Free The Accidental Mistress by Portia Da Costa

be with Brent at the hospital.
    No, if John had an executive jet of his own, he would surely have mentioned it then.
    When she’d reached her bus stop, and was walking the last bit of the way home along St Patrick’s Road, Lizzie’s phone chimed, almost as if her thoughts had summoned her lover’s message. It was a text again, and she stopped dead in the middle of the pavement to read it.
    Busy day, my sweet? I wish you were here. I’ve got boring meetings ahead, but they wouldn’t be half so dismal if I knew you were waiting back at the hotel for me, all warm and ready. P.S. Which of your new knickers are you wearing? Thinking of you, your very own dirty old man, J.
    Lizzie smiled. He was incorrigible. Why hadn’t she gone with him? Just thrown caution to the wind to be with the man she loved? But that wasn’t in her nature. Even though she’d let them down badly in some ways, her parents had instilled a sense of duty in her, and Marie had been expecting her in the shop.
    Who is this?
she texted back.
Who are you, you disgusting old perv, texting innocent young ladies with improper enquiries about their underwear? I’ll report you to the police. P.S. I miss you too … and I’m wearing the pink ones. L.
    She tapped in,
I love you
, then deleted it, and pressed send.
    Mmmm … I love pink things.;) Have to go now, gorgeous. Talk later. J.
    Feeling hot, Lizzie stuffed her phone in her pocket, swooped up the dress bag, and hurried along the road, her mind running riot. It didn’t take much to get her going, where John was concerned. She loved pink things too … Well, a certain thing that was ruddy, more than pink, and that got very big and stiff with alarming frequency.
    ‘Your bloke’s been sending you things,’ announced Shelley when Lizzie walked into the kitchen.
    ‘What do you mean, sending things? What things?’
    Oh, he was so extravagant! She liked it, but it still made her a bit uncomfortable, being used to paying her own way. On and off, all day, she’d been thinking about the diamond earrings too, torn between thinking they were just too much, yet at the same time wallowing in the excitement that she,Lizzie Aitchison, wearer of plastic beads and the occasional bit of Swarovski, could own something so divinely beautiful and costly. Currently, they were in safe keeping, stowed away in the little home safe Brent had installed beneath a floorboard in the coat cupboard, a holdover from his escorting days when he’d mostly dealt in cash.
    Oh, how easy it would be to slip into pampered mistress mode … and keep the diamonds.
    ‘Well, I finished early today and I was home just after lunch,’ Shelley went on, ‘and it’s a good job too. A chap came from Virgin and installed a cable box with about a zillion channels and hyper super-duper fast broadband. I said we hadn’t ordered it, and we couldn’t afford it, but he said it was
paid for
already.’ The blonde girl beamed, like a kid at Christmas. ‘Then a courier came with more stuff. Looks like a laptop for you, and more tech stuff, and some other boxes.’
    ‘Oh John! You swine!’ Lizzie threw down her bag on the kitchen table. ‘Where’s this cable box?’
    They marched through to the sitting room, and surveyed the technical miracle.
    ‘It’s fabulous … it’s got everything. I’ve already watched two movies on the premium channel.’ Shelley flung herself down in a chair, snatched up the remote and started flicking through the choices. ‘
Please
don’t say we have to send it back. I know he’s your billionaire, but think of your friends, woman! These are some pretty nice crumbs from your table.’
    Lizzie smiled. At least she wasn’t the only one benefiting here, so that was less of a guilt trip.
    ‘And if you send the broadband back, Brent will kill you!’ Shelley continued, not taking her eyes off the screen. ‘You know how he’s always bitching and moaning about theconnection when he’s gaming … He’ll be in hog heaven