GUY GAVE A sigh of contentment as he peeled off the dress and saw that beneath it Cressida was wearing only a white G-string. He pressed her down on the rug and for a moment she closed her eyes as he started to caress her upper arms and softly kiss the corners of her mouth. As soon as he saw her eyes close Guy pushed her arms up above her head and then, before she realised what was happening, he’d drawn a piece of cord out of the hamper and tied it round her wrists. Cressida’s eyes flew open and she stared at him anxiously, suddenly wondering if it was all a trick and now that he had her hands fastened he intended to question her about her undercover work.
‘Don’t look so anxious,’ murmured Guy. ‘This is all part of the pleasure. Stand up now and move over here.’ He guided her a few metres away from the rug, moving deeper into the woods, and then threw the end of the cord over an overhanging branch of a tree so that she was standing with her arms tightly extended upward. When he pulled on the cord to tie it she had to go on tiptoe which meant that her calf muscles were stretched. With only her G-string to cover her she felt horribly vulnerable to any passer-by, as well as to Guy himself, but despite this the blood was racing through her veins and her whole body surface tingled with a strange excitement.
‘You look incredible,’ murmured Guy, standing back to study her. ‘Rick would adore you like this! Just one more touch and then we can really begin to live out your fantasy.’
‘I didn’t ask to be restrained,’ said Cressida breathlessly.
Guy laughed. ‘I know, but you love it, don’t you? It makes you feel like the woman in the picture you admired so much; both mistress and slave at the same time.’
‘Yes,’ she muttered, and then jumped with alarm as he walked behind her and slipped a dark band of material over her eyes. ‘Tell me to let you go if you don’t like the game,’ he whispered, his breath warm against her neck, but Cressida didn’t want him to release her. Her body was clamouring for his touch and she knew that her sex lips were already swelling as she started to become aroused by the entire dangerously erotic set-up.
She heard Guy move away from her again and then she felt his fingers at her mouth. ‘Eat this,’ he told her quietly, and very slowly slipped an olive into her mouth so that she could savour the salty tang as she sucked and then crunched on it. When he brought her a second olive he teased her with it, pressing it against her lips before ordering her to put out her tongue so that he could place it on the tip as the liquid in which it had been bottled left a trail down her chin. As she ate it he licked at the briney juice, his tongue teasing her chin and the top of her bare breasts where a few drops had spilled.
Cressida’s breathing was rapid and after she’d finished the second olive Guy allowed her to drink a little wine from one of the goblets, but when she tried to drain the goblet he moved to the back of her and tipped the rest of the chilled wine down her spine.
With a gasp of surprise Cressida began to squirm against her restraint and her hips twisted in an effort to find some kind of stimulation lower down her body. ‘Not yet,’ Guy told her, his voice kind but firm, and then he licked the back of her body with tiny flicking movements of his tongue as he drank the wine. By the time he’d finished Cressida couldn’t stop herself from squirming with rising excitement and she kept making tiny noises of pleasure.
For a few minutes after that she was left alone, and to her horror she heard the sound of voices in the distance. ‘Guy, someone’s near us!’ she called but he didn’t answer her and when she heard a car door slam she grew frantic. She could imagine only too well how she must look, and the thought of a stranger witnessing her body, stretched tightly with arms extended upward and swollen breasts jutting out shamelessly, was too dreadful to contemplate. Then she wondered if the car door that had slammed had been Guy’s, and if he’d left her there in the woods as a punishment because he knew what she really was and intended to humiliate her in retaliation.
To her surprise all these fears only served to increase her arousal. Her belly felt hot and swollen as she remained suspended from the tree branch with her senses screaming for stimulation. She would never have believed it possible to feel so aroused when she was utterly helpless in the hands of a man considered to be highly dangerous but it was true and it made her realise that before this she’d never known anything about her own sexuality.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked Guy softly, and she gave a whimper of relief.
‘I thought other people were here and that you’d left me,’ she admitted, her voice catching in her throat.
