By the time Katriona had made her torturous way to Claudia and Garth's flat, it had already gone dark, the air crisp with the scent of autumn, haunting and sharply nostalgic, but Katriona wasn't aware of the acrid smell of wood smoke and burning leaves that hung on the evening air. A wide, triumphant grin curled her mouth as she found the house she was looking for.

Luckily, the lobby was empty when she walked in. The craving for her next fix, which had been nothing more than a background irritation when she set out, had now become a savage, sharp-toothed, drilling pain.

When she tried to insert Claudia's key into the door lock, her hand was shaking so much it took her several attempts to do so but eventually she succeeded. She turned the handle and the door swung open. Marching aggressively into the small hallway, she almost stumbled over the kit bag that Garth had dropped there on his way in.

Once she had found the light switch and discovered what the obstacle was, she stared at it warily for several seconds, straining her ears for any sound from within the flat. Hearing nothing, she bent down and quickly started to rifle through the bag, discarding Garth's neatly rolled and folded clothes as she did so, then sitting back on her heels and grimacing in disgust when she didn't discover any money or anything else of value she could sell.

There was a mirror in the hallway set over a small shelf, both wedding presents from one of Garth's relatives, and Katriona paused to peek into it, making a series of gargoyle-like, simpering faces at her reflection as she pretended to ape the way she imagined Claudia would check her own appearance.

Claudia. Bitch. She deserved this. She had no right to go off and leave Katriona on her own. She had no right to have a bloody baby.

Automatically, Katriona started to rub and then scratch at her arms, which were already itching, her skin crawling from the effects of withdrawal.

Angrily, she made her way into the sitting room. She needed money and Claudia was the sort of silly bitch who would have some hidden away somewhere, probably in her knicker drawer. She was that sort, Katriona decided savagely.

The sitting room was empty and Katriona scowled as she studied the clock on the mantelpiece above the fireplace. Too heavy and awkward to carry, she decided in disgust, just like the other pieces of silver and the old-fashioned china figurines that decorated the highly polished sofa table and filled the pretty mahogany cabinet standing against the wall behind it.

The figures were Dresden, eighteenth century and highly saleable, and the silver had been handed down through four generations of both Garth's and Claudia's families, but it was money that Katriona wanted money.

Grimacing in disgust, she ignored the kitchen in favour of the bedroom. She might just as well have gone out onto the street; at least by now she'd have had a couple of punters and twenty pounds or so to show for it.

She pushed open the bedroom door and then rocked back on her heels, her body stiffening in shock as she saw Garth sprawled out completely naked across the bed, the virtually empty bottle of whisky and glass at his side.

Instinct told her to leave, but overriding this instinct was a sharply savage surge of dangerous excitement. Here was Claudia's husband, Mr. Perfect. the father of the child she was carrying. The man who was all the things that all the men who had passed through Katriona's life were not.

Stealthily, she approached the bed. She knew a dead-drunk man when she saw one; after all, she had seen enough of them. There was no way he was going to wake up this side of tomorrow morning, at least not without a considerable amount of help. A triumphant grin split Katriona's face, suddenly making her look much younger, as young, in fact, as she actually was.

She reached for Garth's hand and gripped his fingers. Nothing, no response. She lifted his arm and then let it drop. Still nothing, mterestedly, she studied his body. Not bad. He had good long legs, a well-muscled torso, a flat stomach and. Without the slightest trace of self-consciousness, she moved even closer to the bed and studied his sex, even reaching out and prodding it ungently.

Hmm . not the largest man she had ever seen, but he could certainly claim to be reasonably well-endowed--and much more so than the majority of men with whom Katriona had had to deal. No, perhaps Miss Sly Boots Claudia wasn't as prissy as she liked to make out after all.

That is, if her precious Garth knew what to do with it and if he wasn't just the shove-it-in, move-it-up and-down, take-it-out type and--even more unlikely, she decided unkindly--if Claudia herself knew how to take advantage of what nature had given him, which she doubted. She was definitely the 'lie there and think of England' type.

Katriona could just imagine her reaction if she walked in now. How shocked and disgusted she would be when she saw her precious husband sprawled stark bollock naked across their bed, very obviously drunk.

And how much more shocked she would be if she were to walk in and find Katriona herself straddled across him, riding that interestingly sized cock, while he begged for more and told her he was having a better time rucking her than fucking his wife. They all did. After all, that was why they paid her for sex when most of them could have had it for free at home.

Experimentally, Katriona climbed onto the bed. If she turned her head, she could see her're flection in the mirror and anyone coming in now would have a perfectly clear view of her backside as she rode up and down on Garth's prick. Her grin widened as she imagined Claudia's reaction again. She wouldn't be so calm, so distant, so sure of herself and in control then, would she? No, she, Katriona, would be the one in control, the one making her dependent on her goodwill.

