The Golden Locket (Unbreakable Trilogy, Book 2) (12 page)

‘No need to obsess about the detail. They said it was for their private collection so I don’t know if they’ll want me to crop the pictures quite so brutally down to her private parts,’ I murmur hurriedly as Gustav stares at the next picture. ‘They were asking me to capture the moment. It’s just that the moment they were referring to was when the two of them decided to get seriously naked.’

‘You’re telling me!’ he splutters, bringing the camera close to his eyes. ‘I knew the Weinmeyers were experimental exhibitionists, but these are practically pornographic, Serena! You’re only just starting out in this business. What were they thinking of, dragging you into their dungeon and making you do this?’

‘Teaching you a lesson, I reckon. Not to discuss me and my working methods behind my back, and not to dictate what goes on during a commission they’re paying good money for!’

I try to take the camera off him, but he snatches it back and puts it on the red leather seat by him, out of my reach. His mouth has drawn into a line and a muscle flashes in his cheek. He sits back, loosening his tie still further. His stretches his arms out in an effort to look nonchalant, but I can tell from the way his fingers are drumming that he’s agitated.

‘So, after all that, you didn’t entirely pass the resistance test, did you, Miss Folkes? You let them have their little feel.’

I start to shrink back in my own banquette. The leather squeaks under my bare thighs. I dressed up especially tonight. I’m wearing a very flimsy mint-green silk dress and some heels, and I’m not wearing any knickers. The leather is hot and sticky beneath me.

I’m caught on the hop by Gustav’s sharp questioning. He’s wearing his authoritarian, headmaster face. I know it’s a thin skin over the bubbling passion beneath, but it still unsettles me. Makes me eager to please.

His frown furrows deeper when he sees a smile creeping round my mouth.

‘You going to cane me for my misdemeanour, Gustav?’

He shakes his head slightly. His features are still carved in granite. ‘It’s not your fault for getting into a dodgy situation, Serena. I’m blaming them. They should have known better than to ask you to undertake a task like that.’

I part my legs slightly on the seat while I think how best to reply to him without wrecking the atmosphere. I allow the leather to rub against my tender private flesh until the friction starts to work on me and I have to stop.

‘Give me some credit, Gustav. They asked me because I was the right person for the job. As you know, they saw my London exhibition and liked it. They’ve got my Paris lovers series on their wall. I’m a big girl. Just like you said this morning. I fulfilled my commission to order. Yes, I was embarrassed at first, and then I admit I was downright shocked when they enticed me down these stairs into this red room and started writhing around on a gigantic bed and all that, but hey! Two consenting adults pleasuring each other under the watchful gaze of Venus in a sexy cosy nest, plying me with delicious punch. A little slap and tickle, maybe. As Mrs Weinmeyer herself said, what’s not to like?’

His fingers stop tapping. I see his mouth twitching then with a hint of amusement but there’s a tinge of sadness in his eyes. ‘My country bumpkin. What’s happened to her?’

‘She’s still here. But I was always a voyeur, Gustav. That’s the first thing you noticed and liked about me.’

I put my hand on his leg, and when he doesn’t move I start to slide it up his thigh, squeezing the muscle which is all the sexier for being hidden under his formal business trousers. He shifts in his seat, his eyes half closing. ‘Hey, baby. Let’s not fall out,’ he murmurs.

I move my hand into the warm fold of his groin, lean closer to whisper. ‘I don’t ever want to argue with you. But you’ve got to get this into your handsome head, Gustav. I want to be a famous photographer. And that means never saying never. To anything.’

The waiter approaches to take our plates and refill our glasses. He hesitates, eyes flickering over where my hand is massaging my man’s thigh. I give him my best seductress stare back, followed by a deliberate flutter of the eyelashes. Lower my left eyelid in a slow wink and see the flush creep up his thin neck.

Then I take a real twisted delight in pressing my hand against Gustav’s zipper, showing the waiter how my elbow and arm are moving while he tries to clear the plates and lay spoons without dropping anything in his eagerness to see. I rub my palm between Gustav’s legs and feel the hardness growing.

The plates rattle as the waiter balances them up his arm. He backs away, and I see him retreat to the corner of the room where he nudges a fellow waiter and jerks his head over towards us.

