Kinky Boots (Mischief Books) (11 page)

Once she heard the shower running, she dressed and had just made herself a cup of tea when there was a loud knock on the door, the turning of a key in the lock, and Vivie burst in, practically throwing herself into Jill’s arms. In typical Vivie fashion, she was already in mid-sentence.

‘Oh, Jilly, thank God you’re all right! I was so worried when you didn’t answer my texts. I had visions of you dead on the floor, and it all being my fault, all my fault!’ Her embrace became a bear hug threatening to break ribs. ‘My fault because I gave some friend of Alex’s your name. Alex is the bloke I met at the Bluu Bar the other night. You remember? Well, he has a friend who said she has a friend who fancies you, and I was so excited for you that I didn’t think. I gave him your name. But I didn’t give him your number. I wouldn’t do that. But then I got thinking with your name, he could find you easily enough. And then I didn’t hear from you, and …’

Her words died in her throat and she stepped away from Jill, giving a couple of gasps and nodding towards where Finn stood dripping on the floor, wrapped in a towel that barely covered the goodies.

‘I … left my bag in the lounge,’ he managed before Vivie squared her shoulders, gave Jill a ‘well done, you’ nudge in the ribs with her elbow, then offered Finn her hand.

‘I’m Vivie,’ she said, ‘and you must be Finn, the one who was desperately looking for my friend Jill.’ Her eyes dipped to his towel. ‘And I’d say you found her.’

‘Yes, I found her all right,’ he said. He grabbed his rucksack, then he paused before he headed back to the bathroom. He turned back, pulled Jill into his arms and gave her a toe-curling kiss, nearly losing his towel in the process.

As the two watched Finn’s barely covered backside disappear down the hall, Vivie grabbed Jill by the arm and dragged her toward the sofa. ‘Details, hon, I want details.’ She helped herself to a sip of Jill’s tea and sat down with a little wriggle of her bottom.

Somewhere in the vast undefined space inside her, Jill could feel Eleanor perched at full attention, just as anxious for a little nasty girl talk as Vivie was. Jill settled in to pick and choose what juicy bits were fit for the ears of the non-possessed.

‘He’s hot, Finn is.’ Vivie was practically bouncing off her chair. ‘Oh Jilly, I’m so excited for you!’

Jill couldn’t prevent herself smiling when she thought about what Finn had done to her just before Vivie showed up. He’d left her flat, promising to be back in the evening after he’d finished his errands for Sole Alliance. Jill was already anticipating their reunion. Though Eleanor seemed to have enjoyed the girl talk over burgers and chips in the noisy, quirky bustle of the Breakfast Club, Jill still wasn’t sure if she could trust her not to add her bit to the conversation at the most inopportune moment. From the Breakfast Club, they’d migrated around the corner to the Bluu Bar to share a bottle of wine and continue the conversation in a quieter place.

Jill was more than a little surprised by the glances of appreciation she drew from several men at the bar. She figured that was Eleanor’s doing, since the last time she was in the Bluu Bar she had been all but invisible to the opposite sex. She forced her attention back to Vivie, who was studying her like she was the menu at a five-star restaurant. One of those written in French. ‘What?’ she said.

Vivie leaned an elbow on the table and smiled at her friend. ‘It’s just, well, wow! You seem so different, so confident. You shag a sex god in a shoe shop on a Friday night. On Saturday morning you tell your boss to fuck himself, then quit your job. And on Sunday I show up to discover you’ve just been going at it with said sex god on the floor of your lounge. And all in one weekend. Still waters run deep.’ Vivie lifted her glass in a toast.

She didn’t know the half of it, Jill thought. They sipped their wine, and Vivie continued to study her in the afternoon sunlight streaming through the window. Jill pretended not to notice. ‘I just can’t get over how different you seem,’ Vivie said. ‘Stunning, actually.’

Inside whatever place demons hole up when they possess someone, Eleanor offered a smug ‘I told you so’.

Jill couldn’t remember a time when Vivie hadn’t tried to change her into a darker, taller, more rounded version of her own model-perfect self. She had cajoled and browbeaten her into having free make-overs at every cosmetic counter in every department store in the Greater London area. For Jill’s last birthday, she had even given her a session with a wardrobe consultant, but to no avail. And now here they sat with Vivie looking on in admiration. What a difference a demon makes.

‘I love the boots by the way,’ Vivie said.

