Tainted Love Read online

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Playlist

  1- Joss

  2 - Sam

  3 - Connor

  4 - Summer

  5 - Joss

  6 - Connor

  7 - Alex

  8 - Sam

  9 - Joss

  10 - Sam

  11 - Connor

  12 - Joss

  13 - Summer

  14 - Sam

  15 - Joss

  16 - Alex

  17 - Summer

  18 - Connor

  19 - Sam

  20 - Joss

  21 - Summer

  22 - Sam

  23 - Joss

  24 - Sam

  25 - Summer

  26 - Alex

  27 - Joss

  28 - Sam

  29 - Connor

  30 - Alex

  31 - Summer

  32 - Sam

  33 - Joss

  34 - Connor

  35 - Summer

  36 - Joss

  37 - Alex

  38 - Sam

  39 - Summer

  40 - Sam

  41 - Joss

  42 - Connor

  43 - Alex

  44 - Summer

  45 - Joss

  46 - Connor

  47 - Summer

  48 - Sam

  Tainted Love

  Michelle Betham

  Copyright © Michelle Betham 2017

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the prior permission of the author.

  The story, characters and events in this book are a work of the author’s imagination, and are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to any person, place, name or actual event is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Image - iStock

  Table of Contents

  Playlist

  1- Joss

  2 - Sam

  3 - Connor

  4 - Summer

  5 - Joss

  6 - Connor

  7 - Alex

  8 - Sam

  9 - Joss

  10 - Sam

  11 - Connor

  12 - Joss

  13 - Summer

  14 - Sam

  15 - Joss

  16 - Alex

  17 - Summer

  18 - Connor

  19 - Sam

  20 - Joss

  21 - Summer

  22 - Sam

  23 - Joss

  24 - Sam

  25 - Summer

  26 - Alex

  27 - Joss

  28 - Sam

  29 - Connor

  30 - Alex

  31 - Summer

  32 - Sam

  33 - Joss

  34 - Connor

  35 - Summer

  36 - Joss

  37 - Alex

  38 - Sam

  39 - Summer

  40 - Sam

  41 - Joss

  42 - Connor

  43 - Alex

  44 - Summer

  45 - Joss

  46 - Connor

  47 - Summer

  48 - Sam

  49 - Alex

  50 - Summer

  51 - Joss

  52 - Connor

  53 - Summer

  54 - Alex

  55 - Sam

  56 - Joss

  57 - Alex

  58 - Summer

  59 - Alex

  60 - Joss

  61 - Connor

  62 - Sam

  63 - Summer

  64 - Joss

  65 - Alex

  66 - Connor

  67 - Joss

  68 - Sam

  69 - Joss

  70 - Alex

  71 - Joss

  72 - Alex

  73 - Connor

  74 - Alex

  75 - Joss

  76 - Alex

  77 - Joss

  78 - Alex

  79 - Sam

  80 - Joss

  81 - Alex

  82 - Connor

  83 - Joss

  84 - Sam

  85 - Joss

  86 - Connor

  87 - Summer

  88 - Sam

  89 - Joss

  90 - Connor

  91 - Summer

  92 - Alex

  93 - Sam

  94 - Connor

  95 - Joss

  96 - Summer

  97 - Joss

  98 - Sam

  99 - Joss

  100 - Connor

  101 - Joss

  102 - Summer

  103 - Alex

  104 - Sam

  105 - Connor

  106 - Joss

  107 - Summer

  108 - Joss

  109 - Alex

  110 - Sam

  111 - Connor

  112 - Joss

  113 - Alex

  114 - Connor

  115 - Sam

  116 - Alex

  117 - Summer

  118 - Joss

  119 - Sam

  120 - Alex

  121 - Joss

  122 - Connor

  123 - Alex

  124 - Sam

  125 - Summer

  126 - Joss

  127 - Alex

  128 - Joss

  129 - Summer

  130 - Joss

  131 - Sam

  132 - Summer

  133 - Alex

  134 - Sam

  135 - Summer

  136 - Joss

  137 - Sam

  138 - Joss

  139 - Sam

  140 - Summer

  141 - Connor

  142 - Joss

  About the Author

  Also by the Author

  Contact the Author

  Playlist

  Big Mistake – Natalie Imbruglia

  Let Me Out – The Veronicas

  The Big Bang – Katy Tiz

  Bad Things – Jace Everett

  Disconnected – Lindsay Lohan

  Catch Me – Demi Lovato

  Lay All Your Love On Me – ABBA

  A Beautiful Life – Jody Watley

  Private Emotion – Ricky Martin, Meja

  Runaway – Janet Jackson

  Hate That I Love You - Rihanna, Ne-Yo

  In Another Life – The Veronicas

  You can find the complete ‘Tainted Love’ Playlist over on Spotify.

  http://bit.ly/TaintedLovePlaylist

  1

  Joss

  I love my kitchen. It’s cosy, warm; it’s comforting. Dark wooden floorboards, hand-crafted cupboards, a large round table in the corner next to a huge welsh dresser. I’ve even got a pantry. I always wanted a pantry. My grandmother had a pantry, even though my dad used to say it was nothing more than a glorified cupboard. I like my glorified cupboard. I love my life. It’s a bit like my kitchen, really – cosy. Comforting. Familiar.

