Chapter Forty-Five

Douglas finished brushing his teeth, then splashed his face with water and pulled on his cycling gear. There was no point in changing a routine just because he’d woken up on a goddess’s mattress that dawn. Even on a day as remarkable as this he had to stay fit. And what a remarkable time he’d just had. She’d been every bit as surprising and passionate and unrestrained as he’d imagined.

Douglas smiled to himself triumphantly. He always got what he wanted in the end.

Cycling towards the hills, he felt his strength return. What an unbelievable night it had been. First Anna and then Nathalie, both answering his call. About Anna he felt a twinge of guilt. She had been at her most vulnerable, and it would have been wrong to have taken matters any further, much as he’d wanted to. He might have a quiet word with her later on to avoid any difficulties. But Nathalie was different. It was as if, just like that, she’d decided she wanted him. All his commands had finally reached her. Or, perhaps, she’d finally stopped rejecting them.

After Anna had run off, he’d waited a few minutes before returning to the party, only to find it in disarray. Richard and Anna had disappeared, Audrey was in tears and being comforted by Barry and Anna’s guests were nowhere to be seen. Ginnie and her Cypriot promptly excused themselves, Tanya got a phone call on her mobile and that just left Nathalie, quietly clearing up the mess. He’d started to help her, much as he loathed doing such things, and once they’d got through the worst of it, she’d suggested a drink on her terrace.

It had been a beautiful night. Douglas reckoned he could count every star; that he could see, deep into the universe and feel its power within him. How fantastic Nathalie had looked in the moonlight. Beautiful, thoughtful and self-possessed, yet at the same time mischievous and playful. She’d turned to him slowly, in total control of her actions and desires.

‘Tell me what you’ve been up to, Douglas?’

‘I don’t know what you could possibly mean.’

‘Psychic Command. You’ve been playing with us, haven’t you?’

‘You’re the one I want,’ he’d admitted. ‘But yes, there have been some strange diversions in the mean time.’

‘Diversions? I won’t ask. I tried it, you know. I followed the directions on your website. I tried to stop you. To will you away.’

‘Where would I want to go while you’re here? The only place I ever want to be is inside you.’

She hadn’t reacted. He loved that she never reacted. It made her so much more of a challenge.

‘Why don’t we go and swim?’ she’d suggested, her eyes glinting with excitement.

He’d followed her to the pool and watched while she’d stripped off her clothes and dived neatly in. Then he did the same, and there they both were, naked together, albeit separated by a hundred and fifty cubic metres of chlorinated water.

She’d swum out of his way, playfully diving to the bottom of the pool and shooting to the far end. He hadn’t chased, Douglas remembered, pounding steadily up the hill. It was for the goddess to come to him.

And when she had, it had been intense, thrilling and even spiritual. It had been a form of worship - not just of Nathalie, but of womankind itself. They’d kissed in the pool, tucked away in a far corner, and their kissing had been passionate and intense, and then Nathalie had wrapped her thighs around his body and he’d just slipped inside her, as if he belonged there, as if he’d been going there since time began.

As he’d thrust, deeper and deeper, she’d come, powerfully and suddenly, and he’d come shortly afterwards, shooting his load inside of her, pressing up hard against her, skin against skin, flesh against flesh.

They’d wrapped themselves in towels and retreated to her mattress on the terrace, where they’d done it again, twice more, throughout the night. In the early hours, their limbs tangled together under a film of sweat, she’d turned to him, raised herself up on one arm and said, ‘I’m not looking for a relationship. Don’t think for a moment that this is the start of anything. If we choose to do this again, then that’s it, our choice. But I don’t want emotions and jealousies and politics to get in the way, I just don’t want all that in my life. I know that you, of all people, will understand this.’

Understand? To Douglas, those words came from Nirvana itself. At last, a woman who’d remain emotionally detached - and he didn’t even have to pay! Regular sex was there for the taking, just two doors away. Aphrodite had answered his call with more than he could ever have dreamt of.

