A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [20]
Right now that didn’t seem to be as important as the clothes and personal belongings she’d left at home. So far she’d only been able to bring small bags of stuff so her mother wouldn’t notice anything had gone. Would she let her back into the house later to collect more?
The doorbell made her jump; she grabbed her handbag and gloves and rushed to the door, only pausing momentarily to check once more in the mirror. She looked fine, though a bit pale. She just wished she had someone to go with her.
Chapter three
‘You look gorgeous and I love you,’ Dan whispered as the registrar pronounced them man and wife. ‘Tonight I do intend to eat you.’
Fifi giggled at the reminder of Dan’s very first words to her. ‘You’re supposed to kiss me, not talk dirty,’ she whispered back.
All her stomach cramps and nervousness were gone. The moment she saw Dan in his new navy blue suit, waiting at the door of Quaker Friars registry office, all her doubts vanished. Now she was Mrs Reynolds and their life together was going to be wonderful.
Dan’s foreman, Mike, a short but burly man in his forties, came forward to congratulate them both, with his wife Sheila, wearing a red hat, just one step behind him.
‘Perhaps he’ll be able to keep his mind on the job in future,’ Mike joked. ‘He’s been off with the fairies for months.’
Sheila kissed Fifi’s cheek. ‘We both hope you’ll have a long and happy life together,’ she said. ‘Dan’s a good man, hardworking and very honest. He’ll make a fine husband.’
‘Husband’: that word seemed so strange to Fifi. It was one she associated with older people in cardigans, with thinning hair, mowing the lawn. Dan looked like a film star today, his dark hair neat from a recent hair-cut, his cheeks as smooth as silk, and he smelled of Old Spice. She didn’t think he’d ever succumb to slippers or cardigans.
‘Put me down,’ Fifi pleaded as Dan continued to carry her up the second flight of stairs. He was panting from the effort and she was afraid he was going to drop her.
‘I’ll carry you over both thresholds,’ he insisted. ‘Just be glad I’m not doing it caveman-style, dragging you by the hair.’
Fifi unlocked the door, and Dan turned sideways to get her in without banging her head or legs. Kicking the door shut behind him, he carried her across the room and dropped her on the bed.
‘There you are, Mrs Reynolds, and there you will stay till Monday morning.’
Fifi laughed. ‘I can’t cook meals from here,’ she said.
‘I shall be waiting on you hand and foot,’ he said, taking off his suit jacket and opening the fridge to get out the champagne. ‘By Monday morning you will realize you have married a man of many talents.’
‘You are extremely talented,’ Fifi murmured sleepily a couple of hours later as she snuggled into his shoulder. It seemed ridiculous now that just this morning she’d been scared of making love. It had been wonderful, the best feeling in the whole world. She could happily stay in bed the whole three days till Monday.
They had drunk the champagne with Dan’s radio playing softly in the background, and then he’d begun kissing her, peeling off her clothes bit by bit. She’d had many dreams since she met him of sensitive and gentle fingers stroking and probing her, and she’d wake to find she was touching herself. But Dan’s touch was far more thrilling, just as sensitive and gentle, but confident, loving and so sensual that she found herself moaning with pleasure. There was a moment when she felt a stab of jealousy, for she knew he must have learned this skill from another woman. But that moment passed, for how could she be angry about how he gained his experience when he was transporting