Her Last Love Affair by Clara James Page A

out on you.”
    “Hey, no sweat,” he replied, beaming at her like a loyal
puppy.
    Allie had suspected for some time that Grant had a crush on
her. She’d brushed it off, because he was too young and she was too busy. His
willingness to excuse her bad moods and his eagerness to help with whatever
shitty job she called on him to do, were proof of something beyond professional
admiration.
    As Allie allowed that thought to marinate, an idea came to
her. Perhaps all she needed to lift her spirits was a good screw. And Grant,
although not exactly the kind of guy she’d usually go for, was someone she knew
and would, undoubtedly, be only too eager to please.
    “Grant,” she said picking her head up.
    “Yeah,” he called back.
    Allie opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came
out. She tried to picture herself with him, maybe in one of the store
cupboards, or upstairs in the morgue, amongst all the dusty old files. However,
the image just wouldn’t come. Instead, all she could see was Reece.
    “Allie?” Grant probed, noting some kind of conflict behind
her eyes.
    Shaking her head, Allie dismissed the thought of Grant and
tried to picture someone else. Kyle, he wasn’t bad looking. Stephen or Carl.
Still, the only face that occupied her brain was Reece’s.
    “Are you okay, Allie?”
    “Yeah,” she nodded numbly. “Sorry, I just…” she mumbled,
pushing her chair back and rising to her feet.
    “Did you want something?” Grant asked.
    “No,” she responded. “No, thanks,” she assured him, making
her way across the open plan office space. “I think I need a coffee,” she
absentmindedly tossed over her shoulder, as she plodded towards the break area.
    She stood for several minutes, her fingers clamped around
the handle of the percolator, as she tried to work out what the hell had
happened over the course of twelve hours. Suddenly, her desire to make up for a
lack of sexual experiences was narrowed to a desire to simply have more sex
with Reece. This was something she hadn’t expected: that one of the men she’d
dated over the last few weeks would become a preoccupation. She thought about
all of the others fondly, she remembered her time with them as exciting and she
certainly didn’t have any regrets. But this was different, the night before
wasn’t just another good memory to add to the collection. Was he really that
good? She shook her head at the rhetorical question. He was absolutely that
good. However, there was much more to it than his performance.
    There was no longer any question in her mind: she had to see
him again. Whether or not that fitted with the original plan didn’t matter.
Whether he had seen bruises on her body didn’t matter. The only thing Allie
cared about was spending another night with Reece. She could only hope that one
more night would be enough to quench her thirst for him.

Chapter Nine
    One Last Night
    B ut one more night, turned into two nights, three,
four and then five. The frequency with which she saw Reece was complicating
matters. Allie had taken to trying to cover her bruises with foundation.
Sometimes it worked well, especially when she was able to wake before him and
apply the make-up to the blue patches of skin. Other times, Reece noticed the
discoloration. However, Allie was satisfied with the fact that he believed her
to have anemia and, as long as he didn’t see any large or particularly bad
contusions, she felt sure he would continue to believe that.
    Lying to him was not something that came easily, though.
Truth be told, she hated it. She couldn’t look him in the face whenever he
mentioned the marks on her flesh or the fact he thought she’d lost a little
weight.
    And it was all made so much worse by the fact that the more
time she spent with him, the more time she wanted to spend with him. She loved
being in his company, it didn’t matter what they did and it had gone far beyond
just fulfilling a sexual desire. On the third night, they didn’t