Come Play with the Watcher

"I should get back to the house." She said sadly.

"I'm expecting a call from Pete."

It wasn't true but she wanted some space for herself. To think through the confusing thoughts.

Thirteen

The weather was beginning to deteriorate by the following week. Strong winds were coming in off the sea and carrying the bite of the approaching winter.

Claire saw her first Haar. A sea fog that rolled in like a tsunami of white mist.

"You're privileged to see this."

Howard explained as they sat on the dry stone wall along the cliff watching it drift over them.

"They're rare here, especially this time of year. More common on the east coast and usually in the spring."

Spectacular Claire had called it when the wall of white had approached. With its passing over them, it wasn't unlike any other fog.

"What causes it?"

"Warm air over a cold sea. Then a breeze to bring it inland."

"Warm?"

She shivered in the wind.

"Everything's relative."

"Reminds me of the London smogs in old movies. Sherlock Holmes walking in the swirling fog."

"That was pollution and the smoke from coal fires. Not very pleasant at all. People used to die in those. This is just water vapour. It'll probably clear in half an hour just as suddenly as it appeared.

Does have one advantage though."

"What's that?"

"No one can see us."

His arm came around her waist and she found herself pulled in close. She didn't object, his body warmth being a welcome break from the chilly air.

He lifted her newly blonde hair to the side and kissed her neck.

"You should come over again. Soon."

"I can't. Pete's home."

She felt disappointed that this was her answer but it was what it had to be.

"Or we could meet up somewhere. Make an excuse to visit an old friend that'll cover for you."

Clair shook her head.

"I can't keep doing this. If Pete finds out..."

"We're going to be neighbours for a long time. He'll go away again. I'll wait."

Claire took a deep breath to settle the emotions welling up inside her. She concentrated on the sound of the unseen sea. Eerie in the ghostly grey film.

"We should get back.

Pete wants to see you later about your quote."

Howard straightened up. Resigned to reality. At least presently.

"Tell him to pop round. I'm sure I can squeeze a little more out of it for him."

"You don't understand. He's ecstatic. It's cheaper than his old deal before they hiked the price. And your ideas are fresh.

Don't tell him I said that though. He needs to think he's negotiating."

Howard took her hand to pull her up from the wall.

"I can do that.

Negotiation is my middle name."

They started back towards the houses.

"I take it he doesn't mind you meeting your neighbour every morning for a walk."

"He doesn't know. Not fully. I mention we bump into each other occasionally. Please don't tell him it's regular. Be careful what you say."

"Fair enough."

"I used to jog in London. So going for a walk isn't that out of character."

"You jogged in the city but walk in the countryside?"

"Smooth pavements in London. Here I'd slip and twist an ankle. Walking is safer."

"Well lucky for me you do. I'd never keep up with a young'un like you."

She brushed her fingers over his chest. Her thoughts again comparing the two men in her life.

"I don't think you should worry about not being fit enough."

She smiled but there was sadness in her eyes. Howard could see it.

Pete wasn't the same man when she looked at him now. No. That wasn't true Claire reflected. He was the same, it was just that now she saw his flaws with more clarity.

And in bed, he wasn't exciting. Claire noticed his flabbiness. Yes, he was young and cute. But his body lacked definition. His muscles were softened by too much desk sitting. And the cock she'd so loved only a short while ago now seemed smaller. Insignificant. It didn't excite her anymore.

Claire missed the sheer power of Howard fucking her. She missed the adventure of Penny being part of it. And she missed the contrast of her soft body and delicate touch next to Howard's strength.

"Come to bed."

"It's the middle of the afternoon."

"Since when did that stop us?"

He grabbed her hand and pulled her after him, backing towards the stairs.

"My sack seriously needs emptying."

She forced a grin as she reluctantly followed him up.

"I'm sure you managed to do that on your own."

He shrugged.

"Maybe once or twice. A couple of lesbians on Porn Hub helped out the nights your phone was out."

She felt a stab of guilt at the deception but hid it away.

"Lesbians again eh?"

Penny flashed through her mind and she felt heat in her cheeks.

"Yeah. It's not cheating if they're lesbians."

She doubted he'd see her and Penny together quite that way.

"Now get your kit off. I'm desperate."

