He stood watching her as she rolled onto her back once again.
‘Come back to bed,’ she said breathlessly.
He stood close to her and she could see his erection.
‘Come on,’ she gasped, fingers still moving frantically.
‘You’re a fucking bitch,’ he said angrily.
‘Maybe – but I’m not the one who just told my other half that I love them. What does that make you?’
Her breathing was ragged, her fingers moving more urgently.
‘Come on, Rob,’ she panted, reaching out one hand towards his stiffness.
He felt her moisture on his shaft as she enveloped it in her slender fingers.
He climbed onto the bed and she hooked her legs around the small of his back.
‘This is just for old time’s sake, isn’t it?’ she said, her voice dissolving into a loud moan as he penetrated her.
Rob grabbed both of her hands and squeezed hard, his own hands balled into fists as he thrust roughly into her.
Fucking bitch.
She arched her back.
‘What does that make you?’
His own breathing was now laboured.
He closed his eyes.
Expectation
PAUL DOOLAN PUT down the copy of Mayfair and sat up as he heard the key turn in his cell door.
Muffled voices outside, then David Layton stepped in. The door slammed behind him.
For long seconds the two men looked at each other, then Layton suddenly punched the air, his teeth gritted in a triumphant snarl.
‘Yes!’ he shouted.
‘You got it?’ Doolan said, also grinning.
‘Cunts approved it, didn’t they? I’m out of here in three weeks.’
He sat down at the small table and pulled his tobacco tin from his overalls. He flipped it open and began making a roll-up.
‘Parole?’ mused Doolan. ‘You lucky bastard.’ He rolled over onto his side on the top bunk and looked down at his companion. ‘What are you going to do when you get out?’
Layton shrugged. ‘I haven’t thought about it,’ he confessed. ‘You know you don’t think about the future inside, do you?’
‘I think about getting out of here all the time.’
‘Well, if you hadn’t got caught for that fucking Securicor van job you wouldn’t be in here now, would you?’
‘It wasn’t my fault. I told them I’d never handled a shooter before.’
‘Good job you hadn’t. Otherwise you might have killed that fucking guard instead of just shooting the cunt in the leg.’
‘Yeah, well, next time I’ll get it right.’
Layton lit his roll-up and sucked on it.
‘Have you seen Brycey since you did the job on Morton?’ Doolan wanted to know.
‘One of his boys had a word with me. They said he was pleased: said I did a good job. One of them works in the infirmary where they took Morton. He saw the damage. They said I could see Brycey when I got out, see about a job with his firm.’
‘Are you going to do that?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t want to work for somebody. I’d rather be on my own: nobody breathing down my neck.’
‘You want to go straight?’ Doolan chuckled.
Layton merely spat a piece of tobacco in the direction of his cell-mate.
‘By the way,’ he said after a moment, ‘they’ve put me on kitchen duties until I get out.’
Doolan’s smile faded.
‘You jammy cunt,’ he said disdainfully.
‘They said my behaviour here has been excellent.’
‘It’s a good job they didn’t know about what happened to Morton.’
Layton smiled crookedly.
‘Yeah, well they don’t know and they’re not going to find out, are they?’ he hissed, glaring at his cellmate.
‘You think I’d grass you up?’ Doolan said, offended by the implication.
‘No, I know you’ve got too much sense for that.’
‘Anyway, it won’t be that fucking easy working in the kitchen. That bastard Gorton runs it. Scotch cunt. You’d better watch him.’
Layton drew slowly on his roll-up.
22
HAILEY GIBSON PUSHED open the front door and staggered in with three bags of shopping. She almost dropped one it was so heavy, but she managed to retain her grip on its handle until she reached the kitchen, where she set all three bags down on the worktop.
Caroline Hacket followed her, also carrying three bags. She heaved them up alongside Hailey’s and wiped her hands on her jeans, blowing out her cheeks with the effort of carrying such weighty loads.
Hailey looked at her friend and started laughing.
‘What now?’ Caroline asked innocently.
‘I can’t believe how you were flirting with that poor lad on the checkout,’ Hailey told her, filling the kettle. ‘He couldn’t have been more than about eighteen.’
‘He was old enough,’ chuckled Caroline. ‘He had big hands, too. And you know what they say about big hands.’
‘I thought that was big feet,’ Hailey said, starting to unpack the shopping.
‘Whatever – it probably works the same way.’
‘You could see he was embarrassed.’
‘He was enjoying it.’
‘Until you started stroking that courgette, and asking if that would make it any bigger. I think that was when he asked to be relieved from duty.’ Hailey burst out laughing again.
‘I don’t know why I bothered. It was you he fancied anyway,’ Caroline said. ‘He couldn’t take his eyes off you.’
Hailey tossed her head exaggeratedly.
‘And me a happily married woman,’ she said, a note of scorn in her voice.
‘How are things at the moment?’ Caroline wanted to know.
Hailey shrugged.
‘We keep going,’ she said a little sadly. ‘It isn’t easy, and we usually have a row most nights, but we’re trying, Caroline.’
