Dirty Minds, page 19
She raised her head towards him, took his face in her hands, and kissed him. The feel of her body against him, her scent in his nostrils, answered all his doubts and reservations. He ran his hands down her back. She sighed with pleasure.
‘I knew you two were an item. I could tell.’
Tom jumped back, like a guilty schoolboy.
Suzy emerged from the bathroom, still swathed in the bathrobe. She looked much better and much happier. Her eyes were still on them both. ‘I messed up your plans, didn’t I? I’m really sorry.’
Tom found he was blushing. Ros gave the girl a big smile.
He collected himself. ‘You have nothing to apologise for. Listen,’ he looked at his watch, ‘in fifteen minutes time the Wicked Witch of the West will leave here in a taxi bound for who the hell cares. She will never come back here again and never bother you again. I have told her quite firmly that I will be only too happy to testify against her. She would be put away for years.’
‘He really did, too.’ Ros had obviously heard the exchange outside the door of number 24. ‘He told her to fuck off. I’ve never heard you use language like that before, Tom.’ She sounded impressed.
‘So, Suzy, you can forget her. Now, tell me, how are those scratches and bruises looking today?’
Quite unselfconsciously, the girl pulled the robe open and displayed her breasts. The marks were still clearly visible, but pink now, rather than red.
‘That’s OK, Suzy, put them away.’ Tom did his best to sound businesslike.
Ros stifled a giggle. ‘Don’t show me up, Suzy. I’ve got years on you.’
The girl laughed and covered up. Both of them were pleased for her. It looked like she was going to get through the experience.
Tom had been thinking. ‘Did I hear that you’ve just done a degree in English?’
She nodded.
‘A good degree?’
‘2.2. If I’d worked harder they said I would have been on a 2.1. But I had lots of other interests.’
Ros caught Tom’s eye. You didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work that one out.
Tom carried on. ‘Listen, now that Maggie is out of the way, why don’t you take her place this weekend? It’ll give you something to do. And, if your work is up to par, you can join us as a co-author. What do you say? You never know, we might even make some money. And we can stay in touch afterwards. That way you know you’ll have our support if you ever hear from Maggie again. You could do with a bit of pampering after your experience.’
‘Oh, Tom, that would be wonderful.’ She threw herself at him, her robe flying open again in the process. He took two steps back and bumped into Ros, who was in stitches.
‘Right, that’s settled. Now I really think it would be a good idea if you both put some clothes on. And don’t let your breakfast get cold.’ He gave Ros a wink and let himself out.
Suzy gave Ros a big smile. ‘I can see why you’ve gone for him. If he wasn’t already taken, I would really fancy him myself.’
‘Pick on someone your own age, Suzy.’ Ros liked the thought that he was already taken. ‘Be a darling and tie your bathrobe up. As soon as Maggie has moved out, you can get dressed. Now, there’s breakfast on the tray. How about something to eat?’
Breakfast was scheduled for 8.30. The guests all managed to make it on time. Tiffany and Luca were very cheerful. To make up for the previous evening, they were the first to arrive; not flushed and sweating this time. Penny was happy and bubbly, while Scott was clearly in a different universe. His face bore an expression of overwhelming awe. He did not speak to anybody over breakfast. His eyes either gazed off mistily into the distance or, when they focused, they focused on Penny. Ros caught Tiffany’s eye and they both stifled giggles.
Janet and Melissa arrived together. Tom found himself wondering where either or both of them had spent the night, but felt it better not to ask. Jimmy was the last to appear. Once they were all assembled, Tom felt it incumbent upon him to give them a censored version of the night’s events, culminating in the departure of Maggie.
Jimmy was outraged, even though Tom did not go into any detail as to the full extent of the mistreatment Suzy had received.
‘I could see she was a bad lot, that woman.’ He cast a protective eye across to Suzy, who was happily tucking into her second breakfast. ‘If I’d known what she was going to do, I’d have hammered her.’
She looked up with a bright smile. ‘It’s all right Jimmy. Tom rescued me and Ros looked after me.’ She reached out for Jimmy’s hand and gave it a squeeze. ‘But if I need any more protection, I’ll know who to come to.’