  “We’re going to be late if we don’t get a move on, Joss. Are you ready?”

  Sam comes rushing into the kitchen, his arms full of notebooks, a slightly flustered expression on his face. Sam Coburn. My husband. Ready for work in his tracksuit bottoms and T-shirt.

  Sam.

  Handsome. Smart. Funny. We’ve been together over sixteen years now, married for thirteen, and he still makes me laugh. I still love him as much as the first day I met him.

  “I’ve been ready since seven 0’clock. It’s you who’s running late.”

  He looks at me and shrugs, throws me a half smile as he swipes a slice of toast from my plate, winking as he shoves most of it in his mouth all in one go.

  “You’re such a pig sometimes, do you know that?”

  “Yeah. But you still find it sexy, right?”

  He winks again,
but I don’t answer him. I pick up my books, my bag and my phone and I usher him out of the door. He’s right. If we don’t get a move on we are going to be late. And I’ve never been late for school. Not once. Not ever.

  2

  Sam

  She’s way more organised than I’ll ever be. Joss. Mrs Coburn. History teacher. My wife. Every teenage boy’s secret crush, understandably so. If I was fifteen again I’d make sure I was always hanging around in the corridor, just so I could watch her walk past, man, she has the sexiest arse! Not the reason I married her, of course. Well, not the only reason.

  I slam the car door shut, which puts me on the receiving end of one of Joss’s death stares. She’s always telling me not to slam the door like that, but it’s just habit. And I’m not good at breaking habits. Especially the bad ones.

  We walk across the yard, weaving in between teenagers loitering in groups, huddled together, heads bent over their mobile phones. Doesn’t anyone talk to each other anymore?

  I glance at Joss out the corner of my eye as a group of boys yell something wholly inappropriate at her, even though I’m right there beside her. Her husband. Mr Coburn. Head of the Physical Education department. Science teacher. The man who gets to live out their wet dreams, for real. Horny fuckers. But they mean no harm. To them it’s just banter, and despite its inappropriate content, given their age and Joss’s position, she treats it as just that, flicking them the finger behind her back as she walks past. Which they love, of course, it’s attention. They crave attention, no matter what kind, and that’s exactly what Joss has given them. But she knows how to handle them. She knows how to handle anything. My wife…

  3

  Connor

  Millers Bridge is very different to the last school I ran. The first one I was ever in charge of. That one was in a fairly run-down area, on the outskirts of south London. The kids were disillusioned; distracted. It was a hopeless place, for the first few months I was there. But I turned it around, with the help of great staff and students who finally realised the whole world wasn’t against them. It was, in fact, just waiting for them to go out there and grab it by the balls.

  My job there, though, is done. An amazing teacher called Gary Banks now runs that school, continuing the legacy I created. And now I’m here, hundreds of miles away in North East England. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to be exact. I’m here, running a school that, basically, ticks along quite nicely. It doesn’t need my help. It doesn’t need me. I need it…

  4

  Summer

  “Savvi! Savvi, come on, you’re going to be late! Savannah!”

  “All right, Jesus! I’m coming.”

  I stand at the bottom of the stairs, watching as my soon-to-be-eighteen-year-old daughter comes thundering down them, her white-blonde hair pulled back from her pretty face in a messy ponytail.

  “And don’t call me Savannah.”

  “That’s what it says on your birth certificate.”

  She just throws me a look.

  “Savannah is a beautiful name.”

  She doesn’t respond. She sits down on the bottom stair, shoving her books into her bag, checking her phone, she rarely puts the thing down.

  “You need to get going, Savvi. The bus is due in five minutes.”

  “I’m going, I’m going.”

  “Have you got money for lunch?”

  “Yes.”

  She leans in to me, quickly kissing my cheek. And she smiles, squeezing my hand before she runs to the door and leaves without another word. I smile too as I head back into the kitchen. I’ll tidy up in here, then I need to email my editor, make a few calls. And I’m teaching a yoga class this afternoon, I need to prepare for that, too.

  My phone ringing jolts me from my to-do list and I pull myself up onto the countertop, crossing my legs underneath myself as I answer it.

  “Hey.”

  I smile at the sound of his voice. I never know when he’s going to call, we don’t make definite plans. We can’t. But hearing his voice, it always fills me with an inner peace, despite the chaos our relationship would cause if people knew about us.

  “Hey. You at work?”

  “I am. Another day at the coal face.”

  I laugh quietly, absentmindedly picking at the hem of my skirt. “You make it sound like you hate what you do. And you don’t, I know you don’t.”

  “No, I don’t. It has its moments. What are you up to today?”

  “Writing. Yoga. And I might head down to amateur dramatics tonight, I haven’t decided yet.”

  “I need to see you, Summer.”

  I pause, just for a second. “Yeah. I need to see you, too.”