Guy ran a finger idly over her left nipple which was swollen and erect. ‘It doesn’t seem to have affected you in any adverse way,’ he remarked, then he tweaked the nipple hard and to Cressida’s shocked embarrassment a shudder ran through her as her body rushed into a small orgasm. ‘In fact, it’s been positively beneficial,’ he continued. Cressida kept silent.
‘Is this what you fantasised about?’ asked Guy, his right hand resting on her lower back in a gesture that seemed to Cressida to be one of almost tender support as her orgasm slowly died away. ‘Is this how you imagined your open-air sex?’
‘No,’ whispered Cressida. ‘It wasn’t at all like this.’
‘And when Rick tried to make your dream come true, was that like this?’ persisted Guy. Cressida shook her head, longing for him to start touching her again because even the sensation of his hand against her naked back was arousing her.
Because of the way she’d been tied up every muscle and sinew in her body was taut, making the nerve endings more responsive to stimulation. When she felt a strange soft pricking sensation over her abdomen she gasped and jerked against the tension of the cord around her wrists, but almost immediately the sensation moved to the insides of her tensed arms, swirling around the crook of her elbow and then down her inner arm to the inside of her wrist. The movement was repeated again and again, and slowly the delicate tingles began to spread throughout other areas of her body and her whole pelvic region began to ache with frustration.
‘Guess what I’m touching you with,’ murmured Guy.
‘A brush,’ said Cressida immediately. ‘A man’s hairbrush.’
‘Wrong,’ he retorted, and then he was caressing her inner thighs with the same instrument, and now the feelings began to spread upward towards her vulva and she felt her lower body trembling with desire and the thrill of dangerous pleasure.
‘Guess again,’ he instructed her, but despite concentrating desperately on the feeling Cressida couldn’t put a name to it. ‘You’re showing a regrettable lack of imagination!’ he laughed, and then she felt him part her sex lips and run the bristles lightly over the exposed area so that the tip of her clitoris was briefly touched and her body tried to jackknife in on itself with the shock of the sharp, searing streak of pleasure. ‘One more guess,’ murmured Guy as Cressida whimpered with frustration.
‘I don’t know!’ she shouted.
‘Here it comes again. Try harder,’ he suggested, and she tensed in anticipation of the indescribable thrill that once more shot through her as her clitoris received a painfully tender caress that caused all the mass of nerve endings there to send out spirals of hot liquid heat which made her entire pubic area tense and throb.
‘It’s an old-fashioned shaving brush,’ explained Guy when her ragged breathing eased a little. ‘I thought you’d enjoy that. Now I think I’ll try something rather different.’
Tight, aching and swollen with need, Cressida was forced to remain a prisoner, tied to the tree while he once more went away. She wished that she could have him in her power like this for just a brief moment in order to make him suffer in the same delicious manner, but she knew that Guy wasn’t the kind of man who’d be willing to do that. Rick was, but she no longer wanted Rick; it was this man she wanted. This man, and everything he could teach her about her body.
She heard him behind her and when he kissed the nape of her neck she sighed in relaxed pleasure. ‘That’s nice,’ he murmured. ‘You really sound as though you’re enjoying yourself.’
‘I am,’ she admitted. ‘But I’d like to have another orgasm now.’
‘Soon,’ he promised her. Now he pulled her G-string down her legs and cupped her tightly rounded buttocks, and then he was parting the cheeks of her bottom and she felt him spreading a cold jelly-like substance around the rim of her anus. She pushed her belly forward in an attempt to get away from him, but he simply put an arm round her bare waist and pulled her back into position.
‘You’ll love this,’ he assured her. ‘Trust me.’ Then he carefully parted the fair-skinned globes and inserted a short but thick anal plug, well covered in lubricating jelly. Cressida stiffened against this unexpected invasion. ‘Relax,’ he whispered, his tongue sliding down the side of her neck until she shivered in response. ‘I’m going to move it very slowly in and out and as I move it in I want you to tighten your muscles around it, then relax them as I withdraw it. You should enjoy the sensation, but you must relax.’
