Intimate Strangers

by Susan Lewis

  ‘What do you think might have happened?’ Rhona prompted.

  Sherry shrugged. ‘I’m guessing they probably get sold on,’ she answered, ‘but to whom, and what for …’ She shuddered.

  ‘How did you get on surfing the Net for the paedophile club?’ Nick asked.

  Her lip curled in disgust – she’d spent a lot of hours over the past few days looking for that club, and she wouldn’t have minded if she never entered that kind of territory again in her life. ‘Nothing that in any way leads us to Mr Cribbs,’ she told him. ‘But my God there are a lot of sick people out there.’

  ‘If it’s paedophiles you’re looking for, I might be able to help,’ Rhona said, looking pensive.

  They all turned to her in amazement. ‘Are you serious?’ Sherry responded.

  ‘I’m not sure. I just remember doing a promotion for a crime psychology book a year or so ago, which included a section on paedophiles. The author did an incredible amount of research. I could contact him, see if there’s something he could suggest, you know, how you might find a particular club or ring.’

  ‘That would be great,’ Sherry told her, taking out her notebook. ‘What’s his name? I wouldn’t mind reading the book.’

  As Rhona spelled out the complicated Polish name, Laurie glanced up at Nick and smiled.

  At that moment their food arrived, and after they’d been sorted out with the right meals, knives, forks, bread, ketchup, etc., Nick drew Laurie into conversation about some of the stories she had covered, while Rhona confided to Sherry in low tones how concerned she was about Laurie.

  It was hard for Sherry to pay full attention, or even make any comment, while Laurie was sitting right there, not just in earshot, but getting on so well with Nick it was starting to seem as though they’d forgotten anyone else was at the table. She kept reminding herself that of course they’d have a lot to talk about, they were in the same profession, the same branch of it even, but she still wouldn’t have minded Nick looking just a little bit less enamoured. It was as though the only person there who had anything of value to say was the woman he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off. The woman who was starting to glow in all his male attention. Though she wasn’t able to hear much of what they were saying, it all seemed to be about the various stories they’d covered, but at some point the subject obviously moved on, because she heard them exclaim in surprise as they discovered they’d both spent time in the Emirates as children. Then the next she knew they were agreeing on how much they loved Woody Allen’s films.

  Sherry was a fan of Woody Allen’s films too, but, unlike Rhona, she didn’t join in the conversation. Nor did she comment on the fact that Nick had never told her he liked Woody Allen, or that he’d spent four of his formative years in the Emirates. It would sound petty if she did, and anyway it shouldn’t matter. But it did.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Rhona asked quietly as they finally left the pub and stepped out into the sunshine.

  ‘Me?’ Sherry replied in surprise. ‘I’m fine. Just thinking about all I have to do this afternoon – and regretting the champagne. What are you up to now?’ she asked Nick, as he slipped an arm round her shoulder.

  ‘Julia and I have an appointment with an estate agent at three thirty,’ he answered, looking at his watch. ‘So I guess I should be on my way. I got a lift here, so how do I get back?’

  ‘The station’s just along there,’ Sherry said pointing.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Laurie offered. ‘It’ll make a change from taking the river bus.’

  Sherry turned to look at her. ‘I thought you were back at work.’

  Laurie looked startled. ‘Oh! I am if you need me,’ she assured her.

  Rhona laughed. ‘Who’s the boss here?’ she teased.

  ‘Sherry,’ Laurie answered. ‘Definitely Sherry.’

  It was Sherry’s turn to laugh. ‘I don’t think so,’ she responded. ‘But there’s not much to do this afternoon, so I’m off home to catch up on my own work.’

  ‘Good, so that’s settled then,’ Nick said, more than ready to take off. ‘Shall we go?’

  ‘I’m right with you,’ Laurie replied, falling in step beside him.

  ‘Oh hell,’ he suddenly cried, and doing a fast about-turn he swept Sherry into an engulfing embrace. ‘I’ll call you later,’ he said, his mouth still very close to hers.

  ‘Are you likely to be free tonight?’ she asked. ‘Or are you being a parent?’

