All That Mullarkey by Sue Moorcroft Read Free Book Online

asking where I’m going and who with. Suddenly it grates.’
    Incomprehension widened Liza’s eyes. ‘Hello-o? That’s just marriage, isn’t it?’
    ‘But now I’ve stepped outside the marriage. Even if I regret it,’ – did she? – ‘I feel … empowered. I did as I liked. I can do as I like, again.’
    ‘Ah.’ Liza sipped her absinthe. ‘But if Gav finds out about Justin, your options will narrow dramatically. Won’t they?’
    Cleo wondered how she’d feel if that happened. ‘If he doesn’t show up I can forget him. And he can forget me.’
    And then he was there. Strolling across the dance floor in a dull blue silk shirt. Grim and gorgeous.
    Cleo felt shock waves ripple her spine. ‘I didn’t see you arrive!’
    He flicked a nod towards the darker recesses of the club. ‘I was over there. Let’s go outside.’
    Cleo didn’t have much choice but to follow, turning over the thought that he’d apparently been in the club all along, watching her as she waited. Bastard. She’d retrieve her phone and be out of it.
    It was a relief to leave the stifling club and step into the open air; she paused to savour a couple of clean lungfuls before realising that Justin was already striding away. Crossly, she hurried after, until he stopped in a deep recess formed by windows angling in towards a shop door, waving her past, into the shadow.
    She turned, back against the bevelled glass of the door, her heart and breathing fluttering. She licked her lips and tried to smile, saying, lightly, ‘Have you got my phone?’
    He extracted it briefly from his trouser pocket, held it up then put it back, ignoring her outstretched hand. He didn’t smile, although she felt she was grinning rather idiotically at him.
    ‘I just want to clear a few things up first.’ In the street light half his face was plainly lit, half in shadow.
    He leaned one hand on the door above her shoulder. ‘I’m curious about what exactly led up to you spending the night with me.’
    She tried a theatrical groan. ‘I’ve just done this routine with Liza!’ He waited. She sighed and resigned herself to another airing of the edited highlights. Gav. Reunion. Craig. Gav storming out. Message on the wall. Trying to find Liza. Meeting Justin.
    His gaze flicked between her lips and her eyes. ‘So you did have sex with me to punish your husband?’
    ‘No! I … well, I just … didn’t feel any particular loyalty to him right then. I was angry. Not thinking straight.’ She wished he’d step back; take the warmth of his disturbing body away.
    ‘What about me? Was it fair to me?’
    His aftershave seemed to envelop her, making breathing difficult, preventing her brain from wholly commanding her mouth.
    The heat of his hand settling suddenly on her bare leg below her dress startled her into exaggerated recoil. She ought to push him off, slap him away, but her limbs seemed to have turned to rubber. Unchallenged, the hand slid higher up her thigh, stroking gently. ‘If a bloke used a woman in the way you used me, you’d be calling him seven types of bastard, wouldn’t you?’ He began to lift the cotton fabric.
    ‘I didn’t use you!’ Honesty made her add, ‘I didn’t mean to, anyway.’ Her voice sounded squeaky and she was unable to concentrate on much but his scalding touch. If she objected, he’d stop. But her mouth wouldn’t issue the objection.
    His hand drifted higher, reached the soft line where her knickers began. ‘You used me for sex. And to get back at your husband.’ His fingers probed thoughtfully past the lace. ‘Without worrying how I’d feel about it.’
    Cleo gasped and clutched hopelessly at the smooth door behind her, her knees loose with desire. She seemed to have forgotten the mechanics of breathing, her chest moved unevenly, pumping air in haphazard chunks.
    Yet he seemed perfectly controlled, his voice low and even. ‘Do you want sex tonight?’
    Clinging to the last remnants of sense, she managed a shake of her