One Step Beyond

It sounded good to me, but there was one big stumbling block. I told her I would be going back to University soon.

She cast her eyes heavenwards. "Yeah - Cambridge. You said last night. That's the fucking end of the world, isn't it? Can't be more than what, twelve trains an hour into London? We've got no fucking chance have we?"

She shifted her weight and I felt soft, warm wetness against me. Within seconds, I was hard and she slid down onto me.

If this was how we were going to 'un-fuck-up' each other, then I was not going to argue.

We made love again the next morning and I groaned when I took hold of her for another round and she said she had to get to work. Apparently a lot of people would be disappointed if she didn't. When I asked her why, she told me I would find out soon enough.

We walked back along the railway arches. That early in the day they were all shuttered and closed up. As we reached the pub we spent the previous afternoon in, she stopped and put her hands on my shoulders. "This is me. Just keep on heading east along the arches and you'll get to London Bridge Station. Think you can find your way home from there?"

I took her in my arms. "No problem. And I think I know my way back here."

"Soon, yeah? Before I try and gate-crash another port."

It wasn't a busy road but at least four car horns beeped at us before we broke apart. As we did, a battered old side-door opened in one of the archways and a girl's head popped out. She was similar in looks to Serah but slightly older. She shook her tousled head at us.

"Come on, Serah. Put him down and get to work, girl. This beer ain't going to brew itself."

"Yes, sister dear. Just coming."

I looked at her then the name above the roller door. I had been too preoccupied with her to notice the previous day.

Two Sisters Brewing Company. Founded 2018. Proprietors, Hailey and Serah Leyton.

She grinned at me. "Told you I was a beer snob, didn't I? Just another reason to come back, eh? I fuck like an angel and I help brew the best beer in Old London Town. What's not to like!"

Nine

It hadn't been comfortable sleeping on a camp bed in the box room but needs must. Given the state of the rest of the house, it was our only real option.

We dressed and finalised putting the last of our things in the car. The rest of Madison's stuff was already back in her old flat in West London. She moved the car from the garage out onto the street for an easier getaway and we went back in to survey the damage.

The house looked like a bombsite and it had taken a lot of hard work and dedication to get it into that state. Sixteen people going at it, hell for leather, in an almost mindless orgy of sex, drink and good food. We began with a barbeque in the garden in the afternoon and ended around three in the morning in a languid, exhausted heap of tangled flesh.

I walked into what had been my room and took in the rumpled bed, the stained sheets, the casually discarded condoms and half-empty wine bottles. Every guest room told the same story. Every bottle had something left in it and almost all of them were on their sides, leaking onto expensive carpets or wooden tiles. Ashtrays were piled high, unwashed sex toys strewn carelessly on beds and sofas. More condoms leaked their contents on to furniture and in almost every corner, discarded panties, socks and underpants lurked. Each guest had been encouraged to leave at least one item of clothing behind, preferably intimate and soiled.

The main bedroom had been hit the hardest. The black satin sheets looked stiff as a board as they hung from the sides of the bed and trailed off across the floor, crusted with bodily fluids and stained with wine.

I had acquired an old Polaroid camera from the internet and the headboard of the bed was adorned with over twenty assorted pictures of Madison performing various lewd acts on men and women. In one I had immortalised her as she ground down on me, a cigarette dangling from her lips to doubly mock the man for whom all of this was intended.

Fucking her step-son in his father's bed whilst smoking would send him into incandescent rage and we had taken extra care to make sure it took pride of place in the centre. Just for good measure, I added one of her and Cassie blowing smoke at the camera. Cassie had been a real trouper being an evangelical non-smoker herself, but as she said, she went the extra mile for her best friend.

We stood hand in hand looking at the wreckage of the kitchen - the central table at which we'd held our heart-to-hearts was piled high with empty bottles, glasses, plates of curled up food. Condoms hung from wine glasses, cigarette ends floated in gin tumblers and the place stank of stale food and drink. In the other rooms there was an overriding aroma of stale sweat and the stench of sex.

