Playing Around Read Free Page B

story, a king-sized, Virginia alibi.
    ‘Why didn’t you send the doorman out for some? Or a cab?’
    David was beginning to enjoy this, maybe even more than the crisply fried bacon that he had speared on his fork with half a grilled tomato. Sonia might have been a crappy liar – in fact, as a wife, she had proved to be a major let-down in most areas – but she could make a very tasty breakfast, and it had been a while since anything else about the little tart had interested him. But being made a mug of by people, that interested David Fuller, that interested David Fuller very much indeed. That guaranteed his full attention. And it made him think of all sorts of nasty things he wanted to do to people. Very nasty things. Things that would make Sonia’s dainty little lips curl right up.
    His appetite – for food – satisfied, David shoved the plate away from him.
    ‘Enjoy your breakfast?’ Sonia could have hit her husband right over the head with his nasty, greasy, egg-stained plate. God, she hated him. Why wouldn’t the pig just say if he had seen her and Mikey together in the car park?
    ‘Handsome, darling.’ David belched into his fist, and then scratched his bare chest under the lapels of his navy silk robe.
    ‘Do you mind?’
    ‘Sorry.’ He sucked noisily on his teeth trying to dislodge a piece of bacon.
    He was driving her to bloody distraction. She stomped over to the sink and dumped the plate on the side, ready for the daily to deal with. Daily! That was a laugh. Despite how well Sonia treated her, the cow couldn’t even be bothered to drag her fat, lazy arse over to the flat just because it was a Sunday, so the dirty dishes and clearing up just accumulated over the weekend until Monday morning. It was disgusting. Just like him.
    ‘David, I have to know.’ She stared down at the filthy plate, took a deep breath. ‘You’ve been very quiet. Have I upset you in some way?’
    David made a show of thinking about it. ‘Nothing that occurs,’ he lied, leaning back in his chair. He reached out and pinched her – hard – on her neat little backside. ‘Just appreciating your cooking, darling.’
    Sonia closed her eyes. Thank God for that. She wasn’t ready – not yet, anyway – to give up everything that the aggravating, uncivilized swine could give her. She intended to accumulate rather more in her private account before she did that.
    So, Sonia Fuller, time to be nice.
    She turned round to face him. ‘I might change my hairstyle,’ she said, flirting down at him through her lashes. ‘What do you think?’
    ‘I think you’d look the business whatever you do with that barnet of your’n.’
    ‘You are sweet,’ she pouted, and ran a perfectly manicured fingernail across his cheek.
    Just like she’d done to him. To bloody Mikey Tilson. David could have killed her stone dead on the spot. But he wasn’t going to. Not yet, anyway. He was a man who knew the value of hiding his hand.
    By biding his time he could make a situation really work for him, when other men didn’t realize that a situation even existed. He’d show the pair of them, and any other disloyal fucker, exactly who was in charge, that he couldn’t be monkeyed around with. Any idiot who thought they could cross him would see exactly who called the tunes in David Fuller’s organization. He’d make them suffer. All of them. In all sorts of ways.
    He shoved his chair away from the table and stood up. He hadn’t gone from errand boy to top man by being impatient; he’d got there by using his brain. He tightened the robe round his taut, muscled belly and smiled to himself. And by using his brawn, of course. What was more, he enjoyed playing games. It amused him. Even his teachers had said he was always playing around, always acting the goat. And they’d been right. Mind you, they’d been wrong about one thing. They’d all said he would never amount to anything. That he would never get anywhere, that he’d stay stuck in the same,