Free Moonlight by Tim O'Rourke

looking at her.
    “You’ll have to be quiet, or you’ll wake the baby,” she giggled again, pointing upwards.
    Ignoring her, he looked at how her white skin glimmered like marble in the moonlight.
    “So much flesh,” he mused.
    “Hey, you cheeky bastard,” she half-smiled, the strong smell of wine on her breath. “What are you saying, that I’m fat?” And she crossed her arms over her breasts.
    “No, no,” he smiled at her, gently pulling her arms away again. From the moment he had seen her sitting in the corner of the pub, with the wind and the rain roaring outside and the crash of the waves against the quay, he knew she would be the one. Again, it had all been far too easy for him. A few drinks, the right words, and a little harmless flirt ing. That was all it took. H e was beautiful too, he knew that and so did they. Most women and even a few men turned their heads and looked twic e when they first saw him. H e wasn’t interested in them. He liked the girls who wouldn’t look at him, who wouldn’t match his stare because they bel ieved they weren’t worthy. I f he were to be honest - they weren’t. Not many were.  
    But they went with him easily, without a fight, because they were needy, lonely, or both. The girl who stood before him was an ideal candidate. As she had knocked back the drinks he had placed before her, she had groaned on and on about how the father of her child had left her, how lonely she was, how unattractive she felt, and on and on and on. H e wasn’t interested in any of that shit. He was only interested in satisfying the hunger that burnt inside of him. As he sat and drank, the more she talked . C hrist, she made her life sound so fucking depressing, he honestly began to wonder if she wouldn’t be better off dead after all. She talked about how she only earnt minimum wage at the local store, and it wasn’t even enough to pay for childcare. How since she was the only one of her friends who had become a mum, they didn’t understand. They didn’t want to sit in of a night - they wanted to be out having fun and not wiping a baby’s arse. Even the friend she had planned to meet toni ght had failed to show up. On and on and on she went. H e just sat and smiled, pretending to listen intently, telling her that he couldn’t understand why such an attractive young woman was being so hard on herself, though all the while his innards seethed, and his blood felt like it was boiling in his veins as the hunger gnawed away at him.
    Then when he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, and that he might just rip her fucking throat out in the bar and be done with it, she staggered to her feet, giggling that she hadn’t meant to be out so long as she had left her baby asleep in his cot. Then, just like he knew she would, the girl looked down at him and said, “I’ve got a bottle of wine in the fridge at home, if you fancy another?”
    “Sure,” he had smiled at her.
    She pushed open the front door and stumbled into the hallway, kicking her heels off as she went. He closed the front door behind her, but not tight. He always left the door open just an inch so the others could join him.
    Now he took her in his arms and steadied her.
    “We can do it on the sofa if you like,” she said, as he leant in close and kissed her neck.
    He could smell h er skin and cheap perfume. B eneath it, he could smell what he had really come for and it pulsed through her veins in a rush. He gripped her left breast with his hand, and she gasped. He could feel her heart thumping just beneath his fist, and his, matched its frantic pace.
    “How about on the floor?” she slurred in his ear, taking his hand that still cupped her breast and guided him downwards.
    “The floor would be good,” he whispered back.
    She kicked aside kiddie toys, which cluttered the floor of the living room, and lay on her back. Then kneeling over her, he gripped her wrists and pinned her to the floor.
    “It’s going to be like that, is