“Deceptions”

by Jo & Stacey

Katherine was not one to go on early-morning strolls through the grass by herself. She was not an early-morning stroller of any sort. Sid was mulling these facts over as he stood about ten feet out on the lawn surrounding his house, watching her slow approach. He frowned. He was getting dew on his perfectly-polished shoes. He did not like dew on his shoes. He also did not like not knowing that his wife had left the house or where she might have gone. Folding his arms across his chest, he stood there, stood there with dew on his shoes. Waiting.

Kate looked up as she approached the house. As she had expected, Sid was there waiting for her. She managed a smile for him as she walked up to him.

"Morning, Sid. Get my note about the walk did you?" she asked, then leaned in and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"You never walk in the morning, Katherine. Why the sudden urge?"

"Oh, I don't know," Kate said, trying not to sound too nervous as she walked into the house. "I woke up this morning, saw what a beautiful day it was... and the size of my ever-expanding mid-section... and decided to get out and get a bit of exercise." She knew if Sid found out about her little phone call to Colin he'd be upset. Really, she'd done nothing wrong, but still... no need to stir the pot.

"Exercise, eh?" His eyes narrowed and dropped from hers to her middle. "I guess exercise would be necessary. I could set you up a gym in that unoccupied corner of the garage if you like. Anything I can do to help with keeping your figure intact, you know." There was something fishy about her taking a walk, but he was going to let it pass...for now. "That is," he continued, smiling, "if you're truly serious about wanting exercise."

Shit, he'd called her bluff. Ah well, she thought, might as well roll with it.

"Umm... well, I don't want to over-do it, you know. Nothing too strenuous that might cause harm to the baby. Walking is probably best." She slipped into the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water and began taking sips of it.

He was acting suspicious, she thought... more than usual. Had he been spying on her? No, no, she knew that he hadn't... been careful she hadn't been followed. She'd sit here and drink her water and hope he lost interest in the subject.

He followed her into the kitchen. She was sitting on a high stool, her head tipped way back as she gulped water. Gulping water was a concept foreign to him, but he stood there, watching the movement in her long neck as she swallowed. That he liked and came over to her, cupping his right hand around her throat. Seeing the instant startlement in her large eyes, he smiled again.

"No, keep swallowing. I'm just feeling the motion of your throat muscles." He stroked his thumb pad up and down the outer curve of her neck.

"Umm... okay," Kate replied, nervously. Her heart was pounding and she felt a bit dizzy.

Did he know what she'd done? She slowly raised the water bottle to her lips and tipped it back, allowing the cool water to flow into her open mouth. As she did so, she felt Sid's cool hands grip her throat a bit more tightly, causing her to choke on the swallow of water, spitting it back out onto herself and the floor.

"Sid," she gasped, "what are you doing? I could have choked to death."

"No," he said, his voice low, smooth, "I would never let that happen, not to my...wife."  He handed her a towel. "Wipe yourself, and come into the living room. I'd like to hear about where you walked. Perhaps we can do it together next time. It's not good for you to be out all alone when you're so...so...gravid."

Kate looked at him, then managed a smile and quickly began wiping herself and the floor off with the towel. What now? she wondered, as she set the towel on the side of the sink to dry and headed into the living room. Sid was sitting, staring at her. He didn't look pleased. Cautiously, she sat down on a chair across from him and pulled her feet up under herself. She hadn't really paid much attention as to where she'd walked, really, but she knew he was waiting for her to speak, so she did.

"I...um... I walked down by the Meridius place... passed Joimus' greenhouse, though no one was about yet this morning, so I went on a bit further until I found myself down by the old mill. I like it there, it's quite peaceful. Again, no one was about, so I just walked on a bit, til I got a bit tired and headed back. I...um...I'd love for you to come with me next time, Sid."

"Yes, that's way too far for you to walk alone in your present condition. I shall definitely accompany you next you decide to go walkabout in the bush."  She knew he liked to walk alone. It was when he thought, when he determined what the mice in their little wheels were doing. But if she went out again, he'd be with her. Who knew but what the grease-brain might be about somewhere. He didn't want her having any contact with the halfwit, not now.

"Are you happy, my dear?" he asked, trailing his fingertips down her toned arm. "Do I need to take you shopping somewhere? Perhaps a nice dinner in the city of your choice?"  No, he didn't want her thinking about the lout who was the actual cause of her about-to-be-bloated stomach. He wondered, though, if the lout himself ever had thoughts about Katherine's belly. Probably not. He was too dim-witted to count to three, as in months. "What would you like?"

Kate smiled, relaxed a bit, shrugging off what had just happened in the kitchen as just some sort of kinky new sex-thing Sid was experimenting with. "Of course I'm happy, Sid. How could I not be, married to such a wonderful man such as yourself?" Truly, she was quite happy, just... concerned. Concerned about what might happen with Colin, now that he knew she was pregnant.

"Hmm... shopping, yeah, I'd like that, actually. You could help me pick out some things for the baby. We'll be needing to set up a nursery soon, you know. And, I could use some new clothes, too, now that I seem to be growing out of these."

Suddenly, her cell phone rang, startling her. She jumped, quickly pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the number. Shit. Colin. Why was he calling her back? She turned off the phone and shoved it back into her pocket, her brow furrowed. She looked up at Sid, smiled, "Wrong number."

"You seem to be startling easily this morning, Katherine. Has anything made you tense?"

