Forbidden Desires

by Anderson, Marina

  ‘No, it just happened.’

  ‘I hope you both enjoyed it. Presumably this is the way you intend to audition all the girls for the role of Helena?’

  ‘I don’t do the auditions normally. Harriet, you invited Ella here.’

  She laughed in disbelief. ‘Yes, and you invited Noella but I don’t imagine you’ve been sleeping with her as well. Don’t blame me because you couldn’t resist a beautiful actress. Did she remind you of Rowena?’

  ‘No,’ he shouted angrily. ‘If you really want to know, she reminded me of you and when I was making love to her, when she cried out with pleasure, I was imagining that it was you.’

  ‘How very insulting to both of us,’ said Harriet as she walked out of the room.

  The others were already in the dining room and as soon as Harriet and Lewis joined them they sat down and rang the bell for Mrs Webster. Noella, resplendent in a black and white striped trouser suit over a white camisole top, smiled at Harriet. ‘Love the outfit, honey.’

  ‘I wasn’t sure it suited me,’ confessed Harriet. ‘I’m usually happier in dresses but palazzo pants are so comfortable.’

  ‘And wonderfully easy to remove,’ Noella pointed out just as Mrs Webster brought in the bowls of mushroom soup. Mrs Webster glanced quickly at Noella, averted her gaze from Lewis, and left as fast as possible.

  ‘Oh dear, another goof,’ laughed Noella.

  Ella, who was looking very feminine in a simple A-line silk shift dress in a shade of blue that exactly matched her eyes and had a pattern of red and cream flowers on it, frowned. ‘What do you mean, another goof?’

  Noella gave her a tight smile. ‘I mean that poor Mrs Webster’s already had one shock today when she saw more than she wanted to out of the kitchen window after lunch. She was all for leaving until I produced a small financial inducement for her to remain.’

  Ella’s face didn’t change and Lewis had to admire her acting skill as she looked straight back at Noella. ‘What did she see exactly?’ she enquired.

  ‘I wasn’t here, sweetie. I thought you might know.’

  ‘Probably Lewis swimming nude in the pool. He’s rather keen on that, isn’t he, Harriet?’ said Edmund smoothly.

  She flushed, remembering the way Lewis had made love to her in the water early on in the holiday. ‘If she’s that easily shocked maybe we should have let her go,’ she said with a smile.

  ‘And what exactly is it that you do, Ella?’ continued Edmund a little later when their soup bowls had been removed and they were eating one of Mrs Webster’s casseroles.

  ‘I’m an actress.’

  ‘Yes, I know, but what kind of an actress. Classical? Modern? Television soaps or films?’

  ‘In this country films are few and far between. I enjoy classical work but I earn most of my bread and butter money on television.’

  He looked carefully at her and then across the table at Lewis. ‘I should think the camera would love her, don’t you agree, Lew?’

  Lewis nodded. ‘Certain to with those bones.’

  Ella sat up straight in her chair. She pushed her hair back behind one ear in an unconsciously flirtatious manner and smiled her best smile at Edmund. ‘I’m afraid it’s only the camera that does at the moment.’

  ‘Really?’ asked Edmund. ‘I find that difficult to believe.’

  ‘I might be sick in a moment,’ said Noella to Harriet in an undertone. ‘What is your friend playing at?’

  ‘She wants the film role,’ said Harriet calmly.

  ‘Helena you mean? Isn’t that a little ambitious?’

  ‘Ella’s never lacked self-confidence,’ murmured Harriet.

  ‘Have you considered Ella auditioning for a part in Forbidden Desires?’ continued Edmund, smiling back at Ella.

  ‘I’m considering it at the moment,’ said Lewis. ‘However, since you’re only one of the financial backers I don’t really think your opinion is going to weigh very highly when I make my final judgement.’

  ‘You back Lewis’s films?’ asked Ella.

  Harriet turned to Noella. ‘I hope she doesn’t think she wasted herself this afternoon.’ They both laughed and it was only when Edmund switched his cool gaze on to his wife that Noella managed to regain control of herself.

