Dirty Game

in to it and kissed him back. It would be for the last time, after all.

‘Come on,’ he said against her mouth. ‘Something to show you.’

‘I’ve already seen it,’ said Annie in bewilderment as Max walked with her into the beautiful apartment. ‘I’m expanding the business to accommodate the Whitehall lot. I’ve rented this for six months.’

‘No you haven’t.’

Annie turned to him. ‘Yes, I have.’

Max shook his head. ‘You’ve been beaten to the bid, Annie love.’

‘Meaning what?’ demanded Annie.

‘Meaning I made an offer to your estate agent for a year’s rental and he told me what you’d offered and I upped it. He nearly snatched my hand off. When you get back to the house you’ll find he’s called to tell you the deal’s fallen through.’

‘But I wrote the cheque. Signed the contract.’

‘So he said. He took a bit of persuading.’

‘And tore up my contract.’

‘Correct.’

‘You really are a bastard,’ snapped Annie. ‘Why did you do that? I was so pleased with this place, I really love it. And why bring me back here? To rub my bloody face in it, I suppose.’

Max had opened the French doors on to the balcony and was gazing out at the view. He turned and came back to her and took her in his arms.

‘Don’t touch me,’ said Annie, furious. ‘I hate you.’

‘You hate the man who just got this flat for you to live in, fully furnished and with porterage? You hate the man who’s liberating you from that knocking shop in Limehouse? The man who’s putting a car and a driver at your disposal, paying the fucking rent on this place, buying you anything you want?’

Annie’s jaw dropped. For a moment she couldn’t speak at all, she was too shocked.

‘What?’ she said at last.

Max grasped her arms and stared intently into her eyes from inches away.

‘I already said it yesterday, Annie Bailey. Weren’t you listening? I want you. You’re mine.’

Annie pulled herself free of him. ‘I’m not anybody’s,’ she said hotly.

‘Wrong. You’re mine,’ said Max.

‘No.’

‘You’d let anyone walk in off the street and fuck you?’ he demanded.

‘No! You know I wouldn’t do that.’

‘Only me.’

Annie swallowed. It was true. She knew it, he knew it. But this! She couldn’t take it in. It was too much. And what about all her fine intentions to cut this dead?

‘You want me to be your mistress,’ she said numbly.

‘Yes,’ he said, putting out an arm and indicating the apartment’s luscious interior. ‘I want you right here, with me.’

‘You want me on tap, whenever you feel the urge.’

‘That’s right. My mistress will want for nothing, Annie. Nothing at all.’

‘You’ve got a fucking nerve,’ she stammered. And now was the perfect time to tell him to piss off, she knew it. Again the tormenting sight of Ruthie’s face rose in her mind.

‘You already knew that. And you like it.’

‘No I fucking don’t.’ The cheek of him, storming back into her life and now trying to run it.

‘Come and see the bedroom.’

‘I saw it yesterday.’

‘Let me put that another way,’ said Max, bending and lifting her up into his arms. Annie shrieked in surprise. ‘Come and see the cunting bedroom, and shut your yap, okay?’

‘Bastard,’ said Annie.

‘Bitch,’ said Max, and walked through and dumped her on the bed, following her down on to it and stopping all further objections with his mouth on hers.

Annie looked up and there, above the bed, was Kieron’s nude of her.

‘Good God,’ she said in shock.

‘Like it?’ asked Max, his eyes following hers.

‘It’s … okay.’ Max kissed her again. ‘I still hate you for this,’ muttered Annie when he let her up for air.

But not as much as I hate myself.

‘Hate away,’ said Max, and started stripping off her clothes.

* * *

‘I married the wrong sister,’ said Max later as they lay naked and entwined in each other’s arms.

Annie was almost asleep, she felt so relaxed. The sun was going down and the light in the apartment was dim. Annie thought she must have died and gone to heaven. How long had she dreamed of being like this with Max? Too long. But what he’d just said jolted her back to reality. He was her sister’s husband. She might fool herself that she was happy about this, but she knew it was still a mess of her own making.

‘Don’t say that,’ pleaded Annie, turning over, turning away from the truth.

Max cuddled into her back, lying with her so that they were like spoons in a drawer. It was so nice. So right.

‘Sorry,’ he said, and kissed her neck. ‘It’s how I feel. It was you I wanted, but you were headstrong and I thought I didn’t want that in a wife. Ruthie’s more docile, softer. You’re a powerful woman, Annie. Like my dear old mum, come to think of it. I made the choice, and I chose wrong.’

Annie screwed her eyes shut, disappearing into the dream again – her and Max, here together. Yet there was Ruthie, too, looking sad, betrayed, accusing.

She snapped her eyes open. ‘You could change it. Get divorced.’

‘No I can’t.’

His tone was so sharp that Annie turned her head to stare at him in surprise. ‘Why?’

‘Why?’ He drew away from her. ‘I would have thought that was pretty fucking obvious. I can’t be seen to screw up. Filing for divorce would be seen in my business as a weakness, a failure to keep my house in order.’

Annie’s face clouded. ‘So this way you get the best of both worlds,’ she said. ‘You get the respectability of having a wife, and all your mates think you’re a great big man because you’ve got a mistress set up in a fancy apartment.’

‘It’s the way it works,’ said Max.

‘What if I say no?’

‘You’ve already said yes. Four times.’

Annie thumped his chest and coloured up. He knew exactly how to please her during sex, they both knew that. ‘You know what I mean.’

‘How the fuck can you blush when you’ve been running a cathouse?’ Max was smoothing his hands down over her back, making her shiver. But there was something she had to say and she was going to say it.

‘That isn’t going to change,’ said Annie.

It was Max’s turn to look surprised. ‘You’re having a laugh.’

‘No, I’m not. Celia wanted me to sort it and I’m going to carry on doing that.’

Celia. She hadn’t thought about her in a while, with her coiffed hair and her bright brown eyes and her ridiculous ivory ciggie holder, giving herself funny little airs and graces. She loved Celia for her kindness and her warmth. Missed her too. Annie frowned.

‘Max,’ she said.

‘Mm?’ He was looking thunderous at what she’d just said.

‘Did you hurt Celia?’

Max stiffened. ‘Why do you ask that?’

‘Because she went so suddenly,’ said Annie. She took a breath. ‘Soon after Eddie … you know. She was