Gustav is in my thrall now. He presses his hand on top of mine, moving it faster and harder over him. The calmer he remains, the more determined I am to break his cool. If I take him all the way to the edge there will be the jump of his Adam’s apple, the black-molasses glaze in his eyes that tells me he’s about to come.

His voice is husky now. ‘“Never say never” could be a risky adage.’

‘Risky is where the fun is, don’t you agree?’ Under the table I continue to massage him until he starts to buck gently against my hand. I glance over at the waiter. He’s still staring at me, his hand moving in his trouser pocket. I twiddle innocently with my wineglass before lifting it, puckering my mouth slowly, and taking a long sip.

‘Oh, you’re transforming before my very eyes, Serena,’ Gustav murmurs as I fondle and drive him to the point of no return. ‘What have I done to you?’

I laugh softly as he bucks against me one more time then slumps back. I remove my hand, tuck it under my chin thoughtfully. Glance over at the waiter and mouth at him, ‘Show’s over
.
’

‘I was already a twisted little thing when we first met, but you’ve taught me everything you know. Take another look at these pictures, Mr Levi. They turned you on, didn’t they? And that reaction made you cross with yourself. Hopefully you feel better now.’

‘I was cross because I was jealous. The thought of someone else touching you, their hands on you.’

‘Even if it’s a female?’

‘I could get my head round that, I suppose. But only if I was there to watch. Get myself the best seat in the house and see all the action up close.’ He shakes his head, a smile spreading over his face, softening the edges, giving a new sparkle to his eyes. ‘You’re an incorrigible little madam.’

‘And you’re a nosy devil.’ I laugh softly and tap my fingertips together. ‘But I may as well confess that it made me a little horny when I was down there with them. It’s hard to disconnect, you know? I hope that will be a good thing, photographically. Look at the way Mr Weinmeyer is feeling his way. He’s blindfolded, you see. Not that he has to do much, just lie back. And she handcuffed him, too.’

Gustav groans and forces himself to sit up. Adjusts his trousers, biting his lip with discomfort. ‘Don’t talk to me about handcuffs.’

I stroke my hand down his crotch. ‘It was all very laid-back and gentle, Gustav. No whips. No punishment. Just her being assertive, and him giving her what she wanted. Do you want to see how it makes me feel even now, just talking about it?’

His eyes flicker back into focus. He watches my hand as if it’s a scorpion about to strike. I laugh again, take his hand prisoner and nestle it between my legs.

‘Whatever went down in that dungeon of theirs, it’s put the very devil into you, young lady.’

I see him bite his lip as he touches me there, see the flare of his nostrils as he realises I’ve gone commando under my pretty dress this evening. I push his fingers firmly into me and close my thighs to trap his hand. All this is going on under the white tablecloth as the snooty waiter comes up with the dessert menu and when he sees what is happening this time he nearly swerves away like a horse refusing a jump.

‘Oh, don’t go away, we’ll take a look at the sweet things now, thank you.’

Gustav fixes the waiter with a steely gaze, all the while hooking his other fingers into me under the table as I have instructed him. He is openly challenging the waiter, who has a visible bulge through his white apron. I struggle not to snort as he hands over the menu twixt finger and thumb as if it, or Gustav, might bite.

‘The sweet things. Right,’ he stammers.

‘Thank you.’

Gustav nods, still keeping the waiter’s gaze, and in the same way as I did he lets his arm speak for him, pumping up and down as he strokes me. I look at the two men, the waiter stumbling backwards to fetch the order and the haughty customer revelling in the idea that he can touch me when the waiter can’t. The hushed, candlelit room full of adultery and secrets wavers slightly as Gustav’s expert fingers set alight the embers of desire that have been glowing quietly all day. I fall against the seat, tip up against his fingers, an invitation for him to go further, push deeper, harder into the wetness.

‘Oh God, I’ve been keeping this lust inside me all day. Can’t we just go home?’

I lean close to him, impaling myself more fully by the movement, and make sure he can hear me amongst the buzz of other voices. I lift the menu to hide us so that I can run my mouth over his.

‘Absolutely not. Have you any idea how exclusive this place is? We’re staying here until I say so.’

I sigh. ‘Mr and Mrs Weinmeyer. It’s their fault I’m so wet. They were all over each other like a couple of teenagers.’

Gustav chuckles quietly. It’s a private chuckle, just for me. ‘Teenagers who play with blindfolds and handcuffs, and have Picasso hanging on their walls?’

