Chapter 12
Mariana, Crystal and Josie were getting out of Josie’s car at the country club when the tall blonde went by, her breasts bouncing and her pert behind rolling like a snowball through snow.
Josie glanced at the blonde as she locked the door of the car, but she did not comment.
Mariana, on the other hand, could not help but make a comment. ‘Now whose baby are you?’ her eyes narrowed as they followed the lean tanned form as she strutted past.
‘Bust, bum and no brain,’ muttered Crystal as she caught her hair at the nape of her neck and wound a band around it. Eyes narrowed, she held in her stomach and thrust out her breasts as her gaze went with the young woman.
‘You don’t know that for sure.’ Josie’s voice was not accusing. Neither was her gaze. But Crystal dropped her arms and patted her hips and thighs in a casual way as if to say, ‘Jealous? Me jealous?’
‘She looks that type,’ she snapped. ‘She’s not really that attractive. I’ve met her sort before. They know how to sell themselves, that’s all.’
‘Looks like she got a good price judging from the gold she’s wearing all over her body.’ Mariana grinned as she said it.
Josie threw her an accusing look, but a smile flickered around her mouth. ‘And you can see what a bargain he’s getting,’ she added, a comment which seemed strangely out of character for her.
The others grinned as all three of them watched the blonde stoop and kiss a short, fat guy with grey hair and quick eyes. As she bent over, the cheeks of her behind peeped from beneath her bright pink dress.
Smiling as though he’d just hit the jackpot, the man opened the back door of his Rolls Royce. The blonde’s silk dress seemed to whisper as she slid over the buff-coloured leather of the back seat.
‘Hope his purchase doesn’t kill him,’ muttered Mariana to the others. They watched the little man go red in the face as he sought to bend himself into a sitting position. Once he’d overcome his gross impediment, he slid in beside his leggy girlfriend, his bulky shoulders close against her lean ones.
He said something to her and the blonde seemed to glitter as brightly as the gold she was wearing. Red fingernails ran through his hair and down his cheeks. She kissed him as though she were wildly in love with him.
‘Come on, girls. Let’s leave them to get physical with each other while we get physical with the gym and the swimming pool.’ Resolutely, as though she would entertain no hint of protest, Josie picked up her sports bag.
‘Just a minute,’ said Crystal. She bent down to unzip her bag. ‘I’m not sure I’ve got my towel’.
As Crystal rummaged in her bag, and Josie looked on despairingly, and Mariana impatiently, a chauffeur came running, his face flushed. The short fat man threw him an order, but no rebuke. He turned his full attention back to the willowy blonde beside him.
‘No guesses as to why she loves him so much,’ sneered Mariana.
‘Money, money, money?’ cried Crystal as she closed her bag and straightened up.
‘You don’t know that for sure,’ said Josie again as she clicked the remote security device on the car. ‘Anyway, he might be her father.’
‘He’s old enough!’ exclaimed Crystal.
‘Josie, you are as green as grass, my darling.’ Mariana wrapped her arm around Josie as she said it and gave her a hug. ‘My, but you are such a sweetie.’ She added a quick peck on the cheek. Josie did not protest but, because she was embarrassed, she set her eyes on the double doors ahead, above which a sign stated COUNTRY CLUB AND LEISURE CENTRE - MEMBERS ONLY.
They pushed open the doors, exchanged greetings with the staff behind the desk, then made their way up the sisal-carpeted steps to the female changing rooms.
The warmth and smell of chlorine, busy bodies and the nearby sauna clung close around them.
‘Phew! Warm in here!’ Off came Mariana’s clothes. She was always the first to strip.
Exhibitionist, thought Josie.
Lesbian, thought Crystal, but didn’t let it worry her. She reckoned on it being some way near the truth, especially after what had happened with Jamie in that hotel room. In some odd way, knowing what Jamie and Mariana did together had made her feel less threatened by whatever the woman was. Josie - sweet innocent as she was - was still in the dark. Perhaps she would leave her there. Or perhaps she would enlighten her.
‘I still think he could have been her father,’ Josie repeated as her pale cream flesh became exposed, her nipples very pink and very large and constituting half of the total area.
‘He might very well have been her daddy - her sugar daddy!’ Crystal threw back her head as she laughed, then held it there so she could experience the sweet delight of feeling the ends of her hair tickling the small of her back.
‘You’re incorrigible, Crystal.’
‘And you, Josie my love, are naive!’
Crystal’s voluptuous body moved with an easy confidence as she slipped into her workout clothes - blue lycra cycling shorts, silver-blue leotard with the narrowest of thongs running between the cheeks of her behind.
