Tessa stirred. Her most comfortable position was with one hand draped around Brad's neck, her fingers entangled in his hair. Fully awake now, Tessa discovered that's exactly where her hand was. Tentatively her eyes fluttered open. Brad was looking at her, a tender look in his eyes. Not only was her hand rather possessively around him, one slender leg was imprisoned between Brad's muscular thighs. It seemed stupid to even attempt to disengage from the position she was in, so Tessa lay still, holding her breath and looking at the fine strands of hair on his chest. She started counting them. One, two, three---

'Good morning,' Brad murmured, pressing his lips to the soft flesh of her milky white throat.

Silently she groaned. Her body was telling her it wanted to respond to his loving, but her brain said no.

'Morning,' Tessa muttered and attempted to get out of Brad's embrace. She should have known better. 'I ---need to get up,' she sighed, more because Brad's warm alluring body was feeling rather comfortable, her body was remonstrating. It had already made peace with Brad. She thought Brad was going to resist, but surprisingly, he let her go.

'Rise and shine Lyndon Blakely,' Tessa smiled. 'Time for school.'

Lyndon groaned sleepily, not in the least enthusiastic to get out of bed. 'Morning momma.'

'Come on sweetheart, your brother dilly dallies at night later than you and he is up with the birds.'

'Did you remember my teacher wanted to see you today momma?' Lyndon threw off the covers, and stretched lazily as he stepped out of bed.

'I remember sweetheart,' Tessa removed Lyndon's night clothes and got him into the bath.

'Ellie, said she had a lovely time at the barbecue last week,' Lyndon smiled.

'It was lovely wasn't it?' Tessa laughed. You and Dylan were naughty to throw Ellie into the pool.' It was a good thing Tessa had requested one of the staff from the GR gym to be on standby. She was an excellent swimmer and had life guard duty at the poolside.

'Momma, what can I buy Dylan for his birthday next week?'

'You have to become a very sly secret agent,' Tessa answered softly.

'What do you mean?' Lyndon whispered back.

Tessa laughed at his answering whisper. 'You could ask other friends if he mentioned something that he would like, otherwise you will have to very casually get him to tell you what he thinks is really cool to have right now.'

'Okay,' Lyndon slapped a high five with his mummy. 'I can do that,' he whispered even more softly.

'Morning son,' Brad walked into Lyndon's room to find Tessa getting him ready for school. Brad was rather curious about the whispered sentence he caught as he walked into Lyndon's room.

'Morning my daddy,' Lyndon smiled brightly. 'Are you leaving now?'

Tessa did not look up. She continued buttoning Lyndon's shirt.

'Yes son,' Brad pressed a kiss on atop Lyndon's head. 'Enjoy school, see you tonight.'

'Bye my daddy.'

'Tessa,' Brad touched her arm.

'Yes?'

'See you at the office,' he opened his arms to her.

She could not ignore his request, not in front of Lyndon. Brad wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her at leisure. He took his time, indulging in a lingering kiss, knowing Lyndon's presence was an excellent decoy.
'Bye, see you later,' Tessa responded, extricating herself from Brad's arms.

'Lets remove that part of the sentence,' Tessa was leaning over Keri's chair, focused on editing a letter. 'And that paragraph. They don't need to know why we're pulling out...'

Tessa stopped in mid sentence as the elevator doors opened and in walked Bentley and his boss from an outside meeting. Her eyes locked with Brad's. They did not speak, just gazed into each other's eyes.

'Hi,' she murmured.

'Hi,' Brad smiled courteously. 'Keri,' Brad greeted, as he proceeded to his office with Bentley in tow.

'Good afternoon Mr. Blakely,' Keri greeted.

'I have to get to a meeting at Lyndon's school,' Tessa exhaled with relief. 'Will you finish that and leave it on my desk?'

'Sure Tessa. It will be done, before I leave.'

'See you tomorrow,' Tessa smiled.

'Can Lyndon and I have milk shakes please Mrs. Blakely?' Ellie tugged on Tessa's arm after the school meeting.

Tessa smiled, 'I don't mind Ellie, but your mom's waiting. Tessa looked at the opened passenger door of Ellie's mom's car.

'My mom says she has an hour, if you are free,' Ellie pleaded. Tessa looked towards the car. Ellie's mom, Mercia Campbell waved. Tessa waved back, then walked towards the car. They chatted and both ladies agreed to treat the little ones to milk shakes.

Ellie wanted to ride with Lyndon in the red flashy car. Tessa caught the proud grin on Lyndon's face. She overheard Lyndon talking about books and toys. She smiled, wondering if he was doing some investigating for Dylan's present. Lyndon and Ellie had a lovely rapport, not a moment's silence passed between them. She hardly needed to initiate any conversation. As Tessa parked outside the cafe, two familiar SUV's flanked hers. Tessa had no doubt, Brad would be getting an instant report that his family deviated from their standard routine.

