She wriggled into a sitting position with the quilt pulled up over her chest and took the mug. ‘Thanks. That’s fine.’ She sipped the coffee. ‘What time is it?’
He looked at her lovingly. ‘Time we were heading into work. Shall I get ready and then drop you at your place on the way. I take it you won’t want to come into work with the clothes you had on last night?’
She glanced at the chair next to the bed and noticed he’d collected her clothes from the floor in the lounge and folded them neatly – her lace thong lay on the top of the pile. He followed her eyes.
‘Amazing, sexy, and easy access – I’m impressed. In fact I’ve never seen anything like it,’ he murmured.
She felt her cheeks blush with the compliment and the memory of how he’d taken them off the night before and giggled. ‘You probably won’t believe me when I say this but it’s the first time I’ve worn a thong – they’re part of my new image.’
‘Well, I for one love your new image. But there again, I would have probably loved the old image too,’ he said, gently tracing a finger down the side of her cheek.
*
Helen stood under her own shower at home and let the stream of hot water run down her body remembering how he’d kissed every inch of her skin. It was the best feeling in the world, she thought dreamily, and she tingled with the warm sensation. Her mind buzzed with excitement, she felt alive and bursting with happiness at the thought of seeing him later at work.
Dressed in black leggings tucked into ankle boots and a skinny rib green jumper, and with her hair freshly tousled around her face she breezed confidently into the office calling good morning to Annette and Tom.
‘Jeez…’ Tom muttered. ‘You look good this morning. Are you on something at the moment, because you look fantastic?’
She giggled and waved her hand dismissively. ‘Don’t be silly. I’m just making the most of things – it’s a lovely spring morning,’ she said, booting up her computer.
An email from Richard sprang straight into her inbox.
Richard. Scott to Helen. Walker
I’ve just watched you walk across the car park in those leggings and jumper and I cannot wait to strip them from you. Please tell me you have no plans this weekend.
She grinned to herself and felt desire stirring through her again. Quickly she typed,
Helen. Walker to Richard. Scott
I don’t. Rachel is away for the weekend with friends and Greg has taken Karen to Brighton for a few days before her operation next Tuesday. What time are you leaving to drive home to Cambridge? X
Richard. Scott to Helen. Walker
I’m not. I’m going to ring with a tummy-bug excuse and stay here for the weekend. Throw some things into a bag and come over. All I want is to be with you again.XX
*
They stayed in bed for the whole weekend. In between making love to each over and over again until they knew one another inside out, and eating ordered-in food – they talked. At four o’clock on Sunday afternoon Helen was sitting naked and cross legged on the bed while Richard lay with his head in her lap. As she languidly ran her hand through his hair he told her all about his life at home. It didn’t make her feel any less guilty or soothe her troubled conscience but she could at least understand why he was so unhappy. When she realised how unloved and uncared for he was her feminine instincts kicked in and she felt an overpowering need to make him happy again. ‘But Angela couldn’t have been like this when you first got married – she must have loved you then?’
‘Oh, she did,’ he said. ‘I like to think she did. She’d had a scare and thought she was pregnant so the wedding plans were hurriedly organised. But then after a few weeks when it turned out to be a false alarm we still went ahead, much to my mother’s disapproval.’
She giggled when he told her about Patricia and how she’d tried to talk him out of marrying her. ‘But that’s usually a father’s role. Your mum sounds like a real character.’
Richard laughed. ‘Oh, she’s certainly that!’
Helen loved to see him laugh and decided his generosity of spirit was remarkable considering how unhappy he must have been. ‘You make me feel crap at the way I’ve coped with my horrible marriage to Rob – all I’ve done for years is moan, whinge and complain. Compared to how cheerful and light-hearted your attitude always is…’
He sat up and knelt in front of her, cupping her face in his hands. ‘But my situation is different to yours. I haven’t had to cope with my partner having affairs for years,’ he said. ‘And while we are on that subject I have to say he must have been crazy to go out looking for love or sex elsewhere when he had you at home. I know I would never have looked at another woman.’
