She saw his red Toyota pick-up park a little way down the street. She had been waiting, guiltily, in the front bedroom watching for it, the love-sick schoolgirl unable to do anything else. . She managed to resist the temptation to run downstairs and fling open the front door before he’d walked up the garden path. Instead she waited at the top of the stairs and walked down sedately once he’d rung the bell. ‘Hi,’ she said. 'That was very nice of you.’ She sat down next to him and touched his arm. ‘I thought Mr Wickes had hired a professional cleaner.’ She nodded at the bottle. 'Would you rather have a glass?’ 'This is fine.’ Clare realised she couldn’t think of a single thing to say to him outside the subject of the work on her house. They didn’t know each other well enough for silence to be comfortable, so she scratched around desperately for something to say. 'What's your next job?’ she asked, finally coming up with a topic. ‘Fulham. House conversion into two flats.’ ‘That’s i
‘DARLING, HOW ARE you?’ ‘Overworked and underpaid.’ Clare kissed Angela Barker on both cheeks then pulled herself back up on to the bar stool she had been occupying. Angela wriggled on to one beside her, the fact that this made the short skirt she was wearing reveal even more of her slender, shapely thighs attracting the attention of several men. ‘The usual?’ Clare asked. ‘Please.’ Clare caught the bartender’s eye and made a signal to indicate that she wanted another glass identical to the one already sitting on the bar in front of her. Angela had rung her at lunchtime and they’d agreed to meet in their regular haunt, a club tucked away in Bruton Place which was equidistant from Angela’s office and Clare’s. Angela had said it was urgent. 'So?' Clare asked. ‘What's the problem?’ ‘No problem. Just an opportunity.’ ‘So what's the opportunity?’ ‘You know that builder of yours? That hunk.’ Clare looked at Angela steadily, hoping her face gave nothing away. She hadn’t told her fri
‘Thanks, Miriam,’ Gary said, as they squeezed into the banquette. ‘Is himself about?’ ‘He’ll be in later,’ she replied. She looked at Gary with a smile, and Clare caught, for the briefest of moments, an expression of lust on her face. Then her more professional demeanour returned and she walk back across the bar, her long legs attracting admiring glances from most of the men she passed. Clare looked round. Beyond the bar was a large restaurant, bustling waiters. It was decorated in shades of blue, with dark blue walls, a pale blue carpet and a huge display of corn flowers placed on a table in the centre of the room dramatically lit by an overhead spotlight. The rest of the restaurant was dimly lit, with candles flickering on every table, their light reflecting off the sparkling polished glasses and silver cutlery that was set on crisp, starched, white linen tablecloths. 'You like it?’ he said. ‘Beautifully done. So tell me about your friend?’ A girl in the club uniform of gold le
Clare turned away from the window. Though it was in the furthermost recesses of the room and not lit directly, she could see a large, very low double bed. In the dim light she thought she could make out a figure lying on the ruffled white sheet. ‘Well, here’s to your taste in women, pal,’ Malcolm said, handing Gary and Clare their glasses. The champagne was delicious, cool and refreshing. Clare sat down next to Gary. ‘Honey, you awake?’ Malcolm shouted loudly without looking round. ‘It’s showtime.’ The figure on the bed stirred. It stretched and yawned. ‘She’s always sleeping,’ Malcolm said. ‘Hi, honey.’ The figure got up from the bed and walked into the light. She was young, probably no more than nineteen, and tall, with raven-black hair so long it hung down her back and brushed over her small but pert buttocks. Her face was long, with high cheek-bones, a large, sensual mouth and big, dark-brown eyes. She was naked apart from a pair of tiny black panties, no more than a triangl
WEEKS AGOIT WAS HER birthday. It was June. It was hot. Very hot. Hot and humid. The sun was high and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. A party had been planned for that night. All her friends would be there. But her best friend, Andrea Hamilton, had asked her to go for a bike ride in the afternoon, down to the small lake they had found, their secret place. The water was fed from some underground aquifer and was always cold. It would be delicious to swim on such a day. The ride made them hot and sweaty. Abandoning their bikes under a huge horse-chestnut tree, its shade extending out over the water's edge, they pulled off their T-shirts and shorts, kicked off their socks and trainers and dived, naked, into the water. They swam for hours, or so it seemed, then lay on the grass under the broad-leafed tree, shaded from the sun. And that’s when it happened. She could never remember how exactly, whose hand had stroked the other’s body, or whose lips had brushed the other’s mouth, a
AT EIGHT THIRTY the next morning Clare’s phone rang, waking her from a deep and apparently dreamless sleep. It was Bridget Goldsmith.‘Look Clare, I'm sorry to ask you to do this but I need you to come to Paris this morning. We've got to go over some problems with Claude.’ ‘Fine. It’s an hour ahead, right? I suppose I can be there by midday.’ Her mind had snapped into gear. 'Come straight to the office. We'll be waiting.’ 'Fine.’ Clare rolled out of bed and into the bath. In fifteen minutes she was dressed in a smart, lightweight grey suit. She drove her car to the airport, left it in the short-term car park and bought a club-class ticket to Paris on the first available flight. There was a thirty-minute wait. In the lounge she dialled her secretary's home number on her mobile phone and told her of the change of plans, asking her to call the French office and arrange for a car to meet her flight. She called Gary’s home. She hoped he’d be free tonight. She badly wanted to see him
