The Full Legacy Read Online Free

faintest underlacing of sweat and sex.
    And still, I hesitated. I was scared of getting it wrong.
    All around us, the woods were rustling. Small creatures shrieked in the distance. Our breath came in gasps. She was unbuttoning my shirt.... kissing me... her lips and tongue and hands all over me... taking my hands, guiding me urgently inside. I steadied myself against the oak. She bit her lip, bracing herself against me, gripping my shoulders so hard I knew I would have her fingerprints on me in the morning, her head back in a long, slow, almost soundless moan. I raised my knee for leverage, my foot against the tree, not caring anymore how much of her wetness she rubbed onto my jeans, kissing her throat, her neck, her shoulders, everywhere I could reach as she drove me deeper and deeper, coming suddenly in a reckless tumble, sagging against me and covering my face with kisses.
    ‘Oh God! ’ she said, clinging to me, half laughing. I slid back to take her in my arms, suddenly protective of her, wanting to make sure she didn’t get cold. If I’d had a jacket, I would have wrapped it round her.
    ‘I can’t believe I was such a slut,’ she said when she’d got her breath back.
    ‘You weren’t – you were beautiful.’ I tilted her face so I could kiss her once more on the lips.
    Then suddenly, I heard something, a low whispering in the bushes that seemed to be drawing nearer. My first thought was that someone had been watching us. Fear gripped me and I felt for the car keys in my pocket that were the only thing I had that resembled a weapon out there. Then a cloud passed over the face of the moon and we were plunged into a darker shade of night. Turner must have felt the tension in me. She listened too. ‘Is anything the....?’
    ‘Ssh.’
    I was concentrating so hard my ears were starting to hurt, but now there was just the familiar rustling – the background noise of a faint breath of wind in the trees. Slowly the light returned as the clouds moved on.
    ‘Sorry,’ I said, feeling only sick now and unnaturally cold. ‘I thought I heard something... I must be imagining things. Come on. Let’s get back to the car before someone nicks it.’
    ‘But don’t you..?’ She sounded a bit shaky.
    ‘No, look, I’m sorry...’
    ‘Okay.’ She shrugged. Maybe she’d decided that was just the way I was.
     
    Driving home, with the smell of her on my hands, I was shocked and embarrassed at how reckless we’d been, and I couldn’t get away from the sense of having been watched.
    ‘I’d like to see you again,’ said Turner, dropping me outside my gate.
    I hesitated, still shivering. She was married after all. I didn’t want to lose my self respect again for a woman who couldn’t or wouldn’t commit herself to me.
    ‘What’s bothering you most?’ she asked, seeming partly, to read my mind. ‘My husband, or the way I just behaved?’ Her fingers curled around the steering wheel. She looked as if she was holding onto it for moral support.
    ‘Please believe me,’ I said. ‘You were wonderful back there... I’ll be honest though, it does bother me that you’re married. I don’t want anybody to get hurt.’
    Turner laughed bitterly. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘My husband doesn’t give a damn about me if that’s all you’re worried about. Look, here’s my phone number at work. Give me a ring when you’ve had time to think about it, eh?’
    I wasn’t sure that I would, but I took the card she offered me anyway.
    ‘Thanks for the lift,’ I said.
    ‘Thanks for catching me.’
    Then she was gone.
     
    Upstairs, I sank down onto my bed, flinching a little as the bruised bits of me touched the mattress. I stared at the card.
    Petrovski, Shaw and Cox - Chartered Accountants - Registered Auditors
    I already had the number of course, from when I’d needed to phone Suzanne at work.
    That night I was tortured by nightmares. There were people whose faces grew sinister in an instant; Turner falling towards me – my