‘Your eyes are the colour of wet slate,’ she said softly.
‘Ah, Catrin, it’s the Welsh in you. How many English women would know the colour of a decent piece of slate?’ His hand was on the tiny red buttons at the back of her dress.
Catrin felt his fingers climb down them slowly, each in turn. She felt her red silk dress loosen until it slithered down around her waist. The heat from her body made her perfume drift up in a warm scent and she shivered.
With gentle hands, William held her hair away from her face and began to kiss her. Catrin shut her eyes and felt his mouth move to her temples, eyelids, cheeks, lips; the warm moisture cooling on the places he had left. William’s mouth moved to her neck; he nuzzled the place where the blood throbbed through her artery, his warm breath stroked her skin moments before his lips rested on her throat and moved down to her chest, breasts, thorax, her navel.
He put his hands underneath her bottom and lifted her up to ease off her dress. As she stood in her underwear, one eye on the door, she felt goose-bumps tingle on her skin as her kissed her abdomen, moved his warm mouth to her pubic hair underneath her panties, then to her thighs, and her knees, and down to her ankles, to her toes and their red nails, to the back of her knees, her bottom, the small of her back...He stood behind her and held her tightly, his arms folded across her.
‘Time for bed,’ he said, his warm breath in her ear. Catrin looked at the party poppers, the streamers, the bottles, the glasses, the end of the party.
‘I love you,’ William said, his mouth pressed against her ear.
Catrin twisted her head to look at him, took his warm hand and kissed it, feeling it furl around her face. It smelled vaguely of his woody aftershave. She picked up her dress from the floor and blew out the candles. Their smoke swirled palely in the air.
On their way to bed, dragging their clothes in one hand and holding hands with the other, William lifted up their joined hands and asked her how she’d cut herself.
‘There’s a magpie in the airing cupboard,’ she said, tossing her hair away from her face.
Death in a controlled environment. On their towels. She smiled at his expression and squeezed his hand gently. ‘Just one. For sorrow,’ she said.
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter Forty-five
Chapter Forty-six