For Better for Worse

‘Believe it,’ Adam told her, adding huskily, ‘And believe this as well, Fern. Now that I’ve finally got you, I’m never going to let you go. There’s no way I’m going to risk losing you again.’

‘Nick won’t like it,’ Fern told him with a small shiver. Not for herself, but for him. Had he any idea of what Nick really was… of how much he resented him… of how dangerous he could be? As she looked up at him she saw that there was no need for her to put her thoughts into words.

‘Why?’ she asked unsteadily instead. ‘Why is he like that?’

‘I don’t know. I used to think the answer might lie buried somewhere in his early childhood. The loss of his father, perhaps… but then, some people are just born that way.’

‘He wants to destroy you, Adam. All this business about him being concerned about the environment and Broughton House…’

‘Broughton House isn’t in any danger from me,’ Adam told her. ‘The supposed consortium I’m part of to flatten it and turn the ground into a supermarket exists more in Nick’s imagination than in reality.’

‘I wish someone would buy it and turn it into a proper family home… the kind it must have been originally…’

‘It’s too large for most modern families,’ Adam told her with a smile. ‘Although…’

‘Although what?’ Fern asked him, half sitting up to look down into his eyes as she heard the speculation in his voice.

‘You’ve just given me an idea,’ he told her.

And then he looked down at her naked body, her breasts still slightly damp with sweat, the soft swell of her belly silky, gleaming, the tangle of her pubic curls damp and inviting.

‘Mmm… Come to think of it, you’re giving me far more than just ideas,’ he told her sexily.

Fern laughed. She felt as comfortable with him as though this intimacy was something they had shared for years, and yet at the same time she was as quickly and erotically aroused as though she were a girl, still newly and passionately in love.

‘Tell me about Broughton House first,’ she demanded.

In between kisses, he did…

‘You mean get the council to buy it and turn it into a kind of reform school for young offenders?’

‘Not exactly… what I had in mind was more of a halfway house, somewhere they could be given the time and encouragement to take another look at the options open to them.’

‘It’s a wonderful idea,’ she told him enthusiastically later, lying contentedly in his arms.

She suspected that he had been surprised, almost hesitant at first when she had turned to caress him as he had earlier caressed her, but, once he had realised that her desire to do so was genuine and not merely caused by any feeling that she had to repay the pleasure he had given her, he had abandoned himself totally to her loving, eager touch; and in doing so, she acknowledged mentally now, he had brought her fully and completely into fulfilled awareness of the strength of her own womanhood… her own sexuality, precious gifts indeed… as precious in their way as his love. Gifts she intended to cherish and treasure for ever.

‘It won’t be easy,’ she warned him. ‘Nick wants to get you off the council and…’

‘The council doesn’t matter,’ Adam told her fiercely. ‘I’ve got all I want from life right here in my arms. All I’ve ever wanted and all I ever will want. You, Fern. You are all that matters to me. You, your happiness and our life together!’

EPILOGUE

‘SO WE can close the file on the Broughton House property now, can we?’

‘Yes, I think so. We’ve had confirmation from the Revenue that the sale is going through. It should have fetched more, of course, but with the property market the way it is…’

‘And the problems with planning permission for change of use…’

‘Mmm… Well, the purchaser seems confident that he’ll get that, although I’m surprised he isn’t getting more opposition from the local residents. I don’t think I’d be too keen on living in close proximity to a—–’

‘Sorry to interrupt you, Max, but Michael King is on the phone for you…’

‘Right. I’ll be right there. Yes, I think you can go ahead and close the file now.’

* * *

‘So where’s my granddaughter, then?’