No more candlelight
No more romance
No more small-talk
When the hunger's gone

Rufus Wainwright ft Dido

"Jo" Ruth called out across the grid. "Can I ask a favour?"

"Depends what it is!" Jo taunted.

"I was wondering if I could borrow a dress, well, the dress you wore to last years Christmas party. You see I've got a school reunion next weekend and I need something to wear. Something gorgeous, something I wouldn't have worn back then."

"And that dress will do it?" She asked, not fully sure she believed the story.

"Well yes it looked amazing on you, I just hope I can do it half the justice it deserves." The flattery won her over. And with a quick smile Jo replied

"Well in that case, I'll bring it in tomorrow for you." She started to walk away the turned and asked. "Harry going with you?" Ruth could feel the heat rising in her face. So she turned to walk off in the opposite direction.

"No I thought I wouldn't put him through meeting all the ghastly characters I grew up with." She prayed she had kept the waver from her voice and that Jo would buy her little story.

Harry had not been so easy to win round.

She had told him she didn't really want to go but felt obliged, and that he shouldn't bother making the trip as it would be no fun anyway.

He had taken a lot of convincing but with a few well placed kisses and promises he had let her go.

He hadn't seemed to notice her reluctance to give him details or how distracted she had been over the last few weeks.

She must be covering it well; she didn't understand how one of the countries highest ranking spooks could not notice he was being cheated on.

Mind you it had happened before.

She had lied to him excessively to cover her tracks.

Working late when they worked in the same place wasn't an easy lie to tell.

She had been seeing old school friends or forgetting to feed the cats an awful lot.

That was probably why he had asked her to move in, so she could feed them at him. She didn't know if he sensed it, the lack of lust between them now.

They had started out not able to keep their hands off each other but their sex life had slowly become dissatisfying to her.

She found it hard to believe when she thought it.

She had lusted after him so long and now she had him whenever she wanted she didn't want him at all.

She had loved his hands skimming her body and his lips drowning her cries but now she had to fake it to make him feel better.

It was no fault of his own, he had been an amazing revelation to her in the beginning, sex could be good, it want full of self satisfaction and fumbled gestures.

He had made her tremble, made sure she always enjoyed it and never been selfish.

It made her sick, lying, but she realised quite early on she could lie to him and he would swallow it without difficulty.

He had told her once she was a born spook, if only he knew how true this was.