‘I told you I was filthy.’ He stood in the hall. His hair was so caked in dust it stood on end and his face was encrusted with grime apart from white patches around his eyes where he’d obviously been wearing goggles. His T-shirt and jeans were so dirty they would have stood up on their own. ‘Fortunately I have a brand new bathroom, with a brand new bath and newly-tiled surrounds,’ she said, grinning and trying to resist the temptation to throw him to the floor and rip his trousers off. It wasn’t easy. ‘They’ve finished, then? Grouting dry?’ ‘They did it on Wednesday.’ ‘Should be all right, then.’ ‘You can christen the bath. I’ve only used the shower so far.’ ‘Great.’ There was always a slight uneasiness between them on first meeting, she thought, or perhaps it was just that her overwhelming desire for him made it difficult to concentrate on anything else. ‘Go on up, you know the way. I've opened a bottle of champagne.’ ‘Can I have a beer first to wash the dust away?'‘You ca
Clare thought she could wrestle herself back under control after the initial impact, and she could have done, had Gary pulled out of her, even slightly. But he did not. Instead, his body as rigid as a board, he focussed his energy on forcing his phallus even deeper into her, his glans pressing up against the neck of her womb. His strength was such that as he arched his body like a bow, his arms straight and supporting his weight, he was actually dragging her off the bed too, her sex hooked on his cock. She had never felt him so deep, nor his body so taut. She wrapped her arms around his back, and pushed herself down on him, wanting what he wanted, her senses reeling, her orgasm breaking like a wave over the hardness impaled inside her. She rolled her head from side to side, making a peculiar baying sound she had never heard herself make before, her orgasm radiating out from her sex. It did not fade. Like a thunderstorm caught in a valley, it came round again, each streak of lightning
‘I'm off to bed,’ Harriet told Rowena. ‘It was a lovely evening.’ Rowena peered at her through the smoke of one of her rare cigarettes. ‘Did you enjoy it? You don’t look very happy.’ ‘I’m just tired. I’m not used to such late hours!’ ‘Have you seen my brother?’ ‘Chris went into the garden,’ Harriet told her. Rowena smiled. ‘He's drunk too much. I'll say goodnight to Lewis for you; he’s busy right now.’ The woman with her laughed. ‘He certainly is. Marita keeps most men busy. She nearly killed my husband last year!’ Rowena’s laughter joined her friend’s and Harriet fled upstairs, certain that they were secretly mocking her. She lay awake until six in the morning but Lewis didn’t join her, and she guessed then that the story must have been true and Marita had kept him busy. At first she wept, but then she told herself that crying was useless. A man like that was bound to be used to casual affairs — what she had to do was make herself indispensable to him, no matter what was nece
FOR THE NEXT two nights Lewis spent hours in either Harriet’s or his own room, bringing her time and again to the heights of ecstasy she had come to expect from him, and every time she climaxed, every time he taught her something new, she was bound more closely to him. The fact that he was slowly being bound more closely to her was something Lewis chose to ignore. Then, on the Saturday, everything changed. Harriet had been surprised to be invited to the dinner party, and had cancelled her planned evening with Ella because she didn’t want to miss the chance of a genuine film star’s party. Ella green with envy, had understood but demanded a full report in exchange for being let down. ‘I want to hear all about what Rowena wore, ate, drank and how she behaved,’ she told Harriet. ‘Of course. I'll tell you about Lewis too.’ ‘I’m sure you will,’ said Ella, who already had her suspicions about Harriet and the star's husband. When they finally sat down to dinner, Harriet found that she wa
Lewis’s own erection had now subsided but at the sight of Harriet being aroused to new and only dimly understood heights, he felt himself start to stir again. As the startling feelings continued to grow, Harriet’s breasts began to ache and after only a slight hesitation she reached up, drawing Lewis’s head down towards her. ‘Tell me what you want,’ he murmured. ‘My breasts,’ she moaned, thrusting them up towards his mouth. “They ache.’ ‘And what do you want me to do about it?’ he teased. Harriet didn’t know if she could tell him, but the insistent clamouring of her needy flesh won over her deeply ingrained reticence at vocalising her desires. ‘Suck them for me, Lewis, please.’ ‘Hard or soft?’ he asked, his hand still continuing its pressing movements and his finger drawing up the clitoral hood as he worked so that he could brush lightly across the top of the exposed nub. ‘Hard!’ she begged, her body now nothing but a pressurised aching need for the final stimuation that would a
