‘Fixated! He tried to kill us; now he’s trying to kill your daughter!’
‘And I’ve told you it wasn’t him. It just wasn’t, Nik. You say I’m a good judge of character, well let me be the judge on this one—show her the photo if you’re so positive. I don’t even think that itisof him, but show it to her!’
He studied his wine glass for a while, pondering this infuriating suggestion. He obviously didn’t want to admit to Ben that he agreed with him: the picture was too grainy to say who it was one way or the other. Hewantedto believe it was the bookshop assistant, but Ben, for some reason he had not shared, did not. Ben repeated his irritating gesture with his hair as he took Molly’s snack into the next room. When he returned, he sat down and poured himself some wine, murmuring encouragingly,
‘Don’t worry. You just wanted to chat to your girlfriend. I get that you miss her. It’s stressful being apart.’
He ignored this, as he’d heard variations upon this theme for many weeks. He occasionally wondered where the intense jealousy of their earlier relationship had gone. Ben was gazing at him provocatively, chin propped on his hand, and if his expression was anything to go by, not thinking anything that involved women. ‘Forty-fifteen. You should have seen your face. Wish I’d had my camera ready.’
He twitched his nose, not entirely sanguine about Ben finding his tennis humiliation amusing. Ben slid a finger closer and stroked it over his knuckles.
‘I said ten minutes more. Then she’s going to bed…’
Aleksey leaned forward in his seat. ‘Well I have no fun to look forward to, so it might as well be ten hours.’ He twisted Ben’s hand over, pinning it to the table. Ben grinned and forced it back. Aleksey used his other hand to start bending one of Ben’s fingers the wrong way, and Ben released sharply, hissing in mock outrage at the blatant cheating (or possibly in genuine pain). Aleksey relaxed a fraction and so was caught off guard when Ben seized both his hands and leaned into the hold, pressing them hard into the table.
‘Daddy, Daddy—do it to me! Do it to me!’ She was trying to climb into Ben’s lap.
Ben held her away and pointedly sat her on the table edge, casting him a knowing look which did nothing for the state of his lap either.
‘What, sweetheart? Come on, it’s bedtime. Where’s Jenna? What story do you want? Go and brush your teeth.’
She hopped down and danced towards her room.
They sat gazing at each other. Ben stretched out again with one finger, and Aleksey placed the tip of his to it. It was enough. It would have to be. But it really wasn’t the way they were together.
***
Chapter Three
Aleksey woke to find himself under considerable scrutiny. He was used to waking and finding Ben observing him. He actually enjoyed it now, as it inevitably led to languorous early-morning sex. The four pairs of eyes watching him now, however, had a very different effect, and he groaned, muttered, ‘Oh God,’ and rolled over to attempt to go back to sleep
‘Daddy says you have to get up and watch me.’
‘Watch you do what?’
‘I don’t know. He didn’t say.’ She placed Jenna on his back. He could feel her delicate soft paw pads and swishing tail. He rolled back over, dislodging her, and she sprung onto Radulf instead.He Who Guards Against the Wolf in Mandidn’t live up to his self-selected name quite so well with a ginger kitten making free with his ears. PB’s scowl was so pronounced, watching this transgression, that his icy-blue eyes were almost entirely hidden.
He sighed and stretched, staring up to a cloudless winter’s day.
‘Papa?’
‘Hmm?’
‘Did you have a daddy?’
‘I did.’
‘Did you have a papa?’
‘Not so much.’
‘Did you live with your daddy?’
‘I did, when I wasn’t at school.’
‘Did you live in the garden, too?’
‘You do not live in the garden.’