  Edmund was intrigued by Ella. At first he’d dismissed her as simply another pretty face, but he was beginning to think there was more to her than that. She was clearly intelligent, and like Harriet she had an understated sexuality about her that intrigued him. However, unlike Harriet, he felt that she was a young woman who was more interested in her career and the world of acting than she was in meaningful relationships. She might not be as bold as Harriet, nor as willing to experiment, but she’d certainly fit into the kind of life he was envisaging for himself if he and Noella parted.

  He still wanted Harriet, and would far rather have her at his side than Ella, but he was a realist. If Harriet was going to return to Lewis, if she found that emotionally Edmund held no attraction for her, then he would need someone else, someone so close to Harriet in looks and ways that she might even be able to play the character Lewis had based on her on film. It would be a compromise, but not a hard one to make, and he thought that it was worth his while developing their relationship a little.

  After the meal, when they were sitting lazily in the drawing room drinking coffee and eating some of the delicious chocolate fudge from Polperro, he went and sat next to Ella. ‘You made love to Lewis today, didn’t you?’ he said softly.

  Ella glanced round the room but the others were all busy and no one was paying them any attention. ‘Yes, how do you know?’

  ‘Mrs Webster told my wife. Cornish housekeepers aren’t used to that kind of thing you know.’

  Ella smiled. ‘She didn’t have to watch.’

  Edmund leant forward and rested a hand on her silk covered knee. ‘I’d like to watch,’ he confided. ‘How would you feel about that?’

  ‘Watch me with Lewis?’ whispered Ella, stunned by his words.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But – I mean – he’d never agree. He probably won’t ever make love to me again. I don’t think he enjoyed it that much.’

  ‘Suppose you’re wrong and that I can persuade him, would you enjoy it?’ persisted Edmund, his heart racing at the idea that was rapidly forming in his mind.

  Ella hesitated. She wanted the role of Helena more than she wanted anything else, but the idea of having Lewis make love to her again and to do it in full view of this slim, attractive Englishman who had an undeniable magnetism of his own, was almost irresistible. ‘Yes, I think I would,’ she said at last.

  Edmund nodded. ‘That’s exactly the answer I was hoping for.’

  ‘I still don’t understand how you’d manage it, or why you want to,’ said Ella.

  Edmund raised an eyebrow. ‘Do you need to understand?’

  ‘I suppose not.’

  ‘Precisely. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must speak to Harriet.’

  Ella watched him cross the room and perch on the arm of Harriet’s chair. As they started to talk she saw the way Lewis studied them and recognised the hidden anger in the depths of his eyes. A shiver of fear ran through her and she threw a stole over her bare shoulders. She had the dreadful feeling that for the first time in her life she might be playing out of her league.

  Chapter Nine

  * * *

  FOR THE NEXT week the unusually warm spell continued and the inhabitants of Penruan House swam, visited the tourist attractions and continued their slow erotic dance around each other. The tension in the air grew, particularly after Oliver started joining them in the evenings for a drink and the occasional game of pitch-and-putt.

  Harriet found that her flesh was longing for Edmund’s touch again. She and Lewis hadn’t slept together since their argument and her natural sensuality, together with the remembrance of the way Edmund teased and tantalised her, meant that she was constantly aware of her need for sexual satisfaction.

 
; Noella, who continued her visits to Oliver whenever possible, watched Harriet struggling to cope with her affair, and watched too the way Ella contrived to parade her undoubted charms in front of both men, flirting naturally and effectively as she strove to impress them.

  Lewis observed everyone and passed his impressions on to Mark, but for the first time ever when making a film he wasn’t happy. Certainly the situation was intriguing, and he could picture it very well on the screen, but from a personal point of view he was finding it very hard to cope and this unexpected weakness annoyed him. Unwilling to blame himself he turned his annoyance on Harriet, convincing himself that despite her denials she was slowly falling in love with Edmund.

  As for Edmund, he out of all of them was gaining the most enjoyment from the situation, and the greater the sexual tensions within the group grew the more he schemed. By the end of their stay he was determined that either Harriet would leave Lewis for him or he would make Ella his. His wife, he knew, was lost to him, but even that was a source of relief. In fact, Edmund felt that he had nothing at all to lose if the present situation continued. However, Lewis could have told him that it never paid to be complacent.

