by Hazel Osmond
What difference would it make, in the end, if he grabbed one more night? It still gave them both time to calm down before she came back to work.
Jack ignored the very faint sound of an alarm bell in his head and got into the taxi.
Ellie lifted up the carrier bags and negotiated her way through the crates of oranges and onions to get out of the shop. Edith trotted along behind.
‘No, I enjoyed it, Edith,’ she said, as she gave Mr Arundi from the launderette a wave.
Edith waved at Mr Arundi too and then turned her attention back to Ellie. ‘Even the bit where the vampire impaled the girl with the—’
‘Yup, OK, no need to go back over it.’
‘Only, even in the dark of the cinema you looked a bit green. I remember your mother didn’t like blood and sharp things and—’
‘Honestly, Edith, I enjoyed it. Now, do you need any more rice?’
‘No, dear, plenty of that, enough to feed an army.’
They continued to chat as they passed the last of the shops and turned round the corner to the house. Ellie let Edith go ahead to open the gate and promised herself that she’d come out later and give the front hedge a bit of a haircut. She was busy thinking about whether Edith might have some shears anywhere and did not notice, until she had bumped into her, that Edith had stopped walking up the path. The word ‘sorry’ died in her mouth when she saw who Edith was looking at.
Jack was sitting on the doorstep, reading the evening newspaper and eating a bar of chocolate.
‘Hello,’ he said.
‘Hello,’ Ellie replied, trying not to grin.
‘Been somewhere nice?’
‘Zombie Maidens and the Vampires of Death,’ Edith said.
‘A tender portrayal of blood, guts and carnage,’ added Ellie.
Jack nodded and folded up his newspaper.
‘Have you been waiting long?’ Ellie asked.
He didn’t answer, simply took a last bite of chocolate and then gathered up his paper and his briefcase and stood up. There was a little hiatus, which Edith ended by saying, ‘I was about to make tea, Jack. Would you care to join us?’
Jack made a doubtful face.
‘It’s one of my proper curries, Jack, made from scratch, all the genuine spices. It’ll blow your brains out.’
‘Well …’ Jack said, shoving the chocolate wrapper in his pocket.
‘Go on,’ Edith said, pushing past him to open the front door, ‘and then you and Ellie can go upstairs and discuss those things you advertising people are always discussing.’
‘What’s that, Edith?’ Ellie eyed Jack warily.
Edith hesitated on the threshold as if she had forgotten what she was trying to say. Then her expression brightened. ‘Unique selling points, that’s it. Yes, you can go and discuss each other’s unique selling points.’
Behind her, Ellie heard Jack snigger.
Later that evening Ellie dragged herself up off her bedroom floor and stood with her back to her full-length mirror. She turned her head as far as she could to try to look over her shoulder and down her body.
‘Sorry,’ Jack said, smiling up at her from the floor, where he lay naked and propped up on one elbow, ‘bit over-enthusiastic.’
‘That’s fine, Jack.’ Ellie flinched as she found the carpet burn and touched it delicately with her fingers. ‘Not sure if it was the high quality of your technique or the low quality of my carpet.’
‘Back to the wisecracking, eh?’
A look passed between them.
‘What do you mean?’ Ellie said hesitantly.
‘You do it a lot. I think I’ve worked out that it’s not you wanting to show off. It’s actually some kind of defence mechanism.’ He grinned. ‘Bit late to try to keep me at arm’s length, Ellie.’
Ellie dropped her gaze. ‘I’ll go and put some cream on this,’ she said, and walked quickly from the room so that she didn’t have to tell Jack he was a clever swine.
When she came back into the room, Jack was lying down. He seemed distracted and vaguely sad.
Perhaps he regretted coming round? Or found her as dull as Sam had?
‘Jack,’ she said softly, sitting down on the bed, ‘I didn’t expect you to come round … I mean, you shouldn’t feel that …’
Jack didn’t appear to be listening and Ellie worried if it was that plate of glass between him and his emotions that was making him appear so distant. Then she saw his eyes clear and he stood up. Here in her room, he looked so tall that it made the ceiling appear too low.
