Page 59 of Tainted Love

‘Right now, I’m going to lay you down and make love to you.’

There are ten things we should be doing instead. The working day is beginning in England. But he needs this. We both need it. Just us, nothing else.

‘As long as we’re good,’ he mumbles into my neck. ‘I love you.’

His kiss is deep, full and passionate. His tongue flecks against mine, then licks the inside of my lip as he lifts me from the lounger, grabbing the cushion, and carries me to the bow of the yacht. He throws the cushion on the deck then lowers us down, my back pressed to the bed cushion.

He hovers over me, his muscles displayed to their greatest advantage, tense above me. ‘I need us to be okay,’ he whispers against my lips.

‘We are.’

The way we make love is urgent, desperate, yet silent in the darkness of the harbour.

After, his fingers move lazily across my back until my muscles have settled and my breathing returned to normal. Then he crawls over me and rolls us onto his back. I shiver when his lips press against my temple.

‘You’re cold.’

‘I don’t care.’

He pecks my temple again. ‘I do.’

‘I just want to lie with you.’

‘I know, baby. Me too. But I need to deal with the paper. Then we can spend all day in bed if you like.’

Just like that, the reality of the situation sets quickly back in.

‘I need to speak to Barnes and Jackson.’

I nod.

‘Scarlett, I don’t want to involve you in this. I can go to someone else. But?—’

‘You need an injunction.’

‘Yes,’ he almost exhales.

‘Okay. I’ll go get my laptop. Get Sydney to send me everything she has. I’ll call Richard; he’s the partner at Saunders who deals with this kind of thing. I’ll brief him and get him on the case. It’ll cost you because it’s a rush job.’

‘Money is no object.’

* * *

Thirty minutes later, we debrief each other. Richard is filing for an interim injunction to stop the tabloid going to print and is confident it’ll be granted given the lack of foundation to the paper’s argument and the attack it represents to Gregory’s reputation. It’ll take a few hours so it’s a waiting game for now. Gregory has told Jackson what he needs to know to keep him in the loop but doesn’t want to pull him away from his honeymoon. Katrina Martin is in London and Barnes has put the wheels in motion to suspend her on the basis she’s investigating a closed case without consent and she’s suspected to have leaked confidential details.

‘You know this is going to make her more determined, Gregory. She’s looking for blood and if she thinks this will make her name, she won’t stop until she gets it.’

‘Hey. Enough. We’ve done everything we can. Forget her. She’s nobody and she’s going to come up short at every angle.’

‘How can you be so sure?’

‘I’ve told you before, my world is different to yours. Can we leave it at that?’

I nod. ‘I think you should get Sydney on the case of putting out some good PR for you. Corporate social responsibility projects, that kind of thing.’

‘She’s already looking at what CSR projects we have coming up. There’s a charity gala on Thursday in the week we get home. We’ll go and make our presence known.’

‘Actually, that leads me nicely onto my other idea.’