Almost absently, Katriona started to remove her clothes, although, unlike Garth, she didn't scatter them all over the room but folded them neatly on the floor instead. Then she glanced to wards the neat dressing-table and saw a single small vial of scent. On impulse, she climbed off the bed and went to pick it up, then dabbed it generously on her body, especially her breasts and just above her sex.

And then still smiling, she climbed back onto the bed. Only this time when she straddled Garth and reached for him, instead of simply touching his penis briefly, she squeezed it between her fingers. m his drunken sleep. Garth jerked and frowned, mumbling something but not waking up.

Katriona pinched him much harder a second time. With a roar of protest. Garth awakened and tried to sit up, but Katriona was too quick for him, leaning forward over him so that his face became entangled in the thick length of her hair, her body pressed tight against him as she commanded huskily, "Put it in me. Garth, put it in now.7 Still drunk and totally confused. Garth tried to respond to the warning message his brain was sending him, but it was impossible for him to clear the fog of alcohol and sleep clouding his thought processes.

Above him, Katriona reached down and took him in her hand, firmly massaging him to erect thickness at the same time as she pushed her breasts towards his mouth and commanded fiercely, "Suck."

Instinctively, Garth opened his mouth. Somewhere at the back of his mind, a sharp, shrill alarm bell sounded but he couldn't hear it, couldn't hang on to the brief recognition that this breast, this dark pointed nipple did not belong to Claudia, that Claudia would never do what this girl was doing. never command, demand, as she was doing.

But how, after all, could it not be Claudia? Claudia was his wife.

This was their home, their bedroom, their bed. Still, even if the last thing he felt like now was sex, his body. Reluctantly, sluggishly. Garth's body responded to Katriona's expert ministrations. She was the one who was the aggressor, he the passive recipient of her attentions. She was the one who held him rigid while she slid onto the hard shaft she had brought into existence, holding him with her muscles as she growled triumphantly deep in her throat.

What do you think of him now, your wonderful husband? she crowed mentally to Claudia as she pumped vigorously up and down on Garth, half-smothering him, making sure that her hair and the pillow were making it impossible for him to actually see her while she rode him as exultantly as any Valkyrie.

Technically, it wasn't possible for a woman to rape a man, at least not in the act of normal sexual intercourse, and if Claudia were to walk in now, she would never believe that Garth hadn't instigated the apparently passionate sex that was taking place between them.

"Yes, come on, fuck me," Katriona purred.

"Fuck me really hard, really, really hard."

Garth was vaguely aware of her verbal demands but it was to the message that his body was giving him that he was really responding, answering the primal, primitive call that was as ancient as the human race. Gripping Katriona's wrist, he started to thrust up into her, ignoring the pain in his head and the distant awareness that something wasn't right, that she didn't feel right, that she didn't sound right. that she just wasn't right.

Katriona felt him grow more rigid just before he released himself inside her with an explosive surge.

Smiling to herself, she let him slide away from her. When wouldClaudia be coming home? In the morning. just in time to discover her.Katriona, snuggled up in bed with her husband. Still smiling,Katriona reached for the bedclothes and lay down beside Garth.

You're sure you're feeling well enough to drive back to London on your own? You could leave your car and Daddy--' "I'm fine," Claudia assured her mother.

"It's just this wretched morning sickness."

"I was the same her mother admitted, adding comfortingly, but it should stop soon."

"I hope so," Claudia returned. She was well into her pregnancy now but the weight she had lost along with her appetite meant that her pregnancy didn't show very much yet and she certainly looked far from the bloomingly healthy picture a pregnant woman was supposed to present.

She already had a short list of houses to see, although with Garth in Northern Ireland he wouldn't be able to go with her as they had planned.

Garth. A sharp tremor of anxiety tensed her already queasy stomach.

What was he doing now? Was he safe? Was he.

It was almost lunch-time before she finally got in her car and set off for London, but it wasn't until she stopped to fill the tank with petrol that she realised she hadn't got her flat keys.

"Damn," she swore as she quickly tipped out the entire contents of her handbag to go carefully through them. She tried to remember when she had last seen her keys but couldn't. Another facet of her pregnancy along with her nausea was her increasing forgetfulness.

Well, she would just have to contact the landlord--he had a spare set.

Perhaps she had left her keys behind at her parents'. She would have to ring them when she got home to find out.

It was the noise that woke Garth, his brain registering it as alien and therefore potentially dangerous even through the agonizing pounding of the headache that felt like two cavemen bludgeoning one another with stone clubs inside his skull.

He opened his eyes.

It was the soft hiss of his indrawn breath that alerted Katriona to the fact that he was awake. Crouching on the floor beside the bed as she went through his pockets, she rifled through the wallet she had found, quickly pulling out the notes and stuffing them into her pocket at the same time as she got to her feet and turned to run towards the door.

Garth was fast but Katriona was faster and she had the advantage of being fully dressed and alert.

As she raced down the stairs heading for the front door and freedom.

Garth cursed; he knew that it was impossible for him to pursue her completely nude.

Who was she and, more importantly, how the devil had she got into the Hat?