‘So, all the rooms up here are yours?’ he said. ‘No swirly orange carpet, no china figurines or footstools in the shape of Indian elephants?’
Ellie had seen him survey Edith’s sitting room earlier with an amused expression.
‘No, Jack, this floor is mine and Edith has very kindly let me decorate it as I please.’
Jack nodded and picked up Ellie’s dress from the floor and wrapped it round his waist before going over to the window. Ellie’s eyes lingered on the magnificent view he presented, even dressed as he was now, in what looked like a floral miniskirt. Long, long legs, slim hips and broad shoulders. More like a swimmer than a rugby player. She supposed that was what gave him his grace. She wondered if Jack did lots of swimming and then thought about him wet and forgot what they had been talking about.
‘Nice view,’ he said, bending down to look out of the window.
Ellie had to agree that it certainly was, although she guessed that Jack was actually referring to the garden.
‘We eat out in the garden a lot now the weather’s better.’
He nodded and, turning away from the window, went over to the door. ‘So, what else is up here?’ he said.
‘I’ll show you. Hang on, I’ll put on my kimonoey thing.’
Jack was already out on the landing. ‘No, come as you are,’ he called back. ‘You’re not going to be able to improve on that.’
‘Is that a compliment?’ Ellie felt a blush spread up over her face; stupid, really, to get embarrassed after what they’d been up to on the carpet. ‘Or are you having another go at my dress sense?’
‘It’s a compliment, Ellie,’ Jack said, his voice now coming from her sitting room, ‘although since I’ve seen Edith with her clothes on, I can see where you get your sense of style.’
Ellie grabbed her kimono and tied its belt as she went to follow him. ‘Cheeky swine, I’ve improved a lot recently.’
‘Still like you better without anything on, though,’ he said, as she joined him.
‘Right.’ Ellie smiled at him and for a moment he smiled back and then he was off round the room peering at the book titles and picking up the pebbles and shells she had lying around. Ellie decided that he was looking for clues about her, but whether that was a good or bad thing she had no idea.
‘So, this living with Edith thing …’
‘Go on,’ said Ellie, folding her arms.
‘Don’t you have any friends your own age?’
‘Yeah, I have plenty of friends my own age, thank you. I didn’t do it because I was a Billy no mates. I needed to find somewhere to live quickly after Sam … after Sam … Anyway, Edith suggested it and it made sense.’
‘Why did it make sense?’ Jack was staring at her intently again.
She sighed, probably a bit too dramatically, but he was starting to remind her of how he was at work, always trying to dominate her.
The way he was working to prise out little details about her was becoming disturbing. What would he do with these nuggets of information once they were both back in their normal roles at work? That ‘wisecrack’ observation had been a little near the bone.
‘So,’ Jack asked again, ‘why did it make sense to move in with Edith?’
‘Because I wanted to stay in this area, I like it a lot, and because it meant I could keep an eye on Edith.’ She glared at him, defying him to make something of that, and then added, ‘Besides, she was spending about three nights a week at my old
flat anyway.’
Jack sat down in an armchair. ‘And does Edith have any family of her own? I mean sons, daughters?’
‘Yes, two daughters, Constance and Pandora. They’ve got their own families. And, well, she’s a bit of a disappointment to her daughters I think. They don’t come to see her very often, just Christmas, Easter, her birthday, that kind of thing.’
‘Poor Edith.’
‘I don’t think of her like that. To be honest, she and her daughters don’t have much to say to each other when they do meet up. I think they bore her. And I suppose from Constance and Pandora’s point of view, she’s best kept at a distance. There they are, pillars of their local community, and then Edith totters into view dressed in a leopard-print trouser suit and reeking of gin. It’s not the image they’re after.’
‘Doesn’t bother you, though?’
Ellie waved a hand dismissively. ‘She’s not my mother, it’s different. I actually like the fact she’s a bit unpredictable. I’m sure she’s pushing eighty, you know, though she’d rather tear out her tongue than admit it. Yet she still keeps on going out, having fun, making new friends. I hope I’m like that at her age.’