It was gross, it was disgusting and in places almost stomach churning. Madison had even spilt some of her hair colouring on one of the spare room sheets as apparently he had a phobia about menstrual blood. It wouldn't fool him for long, but at least there would be that initial shock value. It was perfect - it was exactly as we had planned it.

Outside, the garden had fared little better and there was a huge scorch mark on the patio where the barbeque had somehow mysteriously toppled over. Despite the mayhem there, we had been careful not to do any damage to the plant life.

The wine cupboard door stood open; the contents decimated by Madison's largesse. She thanked each guest for their contribution by allowing them to take away as much as they could carry. I shuddered to think how much vintage wine had gone from my father's collection, then grinned at the thought.

I turned to Madison. "Well, Miss Templeton - I think we made a good job of that!"

She hugged me and kissed me on the forehead. "I think we did, young Daniel. Can you go set the video up?"

I went upstairs to his office and set it going, playing on a loop on the computer on which I had watched Madison's highlight reel. For good measure, I added a JPEG of Madison to the portrait screen, especially taken the previous evening.

In it, she grinned at the camera with my erect cock in her left hand. Another cock - I think Cassie's partner Rich - had just shot over her cheek and across her chin. She held her spare hand to her forehead in the 'L for Loser' gesture. There was only one man it was aimed at.

When I was done, I pushed the keyboard and mouse to one side to reveal the large, crusty stain that we added to the desktop when I fucked her on it the night before the party. The mess we made was quite impressive.

Back in the kitchen, she let out a deep breath. "Well, that only leaves the wait now, doesn't it?"

Right on cue her phone beeped as a text message came in. She turned to me, suddenly nervous. "He's in the car. We've got about forty minutes."

My heart began to thump in my chest as I realised we were now in the end-game. To get to this point had taken some organisation and effort, but so far it looked as if it would work. There was only one way to take our minds off the next forty or so minutes and the staircase was the only place untouched by our dedicated bomb-squad.

I used a condom as we were pushed for time and cleaning up would be difficult given the state of the place. She came with her legs wrapped tightly around me, our mouths mashed together, those nipple bars scraping against my bare chest in a way I had come to love.

She carefully hung the condom from one of the banister rails and we waited for his arrival text. It came five minutes later and said he was five minutes out.

As we stood in the doorway and took one last look at the devastation, she picked up a remote control and a heavy, pulsing bassline filled the hallway. As we closed the front door behind us, I heard my first crashing A-minor chord over the Hammond B3 setting on Rachel's Nord Stage 2.

Everything was in place. We were good to go. We walked to the end of the drive and waited.

He emerged from his company limo as though he were about to give a Presidential Address. As he walked slowly and dramatically towards a sweetly smiling Madison with his arms wide, the flunky began to take his cases down the path.

I stopped him. "We'll take it from here, thanks. Tearful reunion and all."

He nodded. "Ah, right you are, guv. Point taken."

He scurried back to the car as my father took Madison in his arms. I turned away, unable to watch.

Finally, they broke their clinch. He looked around, the Lord of All He Surveyed. "Ah it's good to be back." He gave me a perfunctory nod. "Daniel."

I ignored him as he went on - in 'me' mode as usual.

"It's been a bloody hard grind these last few weeks, Madison. Endless negotiations, long nights, flight after bloody flight. You have no idea what I went through." He shook his head. "Ah how you must have missed me, darling!"

Madison looked at him brightly. "Don't worry, you'll see just how much I missed you when you get inside!"

I had to bite my lip.

She stood back and brushed herself down. She looked good enough to eat in a silky light blue blouse and stretch leggings and even only minutes after ravishing her on the stairs I could have gone again.

She looked into my father's arrogant face, her smile a thing of the past. She looked steely and determined. "Miss you? Jesus H. Christ on a pushbike, you are such a fucking asshole. Always about you, isn't it? It was a fucking relief to have you gone. Right, I'm off."