He stared into her eyes and thought how amazing she was. God knows how she had coped with all those years of rejection by Rob, he thought testily; how could the two-timing bastard have treated her so badly? But now, he decided, he could try to make up for it and shower her with all the love and attention she truly deserved. He traced a finger lightly over her fantastic big lips and she opened her lips and sucked on his finger, making him instantly stiffen with desire. He took his finger from her mouth and began to kiss her lips deeply while she responded hungrily sucking on his lower lip till he thought he would explode. Still kneeling in front of her he smoothly uncrossed her legs and then put his hands around her bottom and pulled her firmly onto him.
She gasped loudly and for one second he thought he’d hurt her. ‘You okay?’
‘Oh, I’m more than okay,’ she whispered. ‘You’re so hard – it’s bloody gorgeous.’ She wrapped her legs around his back and rode on top of him squeezing him with her hips as he pushed fully inside her wanting to give her the same intense pleasure that was racing through his body.
‘I want you to feel everything I am,’ he groaned.
He caught their reflection in the dressing table mirror and decided she looked like a wild she-devil as she clung to his shoulders sucking the side of his neck with every thrust he made. He felt her taut nipples against his own chest begging to be sucked and moved her backwards slightly to take one of her nipples between his teeth.
She dug her fingernails into his shoulders and with her hair thrown back she moaned, ‘Oh, Richard, I’m definitely feeling it!’ then pounded on him until he lost all reason and erupted in a shattering climax.
‘But I have to go,’ she pleaded. ‘I need to ring Rachel and check in with our Karen to make sure she’s okay for Tuesday.’
It was nearly five o’clock and she knew if she didn’t leave now when they were both spent she’d never get away from him. As she was packing away the few things she’d brought with her he came up behind her and kissed the side of her neck.
‘OK, I’ll go for a run,’ he said. ‘But I’m missing you already and you haven’t even left yet.’
*
Helen made her telephone calls then relaxed her aching body in a long luxurious bath while her conscience raged and her mind tumbled with mixed thoughts. The last two days of her life had been mind-blowing to say the least. And although she had hankered for change after Rob had left – this, she thought, was much more than she could have ever dreamt would happen. And more importantly, she worried, what was going to happen in the future? If it had only been Thursday night’s drunken sex and he’d scurried back up to his family she could have marked it down to a one-off experience. But this had gone further, much further than that now, and she knew the way they felt about each other wasn’t just a casual fling.
She began to wander listlessly around the kitchen feeling miserable and trying to make excuses for her actions. He was unhappy with his wife and he was doing this of his own free will, she reasoned with herself, but then wondered if subconsciously she was doing to another woman what she’d had done to her for years. Her stomach was churning as a text popped up on her mobile from him asking her what she was doing.
*
When Helen had left, and even though his legs were aching from w
hat he thought of as their love making marathon, Richard had pushed himself to run two laps round the park and then stood under a steaming hot shower. He remembered the day before when they’d stood under the same shower head together and he’d made love to her while she lathered his body with shower gel. It didn’t feel the same having to do it himself, he thought grinning, and then wondered what she was doing. He dried himself then sent her a text and while pulling on clean jogger bottoms and T-shirt he read her reply, “I’m thinking about you. Please come round I need you again.ˮ
*
On their separate ways into work next morning Helen ached in places that she didn’t even know existed. They’d made love twice before falling asleep and when she’d woken at three o’clock in the morning and he’d been draped around her she’d instantly touched him into arousal. ‘For God’s sake, woman. Can I not have a few hours’ sleep?’ he’d cried, and then whooped with laughter when she’d climbed on top of him again.