Cressida knew that she had to trust him and obeyed his instructions to the letter. As the device was carefully eased in and out of her back passage she used her muscles as he’d described and within a few seconds realised that he was right. Bitter-sweet piercing sensations lanced through her from front to back, not only giving pleasure but also increasing her need for stimulation of her clitoris. Soon she was panting heavily, crying out for him to touch her between her thighs, and still she was blindfolded and naked in the middle of a public place.
‘You’re utterly shameless,’ said Guy, leaving the anal plug in and walking round to the front of her, his hands running down the sides of her body as it jerked and twitched with sexual tension. ‘What are you?’
‘Shameless,’ she admitted proudly, no longer caring in the least but revelling in the delicious feelings that were almost consuming her.
‘Tell me what you want now then,’ he commanded.
‘I want to come.’ Cressida begged him, thrusting her hips forward and trying to part her legs as much as her awkward stance would permit.
‘I want to possess you,’ said Guy, his voice deep and quiet. ‘I want to take you now, standing like that, tethered to the tree, helpless and desperate. Does that make me the master, or the slave?’ As he spoke he continued to caress her, running his hands all over her naked body, which was hot and covered with a fine sheen of perspiration.
‘I don’t know,’ admitted Cressida. ‘Please Guy, let’s talk about that afterwards. I want you inside me, now.’
‘You seem hot,’ he said thoughtfully, and suddenly a fine spray of water covered her swollen body as he directed an atomiser spray of scented water over her. He watched her taut belly draw inward and her nipples become even more engorged and finally he couldn’t stand it any longer himself and to Cressida’s delight he was suddenly standing in front of her. He pushed her naked back against the trunk of the tree as his penis slid slowly inside her. Then he moved with great care, gliding in and out of her aching vagina in steady movements, making sure that each time he drove fully into her, her clitoris was stimulated by contact with his pubic bone. At the same time his hands massaged her breasts, and then he pushed them both upward so that he could fasten his mouth around each of the nipples in turn, sucking hard on the aching little buds until she could have cried with ecstasy.
Cressida wanted the feelings to go on and on. Every part of her was on fire, but the pleasure was all centred in one place, behind the hard, aching nub of her clitoris. She’d never had a man move so slowly and steadily, and the pressure built deep within her pelvis until she tightened all her internal muscles as she tried to precipitate the elusive final orgasm.
When she did this she felt the anal plug touching the walls of her rectum and this drove her into a frenzy of desire as even more stimulation was added to her body. Her muscles tightened around Guy so that now he too lost control of himself, and his movements became as frenzied as hers as he drove on towards the moment when he could at last allow himself sexual release.
Just before he came he removed a hand from one of Cressida’s breasts and, sliding it down her between their bodies, he pressed his fingers into the soft flesh just above her pubic bone. She felt the heavy ache spread downward through her vulva and when it met the jagged sparks of pleasure darting from her clitoris her orgasm was finally triggered and all her muscles seemed to go into a mad spasm as even her fingers, held forcibly high above her head, twitched in an involuntary response to the waves of sexual satisfaction washing over her.
Hearing Cressida’s groans of satisfaction Guy allowed himself to come as well, and for the first time he found that when his climax was over and his almost painful sexual tension was at last dissipated he didn’t feel the need to withdraw immediately. Instead he stayed where he was, his penis still inside Cressida as his hands moved gently over her face so that he could remove her blindfold.
For a few seconds they stared into each other’s eyes, but surprisingly Cressida was the first to break the contact between them, and then Guy understood how his other women must have felt when he withdrew both mentally and physically as soon as the moment of pleasure was over.
‘Quite a good fantasy, I think,’ he said shortly as he unfastened her wrists and let her down. ‘After that the picnic may seem rather tame!’
