Deception and Denial

By Rachel Cray

Adults only: some explicit sex scenes render this story unsuitable for people under 18 years of age.
When Mike and Ruth suddenly find their nest empty, with their sons at college, their life changes. Ruth has a secret that she's keeping from Mike; if he finds out, it could ruin their marriage. He has a well-paid position in a local firm but, when his boss decides to retire, a string of events lead to Mike having to keep a secret from his wife. Ruth knows she has to confess her secret to Mike... but how will he react? Is there a way to save their relationship? Will the cost be too high if Ruth were to know about his secret?

SAMPLE EXTRACT:

Mike cast his mind back to the days when he and Polly were in the first throes of young love. Although they had lacked the maturity that would come with the passing of time, they had felt truly committed to their relationship and – although they had never discussed getting engaged or considered the enormity of a lifetime together – everyone in their circle of friends had assumed that they were going to get married. They were so natural together, they had said.
He had felt terrible when he lost Polly. But, as soon as Ruth’s pregnancy had been confirmed, his family – and Ruth’s parents – had agreed that it was the right thing to do. Mike had always been brought up ‘to do the right thing’ and he felt that he didn’t have any choice in the matter; fate had cruelly intervened and an alternative future had been decided for him.
Ruth and Mike had seemed quite happy together, once the children had come along. She had her own projects to occupy her mind, once released from the chores of being a full-time mother, and Mike had steeped himself in his career and had risen by degrees in the firm. But he had never forgotten Polly. He couldn’t get her out of his mind; throughout their marriage, when he was making love to Ruth, he had been holding Polly’s body in his imagination.
The next morning, memories of the extraordinary offer made to him the previous evening had jolted him awake. He felt unnerved; it was impossible for him to lie still next to Ruth. He sat up on the side of the bed, staring out of the window, while she slept on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rachel Cray
• Release date: Oct 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310472657

Rachel Cray

Rachel writes erotic romances to two sub-genres: the first she calls "law firm erotic", where her characters are the horny partners and employees of a U.S. law firm, and whose spare-time activities may best be described simply as sex-related. The second sub-genre she calls "village erotic", where the cast are the horny inhabitants of Maybourne, a fictional old market town in the heart of England with a number of olde worlde villages, Tudor buildings, a ruined abbey and other picturesque features in both rural and urban settings.She has worked in several European countries, first as a secretary and then as an executive assistant, before returning to her roots in Surrey, England, and close to London; for many years she was the director of administration at the London office of a large U.S. law firm before leaving to run her own recruitment company. Now in semi-retirement, she devotes most of her spare time to writing erotic romance novellas, drawing on her life's experiences in a variety of fields. She is married with children and grandchildren.

Book preview

Deception and Denial

by Rachel Cray

Copyright 2013 Rachel Cray

Rachel Cray’s home page

Discover other titles by Rachel Cray:

Law Firm Love series:

Interview for Love

Working Overtime

The New Client

Snatched

Dirty Pictures

When One Love is Not Enough

No Way Out

A Face from The Past

Maybourne series:

A Close Match

Village Accounts

Kate’s Return

Lucy and Friends series:

Jack and Me... and His Lodger

One Man too Many

Needing Her, Needing Him

and

A Stranger in My Bed

The Girl in the Glade

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons (living or dead), actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission by the author, except for brief quotations for review purposes.

This book is for sale to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

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Deception and Denial

by

Rachel Cray

1

Mike Hammond noticed that, whenever he and his wife Ruth were together at home during the weekend, she would spend a long stretch of the day just gazing blankly through the living room window.

What’s wrong? he asked her. He was getting tired of asking, because her answer was always the same.

Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine. Stop worrying.

Something must be wrong. You’re always staring out of the window.

Leave me alone, will you? I’m happy when I’m doing this.

Everything had changed when the boys left home. Ruth and Mike had been married for twenty-one years and it came as a jolt to them both when Denis went off to college, followed by David a year later. It brought home to them the uncomfortable truth that they hadn’t really known each other when they first set up home together. When they were both eighteen, they had hardly known one another; they had been invited to a party and, thrown together in the course of an alcohol-fuelled summer evening, had had unprotected sex in the garden of their hostess’ parents.

Ruth had fallen pregnant and, under pressure from their family elders and betters, they had been induced into a hastily-prepared wedding ceremony that would provide some respectability for the forthcoming child. When Denis arrived in the world, they had known each other just ten months. Mike’s college plans evaporated. An ex-girlfriend found him a job in the accounts department of a local manufacturing firm, and he had remained there ever since. In that time, he had gradually risen from accounts assistant to Chief Financial Officer.

Mike and Ruth had grown fond of each other over the years, and had built a happy home life in a stable, caring environment. Although the word ‘love’ was not frequently used – except in relation to their sons – they were intensely loyal to each other.

By the time they had become empty-nesters, Mike was on the board of directors at his firm, which had now grown into a medium-sized entity with an international client base; it provided engineering tools for the automotive industry and, although he knew little about the intricacies of the manufacturing processes, he was considered by everyone there as a wizard with figures and had steered them well through difficult times while their competitors had failed. Ruth was content to stay at home and busied herself with several charitable projects.

While Mike had thrown himself into his work – and was well-rewarded for his efforts – Ruth became less communicative. And, although she tried to assure him that there was nothing wrong, their activity in the bedroom had virtually ceased. While Mike’s libido was as healthy as ever, Ruth’s sexual stamina appeared to have disappeared and resisted all attempts he made to persuade her to visit their physician.

One Saturday afternoon, while Ruth was out at one of her fund-raising meetings, Mike went into Denis’ old room to search his bookshelf for an old textbook he had lent him some time before. Out of the window, he saw their next-door neighbour’s daughter standing on her back lawn, removing her bikini and getting ready to sunbathe. She had obviously assumed she’d have total privacy in her garden.

The neighbours had only moved in six months earlier with their twenty-one year-old girl; when Mike and Ruth had first become acquainted with them, it became apparent that they had little in common with the new family, and greetings were reduced to friendly nods whenever their paths crossed in the street or in their back lawns. That hadn’t stopped Mike appreciating their daughter’s beauty.

He’d only seen her in a short skirt with a low neckline before; when she removed her bra, revealing her ample breasts, he felt instantly stimulated and reached down to his groin. An erection soon materialised, pressing against his palm. As she removed her bikini bottom, and he saw her small butt and her shaved pudendum, the pressure in his pants was becoming intolerable.

Gazing at her body brought back memories of Polly, his girlfriend before Ruth had appeared on the scene. She had a similar physique – a slender body, well-formed breasts (which he had only seen twice), and a neatly rounded butt. He hadn’t seen Polly for nearly twenty years but still thought of her occasionally and had wondered what might have happened if he hadn’t met Ruth at the party.

Moving away from the window so that he wouldn’t be seen – but still keeping her in his field of vision – he unzipped himself, pulled out his dick and began stroking it. All the accumulating frustration that had grown, incurred by his recent enforced celibacy, now reached boiling point. His body demanded release urgently.

Watching her settle on a rug in the garden, lying on her stomach, he preserved that picture in his mind’s eye while he raced to the bathroom and, in the sink, soaped his cock so that it was a smooth, lubricated pole. He shut his eyes and imagined the girl was giving him fellatio; within less than a minute, he felt that intense wave approaching that would bring him the long-needed orgasm to unblock the channel to release his semen.

With his fingers curled round his erection, he remained still as the seed pulsed through him. Yes! Yes! he whispered to himself. At long last there was relief to his private, sexual frustration. And, having rediscovered this outlet – he had seldom resorted to masturbation since his teens – he knew he would have to resort to this more frequently, unless he and Ruth could openly discuss her aloofness and resolve everything.

2

Brian Hall, Mike’s employer and the owner of the engineering firm, was approaching his seventieth birthday and it was an open secret at the company that he had intended to retire. His son Andrew had been groomed to take over and, as General Manager, he had a comprehensive grasp of the works. But that didn’t make him popular; Mike regarded him as interfering and viewed the future with some foreboding. He could see trouble ahead in several departments when Andrew decided to roll up his sleeves to take a more proactive part.

A week before his birthday, Brian called Mike into his office. I wanted to have a one-on-one session with each of my top people, he began. "You can probably guess