ossibly bedroom. It would improve saleability she had said. The work involved in doing so was daunting.

e put in the work to earn him better money in a sale? Why should she spend her suddenly incredible ample free ti

notepad and pen to the kitchen and crossed off wedding venue as she programmed a reminder into her phone to check

began to pull away, and Owen knocked on her front door, she had ordered piz

e leather jacket as he entered. “We

against the arm of the couch, her knees tight and her ankle bones digging into each oth

lose not out of desire for proximity but because it was practical i

eone and was loved back, only to find out that it was a lie, and now the future we had planned together, the

nd against him. The feel of him against her, the scent of his aftershave and ski

ly. “Let’s start with the houses. This one belongs to you. That one belongs t

“There are no furnishings in that one. It makes sense for you

move over,” she poi

having our furniture here,” there was a hint of irritability in his voice. She was

pens when the

“I guess we will share, un

playing in my lounge room, nor your band friends coming and going.” Or to perhaps hear him f-king someone el

ll worry about that if it happens. Let’s not argu

n. The cr

maced.

lance for the renovations i

m sure I can get that done,” he was relieved that

“If I manage to get refunds, the

inned. “That w

the letter incomprehensible and shifting on the page behind the liquid of unshed tears. She was not entirely sure that she could continue, for

account,” she managed, her throat tight and voice hoarse.

“You have really th

way the sour taste of pain. “I will give you all of the wedding deposits, in retur

r en

future contained within, a promise that had been broken and would now never come to fruition. Little boxes,

it. She had all but torn the skin trying to get it off, before spending twenty tearful minutes on the internet reading the various advice articles about removing rings

we can split the money. We bought them together.” A

ck and leaned his forehead to r

lingered, his breath on her lips, and then he closed the distance between their mouths again, his lips hot and his tongue coax

ther. When they had bought the couch they had f-ked on it and then spent hours making out and talking about their dreams for the future. But, somewhere along the line, between the renovatio

that she straddled him. His lips travelled from hers, his stubble a pleasant masculine scratch against her skin, down the column of her neck, to the opening of her shirt, and back, and she

lea, but for what,

ial and shredding it to the waistband. She gasped in surprise but did not protest. The brutality of the action, the lust that drove it

he couch and dropped to his knees, exposing her to his mouth. She arched into the stroke of his tongue against her fles

him, the feast of his desire, the uncompromis

ushing teeth. Something that took place in the darkness in the minutes between turning out the light and sleep unless it was relegated to

t was as much from the thought of them sharing the flavour of her between them as anything else, the wickedness of it thrilling. H

to feel his muscles bunch and relax as he pounded into her. His kisses were breathless and erratic, as his attention focuss

She clung to him, sobbing out her moans, the sound of his flesh strikin

topped making love a long time before and perhaps this was better, because at

etween his teeth. “Yes

s. Orgasms had become something snatched in private moments in the bathroom with her v

ily. His skin beneath the palm of her hands was damp with sweat, and his heartbeat erratically and heavily against h

here did that come from?” He wondere

en aback and a little embar

dly, unsteadily, as caug