The alarm beeped smugly, and John awoke with a groan.
Five in the morning. He had only been asleep since midnight.
He groaned again. If there was a part of the day he dreaded the most, this was it. It wasn't just the lack of sleep, the exhaustion that hung over him like a fog, the feeling of heaviness in limbs barely refreshed from the day before. No - there was much more to it than that.
He slammed his hand down on the alarm in anger, cutting it off in mid beep. Immediately he winced, regretting his rashness. The alarm might not have awoken her and John might have been able to sneak out of the bedroom and downstairs without interruption. Now there was no chance.
He felt a stirring in the bed, and grimaced to himself. Yes, she was awake.
"Well. Good morning, baby," she greeted him with a voice like melted butter, stretching her arms above her head languorously like a cat.
"Good morning," he replied, trying to keep the sigh out of his voice. He sat up, turned to look at her - it was forbidden to speak to a woman without looking her in the eye.
There she lay, naked, on her back, her long blonde hair trailing out to cover the pillow underneath her head. She was in her middle forties and still desirable, even though her golden skin was beginning to lose its elasticity and her smooth belly was beginning to bulge slightly. She still had the firm round breasts and lithe long legs that had made her a star of the television, one leg curled up now under the other. But John had seen these legs and these breasts and the curve of her buttocks and the smooth perfection of her pussy enough times already. Whatever desire he may once have held for them had long since faded.
His desires were irrelevant.
"Now baby," she purred at him in that buttery voice, "were you going somewhere? Trying to sneak away? Hmm?"
"It's five o'clock," he answered, keeping his voice level, emotionless. "You instructed me to have breakfast prepared and ready for you to eat no later than five-thirty every morning on weekdays."
"Yes I did, didn't I?" she purred. "Your devotion to your duties is quite proper, especially in one so young. But there's something else I instructed you to do every morning, before you go downstairs to make breakfast. Do you remember what it was?"
John wanted to look away, but he could not. It was forbidden.