The New Rakes

by Nikki Magennis

  There was something else in the room Kara couldn’t quite put her finger on, a tension dancing just under the surface. She noticed slight signals – the way Judy’s eyes widened when she listened to Mike, Mike rubbing at his stubble, letting his gaze drop and roam over Judy’s body. Kara recognised that move. His hand covered the smile, the one that hooked up the corner of his mouth when he was thinking something dirty. When Judy took the empty plates through to the kitchen and Mike came to sit next to her on the sofa, pulling her bare feet into his lap, Kara sensed what was coming next.

  ‘How do you like the sound of a duet?’ he asked, his voice low.

  Kara cocked an eyebrow. Mike was stroking her legs, his hands running up the curves of her calf and dipping behind her knee, trailing back down to her ankle. Repetitive, soothing, promising.

  She didn’t answer. Instead, she tugged at the knot of her belt, loosened it and let the robe fall open. Just a sliver of skin was exposed, from her throat to her crotch, and Kara smiled as she realised how similar this was to the design of the damn rubber dress she’d worn – oh, it seemed like weeks ago. Mike put his hand over her pubic hair and held it there, applying just the slightest pressure while he watched Kara. Her heart boomed in her chest and she closed her eyes and concentrated on the tick of the clock, the warm drowsiness she felt as the wine and desire flowed in her veins.

  12

  JUDY KISSED HER. Even with her eyes closed, Kara could tell it was Judy from the softness, the bloom of the girl’s full lips against her own and the sweet lemony scent of her. Kara let their tongues dance against each other and concentrated all her attention on the giving heat of Judy’s mouth.

  Mike still held his hand over Kara’s pussy. He cupped it in his palm so that Kara couldn’t tell if the pulse she felt was his or her own. She sank deeper into the couch, into the kiss.

  ‘Just a moment,’ Mike said.

  Judy broke away and Kara opened her eyes. The other girl was flushed and Mike looked like he was struggling to control his breath. He stood and went to rummage in a chest of drawers, while Judy sought Kara’s hand and pressed her thumb into her palm, rubbing small circles. Like Kara, she seemed to need something to hold on to.

  Mike came back with a length of black fabric – something dense and felty, with ribbons attached to either end. Kara’s heart skipped a little when she realised what it was.

  ‘I think this might put a nice twist on things,’ he said, already reaching to cover Kara’s eyes.

  The blindfold wrapped tightly round her head, blanketed out the room and left her swimming in space. If Judy hadn’t been holding her hand, she would have been entirely lost. Nobody spoke. Kara strained to hear anything that would give her clues, help her to guess who was close to her. After a minute, she noticed the difference in the sound of their breathing: Mike’s was deep and slow, Judy’s a quicker, lighter pattern.

  Her robe was pulled open and cool hands ran over her body. Every touch made her move towards the person that had given it, until she was rolling around wildly, chasing caresses from her invisible lovers.

  With no warning, a finger slid between her legs and tested her wetness, at the same time as a mouth latched on to her nipple and sucked. Kara moaned and rolled towards the hands, the mouth, only to have them pull away and reappear somewhere else. Someone – the size and rasp of the hands made her think it was Mike – tugged her arms gently out of the sleeves of the robe and laid her down again.

  She couldn’t tell who lifted her arms over her head, placed her wrists together and wrapped what felt like a thin silk rope around them. Was it another of Mike’s hidden skills? Kara thought, as someone bound her and tied the knot carefully so that it didn’t cut off her circulation, but held her fast. Another hand played with her clit, rolling it between thumb and forefinger, and the distraction made it harder to keep track of who was where. Bound and blindfolded, teased and caressed, she was frantic with the confusion of touches.

  Robbed of her sight, Kara was disorientated. She was all nerves, all flesh that needed to be touched. When someone stroked her legs, all her attention focused on the sensation. When the hands moved higher up to squeeze her buttocks, cup and massage them, she was only aware of that part of herself, the rest of her rolling frantically in midair, hoping to collide with someone or something.

  ‘More,’ she blurted out, knowing her voice was verging on desperate. ‘Please, more.’

  ‘More of this?’ Mike’s voice sounded in her ear as the pressure of the hands rubbing her bottom grew harder.