‘Not really,’ returned Josie as she slid into her unitard, which was a mixture of pale, medium and dark green.
Briefly she surveyed Crystal from beneath her thick brown lashes. Crystal, she realised, had not heard her.
‘Now, now, girls. No squabbling, darlings.’ Mariana, shoulders angular, ribs countable, and pelvis as narrow as that of a young man, stood with her hands on her hips. Her eyes took in more than they appeared to. She desired each of them, but would never, not without encouragement, ever put her desire into words let alone actions.
‘You have a problem,’ she said, her accent after all these years of living in England still tinged with a hint of Austria. ‘You are only jealous. Would either of you refuse the advances of an older man if he made it worth your while? Besides, an older man can initiate a young girl into the pleasures of sex far better than a younger one. Compare the sophistication of a mature lover with the fumblings of greener fruit. The pleasure would most definitely be greater.’
‘Was that how you felt with your Turk?’ Josie asked, her face veiled from Mariana’s view as she pulled on one trainer then the other.
Mariana sighed. ‘By itself, I would have to say yes. But other things happened around that time, things I am loath to talk about.’
Josie exchanged glances with Crystal. They had never heard Mariana sound as regretful as this before. But now was not the time to pry.
‘Then don’t talk about it, Mariana,’ said Josie. ‘Let’s talk about something else. Let me tell you about an older man I became involved with.’
Mariana stopped fumbling with her shoelaces. ‘You were involved with an older man?’
‘Yes,’ Josie nodded. ‘I was.’
‘Are you telling the truth?’ added Crystal. She was stood with one brown leg up on a wooden bench. She had been doing stretching exercises. Now she was immobile and all attention as Josie with the green eyes and red hair began her tale.
‘I remember a tutor at university. He had kind eyes.’ She cuddled her towel to herself. A dreamy look came over her face.
‘What else did he have, Josie darling.’ There was a hint of disbelief, even mockery to Crystal’s voice.
Josie did not meet her eyes. She went on with her tale. ‘I wasn’t a virgin when I went to university, but I suppose I was still pretty green. After all, my first lover had been my childhood sweetheart. We’d made love one summer afternoon in the shade of the tree house. It was idyllic, but I didn’t know for sure - at least at the time - how it compared to other men. I found out at university.’
Mariana sat slowly down on the bench and, clasping her hands in front of her, leaned forward. ‘This tutor taught you a few more things?’
Josie nodded. She blushed and lowered her eyes. For a moment it seemed as if she was unable to continue. The moment was short-lived. She took a deep breath and collected herself before she restarted.
‘He lectured in Greek history. I’d always loved the subject so was conceited enough to think I would have no trouble finishing the course and passing my exams. I found out to the contrary.
‘It was one thing to read Greek classics and history as they related to the legends and the Trojan wars and such like. It was different to be asked to dissect and diagnose occurrences and modern counterparts on paper.
‘Besides that, I was being invited to a lot of parties and was enjoying going to them.’
‘Were you getting laid?’ Crystal asked. There was sarcasm in her voice but a hint of envy in her eyes. Was it possible that Josie was not quite so dull as Michael had led her to believe?
‘Of course I did - once or twice. But they were one night stands and not terribly satisfactory. As you just said, Mariana, the fumblings of green fruit.’
Mariana smiled and rested her chin in her hands. ‘And the tutor was definitely not green fruit.’
Josie smiled and a faraway look came to her eyes. ‘Definitely not. His skin was as scored as an autumn apple. I used to think I would like to peel it away and find the smoother skin underneath it - the skin of his youth. I suppose thinking like that is all part of wanting to know someone better; knowing what’s underneath and knowing about their past.
‘His eyes were very blue and seemed to miss nothing. Like the students he taught, he wore his hair long and had a beard to match. It was bright blond - almost gold - but it had grey streaks running through it. Not that it mattered. It flowed around him like a golden halo, and it was soft; very soft, very silky.
‘Some of the other students - especially the fellas - made comments about him trying to hold onto his youth, and why didn’t he act and look his age. But of course they had their reasons for saying that. Whenever Cado was in the room he was the only man there as far as we girls were concerned.
‘There was a husky harmony in his voice and an alluring brightness in his eyes. We were drawn to him and sat enthralled as he deliberated about the reasons why modem civilisation venerated the one that had flowered in Greece.