Janet put into words what most of them were thinking. ‘To be honest, I’m really glad she’s gone. I read her piece this morning. It made my skin crawl.’
‘Hear, hear.’ Tiffany echoed her. ‘Good riddance.’
Tom nodded appreciatively. ‘Well, the good news is that Suzy has agreed to step in and replace Maggie. So we are still five female writers plus Jimmy and me. And, while on the subject of me, I have here the promised copies of my piece.’ He gave them all a smile. ‘I have deliberately written it poorly, so you will feel good about yourselves.’
He glanced at Ros, as he handed the sheets around the table. She was giving nothing away.
‘So, now that that is all over, enjoy your breakfast. We meet in conference room A, which is down the corridor, at ten o’clock. That should give you all time to do your homework. OK?’
He left them to it and headed down the corridor to set things up in Room A. A few moments later he heard the door open behind him. It was Alfonso, and he clearly had something, or someone, on his mind.
Tom looked across at him as he shuffled in and dropped onto a chair. He did not look like Europe’s most eligible bachelor this morning. He was slumped forward, shoulders curved, chin on hands. There was a puzzled look on his face.
‘So, how are things?’ Tom didn’t have a lot of experience of confessionals.
‘Can you keep a secret?’ Alfonso looked unusually serious.
‘From most people. I have a feeling Ros might be able to get anything she wants out of me, though.’
Alfonso shrugged. ‘Ros is different. Tell her anything. By the way,’ he looked up with something more like his usual expression, ‘my condolences.’
Tom raised his eyebrows.
‘For last night. Your intervention to save the lady in distress rather screwed up your love life, I fear. Ros specifically asked me to see that you got the rooms with the secret door as well.’
‘Some things take precedence.’ He took a deep breath. ‘So, tell me about you.’
Alfonso launched into his saga. ‘Last night, after dinner, I suggested that the Signorina Jeanette might like to accompany me for a walk in the moonlight. We strolled around the gardens and then I took her down to the boathouse.’
Tom looked up. His study of erotic storie son the internet told him what usually happened in boathouses . A related thought crossed his mind. ‘Have you got an orangery here, Alfonso? Or dungeons?’
He shook his head. ‘Sorry, Tom, only a wine cellar. I will show it to you, if you are interested.’
‘Thanks, Alfonso. Sorry for the interruption. Please go on. You reached the boathouse.’
‘It was cold but we had our coats. We sat on a chaise longue overlooking the lake. The moonlight reflected on the water. The only sounds were lapping waves and an owl in a nearby tree.’
Tom was mentally committing the scene, and its lyric description, to memory. It would sit well in their book.
‘I put my arm around her, partly for the cold, but mainly for the sensation. It was exquisite.’ He turned his face towards Tom and looked him in the eye. ‘You know that wonderful feeling at the start of a seduction, don’t you? First you touch them through the clothes. Sometimes, you can even feel the heartbeat. You hear it begin to race. You pull her tighter to you, your hand descends … ’
‘Alfonso.’ Tom was almost pleading. ‘Please spare me the action replay. It’s bad enough knowing what could have been last night.’ Alfonso reached out a comforting hand. He took Tom’s arm. ‘I’m sorry, my friend. Please excuse me if I was insensitive. But, you see, the thing is, also in my case …’ He hesitated, searching for words to describe a new experience, ‘Nothing happened.’
‘Nothing happened?’
‘No, we talked and we talked, and then I took her back to the house to show her my private apartment.’
‘Naturally.’
‘We sat in my private lounge and talked some more. I found myself telling her things I have never told to a soul. I spoke about my life, my family, even my health, my indigestion, my insomnia.’
‘Insomnia? Do your worries keep you awake?’
‘I don’t know what it is, Tom, but I haven’t slept well for years.’ He cast a quick look around the room. ‘The doctors tell me it may be a side effect of a certain medication I have been known to take from time to time.’ He tapped the side of his nose and winked. ‘But that is between you and me, capisci?’
