I finally find Robyn and Leigh back at our VIP booth, having scoured the lower level, which was even busier than it was before I disappeared into the corridor with Jake. As I approach, they're laughing loudly and sipping on champagne from what appears to be another freshly corked bottle of Jake's finest. Matt's friends are still buzzing around them, and one of them looks at me curiously as I approach glancing behind me for his absent friend. Rob waves excitedly when she sees me coming.

"Hey dancing queen," She says throwing her arm around me. Leigh moves in too and immediately starts fiddling with my hair.  I wonder if I have Jake on it.

"Hey. Listen, I'm really not feeling great - must be that disgusting Mercury shot. I knew I should have avoided it like the plague." I hold my hand to my forehead for effect. "I'm going to call it a night. Sorry."

It's pathetic but I need to get out of here and home to the comfort of my house and my cat and my own bloody smell - to some place normal and a lot less surreal. In truth, what I'm really doing is running away. It makes me wonder if it's so he can chase me.

"What? Nooo!" They both shout in unison. "You'll miss the surprise DJ He's on in like 15 minutes - it could be anyone!" Leigh pouts.

"Aw, yeah come on Al! Stay out for a bit longer!" Robyn gives me the puppy eyes, the ones she normally reserves for Dan.

"Hey did you go for a dance with Matt before? Where'd he go?" One of the guys says coming up to snake an arm around Leigh's waist. What to say? The unreasonable bizarrely jealous owner thought he was trying to mount me so he threw him out? I decide to do a variation on that.

"Oh, yeah he wanted me to say he was calling it a night. Too much to drink he said," I shrug and turn my attention back to the girls. "The DJ is Aleksa. But honestly, I don't feel too great. I'm dizzy and it's far too hot and I really don't want to have to throw up in the toilet in a place like this. It'd be so unbecoming." I smile. Lying to my friends that I'm ill is also unbecoming but at this moment I don't care. Can he see me from here too?

"Aleksa?! Seriously? How do you know?" Handsome guy asks me.

"Oh, I heard one of the members of staff talking. Sorry to ruin the surprise," I smile apologetically. I turn back to Rob and Leigh. "I'm really sorry girls. I've had a great night. I just don't want to regret it tomorrow. You guys stay and have some fun. Some expensive, free fun," I add. They don't look too happy but they'll get over it.

"OK but I'll walk you to the door - I need some air anyway. Leigh will you be ok here?" Rob inclines her head towards the guys and Leigh nods. When she leans over to hug me I whisper for her to watch her drink, which earns me an eye roll and a reluctant nod.

"Leaving so soon ladies?" One of the male maitre'd's asks as we get to the front door. It's not any of Jake's cohorts, it's a new pretty face who smiles warmly at the two of us, lingering longer on Rob.

"Just me." I tell him.

"Aw that's a shame. Well can I call you a taxi?" he offers. Slightly stunned I look at rob who looks equally impressed. Good service. Jake certainly doesn't do things by halves. I accept his offer, giving him my name and he goes into a locked door behind him as Robyn and I wait just outside the main door. There are still two lines on either side of the main entrance, and they seem to be operating a 'one out - one in' system because as the pretty guy comes out to tell me my car is on its way he holds up one finger to the doorman on the left.

As we wait for the taxi to arrive Rob asks if I'm okay, adding that I do in fact look a bit peaky. She tells me to drink a pint of water and take two ibuprofen before going straight to bed as though I'm not the medical practitioner of us both.

"Yes mum," I smile.

Whether it's a self fulfilling
prophecy or something else I don't know, but I do feel a little nauseous. I feel dizzy and my head keeps going back to the feel of him and the smell of him and everything he said upstairs and in the tunnel. He thought about me a lot. He wants to see me again. I'm something he wants. These things excite me far too much. And he's not even my type.

Also confusing me was the fact that he'd used a ruse to get me here in the first place. Guys just didn't orchestrate meetings aimed at seducing me. Yet, despite this, I think I want to be seduced by him. Or have I been seduced already?That mouth, his taste, his smell were very seductive in themselves - as a package? Jesus. Im too hot again. Dangerous. Player. Possible violent streak. Not my type. Repeat.

"Alex? Did you hear what I said?" Rob says.

"What?" I shake my head "Sorry babe I was thinking about something else," Someone else rather.