Tessa enjoyed a refreshing drink with Mercia. The ladies laughed about the antics their kids get up to. Ellie had an older brother in high school. She and her brother constantly fought over the television remote and the last cool drink in the refrigerator. Tessa mentioned how different her boys were and how contrasting their likes and dislikes were.
Mercia put a reassuring hand on Tessa's arm to caution her it does not get any better as they grow older, when dreaded flash bulbs echoed around Tessa like a recurring nightmare. Her head swung towards the car park. There was a scuffle going on, but somebody escaped on a motor cycle.

Without seeming to appear alarmed, Tessa stood up. She calmly opened her bag and removed some bills and placed it on the table. Tessa thanked Mercia for the companionship. She excused herself and rushed to where Lyndon was enjoying his milkshake with Ellie.

'We must leave darling,' Tessa tapped Lyndon.

'I'm not finished momma.'

'I'm sorry Ellie. Will you excuse Lyndon please?'

'Sure Mrs. Blakely. Thank you for the milk shake.'

'It was a pleasure Ellie. 'Bye,' Tessa waved to Ellie and Mercia'

She scanned the area wearily as she guided Lyndon back to her car. She felt somehow at peace for the two guards standing alongside the driver's side of her car and two on the passenger side. Tessa ushered Lyndon into the passenger seat and locked his door. As she got to her door, she spoke to the senior guard.

'Do you know who that was?'

The guard mentioned the name of a rather trashy tabloid. He also apologized because the one photographer managed to escape.

'Thank you,' Tessa nodded. 'We're going home now.'

The guard smiled politely and assured Tessa he would get them home safely. Tessa was not too concerned about their safety. She thought their protection adequate. What had Tessa racking her brain was why the media had pounced on her this afternoon? She had had relative peace for rather a long time. Infact since the day she married Brad, access to her had been fettered. How did they penetrate the protective steel barrier he erected for them?' Brad was not going to be impressed with the security detail. She was convinced somebody's head was going to roll.

'Are you okay momma?'

'Yes Angel,' Tessa smiled at Lyndon.

'You're so quite.'

'Sorry my baby, I was just thinking,' she answered as they entered the driveway.

'May I swim please momma, before I do my homework?'

'Sure,but only for an hour.'

'Thank you momma,' Lyndon was peeling his clothes off, before he could enter the house. Tessa requested Stacy to watch over Lyndon in the pool. When she walked into Daniel's playpen, she found him on his tummy, still busy with his train set.

'Hi sweetheart,' Tessa smiled.

'Hi sweetheart,' Daniel echoed.

'Are you really a comic or are you a parrot?' Tessa laughed as she lifted Daniel into her arms.

'What is a comic mum?' Daniel threw his arms around his mummy and hugged her.

'A comic likes to make people laugh and a parrot repeats what he hears. Now which are you?' Tessa tickled him.

'I'm a comic parrot mum,' Daniel laughed heartily.

'Mmm now you think you're rather smart don't you?'

'Where's my brother mum?'

'Lyndon's swimming. Would you also like to swim?'

'No, don't wanna. I'm making a rail track.'

'How long are you making this track for? Aren't you tired of it?'

'Look mum, but don't touch okay,' Daniel slid down. 'There's my bridge. The spines of two books were put to alternate use to serve as a rail bridge. Here's my track,' he pointed proudly. Tessa was shocked. Daniel was building a track that was so steep. It looked like those dangerous rides in the fun fair.

'You did all this?'

'A little, Stacy did most,' Daniel squatted to inspect his bridge. 'I want more tracks mum, but dad said I must read first,' Daniel gave Tessa an adorable pout.

'I agree with daddy, Angel.'

'You must agree with me, then I can get my tracks.'

'Is that so?' Tessa laughed. 'Will you do something with mummy?'

'Okay,' Daniel did not sound too convincing.

'I want you to read a book with me.'

'But I don't like stories. I like my toys and my TV programs.'

'Read with me, please,' Tessa urged.

'Okay mum. A small book, quickly.'

'Tessa laughed. She selected three books and asked Daniel to choose one. He chose the thinnest one. At least it was a start. Tessa took her time. She attempted to read a second book but Daniel was not interested.

It was rather late now. She had given both the boys their bath. Brad was still not home. Tessa decided to give the boys their supper. She was not hungry and neither was she in the mood to eat alone. After the boy's supper Tessa was about to go upstairs when the front door opened. Brad stormed in with a murderous expression on his face. Tessa's eyes widened in surprise, she swallowed nervously.

'What have I done?' she asked cautiously.

           -end chapter forty one-