Page 131 of Duplicity

If sleeping with Brendan Sullivan is heady, then actuallysleepingwith him is sublime. He’s a huge, hairy, cuddly teddy bear, and falling asleep and waking up in his arms is the safest, the most loved, I’ve ever felt.

I simply don’t know how I slept alone for so many years.

Tabs and I are having a sleepover at his place in Battersea. I call it a sleepover, but we haven’t actually slept in our flat for a month. It’s more of anextendedsleepover. After I threw a tantrum over the ridiculous security presence Brendan had implanted, he told me firmly that as long as I was living there, his scary guards would be there too, keeping the stabby gang members away.

As a compromise, we’ve been staying with him and Mark more often. And who am I kidding? This place is a palace. Tabby adores the room Brendan has had set up for her, and I adore coming home from work, kicking off my shoes, and sitting down at that gorgeous Steinway to let the day pour out of me through the healing power of song.

It’s not ideal for Tabby’s school, but with the lovely and very attentive Yan on school run every morning and afternoon, it’s doable for now. That said, it’s a temporary solution. The three of us are finding our feet in this new relationship dynamic. We went through a lot this summer. Tabby’s only been back at school for a few weeks, after all. So this new period of good health and tranquility, of feeling like we’re floating gently downstream instead of drowning in the rapids, is very new to all of us.

‘What’s so funny?’ he asks, setting a mug on my bedside table before planting a soft kiss on my hair. He wanders around the bed and climbs in, tugging me back against him. I brandish my phone at him.

‘It’s Soph. Seems she finally interviewed with Ethan Kingsley yesterday.’ I try to keep my voice natural, but it still feels weird mentioning him to Brendan. He seems to think so too, because he frowns.

‘Go on.’

I glance down at my phone and giggle again. This girl is hysterical. ‘So, she thought he was an arrogant wanker, which she made abundantly clear to him during the interview, and they had a big fight.’

Brendan groans, but his mouth is twitching.

‘Nice one, Kingsley. Yet another woman alienated. So she walked?’

‘Not quite. Apparently the fight got them so worked up that they decided to go ahead with the audition part there and then,and he called Camille and told her to release the twenty-five grand.’

He grins. ‘Classy. So they hate-fucked right there?’

I’m almost giggling too hard to speak. ‘Yep, but after he made her come, he was being so smug that she turned around to him and said, “Look, dickhead, my last boss was sixty-five years old so the bar is really fucking low, okay?”’

‘I want to shake that woman by the hand. What a fucking queen.’

‘Seriously. She’s amazing.’

‘So did he kick her out or offer her the job?’

I throw my phone down on the bed. ‘He offered her the job.’

The people I love seem to have a habit of approaching me cautiously, glossy brochure in hand, when they want to change my life.

Athena did it ten months ago, when she first planted the intoxicating idea of having Tabs treated at Duke.

And Brendan is doing it now. Except that, when he pulls open the drawer of his bedside table and turns back to me, he hastwoglossy brochures in his hand.

‘Don’t fly off the handle,’ he says, snuggling closer. ‘Just—consider it, okay?’

‘Okay,’ I say, raising myself up on one elbow and taking a moment to eye-fuck my boyfriend. He may be the handsomest guy in the world, but that’s not what’s holding my attention. Not when he’s looking at me with so much love and adoration and tenderness.

I tear my eyes away from his bare chest with difficulty and look down at the two brochures.

One is from a fancy estate agent. Its cover depicts house porn of epic proportions: a huge white Georgian mansion whose perfectly symmetrical front is festooned with wisteria. It is bloody stunning.Winsford House, Ham, Richmond,the caption reads.

The other is a school brochure bearing a photo of happy children outside a spectacular redbrick Queen Anne building with verdant lawns in the foreground.Chancery School, Richmond.

I glance back at Brendan, who clears his throat.

‘My brother was telling me they’re thinking of buying in Richmond at some point now that they’re engaged, and, um, I thought it might be a nice place for us to settle, too. I’d like Tabs to have a proper garden to run around in, now that she’s actually allowed to exert herself, and Chancery School is supposed to have incredible extra-curricular activities.’

At some point, the billionaire playboy who hired me for on-tap office sex has become a family man. I hit him with a secret, supremely unwell child and he didn’t even flinch. He’s been there for Tabs and me every single day since he jetted out to North Carolina to support us, and now he’s planning houses and schools and futures around what will best suit her wellbeing.

‘Hey,’ he says, looking alarmed. ‘What’s up?’

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