"I was just saying that I'm going to bet she takes him home tonight. Like she needs any more male related drama in her life? I mean I prefer him to that twat of a boss but I worry about her," Robyn brings out her compact from her clutch and studies her perfectly beautiful face. I sometimes think she's too judgmental of Leigh's sexual exploits. She wants us all to settle down and have the perfect Robyn & Dan version of complete domestic harmony. She has dreams of us all going on triple dates and group holidays, and eventually having 3 toddlers all running around growing up together. It's a nice idea but unlikely to happen any time soon and my near miss with Ben made that all the more impossible. Not that Rob was devastated when Ben and I ended - she wasn't his biggest fan.

"Try not to. That's just her way babe. She'll meet the right one and it will change in an instant. I'm sure of it. She's a romantic at heart," I smile sardonically. The right one. I don't even know what that means or that I even believe it myself. It's just something I've read about and heard tell of. What did it mean? I thought I had the right one - he was the right one for such a long time and then all of a sudden he wasn't right anymore. Or maybe I wasn't right anymore. It was nonsense. There was no such thing as the right one. There was lust, and love, and then hard work and then probably disappointment and/or heartbreak.

"Hmm I doubt it." Rob muses.

"We can't all be as lucky as you Rob. You and Dan are perfect for each other! Take pity on the rest of us will you?" I try and keep my tone light. Robyn smiles back and I can tell she feels a little guilty.

"You'll find your leading man babe. He probably wont be a tortured billionaire who likes BDSM but you'll find him." She smiles and I giggle.

Vaguely I wonder what Rob would make of Jake, and how far away he would be of her idea of my perfect leading man. Dangerous. Possible violent streak. Player. Not my type. Repeat.

"Your car's here Dr Marlowe." I hear from behind me. My head whips round. Seriously? I gave him my surname only. Does everyone in this place know my name, age and occupation? Somehow I manage to thank him politely before turning back to Rob.

"Okay, well you have fun lady. Ill text when I get home. Enjoy the rest of the night and give me a call tomorrow Okay?" I hug her before following the maitre'd out to the street where a shiny, expensive looking silver car is waiting for me. Clearly Jake's club has a contract with an up-market taxi company to take his VIP guests home. Another nice touch. The host opens the door for me and I thank him and get into the back seat, which is cream coloured leather upholstery and smells fresh and new.

"18 Pilgrims Way, Shere, Please." I tell the driver waiting for the sigh they normally give when they find out I live 40 minutes drive out of the city. He doesn't sigh though, he just nods politely and I settle in for the drive back home.

"Would you like the radio on love?" The driver asks in a friendly tone. He's an older man, about late fifties, with a friendly mustached face who smiles at me in the rearview mirror.

"Yes, that would be nice, thank you," He nods and switches it through a few stations before settling on one that's playing something slow and haunting which immediately begins to calm my busy hot mind. I settle further into the seat, resting my head against the window to watch as London goes past me in a trance inducing blur.

I love leaving the city to go home. I love the fact that I live far away enough that I can feel separate from its heaving oppressiveness but close enough to enjoy it when I wanted. Which was rare. Ben selling his flat in Islington to make the big sacrificial move to the country for me was bizarrely the best thing he'd ever done for us. For me. I was a country girl at heart and he knew it would make me happy. Yet it was the beginning of the end for us too. He'd called it huge and sacrificial - I called it a simple lifestyle change. "Emigrating to the country" was something he'd done to demonstrate his love for me. Others had apparently included getting a cat, and proposing.

It was ironic then that the commute home helped him keep his affair hidden for four months before I finally found out. The affair wasn't one of the things he did to demonstrate his love. Fucking the sales executive bitch was something he'd needed to do to feel like a man.

I hated dwelling on Ben. I resented any moment my thoughts went to him. I changed their direction immediately and thought instead about the man who wanted me. How could I not think about him? On cue, my stomach does another one of its involuntary lurches at the memory of him and both of tonight's episodes.

Why wasn't a man like that with someone? Married? He was gorgeous, clearly rich and utterly desirable. Instead he had set about luring me into some kind of sex trap. I'm always suspicious of handsome men. It's a fault. Why aren't they married? Are they married? God, I was overthinking him. I needed home. My thought avoidance lasts all of twenty seconds before I'm back there. I wonder what his story is. A fortnight ago he was covered in blood looking like a hooligan in my surgery, and tonight he's immaculately dressed, and opening an expensive nightclub in Brick Lane? It doesn't make sense. None of it makes sense.

The other thing that doesn't make sense is his effect on me. He's attractive yes, but when had that ever been something that turned my mind and body to something sludgy and not solid. Good-looking men have never intimidated me. I have a brain, and enough self-esteem to make me very sure of myself around them. Jake Lawrence seems to trample all over that though. Like it cares not a jot about any of it. His effect on me has the same swagger as he himself does. Sexually arrogant bugger. And then there's the kiss. His kiss.