Cressida found that she had very little appetite for the delicious food that was presented to her a few minutes later. Instead she lay on her side, propped up on one elbow, sipping wine and watching Guy as he ate. Every now and again he would reach out to stroke her ankle, or run a hand up her lightly tanned leg, his fingers dancing a teasing path beneath her long dress.
‘You have lovely bones,’ he remarked idly, nibbling on a tiny salmon mousse quiche. ‘They’re so delicate and feminine.’
‘There’s something I have to ask you,’ said Cressida, wishing that his fingers didn’t have such a powerful effect on her because once again her nipples were hardening and she started to remember the wonderful moment when she felt a climax start to build within her.
‘What’s that?’
‘When I was tied to the tree just now, did someone come by?’ she enquired anxiously.
‘Does it matter?’ asked Guy.
‘Yes, it does. The last thing I can afford is to have people seeing me naked and aroused in a public place,’ she retorted hotly.
Guy eyed her thoughtfully. ‘The last thing you can afford. What do you mean by that? Do you have famous parents or something? Would your nakedness make the front page of the tabloids?’
Cressida realised that once again she’d made a mistake. That was the trouble with good sex, it made her over-relaxed and careless. ‘Of course not, but my mother’s not well and I wouldn’t want to upset her,’ she said lamely.
Guy didn’t look as though he found this very convincing but he didn’t query it. ‘As a matter of fact a courting couple did pull up near my car. They both got out, but then I think they must have realised they were interrupting something rather special and they drove off again.’
‘I knew I heard a car door slam,’ said Cressida.
‘It didn’t seem to put you off,’ remarked Guy with a brief smile. ‘Can’t I tempt you with anything from the hamper? I’d hate you to fade away; your curves are exactly to my liking at the moment.’
‘I don’t think gaining your approval is my prime objective in life,’ commented Cressida with a laugh. ‘However, as I like my shape too I’d better try and eat something. Some of the pâté would be nice.’
Guy spread pâté on a cracker and handed it to her.
‘Here you are then. You know, I’m quite surprised to hear that gaining my approval isn’t your prime objective. I rather thought it was.’
Cressida forced herself to keep calm and nibbled at the biscuit. ‘Why do you say that?’
‘Because Marcia told me, and she’s very rarely wrong when it comes to that kind of thing. Her feminine intuition is very strong.’
‘Maybe she guards you so jealously that she sees danger where there isn’t any,’ suggested Cressida.
‘In this case it seems she was right. If she’d been wrong we wouldn’t be here tonight.’
‘That doesn’t mean I went out of my way to gain your approval. In fact, I’d have thought that would have had the opposite effect on a man like you.’
‘Then perhaps you were simply being extra clever and making yourself aloof to catch my interest.’
‘You know, you’re incredibly conceited,’ said Cressida with a smile. ‘Why should you be so special?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ said Guy, his hand moving in soft circles around the inside of her left knee. ‘I hoped you might be able to tell me.’
‘I didn’t think you were special at first. I never even wanted to go out with you when Rick was ill. I admit I think you’re special now, but that’s quite different from gearing my entire lifestyle to attract you. To be honest, Guy, I’ve never done that in my life and I don’t think I ever will. Until our two dates, sex has never been that important to me.’
‘Better not let Rick hear you say that,’ said Guy.
Cressida felt uncomfortable. ‘Rick was fun,’ she admitted. ‘He showed me there was more to life than –’
‘Tom?’ suggested Guy helpfully.
Luckily Cressida was now on her guard. ‘Tom?’ she queried with a frown.
‘Yes, Detective Sergeant Tom Penfold, remember him?’
She paused for a moment. ‘Oh yes! The customer from the gallery who took me out to dinner. Well, if you put it like that I suppose Rick did show me that there was far more to life than men like Tom.’
Guy’s eyes, which had been fixed on her face, returned to her figure. ‘Undo your buttons,’ he murmured. ‘I want to stroke your breasts while we talk.’
