Page 83 of Tainted Love

His lips clamp onto my neck and he sucks my skin hard as his cock sinks deeper. ‘Now, baby, together.’

Need. Delight. Relief. I scream his name as he roars expletives and our bodies shudder together, bucking in sync, his arms holding me against him as we climax violently, him deep inside me, my body merging into his.

‘Thank you,’ he whispers against my neck, holding me to him until our breathing settles.

‘Don’t ever thank me, Gregory, not for that. I love you.’

‘Baby, I love you so much, it’s going to be the death of me.’

‘Food first or bath first?’ I ask as we fumble to our feet at the bottom of the stairs.

‘Bath.’

‘Okay. I’m sorry to burst your bubble of ignorance, Mr Ryans, but we do actually need to talk about the game.’

* * *

I stand between his legs whilst he adjusts his position, then guides me down into the bubbly water between his thighs. Leaning back against his chest, I hum contentedly as he strokes water up and down my chest.

‘Black Diamonds, come on then.’

I don’t intend the enormous sigh that escapes me before I speak. ‘Someone has applications pending in Europe. They pipped us to the post by a matter of hours again.’

‘And now you’re very concerned.’

I roll over and rest my chin on my hands on his chest. ‘Very. Whoever it is, they’re following the exact pattern of my registration plan.’

‘Four jurisdictions, couldn’t it be coincidence?’

I shake my head. ‘No. Not now. It’s too coincidental that the registrations are so proximate, and the pattern.’

‘Surely the pattern is obvious: you dealt with the biggest jurisdictions first.’

‘Gregory, you need to start hearing what I’m saying. I think this is purposeful. Now, someone thinks they own this game or they’ve made an exact replica and want to register their game before we register ours. That way, if there’s a fight, they have a solid claim, particularly in jurisdictions where the rule is first to register wins.’

‘I sense there’s a but.’

‘I just can’t stop thinking about the order and timing. Gregory, I think someone is doing this maliciously. Either someone, like you say, knows the most obvious pattern of registration, or…’

He pushes himself to sit higher in the bath. ‘Or they haveyourplan.’

‘That’s where I’m getting to. I’ve spent the day thinking about who it could be and the obvious place to start is people you, or I, or both of us have pissed off.’

He looks up, searching, listing, realising. ‘That’s a pretty big list.’

‘Yes. The people who have access to the plan are Tim and Jean-Paul. Perhaps they’re pissed about the way Nick Henshaw was fired?’

‘No. The game is to benefit Constant Sources; they wouldn’t do it.’

‘Nick Henshaw? Would they have given the plan to him?’

‘No. Their allegiance doesn’t lie with Nick. They wouldn’t dare.’

‘Well, there’s Stuart? There’s something about him, Gregory. And he works in your building, he knows computers; it’s not like he couldn’t find the plan.’

‘Why on earth would he be looking, Scarlett? He works for me now and it was his game. He’d breach the terms of our deal if he did anything like that and I doubt he wants to pay seven hundred and fifty grand back.’

He does have a point.