She sat in front of her computer, folded her arms across her chest and winced at her sore nipples. But when she remembered how he’d devoured them, she smiled and hugged herself closer. It was, she decided, a delicious warm soreness which was worth every moment. He made her feel so special, loved, as if she was the most important thing in his life. They’d agreed to keep their affair secret and behave as normally as possible at work. But when she saw him walk into the office at lunchtime with Annette and wink at her she beamed back with genuine happiness.
*
Helen finished work at six o’clock and called to see Karen – it was the night before her operation and she knew she would be anxious. They talked together for two hours and when Helen was convinced she would cope until next morning with Greg to support her she rang Richard. He was at her house within the hour and they wrapped themselves around each other in her bed where she immediately fell into a deep sleep.
The next thing she knew she was screaming and having the old reoccurring nightmare where she was bent over her mother, staring at her bloodshot eyes and singed hair on the bar of the electric fire.
Her own hair was damp now and stuck to her forehead as Richard had both his strong arms around her rocking her and murmuring reassurances in her ear. It took a few seconds before she realised she was awake and she’d had the horrid nightmare again. She began apologising to him, ‘Oh, God. I’m so sorry,’ she whispered into his shoulder.
He stroked her hair tenderly while she told him how she’d found her mother dead and how she’d apparently screamed for an hour before her father and Karen could calm her down.
‘Good God,’ he soothed. ‘What a terrible thing for a child to see. I bet your father has never forgiven himself.’
She snuggled further into the warmth and safety of him. ‘That’s true, although it wasn’t his fault, really. It just happened that I was home from school first that day. ‘
‘No, but everyone wants to protect their kids from seeing awful things,’ he said.
‘I know. I think that’s why I’ve been overly protective with Rachel,’ she mused thoughtfully. ‘I grew up without a mum, and a father racked with guilt. Karen was a bit of a surrogate mother to me till we were in our early twenties and then I married first and somehow the roles reversed and I became the one she leaned upon. Which I don’t mind, of course, but nearly everyone we meet thinks she’s my younger sister.’
Unbelievable, he thought, hugging her face closer to his chest. What a dreadful thing to happen to anyone, let alone this beautiful woman he was quickly becoming involved with. He wished he could wipe all the awful memories from her mind so she would never think of them again. But then he remembered one of Patricia’s sayings, that what happens to us in our childhoods shapes us into the adults we become.
‘My father died three years after I was married. He collapsed on the golf course with a massive heart attack. But I was a young man by then,’ he said. ‘It must have been hard being brought up by only one parent.’
‘It was,’ she nodded slowly. ‘And it’s the main, no – it’s the only reason – I put up with all the shit from Rob. The last thing I wanted for my Rachel was to be brought up in a home missing a father figure.’
He nodded in understanding now and basked in her strength and tenacity. He’d wondered from the first night he made love to her why she’d allowed herself to be demoralised over and over again by her husband – and now he knew the reason why. He hugged her tightly and wrapped the quilt snugly around their bodies. ‘Try to go back to sleep, sweetheart,’ he soothed rubbing her back.
*
Next morning Helen gave Karen a kiss and a huge hug before she was chased from the room by the theatre nurse and Karen was wheeled on a trolley towards the operating room. Within two hours Helen and Greg were sitting by the bed and Karen was waking up.
Helen leaned over and kissed her forehead. ‘It’s over, sweetheart. You’re all done and dusted and the doctor says it’s gone like a dream.’
Karen looked at them both. ‘Oh, that’s good. It was the first general anaesthetic I’ve ever had and I loved the floating feeling and total loss of control I remembered when I woke up.’
Greg made a comment about modern drugs they used nowadays and Karen smiled fondly at him. ‘I’m so glad you’re both here,’ she said, squeezing their hands. ‘My mouth tastes rank. Can I get a drink of water?’
Helen laughed. ‘Yeah, it’s certainly smelt better.’ She passed her the glass. ‘I’m just so glad you’re okay. Is it sore?’
She put her hand under the gown and felt the support jacket the nurse had told her to expect. ‘No, I can’t feel anything at the moment. So far so good,’ she said.