Although Cressida’s body would like nothing better she knew that in order to keep her mind sharp she didn’t dare let him. ‘Not yet,’ she protested. ‘I need more time to recover.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Guy. ‘I’m not suggesting another sex session, just some physical intimacy. What’s the matter? Are you afraid you’ll lose control again?’
He was too near the truth for comfort but she let him move closer to her and helped him unfasten her buttons so that he could softly massage her breasts, which immediately began to swell in his hands, the light blue veins becoming more obvious as she started to become aroused.
‘Tell me about yourself, Cressida,’ he whispered. ‘I want to know about your childhood, your school days, and when you first began to get interested in art.’
‘All right,’ agreed Cressida, who had a well-prepared background story. ‘But only if you tell me your life history when I’ve finished.’
‘I might,’ he said evasively, and as his fingers teased the soft undersides of her breasts she lay with her head in his lap and slowly told him her story, a story that had been worked out in every detail by her superior officers.
When she’d finished she could hardly speak because her chest felt constricted by her rising need for Guy to make love to her again. As her voice trailed away he bent his head and nipped hard at one of her engorged nipples. She gave a tiny squeal of mingled shock and excitement. ‘What a good memory you have,’ he said idly. ‘I couldn’t recall every detail of my life so accurately, but plainly you have a very good memory for detail.’
‘And for pleasure,’ she said softly, reaching up for him.
He looked down on her but he didn’t smile. ‘Yes, and for pleasure,’ he repeated thoughtfully. By now Cressida was lying sprawled on her back with most of her top buttons unfastened. Guy quickly unfastened the rest of them but left the dress on her, like a long loose jacket. ‘This is going to be very special,’ he promised her, and she felt a fluttering in her solar plexus as her body anticipated what he might mean.
Her eyes were closed and she was taken by surprise when his hands began to turn her on to her stomach, where she realised that her hips, belly and pubic area were now resting on a large, soft pillow. ‘You didn’t just bring food with you!’ she joked.
‘No,’ said Guy seriously. ‘I was prepared for everything. Make sure you press your body down against the pillow; it will give you the stimulation you need at the beginning, while I’m doing other things.’
Cressida didn’t have any time to wonder what the other things were because as she obeyed and pressed her aching flesh down into the soft pillow, Guy flipped her dress up over her back and then gently removed the anal plug which he’d left in after untying her from the tree. She remembered to let her muscles go slack and was rewarded with a kiss at the base of her spine that made her press herself down even harder against the pillow, grinding her hips in order to stimulate as much of her vulva as possible.
‘The plug should have helped to stretch you,’ murmured Guy to himself, and suddenly Cressida began to tense. ‘Keep relaxed,’ he reminded her. Then she felt one of his fingers, lubricated with a cold jelly, moving inside her rectum, circling around and touching every surface in his quest for maximum arousal.
Tiny streams of hot liquid seemed to run through her and when she maintained the pressure of the pillow against her belly it ached with need. She felt full and engorged, as though her body wasn’t large enough to encompass all the sensations Guy was engendering.
Her breasts ached too, and without thinking she put her hands on them, squeezing the erect nipples before circling the surrounding tissue with her fingers. She heard Guy give a quiet laugh, and then suddenly he lifted her lower body off the pillow and while one hand parted her buttocks the other remained firmly beneath her, his hand sliding downward until his fingers located her clitoris.
He played with it for several minutes, massaging it through its protective hood until she felt hot and swollen with desire, then easing the hood back and alternatively stroking and flicking the side of its stem.
Cressida was uttering animal-like gutteral sounds as the intensity of the stimulation increased, so that when Guy finally started to ease his erection inside her rectum she didn’t hesitate for a moment but instead tightened her internal muscles as he’d taught her earlier.
The force of her muscular contraction almost made Guy ejaculate immediately and he quickly moved his hand from her clitoris and massaged her lower belly instead so that for a second or two she lost her rhythm and allowed him time to regain control. He’d never known a woman revel in the combination of sensations so quickly and her clear delight and ecstatic reactions were an aphrodisiac to him.