‘Capisco.’
‘It was maybe midnight by then. My arm was around her shoulders, her thigh was resting against mine.’ He looked up, noting the expression of pain on Tom’s face. ‘Sorry, Tom, I digress, forgive me. So, I turned towards her to kiss her. I had been waiting to do it all night.’
‘I know the feeling.’
‘And you know what she did?’ His voice was perplexed. ‘She made me a cup of tea.’
‘A cup of tea?’
‘She produced some herbal tea from her bag. She told me she is never without it. She disappeared into my little kitchen and reappeared with two cups of camomile tea. Can you imagine that?’
It took a bit of doing. The man whose sexual exploits made Casanova look like Mother Teresa, reduced to drinking herbal tea in the midst of a seduction? He was beginning to see why Alfonso was looking shell-shocked.
‘And then, after we finished our tea, she told me to go to bed. She told me to go to bed.’ He still couldn’t believe it. ‘And I did. Alone.’
‘No goodnight kiss?’
At last the Italian’s features softened.
‘Ah, Tommaso, there was a kiss. Such a kiss as I never experienced in all my life. And then she left me standing at the door of my bedroom, like a rabbit trapped in the headlights. And you want to know something, Tom? I slept like a log. I slept better than I have for many, many years.’
‘Wow.’ Tom didn’t know what else to say.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
‘So you just left him there?’ Melissa stopped painting her toenails and stared. ‘You are telling me that you gave the most desirable man in the universe a mug of tea and left him?’
‘Yes, I didn’t want him to think I was easy. You’d have done the same, Mel.’
One look at her friend’s face told her otherwise. ‘Jan, I wouldn’t have got as far as the bedroom. I would have stripped him off and leapt on him in the boathouse.’
‘It was cold out there.’
‘So you get cold. He’d soon warm you up.’ Her eyes rolled in her head. ‘A few minutes of wild sex with him and you wouldn’t have felt the cold. Believe me.’ She resumed the work on her toenails.
‘Just because he’s handsome and rich doesn’t mean I have to fling myself at him, Mel.’ There was just a hint of doubt in her voice.
‘Of course it does, Jan. That’s the way it works. The one with the strongest hand wins the trick. Everybody knows that.’
‘Well, not the way I play.’
Melissa looked up again, her expression one of disbelief. ‘So you are going to keep him waiting for months?’ Her jaw dropped.
Melissa, what do you think I am, some kind of superhero?’ Janet’s expression softened. ‘Now I’ve made my point, I have every intention of having my wicked way with him. Tonight if possible.’
‘Tonight?’
‘Listen, Mel, I used up every ounce of willpower in my body last night. There’s no way I can do it again. No, tonight’s the night. I’ve made up my mind. Now, if you don’t mind, I have some serious work to do.’
‘What, for the book?’
‘No, in the bathroom. I’d better see if everything’s still where I left it down there five years ago.’ She disappeared into the bathroom. Seconds later, her head reappeared around the door. ‘Do you want to read Tom’s piece? If we didn’t think he was obsessed by Ros before, we sure do now.’
Melissa applied the last touches to her toenails, then tottered across the room on her heels. She picked up the document and settled on the bed, gently waving her feet in the air to dry them. Her mobile phone rang. It was Graham. From the bathroom, Janet listened to the conversation, or rather the monologue from Melissa.
‘Hello darling. Yes, thanks, and you? Good … Well, this place is awesome. Five star luxury all the way. Food? Wonderful. Yes, and wonderful comfortable beds. Graham! Stop it this minute. No, we didn’t. We’ve got separate beds. Now just behave yourself. One of the women turned out to be a sadist and she beat up a young girl … No, about twenty something. No, not in our room. They were miles away. Stop it. Yes I did mention it to her and she said no … No, Graham. She isn’t into that sort of thing any more. Besides, I want you all to myself. Yes, and you. No I won’t, you’re a naughty, naughty man … And to you. Bye.’
As she put the phone down, Janet came storming out of the bathroom, razor in hand, bathrobe hastily wrapped round her, shaving cream running down her legs.
