Sleep When You're Dead by Jude O'Reilly

Author:Jude O'Reilly [O’Reilly, Jude]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781801109444
Publisher: Head of Zeus

33

London

The temperature in the Downing Street office was arctic and yet the windows were open, or perhaps because the windows were open the temperature was arctic. Either way, Eugenie Webber showed no sign she felt the cold. She was a big-boned woman with thinning hair retreating at the temples and a pudding-like face devoid of make-up, a fact the tabloids mentioned in every feature they wrote about her, as if to explain to readers that nothing could be done about the photograph they printed alongside the articles. If she had had any say in the matter, she would have kept her name out of the headlines, but as the prime minister’s chief of staff and most powerful agent of change, it was hard to manage.

She and the PM had been at university together. There had been rumours of an affair at the time, but no one gave it much credence, although as it happened it was true. Three months of sado-masochistic sex with her as the dominatrix and her lover as her slave. Three months when she could reduce her undergrad lover to a gibbering wreck by a snap of her vinyl-gloved fingers. And three months in which they made a pact to make him PM and for her to remain at his side throughout. Neither regretted the alliance and she knew the PM still thought about the sex. She knew it because occasionally she would snap her fingers on some pretext or other, and he would flash her a dopey grin.

No one else, however, wanted to think about Eugenie Webber having sex, not even Eugenie herself. She’d tried it with all the usual variations – not just the S&M – and with a variety of partners throughout her twenties and found it underwhelming, although she’d pretended otherwise. There’d even been a brief marriage to an elderly mathematician. But even when young, she believed there was more satisfaction to be had elsewhere.

The man across from her had already turned down the offer of coffee. He’d kept on his long waxed riding coat, which was an affectation, she thought. Then again, he was an intelligence agent, so perhaps he knew she kept the place cold. Or perhaps he was keen to keep the meeting as brief as possible. As usual, she’d attempted to steer him towards the orange mohair sofa, which had the consistency of a marshmallow, but he had swerved at the last minute and taken the chair across from her desk. The sofa served two purposes. Those seated in it were forced to look up at her, and it gave a homely feel to her office. It was in fact more homely than her actual home, where she preferred a stark minimalism. But here the chintz cushions and the family photographs, the fresh flowers and the cartoons on the wall, converged to lend her some humanity and warmth. She even ran to a scented candle on occasion. In reality, she had long since accepted that she was both less than human and more than human.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.