I run my fingers across my lips remembering how he felt on them. I must have kissed Ben a million times and not once did it feel like that. It felt as necessary as breathing. If that was his kiss then I can't imagine what sex with him would be like. Okay, I could partially imagine what sex with him would be like. Hard, hot, and all consuming just like him. I wonder if it is the danger. If that's the reason my brain leaves my head around him. He definitely gives that forbidden, risky vibe. God if that's what it is then I'm cliché. I'm a girl who likes a bad boy - how utterly unoriginal. I groan in disgust.

No. It's not just that. It can't be. Because even if I hadn't met him like I did, under that veil of danger and threat then he would still have that face, and those eyes, and that mouth. He'd still have kissed me like that and have that smell that curls up in my nose and takes up residence. I groan again but not with disgust this time.

"Where's 18 love?" the driver says, startling me. I look out the window to see we're driving up the narrow road towards my house. Have I really just spent the entire 40 minute drive home fantasising about him? Ugh. Ridiculous behavior.

"Oh, just at the end there, on the right hand side." I sit up, unbuckling my seatbelt to lean between the two front seats to point at my house. "That road up there's a private one so you'll need to turn around and go back down the way you came." I tell him.

"No problem love." He pulls up to the driveway of my cottage and stops the car, engine idling.

"Perfect thanks, how much do I owe you?" I open my purse.

The driver shakes his head. "Oh no charge love. Jake's orders." My heart skips a beat at the mention of his name.

I frown "What do you mean? No, I have to pay you, please. How much?" I rummage my purse for the money, any money. I have 3 twenties at least in here.

"Honestly love, it'd be more than my life's worth if you gave me any money. Our boy was pretty clear - drive her straight home, carefully - and let me know when you've dropped her off." He explains. Our boy? Jake ordered this man to drive me home? This man calls him 'Our boy'?

"This isn't a taxi is it?" I say looking at him in the rearview mirror.

"No love," he shakes his head. "I work for Jake," A nod. Jake's name is said with a warmth and reverence that I don't entirely understand. Like he's talking about his son, or a family member at least. In any case I clearly have no choice in the matter of paying this man.

"OK, well thank you. And give my thanks to your... boss." I say shimmying across the seat to get out. I'm a little annoyed and I'm not entirely sure why.

"Will do love. I'm just going to watch until you get in the door and then I'll be off." He tells me. I stop, mouth dropping open. Watch until I get in my front door? Of the house I've lived for 3 years in the sleepy village of Shere?

"Oh that's not necessary, it's perfectly safe. Ill be fine," I can't believe Jake thinks I need a chaperone to get to own my front door.

"Orders." he shrugs. I clearly don't have a choice in this matter either.

"Fine," I sigh. "Goodnight then," I sound annoyed with this man and it's not even his fault. It makes me feel guilty. It's Jake's fault. Jake gives orders and people follow them, and that apparently includes this man in front of me and me. I exit the car and walk the short distance up my cobbled driveway to my front door. My house sits back from the road, which secludes most of it including the garden, but the doorway is still visible from where my chaperone is idling in his car.

The security porch light pops on as I get to the door helping me find my key in my bag and I glance down to the car and nod and smile but he continues to wait. It's only when I'm inside and the doors closed that I hear him head off down the road. I lock the front door just as Fred comes towards me purring against my leg before flopping down in front of me on his back for his obligatory greeting/belly rub.

"Well hello baby," I slip off my heels and bend down to rub his stomach. "Did you have a fun night? I did. You wont believe what happened. Mummy met a very handsome, very arrogant man who has trouble written all over him," I pick him up and head through to the kitchen to feed him and put the kettle for some tea.

Following Rob's orders and as a preventative measure, I gulp down a pint of ice cold water and take two ibuprofen and take a seat at the kitchen table. Fred chews away contentedly at his food as I fish my phone from my bag to text Robyn that I'm home safe. There are 2 new messages. One from my brother asking if I'm still going to mums for dinner on Sunday. No doubt he's feeling guilty at not having visited for nearly a month, which I berated him for when we last spoke, but clearly he wants to make sure I'm there too to take some of the heat. He's so completely predictable like that.

I text back to say that I'll see him there and that he better not cancel last minute like he normally does. It's pretty late but I know he'll be up partying hard somewhere, and trying it on with anything in a skirt. The next one is an unknown number so I open it curiously.

Oh my god. I don't even bother wondering how he got my number. He probably knows my bra size too and what my allergies are. I re-read the message over and over until I get over the shock (and thrill) of it.

