The Perfect Balance

  A Total-E-Bound Publication

  www.total-e-bound.com

  The Perfect Balance

  ISBN # 978-0-85715-496-5

  ©Copyright Trina Lane 2011

  Cover Art by Lyn Taylor ©Copyright March 2011

  Edited by Stacey Birkel

  Total-E-Bound Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2011 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

  Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated Total-e-burning.

  Perfect Love

  THE PERFECT BALANCE

  Trina Lane

  Dedication

  To anyone who has ever had to make a new beginning. I applaud your courage and strength. Hopefully your life is now filled with happiness.

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  New Balance: New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.

  Valtrex: Glaxo Smith Kline, LLC

  House: Fox Broadcasting Company

  Serendipity: Miramax Films, Tapestry Films

  Kate and Leopold: Miramax Films,

  Jeep: Chrysler Corporation

  Cirque du Soleil: Cirque du Soleil

  Lady and the Tramp: Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  Prologue

  April 2005

  Miranda slowly made her way back to Evanston from where she worked in downtown Chicago. She looked to her right and could make out the blue of Lake Michigan beyond the grass of the park as she drove down North Lake Shore Drive. Twelve hours ago her phone had gone off, waking her from a sound sleep, to summon her back to the hospital for an emergency.

  When she’d arrived, it was to find the place inundated with patients from a massive fire at a club located in the warehouse district. Miranda’s hospital had been swarmed with casualties from patrons, employees and several fire-fighters who’d been trapped when a section of the building had collapsed with them inside.

  She’d spent the next ten hours in surgery, working two different cases. The first had been a young man whose chest had been crushed when panic had ensued and he’d been trampled by those trying to escape. He hadn’t made it, and Miranda had watched through a glass window as the doctor informed the family of their son’s death. The mother had collapsed in her husband’s arms, crying for her baby boy. Her wails could be heard outside the closed room and the sound of her anguish had torn Miranda’s heart in two.

  Later, the other case had managed to stitch part of the edges back together. Miranda had been part of team that had worked on a young woman, who’d started to haemorrhage after going into early labour when the restaurant, next door to the club, had been evacuated. They’d managed to not only save the mother’s life, but her son as well. The baby was born at thirty weeks gestation and would have an extended stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, but mother and fathers couldn’t have been happier. That last little bit had thrown Miranda for a loop. At first when she’d stood with the surgeon to impart the happy news, she’d assumed the man standing with the woman’s husband was a friend, but it turned out he was actually the couple’s partner.

  As Miranda had later prepared to leave, she’d walked by the woman’s room, unable to get the threesome off her mind. It may have not been the most professional behaviour on record, but she couldn’t help but stare in fascination as the two men hugged and kissed each other while sitting next to their wife’s bed. Her hand had been secured between theirs, and even through the sedating effect of lingering drugs in the woman’s system, the love she shared for her two men had been obvious.

  Miranda had never had much exposure to anyone who was gay, and had been a little shocked by the tingle that went through her while she watched the two men kiss. Knowing that those men also made love to the woman, maybe even at the same time, had caused Miranda to clinch her muscles below as she felt moisture seep from her folds.

  Miranda jolted back to the present as she realised she had almost missed her turn into Sheridan, she’d been so caught up in the memory of watching the family celebrate their good fortunes earlier. She made sure to pay closer attention as she continued to wind through town. It was three in the afternoon and traffic was busy with early commuters and carpools making their way home from school.

  Finally Miranda pulled into a parking space outside of her condo complex. The green grass and flowering trees were bright against the aged red brick and brownstone façade. She’d been lucky to find a spot right outside her building. Maybe that meant good fortunes for the rest of the day. After shutting off her engine, she gathered her purse and slowly made her way down the sidewalk towards the iron gate enclosing the courtyard in the centre of the buildings, from which all entrances were reached. It seemed now that she was home, exhaustion hit her as if it were a tsunami. All she wanted to do was climb in bed and sleep for at least a few hours. Maybe Drew would let her nap till it was time to make dinner. She carefully slid the key into the lock of the gate. It seemed to take all her strength to twist the little piece of metal.

  Their condo was on the first floor of the north building. Miranda made her way inside the building then unlocked the front door. When she pushed it open, she knew immediately that Drew wasn’t home. She felt a little guilty at how relieved that made her. She carefully hung her jacket and purse in the closet beside the door. A few more steps and she was in the living room. As she looked around, unbidden tears came to her eyes. There were magazines littering the floor, and a pile of clothes scattered all over the floor between the living room and kitchen. It looked as though a tornado had been through their place, with the cushions of the sofa strewn all over the place, and the rug scrounged up in front of the entertainment centre.