"Um... no, no. I'm fine, really," she lied, as her phone vibrated in her pocket. Damn, she'd turned the ringer off but in her haste didn't turn the phone to go straight to voice mail. "Maybe I'm just still a bit worn out from the barbie yesterday is all... the heat didn't set well with me, you know."

Sid's ears, of course, were extraordinary. He was quite aware her phone was vibrating and even more aware that she chose not to answer it in his presence. Ah, so there were things she didn't wish him to know, were there? Deliberately he moved his hand down her breast, curved on over her hip. "Why, Katherine," he purred, "you simply vibrate at my touch." He paused his hand right over her pocket.

Kate let out a gasp, her breathing quickened as Sid's hand hovered over her pocket where her cell phone continued to vibrate. Damn cell phone! Damn Colin!

"Always, darling," Kate purred back. "You always have that effect on me." That was good, she thought. Turn his attention on to sex and away from her blasted phone, which continued to vibrate.

Deception, however, was more on his mind than sex at the moment. So, she was going to keep on with the pretense, was she? Why? Who could be calling her that she would lie to him rather than answer her phone? He leaned closer to her head, nibbling at her ear, whispering right into her ear canal, "Why don't you answer that, darling?"

"I...I don't want to," she said, hesitantly. "I'm sure whoever it is will call back...if it's important, which I'm sure it isn't." Suddenly, her cell phone stopped vibrating and Kate let out a little sigh of relief, only to be replaced by a look of horror as their home phone suddenly rang. She jumped, and looked nervously over to the phone, praying it was just a coincidence and Colin didn't have the nerve to actually call her home.

"Why don't you get that, darling? I'm going up to our bedroom to change."  He smiled benignly and headed for the stairs.

Kate smiled and nodded, then watched as Sid walked up the stairs. The phone was still ringing. Damn. She slowly picked it up, holding the receiver to her ear. "Hello?" she said, barely more than a whisper.

"Kate, why the fuck didn't you answer your cell phone?"

"Colin? Why are you calling me? I have nothing more to say to you. Nothing." Kate told him, trying to keep her voice down so Sid wouldn't hear her.

"Wait! Don't hang up, I need to see you... talk to you." Colin told her, urgently.

"I spoke my peace to you this morning, now don't call here again." She hung up the phone, took a deep breath to collect herself, then headed for the stairs.

Sid could hear what was being said on a phone merely by putting his ear within a couple of feet of the receiver. He could also hear Katherine's whispered voice. His lips twitched as he stood by the large, curved window of their bedroom, looking out toward a distant ridge of land. Without turning, he asked pleasantly, "Who was it, Katherine?"  He was a firm believer in allowing a person all the rope they wanted to stretch out toward a gallows.

Kate's first instinct was to tell him the truth, though she knew if she did, Sid might wonder why Colin would be calling her. On the other hand, so what if he did? She'd done nothing wrong. She'd just tried to keep Colin from questioning her about her pregnancy and it'd apparently backfired. Maybe Sid could have a word with him, sort it out before he began pushing the matter any further.

She took a deep breath, then slowly answered, "It was... um... no one, Sid. Well, no, that's not right... it was... Colin. I don't know what he wants and I don't care. I told him not to call here again." There. She'd told him. Now she braced herself for the outcome.

Sid had been licking his lower lip. When she answered, he stopped, his tongue halfway across. The woman had decided not to let out as much rope as he'd begun to think she would.  Something in him was glad about that. Still, there was the matter of her secretive walk this morning, followed so quickly by Colin's call.  Slowly he let his tongue continue across his lip, his eyes never leaving her face. She'd admitted it was Colin. And Colin had said he needed to see her, talk with her.  Why? The Aussie had been quite disgusted with her after she'd left him. What would make him suddenly need contact with her again, and urgent contact from the sound of his voice. Did the stupid man really think to duel with him over possession of the spawn? That actually could be rather... interesting. Too bad the match was so terribly unequal.

She'd said to him on the phone that she'd spoken her piece to him this morning. That was why she'd left the house, so she could speak with him privately.  And just what did she have to say privately to him?  Had she expressed some thought the kid might have sprung from his hair-thatched loins? Would she do that?  Whatever it had been, she did not want her husband to know about it. That bothered him. He might keep the vast majority of his thoughts from her, but she had no right to keep any of hers from him. Life didn't work that way. Colin. Perhaps the man needed more than his leg broken?

"I could go see Colin," he smiled. "Would you like me to do that?"

"No, no," she answered a bit too quickly. "I'm sure he won't call back again. And if he does, well... I'll hand the phone over to you and you can tell him I want nothing more to do with him."

She was worried if Sid did in fact go to have a chat with Colin then Colin would blurt out something stupid, get her in trouble about making that call to him. Or worse, Colin would start a fight with Sid again, like he usually tried to do. She smiled at her husband, wrapped her arms around him. "You know you are the only man I love, the only man I want, and you're going to be a wonderful father to our child."

"I am, aren't I?" he replied, pushing her hand downward from his waist to more eager regions. Backing up, he took her with him to their enormous bed.  "And you are the only woman I love."  She was...right now.  He lay back, pulling her on top him.  The time would come. He could toy with Colin, would toy with him, until he tired of it, until Colin no longer amused him.  He kissed his way along her collar bone. She obviously would do anything at the moment to please him. He would let her. He liked to be pleased.