*
Back in the office Helen told Richard, Annette and Tom that Karen had got through the operation well, was coming home later that day and that they had to see the surgeon in the clinic for the results. Amidst well wishes and feelings of relief flooding through her she concentrated upon her plan of new Sushi ideas.
Over the next few weeks her relationship with Richard grew and soon she found, where everyone else longed for Fridays and the end of a working week, she dreaded them because he went home for the weekend. And when everyone hated Monday mornings they fast became her favourite time of the week because he returned to work. Mondays nights were always full-on with very little sleep as they passionately made love to each other trying to quell the frustrations of three nights spent apart. She often felt like she was in the fairground on a rollercoaster and her feet were slipping away from her every time she tried to climb off – but she simply couldn’t get enough of him. They were managing to keep their relationship secret at work although Helen was convinced that Annette suspected something. By the time Karen’s results were due she was spending four nights every week with him.
*
‘I’ve followed all the information in my booklet by resting on the settee, doing the exercises, taking the painkillers and letting you and Greg fuss over me,’ Karen told Helen as they strolled arm in arm into the breast clinic waiting area.
Greg gave her name at the desk and then sat on the other side of Karen holding her hand. Helen smiled fondly at them both, delighted to see how their marriage had strengthened over the last few months. Karen had told her that Greg was spending less and less time in his office.
‘It just feels ordinary compared to the first time I came for the mammogram and had been frightened. I wonder if it’s possible to get used to being scared.’ Karen mused quietly. ‘Because I’m not as terrified as I was the first time we came and really these results are more important.’
Greg squeezed her hand. ‘We’re going to get good news this time, I just know it,’ he said and turned her to face him. ‘And I know we’ve had a rough ride over the last few months, darling, but I can’t tell you how proud of you I am and how well you’ve handled this operation.’
*
The surgeon shuffled in his chair as all three took seats at his desk. ‘The results from the lab show us that there
were some cancerous cells inside the cyst but they have not broken through the sack. So I can tell you that I’ve removed all the cancer and there is no spread to the lymph glands, which is great news.’
‘There now! What did I tell you?’ Greg cried jubilantly.
Helen felt as though a heavy bag had been lifted from the back of her neck and choked back tears of relief. Karen, however, couldn’t hold her tears in check and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
‘But we do have a plan of follow-up care that we’d like you to undertake, which we class as our insurance policy to prevent these cells reforming,’ he said. ‘This consists of taking a tablet every day for the next ten years and we’ll expect to see you every year for a mammogram.’
Karen nodded and the nurse took them into a small room to discuss the treatment. Helen thought it was amazing how quickly the mind assessed such information and although the initial news was brilliant, Karen did have cancer cells removed from her breast. It was there – the dreaded disease – the same as it had been with their mother and aunt.
*
‘It’s sort of a wake-up call,’ she said to Richard later. ‘I suppose it could happen to me anytime in the future.’
He wrapped his arms around her tightly. ‘Maybe you could go to your GP and ask to be checked earlier than the normal timescales?’
‘Hmm, I had thought of that,’ she said, seductively wrapping her arms around his neck. ‘But I know one thing for sure, it certainly makes you put your life into perspective and makes you want to live for today.’ She began to kiss the side of his neck. ‘So you won’t mind if I do that right now and make love to you,’ she giggled.
He began to slowly unbutton her shirt. ‘It would be my pleasure,’ he laughed
Chapter Eleven
The office was abuzz with excitement and Helen, Annette, Tom and Richard had worked solidly for days preparing the new lines to show the retailers, who were arriving on site within the hour.
Helen had prepared the taste panel room with sample packs of what the new range could look like on supermarket shelves. Annette had a slide presentation ready with up-to-date marketing statistics. Tom had new packaging designs ready to discuss and Richard had costs for each new pack in readiness to negotiate.
A Taste of Love Page 9