‘He pointed out to us how many people and civilisations had done their utmost to prove descendence from those people and that time. Everyone wanted to have classic antecedents. Perfection, he stated, was seen in its teachings, its scions, even in its buildings. Mathematically and aesthetically, the concept of perfection had flowered just once and no more. It had merely transcended the ages and shaped one nation after another, each one based on classic Greece.’
‘But what about him?’ Crystal asked impatiently. ‘Never mind what he or you lot believed in, what did you get up to with him?’
Josie licked away the dryness of her lips. ‘I will tell you. Cado, you see, wanted perfection in humans as well as discerning it in an ancient civilisation. We didn’t always give him that perfection.
‘I found myself wondering about him rather than listening to what he was saying, and that was how I found myself in his study, being ticked off for not completing an assignment he had set us.
‘I remember gazing into his eyes when he came to his study door. For a moment I couldn’t say a thing.
‘Then he grinned at me and his eyes sparkled. “Will your tongue work better inside this room than outside of it?” There was a hint of wickedness in his eyes and his voice as he asked me this. He opened the door wider and, with a flock of butterflies playing havoc in my stomach, I entered.
‘I became very aware of his presence behind me as I walked forward over the threadbare carpet. With a need to calm my fluttering stomach, I pretended to be genuinely impressed by the decor of his study. I gazed at the piles of papers, books and coffee cups. There was an ancient leather chesterfield in one corner. Most of the walls seemed to consist of nothing but book shelves.
‘Feeling his presence was like being warmed by a coal fire. All I felt was the heat of his body on my back. I knew he was studying me. I knew his eyes were running over me and assessing my shape and how my skin might feel; how I might respond if he touched me. Just being alone with him made me tremble with trepidation.
‘Once the door was closed, he moved closer to me.
‘‘‘Josie isn’t it?”
‘I replied that it was.
‘He didn’t say anything for a moment. He hung his head slightly as though he were examining the hole in the carpet. His hands were clasped tightly behind his back and I remember thinking, “I wonder what he’s holding in them.”‘
‘What was he holding?’ asked Crystal.
‘Idiot!’ snapped Mariana.
‘Courage,’ Josie replied. ‘He was holding onto his courage. Dare he seduce me or not?
‘When he looked back up at me, he was frowning. He looked nervous and when he spoke he sounded gruffer than usual - almost as though he’d borrowed the voice from someone else.
‘He told me he was most concerned that I had not finished my assignment. He said he had expected better of me, that he had considered me one of the brightest butterflies in his class.
‘I thought it funny that he should use the word “butterflies” when imaginary ones were fluttering around in my stomach. I didn’t mention that.
‘I said I was sorry and that I would do better. ‘‘Will you?” He had sounded sad. ‘‘I will,” I cried, “I will!”
‘He shook his head mournfully. “I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “After all, you are only a butterfly.”
‘I didn’t know what he meant and it irritated me. I had to ask the obvious question.
‘‘‘Why am I a butterfly? Why do you call us bright butterflies?”
‘He straightened up and his eyes met mine. For the first time ever, I could not stop looking at him. No matter what I saw there, or thought I saw there, I had to hold his gaze. It was as if I were not just waiting for him to answer the question, but also challenging him.
‘He briefly chewed at the hair on his upper lip before he answered.
‘‘‘Bright butterflies flit from flower to flower. Their life is brief and their heads are empty. The only outstanding feature about them is that they are beautiful, but, as I have just said, their beauty is as brief as their lives. Once they are gone, there is nothing to remember them by.”
‘His statement made me angry. I protested that I was not empty-headed. I loved the subjects I was studying. I had every intention of being successful in whatever field I entered.
‘My breasts were heaving by the time I had finished. My face must have been flushed. It certainly seemed hot. Cado was staring at me in a different way now. His eyes ranged me from top to toe as if he were appraising me anew.
‘At last he spoke, but very slowly. “If you truly mean what you say, then allow me to take you in hand. I will ignite your brain. I will force you to learn and make you into more than just a butterfly. I will make you into a perfect human being. Will you agree to that?”
‘I had no idea what he had in mind, so I said yes.
‘‘‘First,’’ he said, “there is the matter of this dissertation.”
‘With a solemn expression on his face, he lifted up my dog-eared papers by one corner. Then slowly, and with the greatest deliberation, he tore up each and every page.
‘‘‘Now we will start again. I will instil in you the discipline you need. You will accept that discipline and, in doing so, you will grow in stature. In time you will begin to appreciate the atoms of artistic and mathematical merit that are in each and every person, each and every stone, plant, star and drop of water. Do you agree to this?”
‘I told him I did and it was then that my education truly began.
‘First I was to take off my clothes. He would remain clothed.
