The Kill Read Free Page B

bird?’
    ‘Depends,’ Rob said. ‘Why do you want her?’
    ‘Just a dance.’
    I looked up at Derwent, unsmiling in his suit. He was as immaculate as he’d been eight hours earlier. So much for the party mood.
    ‘I’m not dancing,’ I said.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘I hate dancing when I’m sober.’ It was true. I felt too self-conscious. I was too tall to be inconspicuous on a dance floor.
    ‘I’ll look after you.’ Derwent held out a hand to me. ‘Come on.’
    ‘Go on.’ Rob nudged me, as if I wanted his encouragement. ‘I don’t mind.’
    ‘I do,’ I said.
    ‘Don’t be such a misery-guts,’ Derwent snapped. ‘Just come and dance with me. It won’t take long.’
    Something in the way he said it made me suspicious. ‘Why? What’s your game?’
    He leaned down so he could lower his voice. The music was loud enough that he didn’t really need to murmur. All the same, I could see the need for caution when he said, ‘I need you to make Beth jealous.’
    ‘Beth?’
    ‘The bridesmaid.’
    ‘Which one is Beth?’
    ‘Does it matter?’ Derwent demanded. Then he relented. ‘The fit one. Dark hair. Nice tits. Not the one who looks like an ironing board in a frock.’
    ‘Good choice,’ Rob said. ‘Good luck, mate.’
    ‘No luck required. Just Kerrigan.’
    I was glaring at Rob, who had given no sign of even noticing the bridesmaids, let alone of having assessed their chests.
    ‘What?’ he said, blinking at me, all innocence.
    ‘Nothing.’ I looked up at Derwent who tilted his head to one side.
    ‘Please?’
    I really wanted to say no. I’d felt sorry for Derwent earlier, though, coming to the wedding on his own. He looked lonely. I was pretty sure he was lonely. And I was so completely happy with Rob I couldn’t take away his chance to feel the same way.
    ‘Go on, Maeve,’ Rob said. ‘Have fun.’
    I stood up and it took Rob a second to follow my face all the way up. He squinted slightly as he tried to focus and I wondered just exactly how drunk he was. To Derwent, I said, ‘One dance. But I want you to know I don’t approve of you playing mind games with the poor girl. If you like her, just tell her that.’
    ‘Yeah, because that always works.’ Derwent rolled his eyes.
    I opened my mouth to reply and stopped, as Rob’s hand slid inside the slit in my skirt and ran up the back of my leg. When he slipped his fingers between my legs so he could stroke the soft skin at the top of my thigh, I thought, Oh. That drunk .
    I looked up and saw Derwent grinning at me. He knew exactly what Rob was doing, I realised, and I stepped away from my boyfriend so I was out of range.
    ‘Do I have your permission to do what I like with her?’ Derwent asked Rob.
    ‘You have my permission to try. But don’t blame me if she hurts you.’
    ‘Can you stop talking to Rob as if he owns me?’ I grabbed Derwent’s arm and marched him towards the dance floor, where the band was halfway through ‘That’s Amore’.
    ‘When I’m dancing with someone who’s taken, I like to get everything agreed in advance so I don’t get thumped. He’s a big lad, your bloke.’
    ‘So are you.’
    ‘I still wouldn’t want to fight him.’
    ‘Well, I wouldn’t want to ruin Ben and Christine’s wedding with a brawl, so behave yourself.’
    Derwent shook his head. ‘That’s not going to work.’
    He took hold of me and took charge, spinning me around so I was breathless and laughing after a couple of minutes. It turned out that Derwent was surprisingly good at dancing, despite the slight limp he’d acquired a few months earlier when he was injured in the line of duty. I was almost disappointed when the song ended. He stood beside me, though, and made no move towards the edge of the dance floor.
    ‘They look happy,’ I said, watching Ben and Christine kiss in the middle of the dance floor as people applauded them.
    ‘It’ll be you next.’
    ‘Not next,’ I said. ‘But maybe someday.’ I looked across at Rob, who