  ‘I think being a parent,’ he answered. ‘But things change by the minute.’

  Rhona was still chuckling as she and Sherry turned in the other direction. ‘He’s a nice man,’ she declared. ‘I like him.’

  ‘I’m sure the feeling’s mutual,’ Sherry told her. ‘In fact I know it is, because he likes everyone. Though he seems particularly fond of Laurie.’

  ‘Because she’s your friend. He wants to make a good impression. I think that’s rather sweet.’

  Sherry smiled.

  After a while Rhona cast her a sideways look. ‘He’s just done Laurie’s confidence the power of good, paying her all that attention,’ she said. ‘It’s something she really needs right now.’

  ‘I know,’ Sherry responded.

  They walked on a little further. ‘Are you really as upset as you seem?’

  Sherry sighed and shook her head. ‘No. Or maybe yes. The trouble is, having lost him once, I’m terrified of it happening again.’

  ‘But surely not to Laurie, when she’s going through all that she is?’

  ‘No. Of course not. It’s just me. I get too caught up in my own fears.’

  ‘Then you need to relax, or you’ll make them happen,’ Rhona cautioned. ‘The mind has that sort of power, and you know it.’

  Yes, Sherry did know it, and she wasn’t thinking of Nick now, but the other overpowering fear in her life – the one that had lain dormant for so many years she might have thought it was conquered, were it not for those occasional, damnable letters. And now Nick’s return, instead of helping to kill it altogether, which was what she’d hoped for, was having the adverse effect of stirring it up all over again.

  ‘Why are you doubting him so much?’ Rhona asked. ‘It seems to me he could hardly be more into you.’

  Sherry finally smiled. ‘I suppose if he’d just include me more in his life,’ she said. ‘Introduce me to his family. I still haven’t met his daughter.’

  ‘Hah!’ Rhona scoffed. ‘That sounds like a blessing to me. All those rampaging hormones and teenage tantrums. Puhlease!’

  Sherry laughed.

  ‘No, believe me, he’s doing you a favour,’ Rhona insisted, ‘because once she’s on the scene, make no doubt about it, it’s all going to be about her. In fact, that could very well be why he’s keeping you apart right now, he doesn’t want her sabotaging his relationship with you – which thirteen-year-olds are prone to, as well you know, Dear Molly.’

  Sherry’s eyes were dancing as she stood aside for Rhona to go into the building ahead of her. ‘Are you staying at Laurie’s again tonight?’ she asked, as they rode up in the lift.

  ‘No. I’m going to the theatre with some friends. She has to be on her own in that flat sometime, so tonight seemed a good time to start.’

  ‘Tell me,’ Sherry said, as the doors slid open and they stepped out onto the landing, ‘do you think Elliot will come back?’

  Rhona inhaled deeply and shook her head. ‘To be honest, I don’t know,’ she answered. ‘He’s behaving so out of character these days, it’s anyone’s guess what he might do.’

  Elliot and Andraya were lying on the large bed of their room in Eduardo’s exquisite old Tuscan villa, basking in the afterglow of their most recently spent passion. The sheet was kicked aside, their clothes scattered on the floor. Thin bands of sunlight pressed in through the edges of the shutters. The buzz of cicadas, now that Paolo Conte’s hauntingly raspy voice had faded from the CD downstairs, was the only sound to accompany the hot, still, afternoon siesta.

  �
��What are you thinking, meu amor?’ she whispered.

  He lifted a hand, put it on her breast and traced the nipple with his thumb. After a while he lowered his mouth and began to suck and gently bite it.

  She moaned with pleasure and opening her arms wide rolled on to her back.

  Propped on one elbow he lay looking at her again, amused by the way her breasts stayed upright, becoming excited, as he always did, by the sheer size of her nipples.

  ‘Eduardo must be sleeping now,’ she commented, after several minutes had passed with no more music coming from the room below. ‘It is so peaceful here. I love the afternoons.’ She turned to look at him. ‘Will you come to New York?’ she said.

  Surprised by the question, he pressed a kiss to her lips. ‘I thought it was settled,’ he responded. ‘Of course I’ll come.’