Life was looking up, Douglas thought, pounding up the hill. In fact, it had never looked better.

***

In the check-in area, Anna saw her mother sitting stiffly on a plastic seat by the sales counter, as Tanya pleaded with a sales clerk to get her onto the same flight. Tentatively, she sat down next to her.

‘I’m sorry for what I said last night,’ she said. ‘It was unforgivable.’

Audrey said nothing.

‘But you have to take responsibility too, you know. You say some terrible, terrible things, you always have. I sometimes wonder if you know what you’re doing.’

The words crackled and stuck in her throat. She’d had no idea it would be this hard. It was a conversation she’d needed to have for almost twenty years now, yet instead of bursting out, like the banks of a river in flood, it lay, subdued, trickling over the rocks and stones that had been cutting into her stomach for years.

‘But why leave like this? Sneaking off first thing? We should be able to talk.’

Audrey looked away, feigning interest in something happening in the coffee shop beyond.

‘What you said about Richard, in front of all those people, was unforgivable. I was angry and I had to defend him. It was a monstrous thing you came out with, but I don’t even think you’re aware of it.’

Still Audrey refused to take part.

‘It’s just a joke to you, isn’t it?’ She was getting some strength now. As Audrey sat there, powerless, so Anna felt herself charging up. ‘The odd put-down here, a snide comment there. It amuses you and no doubt it amuses your friends, too, when you tell them about it over Bridge. You don’t give a second thought to the people it hurts.’

Audrey refused to react, pushing Anna only further.

‘You wiped my arse, and now you think you own me. You think you’re above normal levels of decency, or morality, with me. Well, I don’t owe you anything, you hear me? I didn’t choose to be your daughter and I don’t owe you a damned thing.’

It was useless. Nothing she could say would change anything. Audrey herself would never change, Anna knew that. All that would happen now is that she would complain of having to tread on eggshells every time she spoke to her daughter. It would all rebound on Anna eventually.

‘Did you change your flight?’ she asked.

Audrey fluttered a new boarding card above her lap; her other hand clasped onto her bag as if Anna were a potential thief.

‘Are you sure you want to go back?’

Finally, Anna gave up. She got up, shaking her head, and started to move off. ‘You can’t say I didn’t try,’ she said quietly. She walked a couple of paces.

‘I just feel so wounded,’ Audrey cried out to Anna’s back.

Anna swung round. She saw that Audrey’s lips were trembling and that she was using every effort not to collapse into tears. But she felt no sympathy for her mother.

‘Now you know how it feels,’ she said icily, before turning round again, and heading outside.

***

Richard found his friends having a subdued breakfast in their villa. One of them had gone out and bought bread and pastries, and they were drinking freshly-made coffee.

‘Morning,’ Richard said, an embarrassed tone in his voice, as he joined them.

‘Look, we’re sorry,’ Nick started, taking control. ‘We’re really sorry. It was just a joke, it wasn’t meant to be anything sinister or humiliating or anything like that. It was just a drunken prank that we should have owned up to long ago.’

Richard poured himself some coffee, nodding. ‘Of course now it all seems ridiculous,’ he admitted. ‘The very idea that one of you - ‘ he couldn’t finish the sentence. ‘But at the time, I, I just didn’t know what to think.’

‘It didn’t really ruin your life, though, did it, mate?’ asked Roger.

And suddenly Richard hated to admit that it had. ‘No, no, of course not, ‘ he told them in his most assured voice. ‘It bugged me, but no, of course, I didn’t let it take over things. I mean, I never really believed it,’ he lied. ‘I’d assumed that there was some kind of joke involved. I just needed to know for sure, that’s all.’

His friends seemed to accept this. And suddenly, like mist clearing on a windscreen, it was over.

‘So what’s on the agenda today, then?’ Chris asked.

‘We could go to the beach, if you like?’ Richard suggested. ‘And then lunch at this restaurant I know, nice place, does a mean grilled seafood mezze.’