  ‘Everything,’ Kara said, ‘everywhere.’

  ‘Turn her over,’ Mike said, pulling away and directing his voice elsewhere. Hands, small hands, slid under Kara’s hips and rolled her gently onto her front. The cuffs of Judy’s shirt caught on her skin and Kara pressed down to trap her. She wanted those fingers on her, and that soft mouth. In the hot tight space between her body and the rough fabric of the couch, delicate fingertips slid across her belly and roved up to feel her breasts. Kara whimpered as Judy worked at her, pinching her nipples gently so that the tips hardened and scuffed against the upholstery.

  Kara was aware that her arse was bare and exposed, and she knew Mike was standing over her. There was the sound of a zip tearing open, a belt clinking.

  For a moment, she squirmed against Judy, greedy for more sensation, and then Mike’s hands were burrowing between her legs, pulling her open. Quickly, he parted her lips and fed the head of his cock into her. Just the head.

  She wanted to rock back against it, but one hand held her firm and steady. Mike knew how to torment her. When she thought she was going to sob with the wanting, he moved at last, running his cock into her hard and fast so that his hips banged against hers. The sudden force of his stroke took Kara’s breath away.

  With him in her full and hard, Judy’s hands squirmed down to nestle between her legs, and Kara thought she might scream.

  She was on the point of losing it, Kara knew, struggling to scrape herself against the scratchy canvas of the couch, longing for buttons and seams to roll over and sink onto. As Mike started to fuck her methodically and steadily, she opened her mouth wide, without making any sound.

  In fact, she was hardly breathing. This was what she’d been craving all day, an overload of sensation that built up until she wasn’t aware of herself, only the places where her body rubbed up against other flesh.

  She’d been longing for Mike, but having two people wrapped around her was almost unbearably intense.

  Next to her, Judy made short, hard panting noises and rested her cheek on Kara’s back while she fingered her. With her hands tied above her head and Mike holding her hips down, Kara was helpless. She couldn’t do anything to speed up her orgasm, or hold it back when it came.

  With a long groan, she gave up chasing it and let herself sag into Judy’s hands, yielding to Mike’s thrusts as they got shorter and blunter.

  Mike paused, held himself motionless and taut. He was close to coming, Kara guessed. Inside her, his cock grew as solid and hard as an iron bar and Kara felt the pulse, the first twitches rising up the length of him.

  She ground against Judy’s fluttering fingers and butted against Mike, knowing it would send him over the edge. Sure enough, he groaned and his hips started jerking. Kara bit down on the cushions as the first rush of her own climax spread upwards. Heat swirled around Judy’s busy hands, building in her clit.

  When Kara came, her spine arched and she thrashed back and forth, tugging at the bonds that held her wrists. Restrained like this, there was nowhere for her orgasm to disperse. It ricocheted inside her, overtook her with a blackness even deeper and richer than the one she saw behind the blindfold and sent her spinning into a place where her body had no limits. Every atom of her body strummed with bliss. A pulse rippled along her spine and Kara cried out, singing one long sustained note.

  The next thing she was aware of was Mike stroking her hair, slowly and rhythmically. Judy’s touches had fallen away and
she was only aware of him, covering her with his long sweat-slicked body.

  As her breath slowly calmed, Mike untied her and slipped off the blindfold, leaving her dazed and blinking in the firelight. Judy sat cross-legged on the floor next to them. Her lips were reddened and her eyes were glittering – Kara had the sense that wringing an orgasm out of her had been some kind of small victory.

  ‘God,’ Kara said, her words thick as though she’d been drugged. ‘That was amazing.’

  ‘You did well,’ Mike said, nodding his approval at Judy.

  ‘Do you want to come?’ Kara asked, even though the question felt awkward in her mouth. Judy glanced at Mike. Reading something in his face, she shook her head and looked at the floor.

  ‘Judy’s very self-controlled,’ Mike said, stretching out and tipping his head back. ‘Something you’ve yet to learn, Kara. Holding back can be just as mind-blowing as getting off.’ He smiled at Judy and Kara had the feeling it was part of her lesson.