  Her eyes gleamed wickedly. ‘I just wanted to hear you say it,’ she told him, and drawing his fingers to her mouth she began kissing them one by one. ‘I’m afraid you’re still thinking of her,’ she said after a while. ‘If you are I shall be so jealous I will do something terrible to you.’

  With a dry laugh he pulled his hand away and rolled onto his back. ‘I called Max, my partner in New York,’ he said, staring up at the faded ceiling frescos. ‘His apartment might be free for us to rent.’

  Her eyes took on a dark, sensuous glow as she turned his face to hers. ‘For how long?’

  ‘Six weeks.’

  She bit into his shoulder. ‘What if I get bored with you before six weeks is over?’

  ‘Then I guess one of us will have to move out.’

  Laughing, she pulled herself up to sit astride him. ‘I am so happy that you are in my life,’ she told him softly, watching his hands as they moved over her thighs. ‘I feel as though we belong to each other.’

  His eyes revealed little as he looked up at her.

  ‘Soon we will belong to New York too,’ she declared. ‘You will show me all the places that you know, take me to all the galleries and museums. And then,’ she added, lowering her voice, ‘you will come with me to Rio. I will show you my city. She is like me, dark and beautiful and exciting, full of passion and danger.’

  Reaching up, he pulled her mouth down to his and pushed his tongue deep inside. They kissed for a long, erotically charged time, letting their desire build to a point where their bodies needed to join again. But just as he was easing her onto her back, she slipped from his arms and went to throw open the shutters.

  The view down over the tiers of olive groves and out to the forested hills beyond was bathed in white sunlight. The air was thick and still with heat, the scent of jasmine drifted from the flowers clinging to the villa walls. She was framed like a portrait, from head to mid-thigh, her nudity exposed to the magnificently rugged scene that spread out before her, her big round bottom waiting for his touch.

  Knowing how it thrilled her to exhibit herself this way, he came up behind her, more than ready to perform the role she had now cast him in. Until the moment of her release he could be anyone. She wouldn’t know his name, she wouldn’t even acknowledge he was there. She would simply lean forward to rest her hands on the window ledge, continuing to absorb the view as he entered her from behind and took her so hard that all the golden flesh of her body would ripple with the force, and the power of her orgasm would be swallowed into the densely wooded hills in the distance.

  Half an hour later, sated and now still, they lay together on the bed, limbs loosely entwined, her head on his shoulder as she slept. His body was still damp with the sweat of exertion, though his heartbeat was steady now, his muscles less tense. He inhaled the musky scent of her hair, and felt the whisper of her breath on his skin. There was nowhere else he wanted to be, just here, with her, bound in the magnetism that made it impossible for them to resist each other, a long way from reality, untouched by the heartache he’d left behind.

  As she stirred and turned her head away, he glanced down at the lustrous thickness of the hair she’d left spilling over his shoulder. Lifting it to his lips he absently kissed it. Then, sitting up, he leaned over to kiss the hair between her legs too. He could use his tongue now to bring her awake, but instead he got quietly up from the bed and slipped into his clothes.

  To his surprise, when he walked outside into the long, shady bower where an hour ago they’d all been eating lunch, he spotted Rachel sitting at the far end playing with Charlie, her eight-month-old son.

  ‘Couldn’t sleep?’ he said, going to join them.

  Seeing him, Charlie promptly exposed his two bottom teeth in a delighted grin.

  ‘That’s Charlie’s new game, isn’t it?’ she answered, playfully shaking her son. ‘It’s called let’s wake up when everyone else goes to sleep.’

  ‘I guess everyone keeps telling you how much he’s like his father,’ Elliot said, allowing his fingers to be pulled back as far as Charlie could make them go.

  ‘Mm, but I almost wish they wouldn’t.’

  Elliot’s eyes came up in surprise, then, realizing why she wished it, he said, ‘It’s a reminder that you still miss him?’

  She nodded. ‘It’s only been a year since he was killed, and now, having Charlie … It hurts a lot that he’ll never know his father.’

  ‘Is Chris going to step into that role?’