Jill had had another shower and was dressed in tight black jeans and a revealing vest just a few shades darker than the boots, a vest she only wore in the privacy of her flat. Until now. ‘I still haven’t paid for them,’ she said with a quirk of a smile.

‘You minx.’ Vivie giggled. ‘I just can’t imagine you doing the nasty with Finn in his shoe store. That’s so not you, Jilly.’

She had no idea, Jill thought.

Inside her head, Eleanor refused to take all the credit. After all, she reminded Jill, she hadn’t actually been in residence for any of the foreplay in Kinky Boots.

They were on their second glass of wine, sitting on the high chairs at a chunky wooden table across from the bar. Vivie leaned closer. ‘I’m not the only one totally awed by your very sexy self,’ she said. ‘You seem to be drawing the attention of that bloke in the corner.’ Vivie gave a not-so-discreet sideways glance. ‘The big one that looks like he could crush a lorry with one hand.’ She gave him the once-over. ‘Very nice. I like big men, I but definitely wouldn’t want him on top.’

Jill felt her shoulders tighten. She didn’t even have to look. Inside her head, Eleanor said. ‘It’s Meinrad all right. It must be his turn to keep an eye on us.’

Meinrad was making no effort to be stealthy. He was in his usual uniform of low-rider jeans and a black T-shirt that looked like it had been painted across his muscular chest. She thought about her dream, about Finn and Eleanor and the possibility of the big man ploughing her. ‘On top’s not the only way.’ The words slipped out before she could stop them, and Vivie nearly sprayed her mouthful of wine across the table.

‘Jill Hart, you naughty, naughty girl.’ She leaned in conspiratorially close. ‘Do you know him?’

‘We’ve met, yes. He also works at Kinky Boots.’

‘Fucking hell,’ Vivie whispered, ‘I’m shopping at the wrong shoe store.’ She scooted her chair closer to Jill’s, then shot Meinrad a very blatant stare. ‘What do you reckon? Is he … you know … big all over?’

‘Oh, he’s big all right.’ Jill wondered if Eleanor had suddenly turned off the internal editor. But in her mind’s eye Eleanor raised innocent hands, refusing to take the blame.

Before Vivie could interrogate her further, Jill motioned Meinrad over. The look of embarrassment at being caught in the act was fleeting, or maybe only imagined. Meinrad wasn’t known for great displays of emotion. But it still gave Jill a tingle of satisfaction forcing him to come clean. Before he could sit down, she said, ‘Finn sent you.’ It wasn’t a question.

He nodded and, without so much as a greeting, took the chair next to her, but not before she had the chance to notice he was at half-mast. The little gasp that escaped Vivie’s lips told her she had noticed too. Jill wondered if he was always at half-mast and rising. ‘You were talking about me,’ he said, setting his lime and soda on the table.

‘Vivie couldn’t help noticing you staring at me, and the conversation went from there.’ Jill said. ‘She wondered if your cock was proportional. I said that it was.’ Vivie blushed hard and mumbled something to her that she suspected wasn’t very nice. Jill’s intention had been to put Meinrad in his place, but she wondered if her wicked sense of satisfaction at turning the tables and embarrassing her friend as well was hers or Eleanor’s.

Vivie forced a smile in Meinrad’s direction.

Meinrad gave a peripheral glance at his lap and shrugged. For all his reaction she might have just told him that she liked his shirt.

‘So,’ Vivie said, trying to put the conversation back on track. ‘You know Jill through Kinky Boots.’

‘You could say that, I suppose,’ Meinrad said, playing with the straw in his drink. ‘I tied her up over there last night.’

Jill kicked him under the table, but he didn’t seem to notice.

Vivie giggled nervously. ‘For what? Stealing the boots?’

‘Oh, no, she can have the boots. They’re perfect for her. I tied her up so Finn could fuck her.’

This time he did flinch when Jill kicked him. But only a little.

Whatever was next on the polite conversation agenda died on Vivie’s pursed lips. For a second she looked from one of them to the other, then she offered a low chuckle. ‘Oh, I get it, and that’s how she knows about your …’ She gave a little nod down to his lap.

‘No. She knows about my cock because she saw me wa–’

‘Jesus, Meinrad, shut up!’ Jill kicked him hard this time and he still offered her nothing more than a cool gaze.

‘You started it,’ he said. ‘I just assumed it was honesty time. By the way, Finn told me what you want us to do.’

Vivie practically buzzed with anticipation, leaning in for the latest. ‘What do you want them to do, Jilly?’ she said. ‘Tell me.’