Claire stripped and lay on the bed, forcing herself to look excited. She didn't feel it though. Last night she'd been grateful he'd come home late and she'd avoided it. Now she had to try.

Pete was still the same person. The same body. The same cock. How could it be less satisfying?

He wasn't Howard.

She did her best. Kissing and exploring his body with her hands. She found her blowjob a trial. An unenthusiastic suck of his cock that she didn't enjoy. Every movement was half-formed. Lacking in energy.

It was almost as if she were a prostitute going through the motions just to get paid. A punter wouldn't notice though. Pete might. She kept it up for as long as possible, judging her opportunity to lay back by his grunts and mutterings.

Claire opened her legs and let him fuck her. Faking her reactions and avoiding eye contact.

Pete let out the occasional grunt as he pumped his cock into her hole. She felt numb. Her head was torn by the knowledge she'd cheated on him. Devastated that she'd enjoyed it. Horrified that she would do it again.

Worst of all she understood that Pete didn't turn her on anymore. As her only lover, he had been magic. His mere touch enough to leave her juices flooding. Now she'd experienced more. She couldn't help but compare and Pete came up short every time. She wanted the encounter over.

Then there was Penny. The excitement of difference and the sin of it being an improper or illicit act to her established social view. She wasn't a lesbian. She wasn't attracted to girls. And yet...

"Uhh."

She gave the occasional grunt to sound enthusiastic and let her hands brush over his shoulders in the hope he believed she was enjoying it. But her body was a betrayer. In the same way it'd ached, her tits swelled and her pussy filled with sweet juices for Howard. Now it did the opposite. Nipples remained soft. Her tunnel dry against Pete's cock. There was none of the dirty sounding squelches that always accompanied their sex.

Pete was caressing her body, his hands searching out the zones that he knew turned her on. He sensed the lack of enthusiasm and rolled away as soon as he'd cum.

Claire hadn't. He knew that. He also knew she wasn't bothered.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

He huffed. A difficult conversation coming up.

"Your phone was off more than it was on."

Claire cringed inwardly. He hadn't bought it so easily as she'd thought.

"We always sext when I'm away. Were you avoiding me?"

"Don't be daft. I just wasn't well. I told you.

And the signal went down."

"Well you look fine now. And you're still not keen."

What are you talking about? We just did it didn't we?"

He looked at her directly and she couldn't hold his stare.

"I did.

You?

Not so sure. Present certainly. Engaged? Not so much."

Claire avoided his gaze.

"Hell. If we weren't in the middle of nowhere I'd start to question if you were seeing someone else."

"That's ridiculous."

She snapped back hoping anger would deflect him.

"Is it?

I checked the Network Status site. There were no issues reported.

And your hair? Why have you dyed it? You've never done that before?"

"Wow. You noticed.

First time for everything."

Claire looked away, forcing herself not to look towards next door. If she did he would guess.

"I'm going for a bath."

She climbed off the bed and headed for the bathroom. Anything to get away from him.

"It's a big bath for a reason." He shouted after her.

"I guess you want to be alone though."

She ignored him and closed the door behind her, throwing the bolt for the first time. She tore off a length of tissue to catch his leaking seed and dumped it in the loo.

"Fuck."

It was a big bath indeed. He should be sharing it with her. Perhaps tomorrow. When she'd shaken this uncharacteristic malaise.

That was it. She wouldn't see Howard again. It had to end. Only then would her head think straight. Only then would she again be able to appreciate all the good about Pete.

Fourteen

Claire was naked. Frothy waves washed over her. She tried to stand but the sand beneath her feet sunk away and tiny hands pulled her down.

In a panic, she looked about. It was the small cove below her house. Grey rocks rose up like a prison wall, capped by angry-looking rolling dark clouds. The old woman from the cottage was staring down at her.

"But still we cannot tell,

Whose deeds are good enough for heaven."

Whose bad enough for hell."

Her voice filled the air. Everywhere, but coming from nowhere.

She tried to stand again but still she was held firm. She looked to see why and found them. Little blue figures, old men with pointy ears and sharp fingers that gripped her flesh. Skin the texture of stone and the eyes of the devil.

"I'm not a slut." She cried out.

"I'm not a slut."

"Alexa. Lights on."

Pete's voice, then a flood of light. Claire looked about again. Her bedroom.