Very slowly and carefully he began to move himself in and out of her, but he was careful never to overstretch her or make any sudden movements that might cause discomfort. As a result, the amazing hot, dark excitement spread through Cressida and when Guy lifted her buttocks a little higher she lowered her forearms so that now her aching breasts were on the pillow.
When Guy’s fingers returned to her clitoris, streaks of white light flashed behind her closed eyelids as the forbidden pleasure continued to consume her and she felt the first tiny trembling sensations that heralded the contractions of her orgasm. ‘I’m coming!’ she shouted, and before the words were out of her mouth Guy felt her body rippling and tensing around him so that they came together in a frenzied moment of bliss that flooded through Cressida’s veins with such force she felt a moment’s fear before the pleasure finally peaked and then slowly began to ebb.
Guy carefully withdrew and when he turned her on to her back and saw the glazed look of satisfaction on her face he couldn’t resist parting her legs. Then, with her thighs resting on either side of his waist, he lowered his head and tongued at the incredibly sensitive tissue surrounding her bud of pleasure.
For Cressida, just coming down from the most intense climax of her life, this light moist caress was almost too much to bear, but her body responded instantly and once more her muscles spasmed in a short, painful orgasm that lifted her just as the previous one was dying away and she heard herself groan in a mixture of delight and despair. ‘No more,’ she pleaded as her body muscles began to soften and relax. Reluctantly Guy released her.
‘You’re incredible,’ he murmured, kissing her stomach and the soft sensitive skin of her hip bones. ‘I just want to make love to you for ever.’ At that moment, Cressida couldn’t think of anything she’d like better either.
Later, when they were packing away the picnic things, she fell quiet. It had been an unforgettable evening and Guy’s inventive lovemaking had been tempered with such sensitivity and tenderness that she felt consumed by guilt over what she was doing to him. She found it difficult to meet his eyes knowing that as soon as possible she would be handing him over to the fraud squad, and he’d learn that she too had been nothing but a fraud, except that she wasn’t faking any longer. She was falling in love with him, and it was like a nightmare come true.
‘I don’t want you to come into work tomorrow,’ he said when they finally arrived back at her house in the early hours of the morning.
‘Why not?’ asked Cressida.
‘Because I want you to rest. We’re going out again tomorrow night, to a very special party, and I think you need some rest after this evening!’
‘What kind of a party?’ enquired Cressida, trying to work out what this all meant.
‘We’re going to visit Sir Peter Thornton and his wife Rose. I’m sure you remember them – they were at Marcia’s dinner party.’
‘Leonora’s parents,’ said Cressida.
‘Well, he’s her father but Rose is just another stepmother. You will come, won’t you? It’s important to me that we’re there together.’
‘Why not Marcia?’ demanded Cressida.
Guy put an arm round the back of her seat. ‘Do you want me to take Marcia?’ he asked.
In a way she did, because she knew that one of Sir Peter’s pictures had been taken away by Guy for cleaning and that at this meeting he might well return it, which meant that the swop would have been accomplished and she would be forced to reveal the truth to Detective Chief Inspector Williams, but it was her job and no matter what her personal feelings were she had to go through with it now. ‘Of course not,’ she said quietly.
‘That’s a relief! I’ll collect you at eight. Don’t worry about what, to wear. I’ll bring something with me and you can change before we go. You see, it’s a rather special evening.’
‘Fine,’ said Cressida, and then to her surprise Guy leant over and kissed her on the mouth, his lips suddenly fierce against hers as though he was trying desperately to make her his, although she knew that he was not a man who would ever want to possess any woman totally.
Her call to her chief that night was brief, and while she made it clear that she and Guy were now lovers she kept all the details to herself. When he heard about the following night’s visit to his friend, Detective Chief Inspector Williams could hardly restrain his delight. ‘I think we’ve nearly got him now!’ he crowed down the phone. ‘You’re doing brilliantly, WPC Farleigh. I just hope it isn’t too much of a trial for you.’ She heard him laugh as he hung up.