  On a hot Monday morning Noella and Harriet were lying by the pool drying off after a swim. They’d both been relatively silent since breakfast, each lost in their own thoughts, but suddenly Noella turned to the younger woman.

  ‘You’re having an affair with Edmund aren’t you?’ she said calmly.

  Harriet reluctantly opened her eyes and turned towards Noella. ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘Because I’m tired of pretending I don’t know.’

  ‘If you know, why ask?’

  ‘Because I don’t understand the reason behind it,’ said Noella, spreading sunblock over her legs. ‘Lewis is madly in love with you and far more attractive than Edmund anyway. Why risk your happiness for a casual fling?’

  ‘You should ask Lewis that,’ said Harriet bitterly.

  Noella stretched out her limbs and gave a soft sigh of pleasure at the feel of the warm sun on her skin. ‘I thought as much,’ she said slowly.

  ‘Meaning what?’

  ‘It’s all a game, isn’t it? You and Lewis are using the rest of us as material for his next film. If I’d known I wouldn’t have come away with you; it’s rather like reading someone’s private diary without permission, don’t you think?’

  Harriet sat up. ‘Yes, it probably is, but he’s using me just as much as he’s using you. I’m beginning to think that I was wrong about Lewis. He doesn’t really know what love is, or even life for that matter. All that concerns Lewis is his work.’

  Noella shook her head. ‘That’s not true, honey. Lewis adores you, and he’s suffering like hell over your affair.’

  ‘But he instigated it,’ cried Harriet. ‘Don’t you see? That’s why he invited you both along. He knew that this would happen. He had a theory about people being unable to resist the forbidden and used us to prove it.’

  ‘He couldn’t force you into an affair,’ said Noella mildly. ‘Surely that was your choice?’

  ‘But he knew I’d be unable to resist.’

  ‘He couldn’t have known – he suspected, sure – but he didn’t know. Now you’ve proved him right and he doesn’t like it one little bit. He probably feels you betrayed him.’

  ‘But if I hadn’t slept with Edmund, if I wasn’t obsessed with him the way I am, then there wouldn’t be a film would there?’

  Noella laughed. ‘Are you saying you did it just to give Lewis a script?’

  Harriet fell silent. She suddenly realised that what Noella was saying was true. Of course she hadn’t done it only for Lewis, she’d done it for herself, because Edmund had fascinated her and Lewis had given her the opportunity to follow up that fascination without feeling guilty. ‘You mean, he never intended me to actually go ahead?’ she asked.

  ‘He probably thought you would, but deep down I bet you all the money I’ve got he hoped you wouldn’t. Lewis isn’t very secure in personal relationships, mainly because he’s had so little practice. He and Rowena used each other, there was never any real affection there, only lust. You’re different, and you’ve changed him. Perhaps that’s not a good thing. Maybe as a director of cinéma vérité films he needs to be single-minded in his approach to life, but now that he’s married to you he can’t go back to being the person he was, so you could say he’s caught between two stools.’

  ‘I keep wondering how it’s all going to end,’ admitted Harriet uneasily.

  ‘Lewis will either become a man obsessed with his art again or he’ll stay human.’

  ‘And what about me?’

  ‘Either way you’ll have learnt a valuable lesson, honey.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘That most of us don’t recognise a good thing until we lose it. My, look who’s coming our way,’ she added, and Harriet saw Ella walking towards them in a revealing swimming costume.

  ‘Lewis still wants her,’ said Harriet in a low voice.

  ‘Most men would want her the way she looks and moves. Why did you ask her to join us?’

  ‘We’ve been friends for years; I didn’t realise what she was like when men were around.’

  ‘She doesn’t want Lewis,’ said Noella keeping her voice low. ‘She just wants the lead role in his film. Anything else is simply a bonus.’

  ‘Noella,’ said Harriet urgently. ‘Are you in love with Oliver? Or is he just a bonus too?’

  ‘He’s neat.’

  ‘That’s no answer,’ said Harriet crossly. ‘I need to know. Do you love him, or are you still in love with Edmund?’

