optimistic. That’s the opposite of them. They have nothing to look forward to; they hate the way the world is and the way it treats them. You relish change and challenge.”
“I would have thought that experience makes me cautious, especially about change.”
Sue grinned. “It means you can avoid the mistakes that Tim and his friends are about to spend the next fifteen years making. You’ll enjoy yourself a hell of a lot more this time around.”
“Maybe so.” He munched happily on the chocolate as he looked at her. That small smile, the way one side of her mouth lifted slightly higher than the other, was fascinating. Sue had always been staggeringly beautiful, but it was a notion that had never quite connected for him. It was beauty as abstract; he admired her as he might admire a statue or painting. For nearly nineteen years he’d held that view. Now, though, sitting beside her on the sofa, there were other factors coming into play. How close she was. The thick smell of some perfume or lotion applied to her skin. The way the robe was slightly loose down the front, showing just a hint of her breasts. Legs, long and smooth, curled up comfortably like some jungle cat ready to pounce. And that smile…
Jeff realized with some surprise he was actually quite turned on by his own wife.
“Definitely so,” Sue said. “It couldn’t be any other way.”
Jeff looked away, partially to cover his slight embarrassment. Then he saw what was playing on the screen. “Oh my God, that’s Ronald Reagan.”
“Who?”
“Ronald Reagan, he’s playing Rick.”
Sue frowned at the black-and-white images. “So?”
“Humphrey Bogart is Rick. What kind of version are you accessing, a satire?”
“I don’t know. The datasphere had quite a few editions listed, I think I chose the as-it-should-be version.”
He laughed. “Of course, Reagan supposedly auditioned for the part. That find-and-replace morphing technique is very good. I wonder what program they used….” He caught himself and grimaced. “Sorry, I’ve been talking this kind of complete crap all night with the boys. So what did happen to you this evening?”
Sue lowered her head, allowing her thick hair to fall forward and cover her face. “I went to see Mummy this afternoon.”
“Ah. Right. How is she?”
“Not very good.” Her voice had dropped to a whisper.
“Oh, hey.” His arm went out automatically, reaching for her. He stopped with his fingertips a few centimeters away from her arm. After a moment’s hesitation he gave her a supportive little squeeze.
Sue looked up, waterlogged eyes regarding him with mild surprise.
“She’s a tough old thing,” he said. “She’ll pull through.”
“No, Jeff, she won’t. She’s getting a lot worse.”
“I’m sorry.” He pulled himself along the couch and put his arm around her shoulder. She was shaking.
“I guess I don’t make it any easier for you,” he said. “Not with me like this.”
“No. I’m pleased they chose you, of course I am.” Tears started to fall down her cheeks. She smeared them with her knuckles, then gave her hands an angry look, as if they’d betrayed her.
“Is it going to be…soon?” he asked.
“No. But…”
“What?” he asked gently.
“They can’t look after her at the Hall, not anymore. She needs a proper nursing home: twenty-four-hour staff, specialist doctors, physical therapists.”
“Are there any places like that around here?”
“Some, yes.”
“Then no problem, we’ll put her into one.”
Sue blinked away her tears, giving him a curious gaze. “Do you mean that?”
“Of course I do.”
“Jeff, it’ll cost a lot of money.”
“So? We had a deal, remember?”
“I know. But I thought… Tim’s already eighteen. Not that I ever really lived up to my side of the bargain when it came to being a good mother. He’ll be off to university in a few months anyway. That’s it then, isn’t it? The end.”
Jeff tightened his hold around her shoulders. “I thought you were a pretty good mother, actually. It has never been so hard to bring kids up than in today’s world; there are so many pitfalls waiting for him, so many dark attractions. Yet he’s come out of it a good kid. He’s no Stepford child, thank God, but he isn’t in jail, or rehab, or therapy, he doesn’t hate us too much, and he’s worked hard enough at school to make Cambridge a near certainty. I couldn’t wish for more. I’m damn proud of him. And you have to take a lot of credit for that. You pulled off your side of the arrangement perfectly.”
Sue’s small smile had returned. “I never did deserve you, did I?”
“I always thought of it as being the other way round.”
They kissed.
“That was never part of the arrangement,” Sue murmured huskily. Her nose nuzzled his cheek.
Jeff smiled down at her. “Time to negotiate a new one.”
THEY USED HIS BEDROOM, undressing in a warm mock-twilight thrown out by the wall lights. He couldn’t stop staring at her; it was a revelation, seeing what he’d been denied for nearly twenty years.
“Everything came out in full working order then,” Sue teased archly as she stood in front of him. Her eyes lingered on his erect cock.
“Built to the highest Brussels specifications.”
“To hell with Brussels.” Her hand closed round his balls. “These belong to me now.”
There was an urgency to her lovemaking he hadn’t expected. And she was deliciously talented; time and again after he believed himself spent she proved him wrong. He’d never guessed than even his fresh new body was so physically capable. It was a discovery they both took a savage joy in celebrating, carrying on into the early hours.
Eventually they broke apart.
“The real you.”
“And you.”
“Yes, finally. And I like it.”
“Good.”
19. CROWDED BREAKFAST
TIM MADE IT DOWNSTAIRS by nine o’clock on Sunday morning. It hadn’t been a particularly late night. They’d all been round to Martin’s house last night, drinking and sending out for pizza. Tim and Annabelle had been snuggled up together on the big couch all evening. He had been kind of quietly confident that the two of them would make it to a bedroom at some point during the night. But it hadn’t happened. Annabelle went back to Uppingham on the bus with Sophie and Vanessa. He’d asked her to come back to the manor with him. She said no, and kissed him hard to make up for the disappointment. He even asked if she’d like him to escort her back to her house. She said no thanks, and kissed him again; he was even encouraged to slide his hands up under her T-shirt to maul at her bra. When they were standing outside the front door, in the dark and out of sight from their friends and the Europol team, he made a last appeal for a quick trip back inside and up to Martin’s spare room. Her giggles were loud and playful in his ear, and her hand wormed down into his trousers. Which was fantastic, but still a no.
His mood wasn’t helped when Simon and Rachel strolled off down the drive together, leaning together and French kissing as they went.
In the morning Tim had a quick shower and put on a clean sweatshirt before taking the stairs two at a time.