It took her several hours to get to sleep as her sense of duty battled with her new feelings for Guy, feelings that she felt sure were reciprocated. Even though he might not be capable of the kind of commitment she would have liked, she sensed that he was attracted to her in several ways, enjoying her company as well as her body.
At six the following morning, after only an hour’s sleep, her phone went and she stumbled out of bed convinced for some strange reason that it was Marcia calling to make a scene. It wasn’t; it was Detective Chief Inspector Williams.
‘I had to call you,’ he said shortly, his voice curt to the point of rudeness. ‘It seems that the Matisse we gave to the gallery for cleaning has been returned and examined by our experts. It’s the original.’
‘The original!’ Cressida’s heart gave a thump and she failed to keep the relief out of her voice.
‘It’s hardly something to rejoice about,’ her chief pointed out. ‘If it had been a fake we would have known for certain that we were right and any information you got would simply have been the necessary corroboration. Now your findings are vital. You have to tie in everyone who works on this; Marcia, Guy Cronje and that artist fellow you went out with before Guy.’
‘Rick Marks,’ said Cressida slowly.
Her boss laughed. ‘That’s right, the excellent climber of gates, Rick Marks. I saw you both that night. You were showing commendable devotion to duty. I was proud of you! Remember, you probably haven’t much time. I imagine that by now Cronje is having enquiries made about you and it won’t be difficult for a man like him to get to the truth within a few days. You must nail him as soon as possible. If what you told me about Sir Peter’s true then it might well be that you can do it tonight.’
‘Yes, I think it might,’ said Cressida slowly, remembering Sir Peter’s Holbein that had been entered in the renovations book.
‘Excellent! Good luck then. We’ll be near you tonight, but not too close. He’s clever and we don’t want to scare him off.’
Once she’d been woken Cressida found it impossible to get back to sleep. Instead she drank endless cups of coffee as her mind went over and over the previous evening. The truth was that she didn’t want to come to the end of the assignment and walk away knowing that she’d helped put Guy, Rick or even Marcia in prison. They’d all played such an important part in changing her, in making her aware that there was more to life than police work and basic sex. She felt more liberated and confident in her sexuality since working at the gallery. It seemed a poor way to reward them, and for the first time she was ashamed of what she was doing.
‘It isn’t as though the owners lose out,’ she said to herself as she popped some bread in the toaster. ‘The insurance companies pay in the end.’ But she knew really that this wasn’t the point. Fraud was a serious crime, and so was abuse of trust, which Guy was doing to his friends. If she trapped him by the same method then perhaps there was a strange kind of justice in it, but it still didn’t make her feel good.
After she’d rung in and told Marcia she had a migraine and wouldn’t be going to the gallery that day, she went back to bed and managed a few hours’ sleep. She knew that it was important she didn’t look tired tonight, when Guy had made such a point of her staying at home to rest.
During the afternoon, as she bathed and did her hair and nails, she had time to wonder if he’d wanted her absent for other reasons. In order to collect the false painting to give Sir Peter perhaps, or to give himself and Marcia time to look into Cressida’s background uninterrupted. Anything was possible, and she knew that whatever the truth of it Guy wouldn’t give anything away when he collected her. He was far too professional for that, and she would have to rely on her instinct and training to see her through the night.
He arrived on time, carrying a soft holdall in his hand, and after he’d kissed her passionately he put the holdall down and unzipped it. ‘I expect you’d like to see what you’re going to wear,’ he said with a smile. Cressida nodded. ‘Go ahead, take it out then,’ he instructed her.
Cressida reached inside, glowing with excitement. She’d already decided that it would probably be something long worn with a mask, as a masked ball theme seemed the type of party Sir Peter Thornton and his wife Rose would enjoy.