"What's wrong?"

He sat up and put his hand on her shoulder, feeling her stressed rapid breaths.

"Sorry." She muttered.

"A bad dream."

"I heard."

Claire felt a tinge of worry at what she might have said in her sleep. Already the images were fading and she found it hard to analyse the detail.

"Why? What did I say?"

He laughed.

"Something about being a slut.

What were you dreaming about?"

"I don't know. I don't remember." She lied. Not fully. She remembered enough.

"Very strange thing to say."

He sounded suspicious.

Claire laid back down, sensing the clammy dampness from her sweat on the sheet. While Pete went back to sleep easily she lay there in the dark staring upwards questioning what she had done and whether it was possible to placate Pete and get things back to normal.

In the darkness it seemed there really were dark forces, sprites, taking revenge on her. Tricking her into doing things she shouldn't, then punishing her for it.

In the morning Claire tried. She tried really hard to be normal. After her performance the previous afternoon it'd been an uncomfortable evening with hardly a word between them.

She didn't go for her usual walk. She couldn't face Howard. She had to break her obsession with him. Pete was her husband. He would be the father of her children. Whatever she had to do she would fix what she'd broken.

She was attentive, making him drinks and discussing what they should have for dinner. She touched him as much as possible, the brush of his hand, or the leaning into him. All the little body language signs she knew that signified closeness and adoration.

By lunch, it was clear to her that Pete had withdrawn a little. He went through the motions with her, but there was a coldness. Something was changing in him and Claire felt panicked.

She chose to head down into the little cove in the afternoon. An opportunity to clear her head and find a way back to normality.

It wasn't a long way down and the chiselled steps were wide and grippy. Only the last one or two, damp and covered in algae were a little slippy. Then she was onto soft fine sand.

The beach was only a hundred feet or so in length and even at low tide, the water wasn't that far out.

Out towards the horizon, black clouds were gathering over a dark turbulent sea. The onset of a storm. Claire stared, seeing power and beauty in the swirling pillows of cloud and spray.

The line between sky and sea was blurred and Claire began to suspect for the first time how unforgiving the weather along the coast could be in winter. She shivered at the bite in the air.

She remembered Howard's words early on about an oncoming storm. What she saw out to sea was symbolic of the true storm. The one here now. In her home where the air had the same icy chill.

She looked back the way she'd come to find Howard heading towards her. She sighed silently. He'd been the last person she'd wanted to see.

"I feel like you're avoiding me." He said as he came closer.

"I am." Claire admitted.

"I can't see you again. It has to end."

Howard leaned against the rocks and watched the gulls as they headed inland to shelter.

"You won't keep to it."

Claire looked exasperated.

"You're not listening to me. This is wreaking my marriage."

"Why? Because I excite you and Pete doesn't?

Because Penny has shown that you have another side to your sexuality?"

"It's not just about that. It's guilt. I can't carry the guilt.

I'm like your gulls. Monogamous.

This is just... messed up."

Sadness left her hunched. Wanting to curl into a ball.

"I didn't want this.

I'm going. Just stay away from me."

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"No Claire. You did want this. You still do."

He pushed her back against the cliff face and kissed her. Claire found it hard not to respond. His aroma and the taste of his lips still excited her as much as that first night.

"Please don't. For my sanity, I have to stop. Pete is my husband. He suspects."

Mind over body. The sensible, school teacher Claire, intent on taking the right road even if it was the hardest.

Again she turned to leave and again Howard held her back. This time tripping her.

She was on the sand, Howard on top of her grappling at his belt.

She felt her jeans being pulled down.

"No. Don't do this."

A pathetic verbal objection not matched by her physical actions.

"You want it as much as I do."

His hands were under her top, squeezing her tits through the material of her bra.

"I don't."

"Then why aren't you fighting it?"

He pulled her panties to the side as her legs widened to accept the man she was trying so hard to reject. He entered her with one firm thrust.

"Uhhh."

He fucked her hard and fast. Claire was just trapped under him unsure of what to do. Her body responded while her mind seemed to float above her, drifting up the cliff to the garden above. She heard her breaths and cries as though they were from somebody else.

"Uhh. Uhhh. Uh."

Excited and joyful. The sounds of desire and ecstasy.