He looked at her in amazement. "Off? Where? I've just got back, woman. No time to be heading off! Where the fuck are you going?"

She raised an eyebrow and looked at me quizzically. "Bermuda, wasn't it?"

As my father spluttered, I nodded. "Pretty sure you said Bermuda."

"Bermuda? Fucking Bermuda?" His stentorian tones rattled around the quiet cul-de-sac and I could imagine curtains twitching. "Why are you going there now when I've just come back from the bloody place?"

She shrugged. "Because you won't be there, will you?"

I had never seen him so flustered and he seemed incapable of rational speech. At last he managed to string coherent words together. He was utterly bewildered. "When will you be back?"

She smiled. "Back at my old flat in London? Three weeks." She waved an arm to the house behind her. "Back here? Not in a million years, Alex. Not in a million fucking years."

She put her hands on her hips, warming to her task. "I've had enough, Alex. I won't be your trophy wife anymore. You can go fuck yourself, because you certainly won't fuck me again - not that you've done so for a long time now. I'm not going to try and explain. I'll just ask you to think about what you did to that boy over there and his mother because you've been doing the same to me since I was stupid enough to say 'yes'. You're fucking poisonous, Alex. At last I've found the antidote."

His face was almost puce in colour and he shook from head to foot as he tried to rationalise what she had just said. She didn't give him time to respond.

"That boy over there is your son, Alex. Like me these days, you barely give him a second glance. Well let me tell you that when your son scored a century in a league game last Saturday, I was there watching, which is something you've never done. I know jack-shit about cricket, but I went to see him play and it was fucking joyful to watch. Hear that music playing in the hall? That's his band at college. They're fucking good. What are they called, again Daniel?"

We were called 'Omega', but we had rehearsed this little bit for effect. "Fatherless Sons."

"That's it. Fatherless Sons." She nodded. "Very appropriate, don't you think? Give them a listen while you clean up the mess we left you."

She held out a hand to me. "Come on Dan, let's leave this old dinosaur to stew in his own shit." She giggled. "Or maybe in our shit. I think I forgot to flush the loo!"

He looked about to explode as he turned to me. "Where's that long-haired, useless idiot going then?"

She tucked her hair behind one ear and gave him a wry smile. "He's going with me to Bermuda. He'll be sleeping in my bed, like he's been doing these last few blissful weeks. There's a short video playing on the computer in your office on a loop. The first few seconds are Dan scoring his 100th run the other day, and the joy he and his teammates got from it. The next minute or so is him getting the reward I gave him for batting so well. In case you're interested, Dan's the one deep in my ass and his best mate Jed is the one I'm sucking off. He took five wickets so I figured he was due a reward as well. Oh and I left you a little welcome-back message on your second screen."

I thought she was done, but she had one more knife to drive home. "And just so you are in no doubt, Alex - your nineteen-year-old son is a damned side better than you in bed. You know why, Alex? Because he fucking cares. Whether its fucking my ass like a porn star, sucking my cunt, coming on my tits or making sweet, gentle love - he fucking cares."

We walked towards the car and I thought he was about to have a heart attack. He was literally lost for words.

She opened the car door and turned back. "I'd say I'm sorry about the mess in there, but I'm not. You can clean that mess up and it will be gone in a few hours. The mess you make of people's lives is much harder to clean up and lasts a lifetime. Enjoy the rest of your life, Alex. Try not to fuck up anyone else's along the way. You've done enough damage as it is."

Without another word, she slammed the door and took off around the corner as though she was in pole position in a Grand Prix. She drove like a maniac through narrow streets for a minute or so then pulled over and put her head in her hands, shaking like a leaf.

At first I thought she was crying, but as she uncovered her face and turned to me, there were tears of laughter on her face. "Oh his face. That went better than I could ever have imagined! We should have put cameras in the rooms to see his reaction."

She hugged me tightly. "Thanks for seeing me through it, Dan. Come on, let's go swim with dolphins and ball our brains out."