Jack cast her a look that she couldn’t decipher and said nothing. She began to feel uncomfortable, but there was something about the way that Jack was looking at her that made her stay quiet.
‘I’m sure that you will be like her,’ he said eventually. ‘And good luck to Edith – she’s got the right attitude.’
‘I suppose so, but I do worry that she’s doing too much. I’d like her to slow down.’
‘It won’t matter whether she sits down in her slippers or dances the flamenco,’ Jack said very gruffly. ‘It won’t make a scrap of difference. You don’t get extra years added on for good behaviour.’
Again Ellie sensed that Jack was and was not in the room and couldn’t understand how the conversation had so quickly become so serious. How had they backed themselves into this particular verbal cul-de-sac after a lighthearted discussion about Edith and her joie de vivre? She was going to ask him if there was anything in particular that was wrong, when he said, ‘So, you’re only living with Edith because it makes sense?’
‘Yes.’
He laughed. ‘Few things I’ve noticed about you, Ellie. Good at one-liners; always like to have the last word; dreadful liar.’ He leaned forward in the chair. ‘In all that about Edith you haven’t mentioned being kind. That you’re doing it because you’re kind.’
‘I’m not particularly,’ she said, trying to deflect his attention. It all felt so un-Jack-like, somehow.
‘Cover it up all you like, Ellie, but you can’t fool me. So, the question is, how did you get to be so kind?’
Ellie blinked at him. He somehow made it sound like a fault.
‘Good genes, I guess,’ she said with a shrug.
He nodded and then her heart did that flip thing because as she watched, his eyes were changing expression again and it was that dark, dangerous look that was holding sway now.
The melancholy that had filled the room earlier had been replaced by something that was making Ellie’s heart beat faster.
She saw his gaze travel down her body. ‘Your genes haven’t only made you kind, have they, Ellie? They’ve given you all kinds of other lovely things too.’
‘Well, I—’ she started, but never got to finish, as Jack was out of the chair and standing right next to her. She could feel his breath on her cheek.
‘Take this off,’ he said, tugging at her kimono. ‘Let’s have a good look at how well you did in the gene pool.’
How could he get his emotions to turn round like that? Ellie was still a step behind. But if he was trying to confuse her, she could do the same to him. She looked at him and yawned. ‘Sorry, Jack, I don’t feel like taking anything off. That interrogation about Edith has quite worn me out.’ She dodged away from him and out of the door.
She only got as far as the landing before he caught her and had her down on the floor. Her skin prickled all over as he touched her, but he was going to get a fight. Jack tried to pin her down and she was wriggling ferociously and managed to tug her dress from his hips. He pulled her kimono off one shoulder. She grabbed some of his flesh and pinched it. He didn’t even seem to feel it and simply flipped her over on her front and got her other shoulder bare. Ellie reached back and grabbed his thigh and started to squidge her fingers about on it. The effect was instantaneous. ‘No, no, no,’ Jack shouted, and directed all his attention to stopping her hand from tickling him.
She rolled over, pulled her kimono back together and attacked another part of him, ‘Damn it, Ellie, stop it!’ he said, trying to catch her hand.
Ellie got two more good attacks in before Jack managed to catch both of her hands and pin them over her head. A slight readjustment to his position and he was lying on top of her and she couldn’t move at all.
They were both out of breath, chests heaving against each other and laughing, and then Jack put his mouth over hers and really took her breath away. It was a long, sensuous kiss that made every nerve-ending right down to her toes sizzle.
He pulled his mouth from hers and gave her a stern look. ‘If you promise not to do any more tickling, you can have your hands back.’
Ellie briefly considered that and nodded.
‘Promise?’ he said.
‘Promise.’
Jack let go of her hands and immediately ripped open her kimono and lay on her again, his naked chest against her bare breasts. She felt his hands move down her body and his knee nudge her legs apart.
‘Oh, no, not the carpet burns again,’ she said in a weak voice.
Jack stopped what he was doing and rolled off her. ‘Fair enough. You go on top, then. But you’ll have to do all the work. Don’t just sit there thinking of England.’
