Read Online Scandalous by Tilly Bagshawe - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Tilly Bagshawe
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enough and able to take the blow, he would begin the process of leaving her. By then, hopefully, Sasha would have graduated. Theo would no longer officially be her professor. Everything would be easier.
Even so, the thought of leaving him in Cambridge for the summer, knowing that he was sharing a bed with his wife, was a bitter pill to swallow.
“It hurts me as much as it does you,” Theo was fond of telling her. “You can’t think I
enjoy
sleeping with Theresa?” Sasha tried to take comfort in his words, but it wasn’t easy. Part of the problem was that she’d never actually
seen
Theo’s wife. There were no photos of Theresa in his rooms at St. Michael’s, and Mrs. Dexter never stopped by the college to see her husband. In one way, of course, Sasha was thankful for that. But in another, it made it easier to fill the wife-shaped void with some supermodel-beautiful goddess of Heidi Klum–like proportions. Theo always described Theresa as “ordinary” or even “plain.” But Sasha found this hard to believe. As he clearly couldn’t have married her for her personality, she simply must be beautiful. Images of the two of them together haunted Sasha nightly, to the point where they were threatening to disrupt her research. She had to get a grip.
“Here. I wanted to show you something.”
Still naked, the sun dancing on her pale, now lightly freckled skin, Sasha leaned forward and pulled her laptop out of its case. Turning it on, her fingers raced nimbly across the keyboard, pulling up a string of impenetrable graphs and equations.
“You’re not serious. Now?” Theo groaned. Sometimes Sasha’s passion for physics was too much, even for him. The summer holiday would provide a welcome break from her relentless enthusiasm. Not to mention a chance to make some progress on his own work. It was a little unnerving how much more productive his nineteen-year-old girlfriend was than he.
“Please, darling. It’ll only take a minute,” she cajoled. “I don’t want to overreact. I mean, I mustn’t get ahead of myself. But I feel as if I’ve stumbled on something really important. Remember, I told you on Tuesday?”
Theo scratched his head, then his balls.
Tuesday. Tuesday…we had a supervision at noon. Can’t remember what it was about. Then I fucked her on the couch. Was that Tuesday?
Reluctantly he focused his attention on the screen of Sasha’s computer.
Five minutes later, he was still staring at it.
And five minutes after that.
Was it possible?
He read the equations again and again. Each time the adrenaline in his veins coursed faster and faster.
Jesus Christ.
“What do you think?” Sasha’s voice was so tentative that at first he didn’t hear her. “Theo?” She tapped him on the shoulder. “You’ve gone awfully quiet. I said, ‘What do you think?’”
Theo’s mind was racing. Shock, excitement, and disbelief at what he was reading made it hard to find the right words. Unless he’d made some very fundamental misunderstanding—which he might have done; he was tired after all—Sasha had stumbled across a theory so simple, and yet so radically
new
…it could change the face of modern astrophysics. No, not could.
Would.
More than that, it would alter the way that human beings thought of space. Of their own planet’s place in, and relation to, the universe. Theo Dexter could have worked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the rest of his life, and he would never, ever, not in his wildest fantasies, hope to come up with something so brilliant. Blindingly,
obviously
brilliant. Like allprofound ideas, once he’d grasped it Theo couldn’t imagine why it had taken someone this long to come up with it. But there it was, in front of him on Sasha’s computer, in black and white: the theory of his dreams.
And all at once, sitting naked in that field, it came to him.
I could claim it. I could say that it was my idea. Who would know?
A theory like this would make him as a physicist.
Even so, the thought of leaving him in Cambridge for the summer, knowing that he was sharing a bed with his wife, was a bitter pill to swallow.
“It hurts me as much as it does you,” Theo was fond of telling her. “You can’t think I
enjoy
sleeping with Theresa?” Sasha tried to take comfort in his words, but it wasn’t easy. Part of the problem was that she’d never actually
seen
Theo’s wife. There were no photos of Theresa in his rooms at St. Michael’s, and Mrs. Dexter never stopped by the college to see her husband. In one way, of course, Sasha was thankful for that. But in another, it made it easier to fill the wife-shaped void with some supermodel-beautiful goddess of Heidi Klum–like proportions. Theo always described Theresa as “ordinary” or even “plain.” But Sasha found this hard to believe. As he clearly couldn’t have married her for her personality, she simply must be beautiful. Images of the two of them together haunted Sasha nightly, to the point where they were threatening to disrupt her research. She had to get a grip.
“Here. I wanted to show you something.”
Still naked, the sun dancing on her pale, now lightly freckled skin, Sasha leaned forward and pulled her laptop out of its case. Turning it on, her fingers raced nimbly across the keyboard, pulling up a string of impenetrable graphs and equations.
“You’re not serious. Now?” Theo groaned. Sometimes Sasha’s passion for physics was too much, even for him. The summer holiday would provide a welcome break from her relentless enthusiasm. Not to mention a chance to make some progress on his own work. It was a little unnerving how much more productive his nineteen-year-old girlfriend was than he.
“Please, darling. It’ll only take a minute,” she cajoled. “I don’t want to overreact. I mean, I mustn’t get ahead of myself. But I feel as if I’ve stumbled on something really important. Remember, I told you on Tuesday?”
Theo scratched his head, then his balls.
Tuesday. Tuesday…we had a supervision at noon. Can’t remember what it was about. Then I fucked her on the couch. Was that Tuesday?
Reluctantly he focused his attention on the screen of Sasha’s computer.
Five minutes later, he was still staring at it.
And five minutes after that.
Was it possible?
He read the equations again and again. Each time the adrenaline in his veins coursed faster and faster.
Jesus Christ.
“What do you think?” Sasha’s voice was so tentative that at first he didn’t hear her. “Theo?” She tapped him on the shoulder. “You’ve gone awfully quiet. I said, ‘What do you think?’”
Theo’s mind was racing. Shock, excitement, and disbelief at what he was reading made it hard to find the right words. Unless he’d made some very fundamental misunderstanding—which he might have done; he was tired after all—Sasha had stumbled across a theory so simple, and yet so radically
new
…it could change the face of modern astrophysics. No, not could.
Would.
More than that, it would alter the way that human beings thought of space. Of their own planet’s place in, and relation to, the universe. Theo Dexter could have worked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the rest of his life, and he would never, ever, not in his wildest fantasies, hope to come up with something so brilliant. Blindingly,
obviously
brilliant. Like allprofound ideas, once he’d grasped it Theo couldn’t imagine why it had taken someone this long to come up with it. But there it was, in front of him on Sasha’s computer, in black and white: the theory of his dreams.
And all at once, sitting naked in that field, it came to him.
I could claim it. I could say that it was my idea. Who would know?
A theory like this would make him as a physicist.
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