She put the car into gear again and this time her driving was back to normal.

Still shellshocked myself, I took a deep breath. "I haven't got a best mate called Jed. That clip is from Mad Mad's Highlight Reel."

She shrugged. "He doesn't know that does he?" She gave me a sideways glance. "At least I followed a lie with the truth - you're way better in the sack!"

As she spoke, her mobile ringtone sounded from the car speakers. She smiled ruefully. "Oh fuck, here we go..." She accepted the call and winked at me.

His furious voice filled the small compartment. "You'll pay for this woman! And you, you feckless runt of a child. You'll both bloody pay."

He went on in the same vein for what seemed like an age as we laughed silently and shook our heads at his threats. When he finally subsided, Madison's response was cool and considered.

"Pay for it? I don't think so, Alex. We both pre-paid, as did Daniel's Mom. Some of that mess is for her as well. I don't want a nickel from you, so worry not on that score. And don't threaten Dan with his Trust Fund, Alex. I'm a lawyer don't forget. The fucking thing is water-tight. So do us both a favour, bucko. Fuck off for a very long time and when you come back, fuck off again. Keep on fucking off. Leave us alone. Go and play your little corporate games. Pretend you're important. Get off on being powerful because you can't get off any other way. Leave that to us, Alex. Leave getting off because we love and respect each other to the grown-ups."

She cut the call. "Told him, huh?"

I put a hand on her leg. "You are fucking amazing, Miss Templeton."

"Not so fucking amazing that I took up with a shitty asshole like him."

"At least you split up with a shitty asshole like him. So what now?"

"I think you know what. Sun, sand, dolphins and sex."

"Yeah, but after that."

"Who knows? At least you've got a place to stay in the Uni holidays if you want. And you've made some very nice new friends." She narrowed her eyes. "Talking of which..."

She pressed a few buttons on her dashboard and her phone began to dial out. As it picked up, I heard Cassie's excited voice.

"How'd it go? Oooh, can't wait to hear all about it!"

"It was great, Cassie. Better than we could have imagined. Have you left yet?"

"Yes, on the Gatwick train as we speak. See you at the check-in desk!"

Madison glanced across at me and smiled. "Excellent. Oh and anyone else with you, Cass?"

"Oh just Rich as usual. Can't keep him away from a good time!" There was a pause. "Wait a minute, sorry. Who are you? Seems we have an interloper here, Mads. Feisty little girl - spiky black hair, tats and piercings. Answers to the name of Serah. She's asking if you've got room for a little'un?"

She closed the call with a laugh and I whooped with joy. I had been gutted when Serah couldn't make our farewell party and she had obviously managed to keep her secret when I saw her a few days earlier.

"What, three weeks of sun, sand, dolphins and five-way sex?"

She shook her head slowly. "No, Daniel. Not five-way sex. We've got a lot of friends in Bermuda. Every night is gonna make last night look like a picnic in the park."

She gunned the throttle as we hit the motorway and I saw the first signs for the airport. I sat back and sighed. "Can this get any better?"

I felt her hand on my thigh. "Better believe it. I used his credit card to book us first class. Just think, by the time you get to swim with those dolphins and fuck sweet little Serah senseless, you'll have joined the Mile High Club!"

Author's Note

Sometimes when I write, I get the compunction to bring back characters from earlier works. They usually aren't leading characters and are quite often just mentioned in passing.

I introduced Serah in my March 2020 story 'Join the Dots' in one of the final scenes when Chloe is tortured by the 'Gang of Four'. It wasn't a huge part, but I liked her vulnerability. Like the main character Bree, she was a lost soul. Bree found her redemption, but poor Serah was left high and dry.

In this story, when I wanted a love interest of Daniel's own age, I went back to her and hopefully now she will get the redemption she deserves.

Just one more thing - she was a peroxide blonde in JTD and she is dark-haired now. It is not a continuity error - she just changes her look from time to time.