  Judy left soon after, sweeping her jacket round her shoulders and nodding goodbye at Kara. Her look was hard to fathom – Kara sensed complicity in her eyes, as well as a spark of something else. Jealousy? Amusement? Her hands must still smell of me, Kara thought as she watched Judy disappear down the hallway after Mike.

  But although they’d shared an intense physical connection, Kara guessed there were layers to Judy and her relationship with Mike that she would never understand. Although Kara’s body was sated, at least for the moment, her head seethed with questions. When Mike returned, she was ready to throw a dozen accusations at him, but something in the way he moved around and avoided her eyes made her hesitate.

  ‘How often do you give lessons?’ she asked at last, feeling herself blush even as the words escaped her mouth.

  ‘That’s none of your business,’ Mike answered smoothly. He glanced at the silver watch on his wrist.

  ‘It’s late. You need a good eight hours if we’re recording tomorrow.’ He opened a cupboard and pulled out a duvet, blankets and pillows. Kara frowned as he spread them over the couch.

  ‘You want me to stay on the couch?’ she asked. ‘God, you know how to make a girl feel welcome.’

  ‘Your choice, Kara. Sleep on the couch or go home.’

  ‘That ticking clock will keep me up all night.’

  ‘And if we share a bed we’ll get no sleep at all.’ He approached her and pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. ‘I gave you the orgasm you wanted so badly, Kara. Now, do as I say, please.’

  Kara was silent as he walked away, disappearing without even a kiss goodnight. He’d had his kicks for the evening, she thought bitterly.

  Huddled on the couch watching the dying embers of the fire, Kara listened to the night noises of a strange house. Instead of traffic and shouts on the street, she heard faint creaks and the rustling of water in old pipes. The fractious ticking of the brass clock became louder and more insistent in the thick silence. She wanted to stay awake and unravel all her tangled thought-clutter, but there were too many loose ends, too many events and worries. She fell asleep with a frown on her face and her hands jammed tightly between her legs.

  ‘See you soon,’ Mike said as he dropped her off by the park’s iron gates.

  They’d agreed she’d go and get a coffee before following Mike to the studio. Not that their affair was a secret. Just – private, Mike said. Not something he wanted broadcast to the world.

  Kara inhaled a deep lungful of the freezing-cold air. Frost edged the grass playing fields in the park and everything sparkled. She plunged her hands into her pockets and shivered. She was nervous about the session, nervous about seeing Jon. God knows what mood Tam would show up in. In fact, when she thought about walking into the studio to face the undercurrents and secrets and ripples of jealousy, Kara almost wanted to turn and run for it.

  ‘All right.’ Tam’s voice hit her like a jolt of caffeine. He stood behind her, dressed in a fur-lined parka with his guitar slung over his shoulder. Kara covered her awkwardness by laughing out loud and breathed a puff of steam into the frozen air.

  ‘God, I’m glad to see you,’ she said, reaching for his arm. She’d almost forgotten their last intense encounter when he’d scrawled his signature on the contract and left immediately. He didn’t recoil, but he didn’t respond to her touch either, turning to look up the street as though he were waiting for someone.

  ‘Seen Jon recently?’ he asked.

  ‘Have you?’

  ‘No. But I hear things are fucked up with him and Ruby.’

  Kara’s heart squeezed. ‘Shit. How come?’

  Tam turned back to look at her. There was nothing there in his eyes, no anger or desire. His pupils were just flat dark discs. It sent Kara’s heart into a lurching freefall again. Raging hatred or sneering contempt would be easier to take than indifference.

  ‘What happened, Tam?’ Alarms were ringing in her head. Don’t go there, they warned, but Kara pushed on anyway, desperate to get some kind of response out of Tam, some flicker of feeling. She was still holding on to him and now she twisted a handful of his coat in her fist.

  Tam shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Jon said you knew all about it.’

  Kara felt sick. So Jon hadn’t kept their pact after all and now everything was shot to hell. Stupid, stupid mistake, she chanted in her head. How had she let herself get into that situation?

  ‘Gonna give me my jacket back?’ Tam said, giving her a curious look.

  Kara dropped her hands and took a stumbling step backwards.