  ‘I’m not in love with Edmund any longer,’ Noella said quietly. ‘I was at the beginning of the holiday, but I’m not now. I’ve grown tired of being what he wants. I think it’s time I started being what I want instead.’

  ‘And does that suit Oliver?’

  ‘It seems to,’ said Noella with a warm smile. ‘It really does seem to.’

  Harriet was pleased for the blonde woman, but before she could say any more Ella had sat down on the grass beside them. ‘Have you swum already?’ she asked brightly. ‘I was hoping you’d race against me, Harriet. We used to have swimming races at our boarding school,’ she explained to Noella. ‘Harriet always won then, but I’ve been putting in a lot of practice over the years and I think I might be able to beat her now.’

  ‘Does it really matter?’ asked Harriet with a half-smile on her face as she remembered Lewis’s comments about Ella’s inability to swim. Clearly honesty was not her strong suit.

  ‘If I beat you or not?’ asked Ella meaningfully. Harriet nodded. ‘Yes then, since you ask, I think it’s probably very important.’

  She didn’t mean swimming and Harriet knew it. ‘Ella, why are you doing this?’ she asked in astonishment. ‘We’ve been friends for so long, you could ruin it all.’

  ‘I’m an actress and Helena is the role of the decade. As far as I’m concerned that comes before anything else,’ said Ella. ‘I’m sorry, Harriet, truly I am, but you know how much my work means to me, and it always has done.’

  ‘You and Lewis should go very well together,’ said Harriet bitterly and before Ella could reply she started running back to the house.

  She collided with Lewis in the hallway and he put his arms round her to steady her. ‘Hey, what’s the rush? Is someone after you?’

  Harriet bit on her bottom lip to force back the tears that were unexpectedly filling her eyes. ‘No, I’d had enough sun, that’s all.’

  ‘You feel hot,’ he said softly, his cool hands roaming over her bare shoulders and upper arms.

  ‘Lewis,’ said Harriet, her legs almost collapsing with the strength of her desire. ‘Let’s go upstairs.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ asked Lewis, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing after the past week of abstinence.

  ‘Yes.’

  He needed no further encouragement, and a startled Edmund passed them on the
stairs as they hurried up to their room, Lewis’s arm round his wife’s shoulder. Edmund continued on his way down and his mind raced. It was obvious that he must put his plan into action now, before Harriet was lost to him.

  Lewis’s hands stripped Harriet of her bikini in seconds and then he was fumbling with his jeans and short-sleeved cotton shirt, nearly tearing off one of the buttons in his haste. Harriet lay back on the large bed and watched him. The urgency with which he was tearing at his clothes and then the sight of his fully erect penis all increased Harriet’s desire. Suddenly she couldn’t understand why she’d been refusing him. It was clear now that sex with Edmund didn’t mean giving up sex with Lewis. The two were compatible, and at this moment it was Lewis she wanted.

  She lay on her back, her arms above her head and her legs parted as Lewis settled himself on her right, lying on his side. ‘You’re so lovely,’ he murmured, stroking her just below her breasts and then round the tender underarm area. ‘I’ve missed you these past few days.’

  Harriet gave a half-smile. ‘I’ve missed you too.’

  She longed for him to start caressing her breasts, but Lewis was in no hurry. He continued to stroke the less obviously erotic areas of her body. Harriet was so eager for him that no matter where he touched her, her skin reacted with heightened pleasure and soon she was murmuring softly to herself.

  Only when she was totally relaxed did Lewis bend his head and start to tongue softly at the rounded breasts, pushing them up towards his mouth with his hands and squeezing the undersides in slow, measured contractions.

  Harriet moaned more loudly at the familiar pleasure. When he ran his unshaven chin across the tops of her breasts she almost cried out with happiness because it was one of her favourite actions and something that Edmund had never done.

  As the voluptuous sensations increased, Harriet lifted her right leg so that Lewis could move his right leg under hers and over her left, his thigh crossing between her legs. She then reached down and took the soft vulnerable head of his erection in her hands, slipping it between her outer sex lips and moving it in small circles around her clitoris and the entrance to her vagina.