“‘And then,” he went on, turning his back to me, “we will assess what you are in this mirror.”
‘I was trembling with excitement. This was a real man asking me to take my clothes off. The strange thing was that I did not feel used by him, or seduced. I felt I was getting the benefit of some truly monumental experience.
‘He turned his back on me as he positioned a long cheval mirror.
‘I caught sight of myself and blushed. I was surprised to see my reflection. There was something different about me to the person that had entered this man’s study. I could not define what it was, but I knew he had already started having a phenomenal effect on me.
‘I did as he asked, took off my clothes, and looked at myself again.
‘I didn’t question why I was doing this for him. I just stared at my reflection and told myself I was doing it for me and me alone. My flesh was tingling with a thirst for knowledge - not knowledge of ancient Greece, but a knowledge of my tutor’s body.
‘I never questioned the wrongs and rights of it. There were none. It was as done. It happened. I was naked, just as I really am beneath every item I have ever worn.
‘The cool smoothness of his corduroy jacket briefly touched my back when he came to stand behind me. I sucked in my breath and saw my nipples get bigger. I transferred my weight from one hip to the other and felt sweet wetness erupt between my legs.
‘This scenario was incredibly erotic. But of course it was erotic! How could it be anything else?
‘‘‘See?’’ he said as he placed his hands on my shoulders. “This is the real you, Josie. This is the flesh, this is all part of the butterfly. It is through this flesh that I will ignite your mind. When I have finished with you, you will see greater form, greater beauty and, ultimately, you will see perfection in everything you do.”
‘I hadn’t a clue what he meant. All I knew was that I wanted to please him in everything. I wanted to be his best, his brightest pupil. I wanted to see the world through his eyes - its artistry and its exactitude.
‘He took me by the hand and told me to bend over his desk. I did as he asked.
‘‘‘How does it feel?” he asked.
‘Somehow I knew what he wanted to hear. He didn’t want to know that I was frightened, aroused, or sickened by what was happening to me. He merely wanted to know what my reactions were to my surroundings and those things I was still in contact with.
‘I told him that the leather of the desk top was cold to my nipples. I told him my breasts were flattened against the desktop and its edge was nudging against my sex.
‘Besides telling him that the carpet felt gritty beneath the soles of my naked feet, I also told him that my belly was sticking to the desk.
‘‘‘And which part of your body is most in touch with the world around you, Josie?”
‘‘‘My mind?” I suggested.
“‘Ultimately,” he replied. “But your mind is gaining perception through your naked bottom. Your buttocks are merely in touch with the air around them. Because of that it is sending more explicit messages to your brain than any other part of your body. It is telling your brain that it is vulnerable. After all, it is only logical that the roundness of a woman’s behind can attract a caress, a slap, or an act of buggery. So your mind is in tune with it... perfectly in tune.”
‘I closed my eyes as I lay there across that desk. He said sweet words. I can’t remember them exactly. All I can remember is the impression they left behind.
‘He spoke for some time before his hand ran down my back. I remember trembling as he fondled my bottom.
‘By the time he raised me up from there, my flesh was tingling. Full of admiration for this man, I gazed lovingly up into his eyes. I remember him smiling before folding his arms round me and holding me close. And, most of all, I remember the lumpy springs of the old settee beneath my bare behind, and him, once he had removed his clothes, pressing me down against those spiralling contours as he entered me.
‘The most amazing thing was that he did not touch my breasts or any other part of my body as he fucked me. Only his penis, his pubic hair and the outside of his thighs touched my body.
‘I understood what he wanted me to do. With my arms thrown over my head and my eyes closed, I was to concentrate only on the areas of my body that touched his. And I did concentrate.
‘Sex can never be the same with one man as another, and yet the differences are relatively slight.
‘With Cado it was completely different.
‘It’s hard to describe exactly what an orgasm feels like. It’s even harder to describe those initial shivers of apprehension as arousal becomes more intense, more urgent.
‘Behind the darkness of my eyelids, I truly experienced my climax taking over my body. Waves of pleasure crept over my skin. I’m sure I could also feel it creeping along just beneath the surface. On one level it seemed to be touching me lightly, no heavier than the caress of a bunch of peacock feathers. On another level it was causing my blood to boil and turn to steam in my veins.
‘When my orgasm came I shuddered but did not cry out. I held the experience within me. It had no sound because it had no form. It was part of me and would remain part of me forever.
‘Cado gave me that.’
Josie smiled softly to herself. ‘I don’t care if I was only twenty and he was twice my age, he was one of the most enduring experiences of my life - perhaps the only one.’