  ‘Everything OK?’ Tam asked. But he didn’t honestly look like he wanted to hear it. And anyway, where would she start? How could she explain what was going on, when she didn’t understand it herself? She buried her face in her hands and pressed her cold fingertips against her eyelids. This record deal should have been a dream come true, but ever since she’d bumped into Mike Greene, life had suddenly become a twisted game of screwing and screw-ups. Her libido was thrilled, sure, but Kara’s head was spinning and she was strung out so far she didn’t know which way was up. Don’t look down, she told herself. Keep aiming for the prize.

  Kara pursed her lips and blew a thin stream of air. ‘Let’s get in there,’ she said. She started walking towards the studio without checking to see if Tam was following.

  The door was propped open when they arrived. Kara pulled up short when she saw who was sitting behind the reception desk. Glossy and groomed and smiling brightly, Judy nodded a welcome to her.

  Kara would have laughed if her stomach wasn’t doing somersaults. Did Mike only work with women he’d been involved with? Or was it the other way round? Was the company just a hunting ground for new playmates?

  ‘You work here?’ Kara asked, trying to keep her composure.

  Judy smiled. ‘Part-time,’ she said. ‘When I’m not studying.’

  At the mention of studying, Kara instantly thought of Mike and his ‘lessons’. A prickle of embarrassment and confusion washed over her and she took a step backwards, only to cannon straight into someone. She spun on her heel.

  ‘Hey, Jon,’ she said, automatically checking over his shoulder to see if Ruby was behind him. Half of her hoped to see her drummer turn up and half of her was awash with guilt. ‘Is Ruby here?’

  Wordlessly, Jon handed her a brown envelope, ripped open at one end. Frowning, Kara took it and felt inside. She drew out a few sheets of thick glossy paper. They were contact sheets, dozens of thumbnails of the photos Jerome had taken. High colour, pin sharp.

  Kara scanned them quickly. There she was, in violet rubber, pouting and posing. Jon was a shadowy figure lurking in the background, looking startled and uncomfortable. Laid in sequence across the page, the images reminded Kara of one of those flick-through books, each picture advancing forwards, with Jon shifting round her, reaching for her, bound to her with ropes. Just looking at the pictures made her skin prickle. They were good shots – horny, stylish, bold. And they reminded Kara immediately of what they’d led to �
� her with her skirt split open and Jon pressing his mouth against her. Stupid, stupid, delicious mistake.

  Keeping her face blank, Kara ran her eyes over the sheets, feeling progressively more uncomfortable as the rope appeared round Jon’s wrists and the shots got wilder. It didn’t help that Tam was breathing down her neck, checking out the sordid poses his best friend had got tangled up in, with the girl he had a history of fucking.

  ‘Where did these come from?’ Kara said sharply.

  ‘Someone put them through the door last night,’ Jon said. His voice was hollow and dry, as though he’d been smoking all night.

  ‘Someone? As in Lina?’

  Jon shrugged. His eyes were fixed on the sheet in Kara’s hands. She followed his gaze and her breath caught in her throat as she saw what he was looking at. Half-a-dozen pictures of Jon with his face in Kara’s crotch. Intimate, candid and quite clearly not publishable.

  ‘How –’ Kara’s question died in her throat. How had Jerome even taken those shots when his camera had ‘run out of memory’?

  ‘Ruby saw these?’ she asked Jon, with a feeling like the ground was shifting under her feet.

  Jon nodded.

  ‘But they weren’t there –’ Kara broke off. ‘We weren’t posing,’ she finished weakly.

  ‘That’s probably what bothered Ruby,’ Judy murmured, studying her screen.

  Kara looked up with her mouth open. ‘Has everybody seen these?’ she demanded.

  Judy ducked her head to the keyboard and pursed her lips, refusing to answer.

  Kara’s shoulders sagged. Behind her, Tam reached out and clapped his hand on her shoulder.

  ‘It’s OK, Kara,’ he said. ‘They’re just a few photos. Can’t be that bad.’ He rubbed her shoulder gently. ‘Give Rubes a bit of time to cool off. She knows you’re a wild flirt. She’ll come round.’

  Please don’t be nice to me, Kara thought. When Tam was kind to her, she knew things were really screwed up. His hand circled the tight knot of muscles at the base of her neck, and part of her wanted to sink into his hands and let him work out all her problems for her. But not here. Not now. His sympathy threatened to make her dissolve.