Before Jill could respond, Meinrad continued. ‘I’m OK with it, of course.’ He held her in a meaningful gaze. ‘Finn and I both agreed that you’re calling the shots, just like the other night, so of course we’ll do whatever you want.’

Inside her head, Eleanor giggled, and Jill mentally flipped her the finger.

‘Come on, Jilly, what shots are you calling? I’m dying to hear. I need details.’ Vivie could barely remain in her seat. ‘What the hell’s going on? And how did I miss out?’

Thankfully, Vivie’s Alex saved the day, showing up just in time to drag Vivie away to a jazz concert at some pub in Soho, but not before Vivie swore that, when she got back, she’d rack Jill and torture the details out of her if she didn’t come clean.

‘I believe she’d do it too,’ Meinrad said, watching the couple leave. ‘Though I doubt she could rack you as well as I could.’ Jill wasn’t sure Meinrad was coming on to her, or if he was just having a serious hard-on at the thought of getting to rack someone. He gave no indication one way or the other.

‘You did that on purpose,’ she hissed at him, nodding to where Vivie and Alex had just disappeared out the door.

‘I did, yes. You deserved it.’

‘I’m not the one who was spying,’ Jill said.

‘I’m not spying,’ he replied. ‘You knew I was there and you know why. Now finish your wine and I’ll take you home.’

It was early evening when Meinrad walked Jill back to her flat. Inside, the big man settled on the sofa and took up the TV remote. ‘You’re tired,’ he said. ‘Get some rest. Finn will be back in a while.’

She was about to protest that he was being bossy to her in her own home, but then she realised he was right. She really was tired.

Before she headed off to her room, she turned to him. ‘Thanks for last night. I didn’t get a chance to tell you. What you did was amazing. The whole experience was amazing.’

The grunt of a response could have meant “you’re welcome” or it could have meant “fuck off”. With Meinrad it was always hard to tell.

As she headed for her room, Eleanor spoke quietly in her ear. ‘Not surprising at all that you’re tired after the past two days, sweetie. And you have no idea what a pleasure sleep and rest are after all these years without any. It all gets so boring. You just rest now. I’m sure Finn will wake you up when he gets in.’ Her voice felt like a kiss against Jill’s ear. ‘If he doesn’t I will.’

* * *

Jill didn’t actually remember falling asleep, nor could she be certain what woke her up. Her first reminder of Eleanor’s constant presence was a warm, slightly full feeling inside her abdomen, followed almost immediately by a growing tightness beneath the hood of her clit. If this was Eleanor’s version of a wake-up call, she thought she could probably get used to it. But before she could manage to get a hand between her legs to answer that call, she heard shuffling followed by a grunt coming from the living room. Just as she was about to call out Finn’s name, Eleanor mentally shushed her. ‘Don’t talk. Just go have a peek.’

There was another grunt, followed by what sounded like soft, slightly nervous male laughter, and Jill’s pulse somersaulted in her throat. She had stripped completely to nap, something totally out of character for her, but she was getting used to being out of character. She fumbled in the dark for the nearest clothing, the flip skirt and the silk blouse. It was dark outside, but the moon was still close enough to full that the ambient light made it easy to see where she was going. Amber-coloured fallout from the lamplight in the lounge spilled into the hall. The tension in her belly, and below, and the exquisite tightening in her nipples made her suspect that some of her anticipation was Eleanor’s. She tiptoed to the end of the hall, holding her breath. There she froze, as though she had been turned to stone.

On the sofa, Finn was just settling an open-mouthed kiss onto Meinrad’s responsive lips. The sight was enough to make Jill’s knees weak. Finn pulled away to tug the T-shirt off over the big man’s massive shoulders, and his chest heaved into view. His heavily muscled pecs were topped with tight pink nipples, nipples that Finn ran his tongue around before he nipped and kissed his way down to Meinrad’s navel, which peeked above the low ride of his jeans.

The view made every part of Jill’s body buzz with excitement. She suspected that Eleanor had revved up the tension in some crazy demonic way. She had never felt so turned on. As Finn opened Meinrad’s jeans and the man lifted his bum to allow them and his black boxers to be slid down over his thighs, Jill wriggled fingers up under her skirt.

‘Don’t do that,’ Eleanor whispered. ‘Keep your hands away from yourself and just hold the feeling. You’ll be amazed at how good it’ll be if you wait. Just watch. That’s what you want, isn’t it? To watch, and let Meinrad and Finn do the work.’