My first thought is that I'm glad he doesn't use text speak. You know that shortening of words that some people do in text messages. "u" instead of "you". God I hate that. Yes, I'm glad he doesn't do that. Then : Excuse me??? He wants to feel himself inside me? Who says that to women? Him obviously. It's vulgar and I'm disgusted. Aren't I? I'm not turned on. How could I be? I should ignore it. I will ignore it. That way he'll think he has the wrong number and he's texted some random person telling them he wants to feel himself inside them. The thought of it being sent to a random person tickles me.

At least I know what he wants from me now - He's made that explicitly clear. I start to get a little angry again. How dare he presume to speak to me like that? I'm not some little girl he can get into bed and then slam the door on. I'm not a Gemma. I hated the way he treated her tonight. I felt sorry for her. The way she looked at him with that hopeful doe-eyed look and the way he totally disregarded her so he could try and get into my knickers instead.

I'm assuming he slept with her.

If he hadn't and she was merely flirting then I suppose his response was just a rebuff of her advances. Am I seriously making excuses for his behavior now? I'm not someone who looks at men like Jake Lawrence like Gemma does. I have a degree in medicine from Cambridge for Christ sake! I'm not a doe-eyed barmaid with a crush on her boss and I do not let nightclub owning east end hard men like Jake Lawrence feel themselves inside me. No matter how ridiculously sexy they are.

I switch off my phone feeling even more confused about how I feel than before. I'm annoyed at the audacity of the man whilst at the same time I'm trying desperately to ignore the tingling of my insides and the heat flooding my body when I picture his mouth and his body as he feels himself inside me. No one has ever said anything even remotely like that before. Why not?

God my brain hurts. I need to get some sleep and get him out of my blooming head.

***

The music is pounding in my ears and my whole body seems to be vibrating from the inside out. The place is crowded and hot as I make my through the heaving mass of dancers who are moving in slow motion in time with the heavy hypnotic beat. When the crowd parts slightly I see him. He's standing there tall and menacing, his eyes trained on me. The look in his eyes burn with a lust and a desire so fierce that it makes my insides tighten and a warm pooling happen between my legs. Slowly he starts to walk toward me, stalking across the dancefloor with intent. His dark t-shirt shows off his tattooed arms and hard muscled chest making him look strong and dangerous, and yet somehow also beautiful. He comes to a stop in front of me, so close that I have to tilt my head up to see his face. His hand comes up and he grazes the back of it down my cheek before resting it gently on my throat. For a moment he says nothing, merely holding my throat in his hand as though to show me how little it would take for him to hurt me. He isn't going to hurt me. I know that somehow. The set of his mouth and the look in his eyes confirms that. Slowly he slides it around the back of my neck, and pulls me into him. As our bodies collide he kisses me, slowly and passionately as his taste drowns out every other sense I have. Gradually the people fall away but the music remains and I feel the solid cold surface of a wall behind me as he pushes himself against my body, his hips moving in torturous circular motions in time with the slow trance-like beat. My legs turn boneless and I melt into his arms as they encircle my entire body. They feel strong and soft and though I feel safe and warm, I also feel totally at his mercy. Possessed and pliable to his will. His mouth kisses along my jaw and my neck and before it reaches my ear, and then I hear his voice. Its low but forceful - a growl "I want to fuck you right here. I'd feel so fucking good inside you.... you know that don't you Alex? I know you do..." he breathes against my ear. I feel his hands move down my body and slide up my thighs parting them to him. His hand cups the dampness between my legs and I hear him moan again as I begin to move against his hand. It's a torturous bliss. I want him. I want him inside me. Right here. I want to know how good he will feel inside me. I already know. I hear the music change pace then, speeding up along with my need for him. His movement against my body quickens, as does his hand between my thighs. I run my hands down his body stopping at the steel-like hardness between his legs. The circular movements of his hips turn to thrusts as the music gets higher pitched, more urgent. I try to blink open my eyes at the sound - this sound that's ruining things. It sounds familiar somehow, more of a screeching than a dance beat. It's awful. I hate it. I've never hated a noise so much... finally I manage to pry my eyes open and I feel his weight and heat disappear in an instant.

I awake in my bed with my alarm screaming in my ear and the sunlight blinding my eyes. I feel groggy and sleepy, but worse than that I feel insanely turned on and damp between the thighs. Perfect. I'm having sex dreams about him. That's exactly what I need.

That's just bloody fabulous.

***A Dark Fall is now Available on Ebook and Paperback on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited***