Hiding Within The Betrayal

Chapter Thirty Eight: A Stab In The Dark

Work had taken a backseat in my mind, we were still working on cases in the day but after five in the afternoon, it was our time. A few weeks had gone by and it was as if we were in the honeymoon phase though we weren't actually official and no one else besides us knew about our involvement.

After work, when we were leaving to go home, we would often want to spend more time together. He would insist that we went back to mine. I thought nothing of it. Mine was closer than his and besides, it was far more erotic and exciting in the studio than his small town house with only one place to have good sex.

Neither of us had asked about a title but rumors were certainly stirring in the office.

Maybe three weeks on, he ended up sleeping the night rather than going home. It wasn't premeditated but when I woke in the middle of the night to see that he hadn't left, still sound asleep next to me, I didn't have any urge to kick him out. That in itself told me something about myself that I wasn't aware of.

Another week went by and one night together ran over into two consecutive nights. It wasn't until the second evening that I insisted he stay permanently and stop returning home at stupid hours in the night. By this point, he had enough of his things at mine, why not stay permanently?

I was getting used to the warmth of another body in my bed.

"I'll stay then," he warmly told me with a kiss.

We settled down to sleep and he kept his arm around me.

Without knowing it, that arm pulled away from me while I was sleeping. I woke up to see that he wasn't there. Without getting up, I looked to the floor. To the pile at the bottom of my bed that our clothes ended up forming each time we got near each other's electric energy. His clothes (which he had worn that day) were still there. He was still in my house. I sat up against the headboard and turned on the light. It couldn't have been long after midnight, I waited a minute, anticipating him to strut out of the on-suite bathroom but he didn't emerge.

I swept myself out of the bed and threw on my silk dressing gown to cover myself from the bleak chill in the air.

I took two steps out of the bedroom door before hearing his voice which caused me to stop. I couldn't make out what was being said as his voice was at too low of a decibel.

My studio flat was laid out in such a way that the only room which was separate was the bedroom and adjacent to that, the on suite. When you came out of the bedroom, there was a bookshelf partially covering the view of the room, it wasn't until I came in front of that when I spotted him. Crouched down in front of the sofa resting his elbow on the living area coffee table almost as if he had been looking inside the draw. He was only in boxers, as he had been when we went to sleep but he had managed to slip on his fluffy sleep socks. His phone, which I can only assume had been strung to his ear, was swiftly dropped to his side when he became aware of my presence.

Perplexed, "You alright Patrick?"

He was a dear in the headlights. I couldn't be sure of what he had been doing but he undoubtedly didn't think that I would wake up and catch him. "I just... I couldn't sleep so I-"

Folding my arms across my chest, I sat on the sofa next to him. Trying not to sound like I was scolding him, "Were you on the phone just now? Who to? At this hour?"

He looked down towards his phone and then back to me. He rolled his lips in before responding to me, "Just my mum,"

I chuckled, bringing his body into mine, "Does my baby boy have to tell mummy where he's spending his nights?"