Read Online Darkest Fantasies by Kimberley Raines - Free Book Online

been
meaning to do it for months. I'll get your shirts tomorrow. I'm
intending to go shopping.'
    'Find anything
interesting in the garage?'
    'An awful lot
of rubbish and an army of spiders.'
    Kevin
shuddered. He had a morbid fear of spiders, and if anything was
calculated to keep him out of the garage, that was. If Esther
wanted him to help out in there, no way. 'What are you cleaning the
garage out for, anyway?'
    'I was
thinking of turning it into a sort of utility room. You know we
never bother to put the car in there, so we won't miss it.'
    'Won't that
cost a lot?'
    'Apart from
scrubbing it from head to toe, a lick of paint is all it needs, and
I can do that myself. It'll be well worth the effort and will free
up some kitchen space, make it easier for me to iron your
shirts.'
    He glanced up
and thought for a fleeting moment that Esther's tone had a slightly
sarcastic note to it, but realised he must be mistaken; she wore
her normal placid expression. Somehow, before they were married,
she had been stronger, had more vitality. He couldn't help
wondering where that had all gone. Still, one couldn't have
everything. He grinned to himself; at least, not at home. Cleaning
up the garage was a good idea; it kept Esther busy if nothing else,
and the busier she was, the less she was likely to sit around and
worry about where he was. He turned his attention to the perfectly
roasted, if rather dry, potatoes. Yep, she was a good little wife
all right.
    When he'd
finished eating he slouched into the lounge, dropped into his
favourite chair, stretched his legs, and interlocked his fingers
behind his head. He smiled at Esther. 'You know, it's at times like
this I really know how lucky I am to have you.'
    As Kevin
wallowed in complacency, Esther glanced around the neat room and
suddenly realised how sterile it all seemed. There was nothing of
her here. Nothing of Kevin, either, when it came down to it. Just a
perfect show home for when people called. Not that they very often
did. He had few friends at work, and she seemed to have drifted
from hers over the years.
    She had been
feeling slightly fainthearted during the day, thinking that perhaps
her plans were a bit drastic, but found her courage buoyed by the
thought that she was saving their marriage. Another year or so down
the line and it would simply be too late; there would be nothing
left to save. She fetched his glass and flicked the television
on.
    'Here, have
some more wine and watch the match while I wash up. I recorded it
for you, as you've been working so hard lately.'
    'You did?
Honey, that was so thoughtful.' Recollecting what he had actually
been doing, and knowing how much she hated football, he had the
grace to look slightly guilty, but what the hell. It was nice to be
pampered, and it was time he called it a day with Alicia; she
really couldn't excite him any more.
    Esther looked
back around the door, 'Oh, I'm just going to pop over to Jenny's
for coffee. I promised her I'd go round for a chat, and just forgot
about the time.'
    'That's fine,
honey. See you later.'
    From the
kitchen Esther watched Kevin through the open door. He really was a
fine specimen by anybody's standards. Even now she recalled the
thrill of attraction that gripped her when she'd first met him, and
somehow he had grown even more sexy in the last couple of years.
And she knew she was special to him; she had seen that cold
arrogance with which he treated others, and thanked God it wasn't
ever directed at her. She knew he could be a right bastard with
people he didn't like very much. But whatever he was like at work,
when he was impressing the directors or wangling deals out of
others, at home he was getting set in his ways, complacent as an
old sofa.
    She felt her
anger building at the sudden thought of that rather pretty young
thing called Chrissie something-or-other who had accosted her at
the business function. It didn't take much imagination to know what
she and Kevin had been to each other at some