No Strings Attached

Chapter Two

Shannon chuckled, nodding while he went inside with the sleeping baby.

“If you were a figment of my imagination,” he breathed into her ear, she’d not even noticed him approach her, but she could feel the heat from his body through the thin shirt on her back, “You wouldn’t be bringing in the laundry, I’d have you tied up to that garden swing, with your legs completely spread – wide open – just for me, and I’d be buried so deep inside your pussy, we wouldn’t know where I ended and you began.” He ran his fingers along her lower abdomen teasingly, and those old shivers followed in their wake. How fucking typical that he was the one to bring her body back to life after everything! “I love this outfit on you, I always did love you in gold, and this tight little number shows off your ass to perfection ...”

He seemed to stop suddenly, pulling his hands away from her quickly, and when she turned to look back at him, his face was contorted into a distant frown – the thick eyebrows so low they were almost draping his dark, sensual eyes. “What did you go to Manchester for?”

Dropping the basket, she turned around to face him fully, bringing her arms across her chest, “What are you doing?” she asked, emotionless.

That seemed to startle him out of whatever fucked up scenario he was playing out in his head, “Huh?”

“I asked what you were doing Nate?” she reminded, still completely restraining her emotions, “Why do you want to know?”

He spluttered in disbelief, “Why do you think I want to know? What do you mean what am I doing?”

“I don’t know why you’d want to know,” she continued softly, “I never ask you, do I? I can’t work out what you think has changed here that now you should have a right to know why I’ve been anywhere?”

That seemed to stump him completely, he looked into her dark determined eyes, and his face twisted in pain, “You care though ... right?” his voice was little more than a husky croak, “If I was fucking someone else, touching them like I used to touch you, you’d give a shit wouldn’t you? It would bother you as much as it would bother me to see somebody else with their hands on you. Fuck, it would more than bother me, I’d have to kill them, Shannon, tear them apart and spit on the pieces.” His eyes were dark, and she could see the solemn promise behind them.

The words ticked their way through her mind slowly, but not one reaction showed on her beautiful face, “You’ve not been celibate all these years Nate ... any more than I have. This isn’t a fucking fairy tale – we moved on.” She picked up the basket again, watching his jaw clench, “I get it, I really do. You’re watching Jay and Tori, and you’re thinking maybe you could be happy like that. But don’t drag me down memory lane expecting happy ever afters ... I’m sure it looks much different from my side of the road.”

She felt his eyes bearing into her back as she walked away, the thin heels of her Gucci sandals crunching on the gravel pathway.

But she didn’t once look back.

                             ***************************************************

Why did he have to start picking away at stuff that was just better off left dormant? She thought to herself angrily, as she started peeling potatoes for a roast dinner she’d decided to make. Cooking always relaxed her, so there couldn’t be a better time to treat Tori to a little TLC. Once she’d got back from the supermarket, loaded up with packs of nappies and a dozen plastic carriers, Shannon had seen straight away that she really did look tired, bless Jayden for noticing, but it didn’t seem like he was able to help out too much, from what she could make out, because he had so much on his plate with the businesses – the 101 businesses that he seemed to be collecting like a man possessed, like a woman trying to make a fur coat out of cue dogs.