Howard achieved what Pete no longer could. She came. Her back arching as muscles contracted sharply. Her pussy gripped his cock as it throbbed.

"Fuck."

She almost screamed it, stifling the cry into his shoulder as he pumped his seed into her.

For a moment she lay there under his weight, waiting for her breath to settle.

"Get off me."

Howard lifted himself await and straighten his clothing.

Claire sat up and pulled her jeans into place, brushing the sand away.

"You bastard."

Howard watched her.

"You enjoyed it. Don't say you didn't."

"Whether I did or not doesn't matter. I told you not to.

I'm not playing your games anymore. This was the last time."

She scrambled to her feet and marched towards the stone steps.

"Penny will be disappointed."

Tears welled in her eyes. Never mind Penny, she was disappointed. But it had to be.

Neither of them looked up. They didn't see the lone figure quietly standing at the cliff edge looking down on them.

The first pearls of rain fell not long after Claire got back. A gentle pitter-patter at first. Then becoming a monstrous thunder against the house. Outside it was dark. Rather how Pete's mood seemed when he spoke.

"How's Howard this morning?"

"Don't know. Didn't see him."

"No?

That's strange. I could have sworn I saw the two of you."

Claire felt her heart skip. Had she made a mistake? She stuck with her line, refusing to meet his gaze.

"I didn't go along the cliff. I went down to the beach."

"I know. That's where I saw you.

On the beach."

His words were sharper than the long slender blade of a rapier. They cut cleanly to strike at her heart.

"What?"

"You heard me."

His voice became harsher. The pretence falling away.

"You and Howard. I saw you."

Claire's lip quivered as her mind raced for something to say.

"Surprised you didn't see him." He went on sarcastically.

"After all, he must have been pretty hard to miss what with being laid on top of you and all."

Claire finally looked up as a tingling dread crept through her body. Pete was watching her. His face was set like stone and his arms were crossed defensively. But it was his eyes that frightened her the most. They were black.

"I'm... sorry. It was an accident."

Pathetic. She knew that as soon as the words left her mouth. Pete laughed at her.

"Accident?

What? He tripped, fell, and stuck his dick in you by accident?

All that humping his arse up and down must have been him trying to get up was it?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

The quiver on her lip became a whole body tremble as her stomach did flips.

"So am I.

I thought we were something special. I choose you. I picked you out in Uni. Even though we didn't date immediately I knew you were the one straight away."

He shook his head in disappointment.

"I made a mistake."

He stood up and started walking away towards his office.

"Pete."

She called after him.

"Wait. Please. We need to talk."

She felt her pulse skyrocket and bile rose in her throat. She turned to the windows, looking towards Howard's house obscured by the rain and the first tears welling in her eyes.

"My God. What have I done?"

Fifteen

Pete moved out at the weekend. Despite Claire's attempts, he hadn't engaged her in conversation once. Instead, he'd locked himself away in the office quietly talking on the phone. He slept in the spare room and packed on the Friday.

"You can stay here until the house is sold."

Claire didn't have anywhere else to go. Her life was Pete. She'd given up her career as a teacher to be here. With him. Now it was in tatters.

"I'm sorry."

Pete loaded up the Audi.

"I don't care."

"Please. Can we at least just talk about it?"

Pete climbed in and shut the door in her face. Not even a glance. Claire just stood in the cold under an overcast sky as the engine came to life and he backed out onto the lane. She glanced up at grey clouds rushing past, carrying the threat of rain. It was the perfect metaphor for her mood.

When she looked back the Audi was vanishing over the moorland towards civilisation. For a moment she stood staring at the desolate tapestry of fields and rocks. In the distance, the old mine head stood as a silent testimony to her life. Once thriving, successful and full of promise. Now a crumbling relic of a time that would never return.

That was it. She was trapped in this wilderness. Her only transport had gone with him. And soon the house would be taken from her.

She felt spots of rain. They disguised the tears also trickling down her cheeks. She turned away from the road in case Howard or Penny happened to look and found herself under the gaze of the piskie.

"They don't like sluttery." She heard the words again.

"Fuck you." She muttered.

A sudden crack of thunder brought her to her senses and she ran inside, closing the door just as the heavens opened. A torrential downpour that sounded like a swarm of bees attacking the house.