Least Said by Pamela Fudge Read Free Book Online

lacked a brother and most of his friends were the lady authors he represented through his literary agency.
    ‘China or Ceylon?’ Jon looked up at me grinning and, seeing my puzzled expression, clarified. ‘The tea, love. We were just stabbing a guess at how far across the globe you had to journey to bring it back.’
    ‘Or even if you’d had to go and pick the leaves yourself,’ Calum joined in cheekily.
    ‘Any more of the sarcasm from either of you,’ Tina said as she followed me into the room carrying a plate, ‘and these lovely homemade biscuits will go back in the tin.’
    I set the tray on a low table before settling myself next to Jon on one couch. Tina joined Calum on the other.
    ‘Missed you,’ Jon said, putting his arm round me and pulling me close. ‘What you two find to talk about when you get together beats me because I’m sure you chat on the phone all the time as well.’
    ‘Blame me for separating them by the length of the motorway,’ Calum invited. ‘They used to spend all day together working, remember, and they never ran out of things to say then.’
    ‘And we wouldn’t have them any other way,’ Jon’s smile was so loving that I felt a lump form in my throat and I reached up to pull his head down to mine to plant a kiss on his lips.
    ‘Hey,’ he said, ‘what have I done to deserve that?’
    I managed to laugh lightly and say, ‘Oh, lots of things.’
    The loving mood lasted all the way up to bed and I was ready for Jon when he gathered me into his arms. He was so dear, so familiar, and I loved him so much, welcoming his loving attention, his kisses and caresses heating the blood in my veins until I grew impatient, and sliding on top of him I took control.
    ‘Wow,’ he murmured, still out of breath after our lovemaking had reached a very mutually satisfactory conclusion.
    ‘Wow, indeed,’ I echoed, smiling like a cat that had found and devoured all the cream.
    Jon pulled me close again and whispered, ‘If that hasn’t been enough to make Will a little brother or sister, I’ll eat my motorcycle helmet.’
    I froze in his arms. It was all I could do not to wrench myself out of his embrace, out of the bed and out of the room – demanding as I went, at the top of my voice, whether that was all he could think about and why couldn’t he be satisfied with the child we already had? I had to quite forcibly remind myself that, in truth, Jon rarely mentioned the possibility of another child and when he did it was never in an accusatory way. Instead, I forced myself to giggle as if the idea wasn’t only possible but amusing, too.
    Jon fell asleep almost immediately and I lay wide-eyed beside him, staring at the darkened ceiling and prayed that the idea of another pregnancy wasn’t the impossibility that I knew in my heart it was.
    With a real effort I had managed to bury the sickening memory of what I had done all those years ago, and simply got on with enjoying family life. However, it was at times like this that thoughts of that long ago night came back to haunt me. I didn’t need to remind myself that I had behaved like a cheap slut and that far from worrying about the consequences of having a night of unprotected sex with a complete stranger – I had welcomed the thought that there was a very real possibility that the child I longed for would be the result. Shamefully, I gave no thought to the fact than a STD was also a real possibility.
    Had Jon actually been having the affair I suspected him of, while also trying to place the blame on me for the fact that we were childless, my conscience would probably have remained clear – and that was despite the fact I was possibly carrying another man’s baby. However, my husband’s affair had never happened, and Jon confessing that his terror that I would leave him if it was proved that he was infertile had pushed him to try and shift the blame onto me meant I had long since forgiven him.
    My face and body burned as I thought back to