‘OK, not teenagers. A very kinky middle-aged billionaire couple.’ I chuckle back, pushing him harder into me. My tongue runs across my mouth as the sensations intensify. ‘Who knows? Maybe they’ve got one or two of those Bailey pussy pictures tucked away somewhere as another sex aid. In the bathroom perhaps or above the marital bed.’

‘Not that you need anything like that to spark you off. You’re insatiable. I’m definitely beginning to think I should keep a closer eye on you.’ He leans closer and takes my face in his free hand, smiles roguishly as he fingers me harder and faster until my body clenches round him and reaches its little zenith, too short, so sharp, so sweet, and I moan into his neck as it happens, shivering and trembling. Tit for tat. Both goaded and reduced to jelly in the space of ten minutes. We’re becoming specialists.

He withdraws his hand slowly, wipes its wetness back over my thigh, and then makes me squeal with shocked laughter as he runs one glistening finger down over the menu, leaving a snail’s trail of my juice down the list of sorbets.

‘What were you going to tell me, Gustav?’ My voice is a tiny mew as I try to gather my wits around me like shredded lace. ‘You wanted me here early to tell me something?’

‘I didn’t want to be apart from you longer than necessary.’

‘My poor baby. Pull the other one.’ I flick at him with my napkin, and a couple of pairs of famous eyes glance at me, then rest on Gustav. Pride swells inside me. He’s well-known here as well as in London, and I’m going to bask in it. ‘You said in your text something about “developments”. So what did you want to tell me?’

He orders our puddings. It’s a different waiter now. This one looks even more wary than the last. Gustav dismisses him and takes my hands. His face goes still, and pale, and serious.

‘I spoke to Pierre this morning.’

‘That’s good. That’s really good.’ My voice is wooden and my hand feels cold even inside his warm grasp. I should have known we couldn’t hold him at arm’s length for long.

He nods gravely. A lock of black hair falls into his eyes. ‘He phoned me just as I was watching you walking away through the Strawberry Fields bit of the park. He wanted to apologise for the shock tactics on New Year’s Eve.’ He smiles, a slightly grim smile which doesn’t reach his eyes. ‘But he couldn’t stop talking about you, either. He thinks you’re a bit of a harridan.’

‘Charming!’ My head swings up. Unease stirs in the pit of my stomach. It seems to be an automatic response whenever Pierre’s name is mentioned. ‘What makes him say that?’

He brings my hand up to his lips and kisses the thin skin on the back. It still makes me shiver. His eyes are watchful between the thick lashes as he plays my fingers across his lips.

‘You gave him a piece of your mind when you were all waiting for me to get home from the airport.’

‘He needed to know that I’m on your side, Gustav. No matter what.’

‘He heard you loud and clear, it seems.’ He continues to rub my hand across his mouth, his dark eyes surveying me as if he’s seeing me in a new light. ‘You seem to understand each other.’

‘Not difficult to understand my message to him. I told him to man up and talk to you.’ I can’t help trembling. My body is still tight and hot from Gustav’s fingers, but my head and heart are cold. I hold my hands up. ‘Look, I’m shaking. Why does this stress me out? Making up with your brother is a good thing, right?’

Gustav sits back and studies me. I want him to take my hands and comfort me. I want him to put his arm around me. A long black shadow has sidled in between us. Two shadows, actually.

‘You’re stressed because of Margot. Because Pierre coming back is optimistic and positive, he and I agreed on that this morning, but he drags after him all that shit, the past, that part of my life you don’t belong to. And you’re stressed because I haven’t done a good enough job of reassuring you.’

I nod. ‘You’re right, as always. That connection he has with her – it flaps around him like a shroud. And how do we know she’s really gone? Where is she now?’

‘It seems she eventually chewed him up and spat him out. That’s all he will say for now. God, if only I could have spared him all that humiliation. She managed to wreak even more havoc on him than she did me, because he was more vulnerable.’ He nods, as if confirming something to himself. ‘I let him down. I’ve done it too many times. I’ve got to be here for him, whenever, wherever.’

I try to smile, but I can’t quite manage it. ‘You said all that in one phone call?’

‘We’ve spoken a couple of times, actually.’ He is silent for a moment. I hear the waiter putting down two bowls on the table with the tiniest of clunks.