  Miranda made her way into the kitchen to get a glass of water, and found the sink full of dirty dishes. Dishes that hadn’t been there when she’d left in the middle of the night. Enough dishes that she wondered if Drew had had a dinner party while she was gone. It seemed a nap was out of the question. Miranda knew that if she didn’t get the place cleaned up before Drew got home, she’d never hear the end of it. Never mind that it had been spotless when her phone had gone off.

  She picked everything up on the floors, straightened up the cushions and rug then vacuumed and ran the duster across the hardwood floors. She smoothed out the sheers on the windows in the living and dining areas. Miranda picked up the pile of mail that had come from their box and set it on Drew’s desk for him to sort through, flipping through the envelopes to see what had come. When she saw the logo of their bank at the top left corner, she was tempted to open their statement to find out exactly what the status of their finances were, as she was every month. However, couldn’t bring herself to attempt steaming open the envelope then resealing it so Drew wouldn’t kn
ow she’d been snooping. He handled all the bills. Miranda was given a weekly cash allowance for gas, groceries and incidentals.

  She’d tried not to remember the only time she’d gone through her money and asked Drew for some more, a few months into their marriage. Her ears had rung from the virulent insults reverberating in her brain for days. Now days Miranda was much more careful with keeping track of money in her wallet.

  Miranda picked up a glass sitting beside Drew’s laptop, which was sitting on the kitchen table. She must have knocked the mouse because the screen came out of hibernation. It wasn’t unusual for Drew’s computer to be on, since the man did most of his work as a web designer from home. But when Miranda looked down, instead of finding the work project she’d expected, the screen was filled with a picture of giant penis being shoved inside some woman’s vagina.

  The phallus was huge, dripping with secretions from the woman’s body. Thick ropey veins snaked up the length of the column. She collapsed into the chair and stared at the image, trying to deduce whether or not it was artificially enhanced. Could something that colossal really exist in nature? She rested her arms on the table to lean in for a closer inspection, and the next thing she knew the image came to life. The penis started thrusting into the woman’s body, violently. So not fake apparently. Miranda had never seen what sex looked like up close. It was messy, raw, primal and arousing.

  The faceless woman was really in to it, by the moans coming from off camera. She made sounds Miranda had never heard from another human before. What would it feel like to have something that large inside her? Drew was the only man she’d slept with, and he was nothing like that thing pummelling the poor woman on screen.

  Sex with Drew consisted of twice monthly interludes in the dark, under the covers. The episodes over almost before they began, after which Miranda was more glad Drew was finished than wishing it could have lasted longer. While the idea of sex aroused her, the reality was so far from her fantasies as a young woman that the quicker it ended the better in her opinion. There was nothing pleasurable about Drew pushing his way inside—while Miranda was still dry—never mind the painful twists of her nipples or the fast paced thrusts that had Drew straining in a matter of minutes. Her husband would vacate the bed to go clean up almost immediately. He always reported that being inside Miranda made the skin of his penis burn, which was why he also refused to go down on her.

  Miranda jumped at the sound of a key turning in the front door. She scrambled frantically to get the video to stop. Moving the mouse arrow around, she tried to find the pause button. She looked over her shoulder and clicked the bottom of the screen, blindly. The video stopped, but in the process another window popped up. It was an instant message, and there was one line.

  NSA meet. 2:00pm…same place.

  Miranda heard the door open. She quickly picked up the glass from the table and ran into the kitchen. Turning on the water, she began to do the dishes. Her hands shook as she tried to move the soap around a plate. She was more focused on the sound of Drew’s footsteps behind her, not the task at hand.

  “What the fucking hell were you doing on my computer?” Drew screamed.

  Miranda dropped the plate as she spun around. Water and soap suds splashed all over the floor.

  “I’ve told you over and over, not to touch my stuff. An idiot like you has no business messing with this kind of equipment. If you fucked anything up on here, I’ll beat your ass. I have important stuff for work on here. It’s only with the money I make we’re able to live the way we do. You think the measly amount of money you earn is enough to support us? I lose this account, and it’ll be your entire fault, you fat cow!”

  “I didn’t Drew…honest. All I did was—”

  “All you did was put your nosy ass where it doesn’t belong. Now clean up that mess you made. Don’t think I didn’t hear that dish break. What are you making for dinner? I’m hungry.”

  “I planned on making lemon herb baked chicken and new potatoes. Your favourite.”

  “Trying to buy into my good graces? What did you do wrong? As if you ever do anything right.”

  “I just thought you would like—”

  “Well that’s your first mistake. You and thinking are never good companions. Never mind, I’ll find out eventually what you did. Now get to work. On second thought, go take a shower. I can smell the stink of that hospital from over here.”