Grumpily, he picked up his discarded and now empty wallet. The area they were living in wasn't exactly up-market and he had noticed the gangs of youths loitering on the pavement; the girls in their suspiciously short, tight outfits who hung around the corner of the street watching the men driving slowly past them. It was just as well that he and Claudia were planning to move. London, in his opinion, was no place to bring up a baby. Babies, children, needed fresh air, space and freedom, the kind of country childhood that both he and Claudia had enjoyed.

There was no point in his going back to bed now. He turned and studied the bedroom floor and his scattered clothing. The room, the whole flat, stank of whisky and stale air. As he went to open one of the windows, he was frowning. The girl who had gone through his wallet must have got into the flat somehow, but how? God, but his head ached, his memories of the previous evening blurred and irritattngly incomplete. He could remember getting home and having that first drink, but after that. Garth shook his head. There were odd shards of something there, a woman. her hair. her voice. His frown deepened as he fought to concentrate on them, but they were too vague. too elusive. more dream shadows than reality.

How had that damn girl got in? He went to check the lock, but as he had already seen, it hadn't been forced.

He would have to have a word with the landlord, check if any of the other tenants had had anything stolen from the other flats, but before he did that he ought to get their flat straightened before Claudia returned from her parents'.

Claudia was thinking about Garth as she turned into the street, but as she drew level with the house and saw Garth's car parked outside, the unexpectedness of the sight caused her to stall her own car before parking it clumsily and racing upstairs to their flat. Knocking impatiently on the door, she called out, "Garth. Garth, are you in there?"

A shower, several mugs of black coffee and some headache tablets had made Garth feel distinctly more his normal self even if they hadn't restored his memory of the previous evening and the night's lost hours.

"Garth, I saw your car... you shouldn't be here ... are you all right are you...?"

"I'm fine," Garth reassured her as he let her in, adding in concern,

'but you don't look too good. "

"I was thinking about you all the way here," Claudia said as she followed him inside, shivering slightly.

"I was worrying about you... but what are you doing here? You're

supposed to be in Northern Ireland.""I know. It was cancelled."Something in the tone of his voice warned Claudia. She scanned his face anxiously before saying uncertainly, "Something is wrong. Are you

what...?"

"Nothing's wrong with me Garth assured her, then told her quickly what had happened, his voice and face grim.

"Oh, Garth, no. Oh, no, that poor boy. His family, his parents...""They had to cancel the tour, of course. There was no way of keeping it a secret. A thing like that affects the men's morale. There'd have been talk about the tour being jinxed, that kind of thing."

Claudia looked shocked, her hand going to her mouth in distress.

"I had to tell his parents."

"Oh, Garth..."

Instinctively, Claudia wrapped her arms around him, and as he held her

close and breathed in the familiar sweet, fresh scent of her, Garth closed his eyes against the hard acid burn of the moisture stinging his eyes.

"The CO told me to come home. I'd forgotten that you wouldn't be here."

"Oh, Garth," Claudia reproached herself, 'and you were all on your own.

What did you. "

She broke off, giving him a rueful look as he gestured towards the empty whisky bottle he had just been about to throw out.

"Stupid, I know," he agreed when he saw the look on her face.

"But I can promise you I'm paying for it this morning. Today I've got the mother and father of all headaches. How about you, though?"

Tm fine. It's just this awful sickness. " She made a face."It's supposed to stop at twelve weeks and it's still with me now! Oh,Garth, I nearly forgot," she added.

"Have you seen my keys anywhere?It was only when I was driving back I realised I hadn't got them. ""No. No, I haven't," Garth responded."Could you have left them at your parents'?""I might have done. I'll ring them later to check.""I think you should ring them now," Garth told her."When I woke up this morning, there was someone here going though my wallet. The lock hasn't been forced and--' " Someone. someone broke

into the flat," Claudia concluded.

"Oh, Garth, I... But do you really think they could have used my keys?"

"We won't know until we check with your parents," Garth gently pointed out to her, 'but it isn't exactly inconceivable, is it, given your work, that someone might have taken your keys? "

"No. No, it isn't," Claudia agreed, shivering a little as she thought about the dismal, yawning canyons that were the corridors and stairwells in the tower blocks she visited with their fetid smells of urine and rubbish and their ever present gangs of youths.

What would have happened if she had been the one to be woken up by some intruder going through their things? It didn't bear thinking about. As though he had guessed what was going through her mind. Garth hugged her tightly, say n ing gruffly, "The sooner the three of us find ourselves a proper home, the better."

As Claudia smiled up at him. Garth's hold on her tightened.

"It's two o'clock in the afternoon," Claudia protested as he bent his head to kiss her.

"So?" Garth teased back, adding wickedly, "Isn't a woman in your delicate condition supposed to rest in the afternoon?"

"That was in our mothers' day," Claudia responded indignantly, but Garth noticed that she made no attempt to move away from him and he noticed, too, how warm and soft her body felt, how familiar.