THAT EVENING CHRIS and Rowena went to the opera. Lewis hated opera. ‘Good music spoilt by bad acting,’ was his opinion and nothing he saw ever made him change his mind. After they'd gone he went in search of Harriet and found her reading a book in the comfort of the drawingroom. ‘We've got the house to ourselves,’ he said with a smile. ‘How would you like a nice bath? We can use the tub in Rowena’s bathroom - it’s meant for two.’ Harriet lifted her eyes from the page. ‘I had a shower this morning, thanks.’ For a moment Lewis couldn’t believe he’d heard her correctly. “You don’t have to be dirty,’ he said with a laugh. ‘It’s meant to be a sensual pleasure.’ Harriet smiled in an absent-minded way. ‘I’m sure it would be, but I’m a bit tired tonight.’ Since nothing in his imaginary script had prepared Lewis for this he was totally at a loss. ‘I'd like it,’ he said slowly. ‘Doesn’t that matter to you?’ With a soft sigh Harriet put the book to one side. ‘Of course it does, Lewis, but
Harriet felt that she was going to explode. Her body was being racked by liquid fire and then the incessant drumming of the pulse between her legs changed to a startlingly intense tingling that felt hot and rushed upwards through her with terrifying speed. She shouted out loud, knowing that she could no longer keep her body still even to please this man who meant so much to her. At the sound Lewis moved his fingers to the side of her clitoris and rubbed the slippery tissue with tiny circular motions as he moved in and out of her, his own body straining for relief from the continuous sexual tension as much as Harriet’s. It was Harriet who came first and as her body went taut with the first fierce contractions of her orgasm her vaginal walls contracted tightly around Lewis so that she felt as though she was milking him. She heard him groan and then he was thrusting without thought for her, thrusting solely to give himself the satisfaction that he knew Harriet was about to get. Harri
LEWIS STARED AT Harriet, hiding his anger behind a mask of indifference. Inwardly he was raging, not only at the fact that she had come into the room uninvited but also at his own stupidity in allowing Rowena to persuade him to make love to her at a time when he should have been concentrating solely on Harriet. ‘Rowena will be with you in a moment,’ he said smoothly, his arousal dissipating at great speed. Harriet’s eyes were wide and she stared at her employer as Rowena, ignoring the younger woman's presence, continued to move herself up and down on Lewis until with a cry of pleasure her body gave itself over to the warm flooding joy of orgasm. Harriet knew that she should leave the room but her legs seemed unable to move. She stayed rooted to the spot watching Rowena’s total abandonment to her sexuality. She felt almost consumed by envy, having spent most of her waking hours imagining what her next sexual encounter with Lewis would be like. Now she was forced to face the fact tha
Harriet was shocked by his casual acceptance of what they’d seen. Rowena was his wife, and even an open marriage didn’t usually include letting your wife have sex with her half-brother. She decided he was simply good at hiding his emotions, and that this was the only way he could cope with the situation. She was wrong. Lewis was drawn to Rowena sexually; like most men he admired her body and found her sexual magnetism alluring, but emotionally he was untouched by her. Their marriage had suited him as much as it suited her. The joining together of his analytical, muchadmired director's brain and her renowned sexuality and beauty had attracted almost as much attention in Hollywood as Marilyn Monroe’s marriage to Arthur Miller. Looking into the bedroom again, Harriet realised that Rowena’s first priority didn’t seem to be freedom from her bonds so much as freedom from her frustration, for once she failed to loosen her wrists she got to her feet and stood in front of one of the bed-post
WHEN LEWIS LED Harriet into a tiny room two doors down the landing from his bedroom she thought first that she was in a cupboard, but as her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness she realised that it had originally been intended as a dressing room, although the adjoining door had now been filled in. There was little furniture there, only a high backed chair and a two-seater settee in front of a square window, which let in no light at all. She turned to Lewis in bewilderment. ‘What is this room?’ ‘Sit here next to me on the sofa and look carefully at the window,’ he said softly. Puzzled, she stared at the glass, and after a few seconds realised that she was looking into a distinctly feminine bedroom lavishly decorated in various shades of lilac. As she watched, a figure crossed her line of vision, and she saw Rowena walking totally naked from her adjoining bathroom back to her bed. Harriet ducked down and Lewis laughed. ‘She can’t see you, it’s a two-way mirror.’ ‘You mean, anyone
Every nerve in Harriet’s body seemed to be alive now. She was trembling with excitement and frantic for more intimate touches but when she reached for his hand to try and move it where she wanted he shook his head. ‘It’s better to wait,’ he assured her. In the adjoining room Chris felt his own breathing quicken. Lewis was playing her with consummate skill, and her restlessly moving legs and upthrusting young breasts were testimony to her arousal. He himself was hard, and longed to be allowed to join in, to take the girl in the ways that he liked, the ways that kept Rowena enthralled. He was surprised by his reaction. Normally he would simply have wanted Rowena more than ever, but he knew that he was going to have to have Harriet before too long. At last Lewis took pity on Harriet and lightly kneaded some of the lotion into each of her breasts in turn. He heard her breath catch in her throat and her eyes were grateful. Then, to Harriet’s surprise, he moved himself up the bed so that