The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) T. Belshaw (management books to read .txt) 📖

with him, and picking up two fresh glasses she walked through to the lounge.

‘You’ll have to excuse the lumpy sofa. My new one is still being made.’

Bradley took off his jacket and laid it across the back of one of the armchairs, then sat down on the sofa and wriggled about until he was finally comfortable. Jess poured the wine, handed him a glass and sat down beside him.

‘Do you fancy a film or a little music?’

‘Is it still Simply Red for romantic dinners?’ he asked with a fake look of horror on his face.

Jess laughed. ‘Not in this house.’ She switched on the Bluetooth speaker she had brought with her from the flat, then lifted the lid of her laptop and started her iTunes program. ‘How about a bit of classical?’ She flicked through her music collection until she found Vaughan Williams. ‘This is nice for background music.’

They sipped wine and chatted the evening away, each revealing some of the lighter moments of their lives. Amidst the mixture of laughter and the wine, Jess realised that she felt happier and more carefree than she had for years. After one particularly hilarious tale from Bradleys Uni days, she threw herself back into the cushions and laughed until her stomach hurt. When she had recovered her composure, she tipped her head to one side and smiled softly. ‘You’re a very funny man, Bradley Wilson.’

‘Oh, I bet you say that to all the boys,’ he quipped.

Jess put her finger onto his lips and moved her face closer to his. ‘I don’t want any other boys.’ Her face moved closer still, their lips met and Bradley put his arms around her, pulled her down onto the sofa and with one hand on the back of her head, he pulled away, look earnestly into her eyes, then moved back towards her, his hot tongue running over her neck, his fingers fumbling at the front of her dress.

Jess pushed his hand away and began to undo the buttons herself, then she arched her back to undo her bra. Bradley pushed the garment out of the way, exposing her breasts, then gently kissed each one in turn before lifting his head and kissing her lips again.

As the iTunes program paused before starting to play The Lark Ascending, and as Bradley’s trousers reached ankle level, the blue camera light of the laptop lit up.

Chapter 27

Bradley lay on his back twisting his neck to look down at Jess who was lying with her head on his chest. He stroked her hair, then her naked shoulder before running a finger down the nape of her neck sending a shiver down her spine.

‘How… No, it doesn’t matter.’

Jess sighed, hoping against hope that Bradley wasn’t about to ask her to rate his performance.

‘Why the sigh?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Come on, you don’t sigh like that for nothing.’

‘Okay.’ Jess rolled onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow. ‘Finish your question.’

Bradley shrugged. ‘I was just about to say, how did you manage to get Alice’s hospital bed out. It was huge.’

‘Oh… it went out easily enough in the end, they took a bit of paint off the doorframe but they managed to manoeuvre it into the hall.’

‘You seem surprised. What did you think I was going to ask?’

Jess laid her head back on his chest.

‘It doesn’t matter, honestly.’

‘Come on, Jess, what was that big sigh about?’

‘All right, but promise you won’t get angry.’

‘I promise, come on, out with it.’

‘It’s just, well, I didn’t want to bring Calvin’s name up, but… look, whenever we had sex, he used to demand a rating. He always expected me to compare his performance with other boyfriends I’d had before he came on the scene.’

‘What an idiot.’ Bradley shook his head. ‘It’s probably the last thing I would have asked at a time like that.’

‘He was, it just took me a long time to find out just how big an idiot.’

‘Did he have low self-esteem?’

Jess snorted. ‘That’s the last thing he suffered from. He was a narcissist. He thought he was better than anyone else at just about everything. He just needed me to confirm it.’

Bradley shook his head again, then noticing the blue light on the frame of the laptop, he patted Jess on the shoulder.

‘Do you know your laptop has the camera light on?’

‘It does that at random, I think it has a fault.’

Bradley sat up, and easing Jess to the side, he stood up, pulled on his pants, walked across to the coffee table and pressed a button on the keyboard. The screensaver cleared and the iTunes playlist appeared on the screen. Bradley pressed a combination of keys and read the Task Manager’s list of processes the computer was running.

‘Hmm, there are a few routines here I’ve never seen before.’ He turned back to Jess who was now sitting naked on the sofa.

‘Oh God, don’t tell me we’ve been recorded.’

The lawyer pulled a face. ‘I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure.’ He read the list again, selected a background process, and hit the button to close it down, when the blue light stayed on, he picked another process and closed that. The blue light went out.

Bradley walked back to the sofa and sat down next to Jess.

‘I did an I.T. course at Uni. A few male students used to load spyware onto the girl’s computers hoping to catch them at it after a party. I didn’t see anything I recognised, but it doesn’t mean your machine isn’t infected.’

‘I think Calvin might have put a tracker on my laptop and maybe my phone. He was a control freak and always wanted to know where I was. I doubt he’d go this far though. I never thought of being unfaithful to him and deep down, he knew that.’

‘He really is an inadequate individual, isn’t he?’

‘He is,’ agreed Jess.

Bradley pulled his shirt on and began to fasten it up.

‘I’d get it checked out if I were you, just for your own peace of mind. There’s