when she realised they were the same pretty, colourful flowers that William had sent her. She picked a bunch of them and took them inside. It seemed a shame to throw away something so beautiful.
Kara sat down at the table and looked at the flowers. It would be a shame to throw away something so beautiful, wouldn’t it? She picked up the phone to ring William but put it back down again. The stubborn streak in her wouldn’t allow her to do it.
She went out into the garden instead and started replanting. The muscles in her arms and her thighs still ached from all the physical activity they had got yesterday but she couldn’t stop. Stopping gave her mind time to think about William and when she did that she cried.
When all the shrubs were planted she took a shower and ate cold shepherd’s pie out of the fridge as she cried.
She needed something else to occupy her mind so she started moving furniture around and cleaning windows.
By early evening Kara was too exhausted to eat. She took a glass of wine to bed with her and fell asleep before she’d even finished it.
The following morning, when Kara had ran out of things to plant and things to move around, she was forced to confront her fears and broken dreams and she curled up on the sofa and cried. I’ll give myself the rest of the day to get over this…thing and then I have to find a new purpose in life, Kara told herself, as if it were possible to compartmentalise her emotions in the same way she filed her bank statements.
She turned on the TV, found a tub of ice-cream and settled down to indulge herself until midnight.
The doorbell rang at her lowest ebb. She considered ignoring it but the ringer was annoyingly persistent. She buried the thought that it might be William come to tell her it had all been a dreadful misunderstanding.
It wasn’t him. It was a courier. He handed her what was obviously a painting wrapped in brown paper.
‘If it was another stupidly expensive painting she would put a knife through it and send it back to him.
‘Wait there a minute. I might want you to take this back where it came from.’
‘I can’t do that, Madam,’ the courier started to walk away.
‘Wait! I’ll pay you.’
The courier waited.
Kara took the painting inside and opened the card attached to it first.
It was, as she’d suspected, from William.
– I’m not apologising. I’ve done nothing wrong but I’m not prepared to throw away something as beautiful as you and I.
Kara ripped th
e paper off. She could hardly see through her tears.
She propped it up against the kitchen cupboard and smiled. It wasn’t grotesque but it was priceless. It was a rather crudely drawn but very sweet painting of a half built house covered in ivy with the estuary in the background. And in the fore ground there was a stick man in a white hard hat holding hands with a stick woman in a pink one. He’d drawn her with her hair hanging loose around her shoulders, with bits of something that looked like straw stuck in it and he was leaning on a sledge hammer. The painting had been signed: William Baron.
Kara took the bunch of pansies out of the little jar she’d put them in, dried the stems on some kitchen towel, wrapped them in tissue paper and gave them to the courier with a twenty pound note.
‘Could you deliver these back to the same person, please.’
The doorbell rang an hour later. It was William. He was holding her pink hard hat and high visibility waistcoat.
‘Come on, we have work to do on our house,’ he said.
‘Is that some kind of proposal?’ Kara asked.
‘Would you tell me to fuck off if I said it was?’
‘No,’ Kara replied.
‘Then it is. Let’s go buy an engagement ring and make it official before you change your mind.’
‘No, wait. I’d like you to give me a ring like the one you gave me before.’
‘You mean the one I put here?’ William reached between her legs. ‘The one that claims you as my property?’
‘Yes, that’s the one.’ Kara blushed.
‘It’ll be my pleasure, Kara.’ William replied with a smile.
The End
Other ebooks by Isabella King
Suspense
The Night Visitor
Erotic Novels
Lilly: A Domestic Discipline Novel
To Honour & Obey: A Domestic Discipline Novel
His Fantasy
Taming Angel
Rose in the Reformatory
His Lover & Me
The Gigolo Page 12