‘Melissa, you are the absolute limit. Your husband still thinks I’m some sort of bisexual nympho, and his imagination is working overtime. What was that you said, “She isn’t into that sort of this any more”? Any more! I never was. Now, you are going to promise me that when you get home you are going to tell him the truth. I mean it, Mel. Stop laughing. I’m serious. You’ve got to tell him it was you, not me, doing whatever it was you’ve forgotten, or having things done to you, by whichever of them it was. I said it’s not funny.’ In the end, she caved in and started laughing herself.
Melissa recovered her composure after a while.
‘I’m sorry, Jan. I know I shouldn’t laugh. All right, I promise I’ll tell him. To be quite honest,’ there was a twinkle in her eye, ‘I think the fact that his wife might turn out to be the bisexual nympho might be an even bigger turn-on. At least, it better had be.’
‘Thank you, Mel. You’ve no idea how pleased I am to hear that you are going to set the record straight. By the way, if your nails have dried, why don’t you dig out our costumes for tonight and give them an airing?’
‘Ooh yes, clothes. Lovely! By the way, do you want me to do your nails for you while I’m at it? You need all the help you can get with the world’s most desirable man.’
‘Putty in my hands, girl. Putty in my hands.’
Chapter Forty
‘Pen, shouldn’t you be going downstairs some time soon?’ Scott didn’t want her to move but a sense of duty made him ask.
‘Mmm. I suppose so. What time is it?’ She was still lying on top of him, her legs straddling his thighs, his cheeks caught between her palms. She nuzzled down and kissed him again. She felt him respond. Regretfully, she turned away and glanced at the clock on the bedside table.
‘Oh fuck. It’s ten to ten.’ She rolled off him, looked across at his naked body and rolled back onto him again. She kissed him for a full minute.
He came up for air. ‘Make that nine minutes to ten.’
‘Oh bugger.’ This time, she managed to find the willpower to get up. She ran into the bathroom.
‘Scottie. I should have read Tom’s thousand words. Be an angel and read it for me. You can give me a two-line précis before I go.’
‘Anything to oblige.’ He climbed out of bed and trotted round, collecting the clothes strewn all over the floor. Her bra had somehow ended up on top of the TV, but there was no sign of her pants. He found Tom’s piece of writing and settled down to read it as the shower splashed into life.
It was two minutes to ten when she reappeared. He let his eyes follow her body as she pulled on underwear, socks, jeans and her top. This reverse striptease had a most stimulating effect upon him. He looked down in amazement. He would have believed it impossible to achieve another erection for at least a week.
Penny looked across at him and followed his eyes.
‘Scottie, how wonderful. You have no idea how good that makes a girl feel.’ She grabbed her folder and came over to the bed. She perched on the edge, letting her fingers run up and down his naked body. ‘Right, two-line précis.’
He did his best to concentrate. ‘Gorgeous girl in hotel. Desk clerk called to her room. She makes him strip her: tight blue dress and black underwear. Knickers pulled off with his teeth. End of story.’
‘That’s all?’
‘That’s all. But, if you want my opinion, the man is Tom and the girl is, guess who.’
She leant forward, bestowed a tender kiss upon him and left.
Chapter Forty-One
Tom waited for Penny to sit down. Ros and Tiffany, noticing her red cheeks, exchanged knowing smiles.
‘Ladies, Jimmy, good morning once again. Thanks for assembling. We are going to have our work cut out today and tomorrow, so let’s get started.’ He looked around the room. It felt like being back running a tutorial group at uni. It felt good. For the first time in many a long month, he began to feel withdrawal symptoms for his day job. Maybe the time had come to get back in there. He found himself smiling.
‘But, before we start, I would just like to put something out there for you all to consider. I said this would be a collaborative, democratic undertaking, so I think this is something we should decide together. My proposition to you all is quite simple. I have been appalled at the treatment of Suzy, here, by that very unpleasant woman. I know many of you feel the same way. So my suggestion is: let’s make our book as sexy as possible, but let’s forget the whole spanking, beating, sadomasochistic thing.’
