Paint the Town Red (Fox & Oakby Murder Mysteries Book II)

Shock After Shock

Imogen just couldn't believe that the man who ran her town and had previously had a successful career as a barrister could be so bad at such strategic game as Monopoly! The children consistently robbed the poor bloke of all his minuscule earnings. He also seemed to see no luck and spent more time in jail than any of the other three players. And he seemed to love it! He would meet all of his misadventures with yet another gleeful guffaw and as much as fall backwards on the carpet. Imogen just couldn't understand why he enjoyed himself so much! Meanwhile, she enjoyed watching him laugh. He squinted, crow's feet ran at the corners of his eyes, and his shoulders shook.

The game eventually ended when they noticed that Brian had fallen asleep, leaning into the Mayor's side and still clutching a colourful pile of the fake money in his hand.

"You won't wake him up now." Kathy shook her head. "I'll go brush teeth."

Imogen rose to carry Brian to the bedroom, but the Mayor had already picked up the boy. He slowly walked into Imogen's bedroom, and she minced after him. She momentarily wondered if there were some of her bras stuffed in one of the bookshelves; they'd been drying in the bathroom when she'd started cleaning her cottage frantically earlier that evening.

The Mayor didn't seem to look too closely, thank goodness. He carefully put the boy down and then pulled the duvet over him.

"I'll go check if Kathy needs anything," Imogen said.

The Mayor nodded and went back to the drawing room.

***

"Is he staying the night?" Kathy whispered when Imogen was tucking her in.

"No, no, of course not," Imogen hissed back, throwing a cowardly look at the door behind her. "He'll have nowhere to sleep."

"He can sleep with you," Kathy offered. "Mum had men stay over all the time."

"He won't fit on the sofa," Imogen muttered.

***

Imogen had been right. The Mayor would never fit on her tiny old sofa if he tried to lie down on it. But apparently he could fall asleep half-sitting, half-lying on, sort of diagonally in the corner of the sofa, a cushion under his head, one foot on the floor, another on the thigh of the opposite leg. One long arm hung off the sofa, and his right hand was on his chest. Imogen froze in the door and swooned. The man was gorgeous! And at the moment, sort of... domestic. Maybe inviting him to her place hadn't been such a terrible idea.

"John," she whispered, but he didn't even twitch.

Imogen came up to the sofa and touched his shoulder.

"John..."

No reaction from him followed, and it reminded Imogen of that morning when for the first time in her memory the Mayor had slept in to work. They'd just started their 'extracurricular activities' during lunch, and she'd come to his apartment because she'd been so very worried. She just couldn't have imagined that he could sleep in! And she'd tried to wake him up, and he'd grabbed her and pulled her under his covers, and wrapped around her like an octopus, and said something about not being able to sleep without her! At the time Imogen had considered herself nothing but his 'lunch companion' and couldn't quite suss out what to think of all the stuff he'd been muttering into her while nuzzling her tits through her office blouse. And he'd said something about how much he hated weekends because, as Imogen had surmised, she wasn't around on weekends! And to think of it, they'd never actually addressed that question...

"John..."

The Mayor smiled in his sleep, and Imogen ogled the curled up corners of his lips. The long fluffy lashes laid shadows under his eyes, and she fancied the relaxed expression on his face. With all that had been going on recently she'd quite forgotten that she was indeed dating the man she'd been in love with for ages! And among other thing none other than John Thomas Crispin Oakby!