However, inside the holdall were three items of clothing, and none of them were anything like Cressida had imagined. Firstly she drew out a black satin half-cup bra, underwired, with shoestring straps and a black and white embroidered lace centrepiece and side panels. This was followed by a pair of matching embroidered transparent briefs with a black satin panel that would at least preserve her modesty a little, and finally there was a short, long-sleeved black kimono.
Cressida spread the three garments out on the sofa and shook her head in disbelief. ‘I can’t go out to dinner wearing these!’ she exclaimed.
Guy looked surprised. ‘Why not?’
‘Because I’ll look ridiculous! What will the other guests be wearing? I mean, even a pyjama party doesn’t produce this kind of outfit. Well, not the ones I’ve been to.’
‘We’re the only guests,’ said Guy quietly.
Cressida stared at him. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean precisely what I say. You and I are invited to dine with Sir Peter Thornton and his wife, and this is the way Sir Peter wants you to dress. Marcia’s done it before now, although that was for Lord Summers and his wife when he was alive. I’m hoping you’ll prove to be a better companion than she was then. She failed to get into the spirit of the dinner and disappointed poor Michael, which meant that Alice didn’t have such a good time as she’d hoped either.’
‘I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,’ said Cressida, but she was beginning to feel very nervous indeed, especially when she realised that she had to go tonight, no matter how outrageous the demands Guy was placing on her might be.
‘We’re not just guests,’ explained Guy, ‘we’re also the after-dinner entertainment. You see, men like Sir Peter, older men with much younger wives, frequently have problems satisfying them physically and quite often the sight of another couple making love proves to be the turn-on they need to get started. That’s how it was with Lord Summers, and that’s the way it is with Sir Peter as well. Rose often feels very neglected, and I’d like her to enjoy herself tonight.’
‘You mean, we’re going to make love in front of them?’ asked Cressida, stunned by his words.
Guy smiled at her. ‘Yes, and if you look as fantastic as you looked last night then Sir Peter’s a very lucky man.’
‘I can’t,’ said Cressida flatly.
Guy stroked the side of her neck and nuzzled her ear. ‘Of course you can. You’re a born exhibitionist. You loved it when you thought there were other people in the woods yesterday; it increased your excitement. You said so yourself and I could tell by your responses. Well, this will be even better.’
‘I don’t want him to touch me,’ said Cressida, horrified at the prospect of ending up like Alice in Marcia’s basement.
‘Of course not. The whole point of this is that he finds he can’t keep his hands off Rose. It would be rather a waste if he used up his energy on you. Come along, Cressida, don’t go all conventional on me at this late hour. I thought I knew you, but it seems I may have made a mistake.’
He started to put the clothes back in the bag and Cressida immediately snatched them away from him. ‘No, you didn’t make a mistake,’ she assured him. ‘I was taken by surprise, that’s all.’ It was true, she had been taken by surprise, but now she was beginning to warm to the idea. It was lucky that she was, because Detective Chief Inspector Williams would certainly be very displeased if she failed to attend the meeting between Guy Cronje and his personal friend Sir Peter Thornton, especially if at that meeting a fake picture was handed over to the unsuspecting older man.
Guy gave a sigh of relief. ‘That’s wonderful,’ he whispered. ‘Now put it all on, I’ll wrap a cloak that I’ve got in the car round you and we can be on our way. You won’t regret this, Cressida. It will be the most exciting evening of your life.’
‘I hope you don’t regret it,’ said Cressida softly.
Guy raised his eyebrows. ‘Why should I?’
She swallowed hard, knowing that she simply couldn’t warn him. ‘I might disappoint you when it comes to the action,’ she explained.
He shook his head. ‘I don’t think so, Cressida. In fact, I find it hard to believe you’d ever do anything that would disappoint me.’
She wished he’d never said those words because they echoed through her head for the entire drive and when she climbed out of his car and he took her hand, giving it an encouraging squeeze before they entered their hosts’ house, she wanted to cry for all that they were both going to lose in the very near future.