Ellie narrowed her eyes and before he could stop her, she had him in her hand, holding him perhaps more tightly than was absolutely necessary.
‘Be very, very careful with that,’ Jack said in a strangled voice. ‘I use that all the time.’
‘Oh, I will, Jack, don’t worry,’ she said, teasing him and enjoying the way that he had shut up and stopped being so domineering.
‘Trouser pocket … condom,’ he said a few moments later in a broken voice.
Ellie found Jack’s trousers and then, when she had made him ready, she manoeuvred herself over him, holding herself out of reach.
‘You know, you could do with being less bossy,’ she said.
‘Uh-huh.’ Jack took her hips in his hands and tried to pull her down to get some contact, any kind of contact.
‘Yes,’ she said, resisting his efforts. ‘Try negotiating a bit more. Don’t be so bullish.’
‘I’ll try and remember that, Ellie,’ he said, his face screwed up with frustration. ‘Now, will you stop talking and damn well sit on it?’
She swayed her hips and moved a little lower. ‘Would there be a “please” anywhere in that last statement?’ She started to laugh and then laughed even louder at the sight of Jack grinding his teeth and glowering at her.
Suddenly she stopped laughing and sat down on him in one quick movement and Jack winced and said, ‘Ah,’ and then closed his eyes. She felt his strong fingers splayed out around her hips and it seemed to her that this was the only place in the world where any woman with any sense would want to be sitting. The sensation was incredible; she didn’t think it was possible to get any closer to him than she was now.
Ellie could not explain how, in less than three days, she had got herself into this, sitting astride Jack Wolfe’s groin absolutely naked and not giving a fig about it. She didn’t know, but she felt wanton and wanted and right at this minute she wasn’t going to think about next week or even tomorrow. She was going to concentrate on showing him what she was made of.
‘Right, Jack,’ she said, ‘I’m thinking of England now.’ She gave a little jiggle and was pleased to see his eyes shoot open. ‘Yeah, I’m really thi
nking of England.’ She leaned down and kissed him. ‘But you know what, Jack? I can only bring to mind the dirty bits.’
Jack walked along the road and kicked a drink can out of the way. It was nearly dawn and there was nobody else about. No damned taxis anyway.
It served him right that he had to walk most of the way home. He must be completely stark, raving mad. That was meant to be a shagging visit. Not a sitting in the garden eating curry visit, or a talking about Edith visit, or even a rolling around on the carpet giggling visit.
He was starting to lose it here.
He dug his hands in his pockets and walked on. And he had carpet burns all over his backside that hurt like hell. Mind you, he’d got them in a good cause … That was something, the way she’d looked naked and jiggling about. He’d envisaged a quick, hard ride, but she’d kept him just off the boil for ages. He was practically begging her at the end. He’d been on the point of yelling out, ‘Barcelona,’ himself.
Jack shook his head. It was a good last workout, but that was it. It was over. Finished. Finito. If he stopped it now, he could walk away without it bothering him.
He wished he hadn’t got bogged down in all that stuff about Edith, though. And then telling Ellie how kind she was … Mind you, she was, incredibly. Sort of old-fashioned in a way how she cared about Edith. Completely unselfish and—
He came to a halt. What the hell was he talking about? This was exactly why this had to stop.
Tomorrow he’d ring her and explain that he was calling it a day and he expected her to be a grown-up about it when she came back to work.
He had no choice: all the danger signs were there. When you started wanting to find out more about them, that was definitely time to bail out.
Yeah. That was it. Definitely.
CHAPTER 25
Ellie remained in her seat with her eyes closed after the rest of the audience had left. She didn’t want to lose this feeling. It had been brilliant from the moment the actors had walked on to the stage until the last one had stepped off again at the end. A magical evening: Regent’s Park in summer, the sun going down and a Shakespearian comedy in the open air. It had chased the thought of Jack away for a couple of hours, apart from when the lovers were reunited at the end. Then he’d shot straight back into her mind and she’d found herself wondering what he would look like in a doublet and hose.