As the women agreed that that was exactly what they felt like, Richard smiled inwardly. His relief was three-fold. He’d not been violated, he hadn’t lost his friends, and he and his wife were now closer than ever.

That made this the best birthday on record.

***

Douglas was on the descent. He knew this road well, and had hardly ever come across a car on it in all the time he’d been cycling. He loved the speed and the relief of feeling the wind against his skin after his arduous uphill climb. In some areas, which were still under shade, it could get quite cold, but he found it bracing, knowing that he would soon be in full sun again. It was effortless, this freewheeling, he just had to keep an eye out for any stones on the road, or any unevenness that might disturb his course. He was coming up to a fairly tight bend that he knew well and on which he always took a risk, allowing himself to veer round to the right-hand lane so as not to have to slow down significantly. There was never any traffic; he’d done this plenty of times. It was too early for any cars, and besides, it was a Sunday. He was guaranteed to get away with it.

He wasn’t to know that a wild boar had chosen that particular moment to cross the road, hadn’t heard its hooves over the sound of wind in his ears; the first he knew of it was when it sent him flying, high into the air, to land in a clump by the roadside.

Minutes later a white pick-up truck ambled past and Andreas Lambros, its driver, pulled over and rushed to his side. He’d been on his way to help his brother with the walnut harvest, a messy job which would result in his hands looking black for more than a week, and had seen no other traffic along the road. He couldn’t understand how the accident might have happened, having arrived too late to see the boar, shaken but unhurt, running off into the bushes, but seeing that Douglas wasn’t moving, he grabbed his mobile phone and dialled emergency services. He didn’t know what else to do, so he sat there, on the roadside, talking to the mangled body beside him, and prayed for this stranger’s life.

***

Tanya arrived in Highbury Fields later that day. She’d never done anything so reckless in her life. Two flights in as many days? It was putting a strain on her credit card, but Tanya saw it as an investment. He was supposed to be paying, anyway. And besides, with everything she’d gone through, Marinos was bound to marry her.

He opened the door, his face lighting up on seeing her, pulled her inside and held her tightly. ‘I missed you,’ he said.

‘I missed you, too,’ she told him, tears welling in her eyes.

They kissed, there, in the corridor, and then he carried her bag inside and Tanya took in her increasingly familiar new surroundings. One day, she told herself, all this would be hers. Or perhaps they’d even move to the country, to a mansion in Sawbridgeworth or somewhere. Tanya’s future life flashed before her as Marinos put the kettle on. Flattering photos in Heat and OK, praise for her style and eye for a new trend, a bit of charity work, the odd modelling contract and, of course, in-depth interviews about her and Marinos’s love for one another. Then the babies, Drake and Oleander, a couple of nannies and a cleaner.

‘Milk and sugar?’

‘Two please.’ Tanya nodded enthusiastically. What she really wanted was to strip off all her clothes and make love. She wanted to feel that sensation - that new sensation - all over again. Then perhaps dinner out, somewhere fancy, somewhere where the cameras would spot them. They had to get established as a couple, and as such, there didn’t seem much point in doing anything that wouldn’t get in the papers. Except sex, of course, Tanya thought dreamily. They could do that until the cows came home, as far as she was concerned.

‘I thought we could watch the afternoon match,’ Marinos suggested, reaching for the remote control.

Tanya’s heart sank. ‘All right then,’ she agreed. If she was to become a footballer’s wife, she told herself, she’d better start enjoying football. But after ten minutes Tanya was bored. She hadn’t come all this way to watch twenty-two grown men chase a ball around. Finishing her tea, she started snuggling up against Marinos, slipping her hand inside his shirt and then running it over his trousers. He fidgeted, embarrassed, but she wasn’t deterred.

There was really only one way to the centre of a man’s heart, Tanya decided, fiddling with his zip and taking his stiffening cock into her mouth. And she was determined to exploit it to the full.