Chapter Sixteen

As July drew to an end, the heat was stultifying. The air was devoid of any breeze, and all around her, the land seemed to be turning brown before Nathalie’s eyes. Just walking to her car left her with beads of sweat trickling down her back, and the plants on her terrace wilted at midday, no matter how much water she gave them. At night it didn’t let up, either, the air remained hot and still, like a blanket she couldn’t shrug off.

As she lay there, sleeplessly and drenched in her own sweat, Nathalie could hear raised voices coming from Anna and Richard’s house next door. So the heat was getting to them, too. She felt like an eavesdropper. Had he found out about her and Anna, she wondered. Was he jealous, angry, humiliated; would there be a knock on her door any minute; anger and recriminations?

Nathalie longed to be in the sea, floating on her back and staring at the moon, with only the sound of her own breath in her ears. But she’d had a beer and a couple of glasses of wine earlier, and didn’t like to drive. She got up and grabbed a towel, then made her way outside. She could still hear voices coming from number eight, and hoped that they were nothing more than a symptom of heat irritation. Certain that no-one could see her, she dived in and swam most of one length underwater. Then she flipped over onto her back and floated, letting the water soothe her.

***

Next door, Richard had woken up to find his wife masturbating, again, by his side. He’d tried to join in but she’d shoved him aside like an unwanted gift.

‘Have we come to this?’ he asked her. ‘My wife masturbates while I’m asleep? Is that our marriage?’

‘Oh Richard, for God’s sake.’ Anna was feeling particularly snippy in the heat. ‘We both know our sex life is a disaster and has been since our wedding. I have needs, and you’re not fulfilling them.’

‘A chance would be a fine thing - let me try?’

‘Oh that’s right, fifteen seconds of pleasure, silly me. Go on then.’ She opened her legs wide and raised her hands above her head. ‘Or won’t it stay up tonight, which treat have you got in store for me?’

Richard, who’d had an additional beer before bedtime to cool down, climbed to his knees, visibly angry. ‘Some of the things you say are deeply wounding. Emasculating. What you need is a good fuck.’

She raised herself up, meeting him face to face. ‘No, Richard,’ she hissed. ‘What I need is a good orgasm, there’s a big difference; not that I get either from you.’

He paused, winded, scared of where this was heading. ‘Perhaps if you paid me a little attention there - ‘

‘Oh it’s all my fault, is it? You need blowjobs, don’t you? OK then.’ Angrily Anna sank down to take his cock, which was fast retreating, in her mouth. She spat it out in disgust. ‘Pathetic.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, his voice choking. He slumped back down on the bed, his head in his hands. ‘I’m sorry to be such a disaster. I don’t know how I can change things. Maybe it’s time we faced facts and I let you go. Get divorced. Don’t worry, I’ll be generous. That way you can go back to London, find someone else. Be happy. I love you and I want you to be happy. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. But I can’t do anything for you.’

Anna let his words sink in, feeling her whole life slipping away with them, as if he’d opened up a large hole and she was tumbling down inside it. ‘Richard! I don’t want to leave here.’

‘You hate it. You’re always saying - ‘

‘Things have changed. I want to stay. I’m not ready for divorce. I’m sorry. I know I’m impatient and that I can be a bitch, but more than anything, I want our marriage to work.’

‘You have no idea how happy that makes me.’ Richard stifled his tears. He wrapped his wife in his arms and breathed in the warm smell of her hair. ‘I don’t want a divorce, and I don’t want to lose you, either. I’m sorry for being so useless.’

‘You’re not useless,’ Anna told him. ‘You’re just troubled. And I wish you’d tell me why.’

Richard fell silent. Not that, he thought. Please let’s not get into all that.

‘Until you do we’ll never resolve things,’ she went on.

‘Nothing happened.’ Richard hated himself for the lie. ‘It’s just been work and the move here and a feeling that I’ve never been enough for you, never been good enough. You hate it here and that makes me feel guilty. And so the circle continues.’

‘My fault?’ Anna bristled.

‘You see? There we go again. Of course it’s not your fault.’

Anna held him, feeling safe in his arms, breathing in his masculinity. She didn’t remotely believe that nothing had happened, but decided against pursuing it. She had her own secret, after all. She thought of Nathalie, and realised that, as much as she adored the sex they shared, it was here, in her husband’s arms, that she belonged. Suddenly, an idea came into her head.

‘You like Nathalie, don’t you?’ she asked.

‘Of course.’

‘She’s very beautiful.’

‘I hadn’t really noticed.’

‘You liar!’ Anna had to laugh, thumping his chest in affection. ‘Do you think you’d be able to keep it up for her?’

‘What?’

‘Could you perform for her?’

‘Anna, what a thing to ask.’

‘What if it was the three of us? How would you manage then? What would you do, eh?’ Her hand brushed against his cock, stroking him.

‘Where has this come from?’

‘Just imagine, if I was Nathalie, how would you feel? What would you want to do?’ She continued stroking as Richard’s cock grew stiff in her hands. ‘This was her hand, perhaps covered in one of her sensual oil mixtures. How would you want to fuck her, on all fours? Or face to face, kissing her lips and throat?’

Richard groaned as his cock reached full size.

‘Her breasts, I bet you’ve dreamed of kissing her breasts. Would you lick then, bite them, how would you handle them?’

‘It’s you I want to make love to,’ Richard said, climbing astride his wife.

‘Imagine this is her pussy, imagine it’s her you’re entering. What do you want to do?’ Anna let her hand glide down the crack of Richard’s bum, tickling him lightly with her fingers. ‘Do you want to go down on her? Open up her pussy lips? To feel her clitoris against your tongue? How about her bottom, would you lick there too?’

At this, Richard thrust harder and groaned, coming fiercely inside Anna. Just imagining her husband fucking Nathalie had been a serious turn-on, and the thought of Richard’s cock coming inside her tipped her over the edge and, to her own incredulity, Anna thrashed beneath him, finding herself in a deep and powerful orgasm, like being caught out by a surprise hurricane, or whirled up in the midst of a tornado.

‘Anna, what were you thinking?’ he asked once he’d recovered his breath.

‘It worked, didn’t it?’

‘But Nathalie? I feel like we’ve just abused the poor woman.’

‘She could take it.’ She pictured her lover with them now. ‘What if we did? Have a threesome I mean?’

‘Anna, what’s got into you all of a sudden?’

‘I’d be open to it.’ She wanted to feel jealous again, Anna realised. Like in the old days, whenever Richard mentioned his ex, Helen, with whom he’d travelled to Australia and South-East Asia, and who’d apparently embodied womanly perfection, at least until she’d dumped him. Anna wanted to feel that sharp pang of envy again, that destructive emotion that told her she was alive, and that she loved with heat and passion. Without it, there was only indifference, which slowly ate away at the soul. She imagined the delicious hopelessness she’d feel watching her husband and her lover fucking, studying his cock as it slid inside Nathalie’s cunt, taking feverish licks at both of them, like a servant trying to please her masters. With these thoughts in her head, Anna fell into a deep and sensual sleep.