  Miranda picked up the shards of ceramic on the wood floor. She knew tears would do no good, so she kept them inside. In fact, the sight of tears only made her husband angrier. When he got like this, it was as if her husband turned his ears off and put his mouth into overdrive. Not an unusual occurrence in their two and half year marriage.

  Had she known the man with the face of an angel actually held within him the temperament of the devil, Miranda never would have agreed to marry him in the first place. When she’d met Drew in a club three years ago, the man’s shining black hair and mesmerising violet eyes had put her under a spell almost from their first dance. Their courtship had been filled with romantic dinners and walks along Lake Michigan. Drew had been attentive and sweet, and Miranda had fallen harder than a two ton anvil. Six months later they were married in a small ceremony at the courthouse. They’d decided to forgo a honeymoon, since Drew had just started a new job. Then, almost from the moment they moved into their condo, the benevolent mask fell and the true Drew was revealed.

  * * * *

  Miranda couldn’t get the instant message out of her mind. A few days after the computer incident, she was at the hospital during her normal shift and decided to use one of the computers to dig a little deeper. She opened a search engine and typed in the letters she’d seen in the message. The first hit was for the National Security Agency. Miranda was pretty sure her husband wasn’t a government agent. Given the nature of the video behind the message, she typed the letters and added the word ‘sex’ behind them. The first several websites that popped up on the search engine were for partner swapping and no strings attached hook-ups.

  She didn’t dare open any of the sites for fear of the hospital’s nanny programmes catching on to her private investigation. She sat at the nurses’ station numb, oblivious to the sounds of the intensive care unit around her. Her fingers shook as Miranda closed down the internet search. It seemed that Drew had been cheating. She couldn’t quite find the appeal in having sex with Drew, but it was still a break of the vows they’d spoken. Vows that, no matter how loudly Drew screamed at her, or how much Miranda found herself hiding in their bedroom to avoid her husband when he was in one of those moods, she’d never gone back on.

  So while she’d been at work, Drew had been getting his groove on. Her gut clenched as she remembered later that very night Drew had taken her, the whole time whispering that he was sorry for yelling earlier, he loved her, and he was really stressed out on the most recent job he’d been working on.

  Miranda ran to the bathroom to release the bile churning in her stomach.

  * * * *

  Almost three months had passed since Miranda discovered Drew’s extracurricular activities. She hadn’t confronted her husband that first time, or the second she’d come home to find him missing, or even the third. Sure, Drew wasn’t perfect, but she was hardly the first woman to have an unfaithful husband. Drew had even been more relaxed lately. He didn’t yell as much or call her names. So maybe it could even be looked at as a good thing.

  Drew had been gone again yesterday when she got home. He’d come home a couple of hours later, demanding dinner and smelling of perfume. Once again, Miranda had put her head down, fixed his meal and kept her mouth shut. They hadn’t had sex in a month, and much to Miranda’s relief, she’d started her period that morning so she knew she wasn’t pregnant. She’d always been irregular and when she’d skipped last month, she’d been a bit panicked.

  Miranda sat in the hospital cafeteria, picking at her salad. The other day Drew had watched her as she got dressed for work, and made sever
al comments about how round her hips were and the pooch at her belly. Miranda had never been reed thin. From the time she hit puberty, her chest had blossomed and her hips flared. She tried to keep everything else in proportion by good diet and semi-regular exercise but try as she might, Miranda never fit in anything smaller than a size ten.

  She flipped through a magazine at the table and came upon an advertisement for Valtrex, a drug used in the treatment of herpes, and froze. Holy shit! She’d never even thought of STDs. She worked in a hospital for God’s sake, she should know better! From the beginning of their marriage, he’d refused to use condoms. So what were the chances he used anything with his tricks? She really didn’t know how long his little trysts had been going on. Had he ever been faithful? They’d crossed the three year mark a couple of weeks ago, and who knew how many times in those three years Drew had blithely exposed Miranda to all kinds of sexually transmitted diseases.

  Miranda looked at her watch. She had another ten minutes of her break. She threw her uneaten salad in the trash and ran out of the cafeteria. The other employees probably thought she was running to get to an emergency, and that was fine with Miranda.

  She slid to a stop at the station desk in the OR department. Jessica, one of the other nurses on her team, sat there getting the charts ready for the afternoon cases.

  “Jess, oh thank God!” Miranda exclaimed, breathing heavily.

  “Miranda, what’s wrong!”

  “I…I need your help,” she said, looking around for anyone in the vicinity. She leant in close and whispered, “I need you to draw some blood for me.”