  I need to see him more and more as each day goes by, and this wasn’t what we planned. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It should have been over by now, but it isn’t. Because we’re both weak, too weak to shut it down, even though we know that’s what we should do.

  I can hear in the background that he isn’t alone now, so I ready myself for the call to end. For him to go back to his life and let me get on with mine.

  “I have to go,” he almost whispers down the line, and I don’t even get a chance to reply before he hangs up.

  I don’t normally make bad decisions. He’s one I could’ve stopped myself from making, I could have walked away; should have walked away. But I didn’t. And I don’t regret what I did.

  I don’t.

  Not yet…

  5

  Joss

  “Joss, hang on. Can I have a word?”

  I swing around and come face-to-face with Connor Sloane. Our new headteacher. A thirty-something hot-shot from Boston, Massachusetts who came to England to study nineteen years ago, and never went home. That’s all I really know about him. He’s a bit of a closed book, but he seems like a good man. He’s only been here, at the school, for a couple of months, but he’s already made quite an impact on the female students who see him as something quite fascinating. I’m guessing it’s the accent. But I’ve also heard him being called the hot headmaster. He’s certainly like no headteacher I ever had, let’s put it that way.

  “Of course. Is something wrong?”

  “No. No, nothing’s wrong… You’re not busy, are you?”

  “I don’t have a class until second period. I was just on my way to the staff room to finish preparing.”

  “I won’t keep you long. I promise.”

  He smiles. A wide smile that reaches his eyes, and I can completely understand why it isn’t just the female students who find him fascinating. He’s made quite an impression on some staff members, too.

  I follow him into his office, closing the door behind me.

  He walks behind his desk but remains standing, one hand in the pocket of his perfectly cut suit pants. This is a man with great taste, I’m guessing.

  “I’m sure everyone’s aware now that David Calder is retiring next week.”

  David Calder. Head of Maths and a stalwart of Millers Bridge Comprehensive. He’s been here since this place was a grammar school, stayed loyal through its time as one of the best performing schools in the country. It still is, one of the best performing schools in the country, I’m proud to say. Thanks to teachers like David Calder. He’s going to be missed, by both staff and students.

  “So, that means I’ll be needing a new Deputy Head.” Connor’s eyes lock on mine, but the smile he gives me this time has an almost nervous edge to it. “I’d like you to take up the position, Joss.”

  “You want me to be Deputy Headteacher?”

  “Yes. I do.” He walks out front of his desk and leans back against it, crossing his arms. “How long have you worked here, Joss?”

  I look up to the ceiling for a second or two as I silently count the number of years I’ve been a part of this school which has, in reality, been forever. I was a student teacher here. As soon as I’d graduated I came to work here. I came, and I never left. I never wanted to. I went from trainee teacher to Head of the history department before I was thi
rty, and I’ve been very happy here, on the whole. Although no job is without its ups and downs.

  “Almost seventeen years now. This is the only school I’ve ever taught in.”

  Now I feel old. Have I really spent almost two decades in this place? My whole life has revolved around Millers Bridge. My best friend works here. This is where I met Sam, when he started teaching P.E. and biology a year or so after I arrived at the school. And now I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. About my whole life revolving around this place. It wasn’t something I’d ever really thought about before. Until now.

  “So, you know it inside out, right?”

  “I suppose I do, yes.”

  He shrugs; throws me another dazzling smile. “Then you’re perfect for the job, don’t you think?”

  I can’t help smiling back. “You want me that bad, huh?”

  He looks at me, leaving a brief pause before he answers. “Yes. I do.” He goes back behind his desk, flipping open the lid of his laptop, and I watch as he leans forward slightly to look at the screen, his brow furrowing in concentration. “We’ll catch up later. Arrange a time to sort things out on an official basis.” He raises his gaze and his eyes meet mine, and he smiles again. He smiles a lot. I wonder what – or who – is making him so happy. “Okay?”

  “Yes. Yes, that’d be good. Right, well, I’d better get back to that lesson preparation.”

  I start to walk towards the door.

  “Joss? Sam’s going to be all right with this, isn’t he?”

  I turn back around, cocking my head slightly as I frown at him. “Why wouldn’t he be?”

  “I don’t know… Joss, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound…”

  “Sam will be just fine. His ego will be just fine, if that’s what you were getting at.”

  He slides both hands into his pockets, briefly dropping his head. “It wasn’t… Joss, again, I’m sorry.”

  “He’ll be happy for me. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

  I turn back around and leave his office.

  Seventeen years at this school and I finally make Deputy Head. I’m happy for me. I’m proud of me. It’s been a long time coming…

  6

  Connor

  It isn’t a spur of the moment thing, asking Joss Coburn to become the new Deputy Head. The local authority and board of governors recommended her. She’s been loyal to this school for a long time. They want someone like her to help run the place, I want someone like her to help me run the place. And I shouldn’t have asked her about Sam, what the hell had I been thinking? I don’t even know where that came from, my staff’s private lives are their business. Not mine. Not unless they need to be.