  ‘He already has, but we’re agreed that Charlie will always know who his real father was,’ she gasped as Charlie lunged forward, almost landing himself on Elliot’s lap.

  Taking him, Elliot bounced him around and made him laugh, until he was ready to return to his mother.

  ‘I don’t have to ask if you miss Laurie,’ Rachel said, trying to sound neutral. ‘You and Andraya are inseparable, it seems.’

  Not rising to the slight edge in her voice, he said, ‘I’m sorry if I’m making this awkward for you.’

  ‘I wasn’t actually thinking about me,’ she responded.

  His eyes met hers for a brief moment, then he looked away to the tangled mass of plumbago that all but masked the stone steps leading down to the pool.

  ‘I know it’s none of my business,’ she said, ‘but I think you’re making a terrible mistake.’

  He didn’t reply.

  ‘You and Laurie are so right for each other.’

  He turned to look at her. ‘I don’t want to offend you,’ he said, ‘but I’d rather not discuss it.’

  Stung, as much for Laurie as for herself, she pressed her lips to Charlie’s blond curls, and struggled to push her thoughts in another direction. She couldn’t fight Laurie’s battles for her, and trying to make him feel bad for the way he was behaving wasn’t going to get anyone anywhere either. ‘Chris mentioned you’re thinking of coming to New York with us,’ she said, putting Charlie down on the ground to play. ‘That it might even be a permanent relocation. Is that the plan?’ She didn’t add, have you told Laurie yet, though she wanted to, because God knew she didn’t want to tell her.

  ‘Possibly,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t mind the change, and I think Andraya’s going to fall in love with the place.’

  Rachel’s heart turned over. With a remark like that there really could be no doubting how serious he was about the woman. ‘What if she wants to stay living in Rio?’ she asked. ‘Would you go there?’

  He looked amused and shook his head. ‘It has to be London or New York, she knows that and she’s OK with it.’

  ‘Just as long as you’re together?’

  He didn’t answer.

  ‘My, my, my,’ Andraya drawled, sauntering towards them in an extremely sexy bikini. ‘This looks very intimate. Can anyone join in?’

  Elliot stood up, went to meet her and took her hand.

  She chuckled softly with her lips against his, then looking past him to Rachel she said, ‘Please forgive me, but I need to have him all to myself for a while. I’m sure you understand.’

  As they walked back into the house Rachel glanced down at Charlie and felt another wave of sadness sweep over her, for Elliot had j
ust left her with nothing at all to pass on to Laurie that Laurie in all her lifetime would ever want to hear.

  Chapter Seventeen

  IT WAS EVENING now, and Sherry was still waiting for a call from Nick after he’d left the pub earlier with Laurie. Of course, she knew better than to listen to the voices in her head, and the suspicion they were planting, but as the minutes ticked on and the phone still didn’t ring, it was getting harder and harder to ignore them.

  She opened the French doors and stood on the balcony, breathing in the scent of the flowers and watching the fast, gentle flow of the river. Water, jasmine, fear, jealousy. It was all too strong a reminder of the past. A garden, a pool, the night air, distant voices. She’d never imagined finding herself in this place again, but it was happening, and though she knew she was creating it, she couldn’t make herself stop, for the images were growing bigger and clearer, the voices were getting stronger, drawing her back and back …

  Quickly she turned inside and closed the door. Taking a breath she let it out slowly, then started as the phone suddenly cut into the silence.

  She stared at it, willing it to be Nick, but it was Laurie’s voice that spoke into the machine. ‘Sherry? Are you there?’ she said. ‘Will you pick up, if you are?’

  Relief got her reaching for the receiver. ‘I’m here,’ she said. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘Can you come over?’

  ‘Sure. Is everything all right?’ What a stupid question – Elliot was in Italy with another woman, and they were just thirteen days away from when they should have been getting married. How could she possibly be all right?

  Laurie’s voice was fractured with pain as she said, ‘I need to know what I have to do to get through this. If you don’t tell me I honestly think I’ll go mad.’

  ‘Of course,’ Sherry said softly. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can,’ and feeling dreadful for even thinking Laurie might have been spending the evening with Nick, she put down the phone, picked up her keys and left the flat.