Читать книгу Love in the Shadows - Lauri Kubuitsile - Страница 3

Prologue

The white full moon slipped behind the clouds and he stepped out of his car without a sound. He knew the layout; he’d been there many times. He held a card against the sensor at the gate and it slid open. He slipped through. The guard was out for the count, just as he knew he would be. He hurried up the drive, not a stone kicked, nor a stick broken.

At the door he inserted the key. The alarm remained silent; he’d made sure it would be off. He walked down the marble-tiled hallway and climbed the winding staircase to the second floor. That was where she was. His heartbeat quickened. He smiled.

As he neared her room, he caught a whiff of her perfume, always the same – Chanel No. 5. Her room was at the end. He knew the rest of the house was empty. He would be alone with her tonight. The door was ajar and he pushed it open, careful to avoid its usual creak.

There she was. She lay like an angel in the middle of her four-poster bed, the sheets and blanket kicked off in the summertime heat. He moved closer to see her face. Her long lashes rested on her high cheekbones, her mouth perfectly shaped.

She had the body of a dancer: long, delicate legs and arms; a long, elegant neck. She was on her back, her legs and arms spread to all corners, her hair a tangle of long, dark, natural curls.

She’d left the window open and the thin curtains billowed in the night breeze. The moon, now free of the clouds, shone in onto her naked body. She was beautiful. He stood looking at her. For seconds, for minutes. Time was lost. She was his love, she always would be.

She moaned and turned on her side, away from him. He couldn’t stay for long, though he wished he could. One day, he thought. One day they’d be together forever. He took the bag off his back and pulled out a perfect long-stemmed red rose. He walked to her dressing table, a clutter of make-up and hairbrushes. He laid the rose across the top, and next to it he left a card. It made him happy to think she would find it when she woke up. The first thing she’d see in the morning.

He looked at her one last time, then slipped out of the room, out of the house, down the drive – and he was gone. Lost in the shadows of the night.

* * *

The alarm rang. Time to get up. She lay with her eyes closed for a few minutes, but she knew she couldn’t delay getting up too long. She had an early meeting with her producer, and then immediately after that she needed to get to the studio to meet her new songwriter. Being late is disrespectful to other people, and she always made sure she was on time. But the bed felt so lovely that she gave herself a few more minutes.

Eventually, reluctantly, she got up, reached for her dressing gown and headed for the shower. But then she stopped. She saw it and knew straightaway what it was, who it was from. She stepped away; slowly she inched back to her bed and reached for her cellphone on the side table.

Her hands were shaking, but she managed to press 1 and a groggy voice answered at the other end. “Hello? Kedi? Kedi, what’s wrong?”

“Louise! My god, he was here again!”