The Bracelet Read online

  Kristina sighed. ‘Forget it. It doesn’t matter anyway; I’m out tonight.’

  ‘But it’s Wednesday!’ exclaimed Ben. ‘We always spend Wednesday nights together if we can.’

  ‘I know, but tonight we can’t. Besides, that might once have been true but it isn’t any more. I don’t think we’ve managed a Wednesday night together for the past six months.’

  ‘Well that’s not my fault,’ declared Ben, glancing at his watch and putting on his jacket. ‘You’re the one who’s got the high-powered career.’

  ‘We’ve both got high-powered careers,’ said Kristina calmly.

  Ben seemed appeased by her reply. ‘Okay, we’ve both got high-powered careers. And that’s the reason why we find it difficult to make time for each other. Although I must say that I sometimes seem to try harder than you do.’

  ‘In what way?’ asked Kristina.

  ‘I don’t think you had to stay out quite so late with Lucretia. I’m well aware of the money she makes you, but she isn’t normally a night-owl. Surely you could have got away before you did?’

  ‘Were you planning something special then?’ asked Kristina, mildly intrigued.

  ‘Yes, an early night.’

  She was pleased when she heard the front door close behind him. An early night! If he only knew what she’d really been doing, she thought with a smile. She had no doubt that Tarquin Rashid had a high-powered career, but it didn’t seem to limit his nocturnal activities.

  As Kristina dressed for work, she ran her fingers over the slowly fading scratch marks on her breasts. She replayed the events of the previous evening in her mind and realised that her nipples were becoming erect, and her whole body began to feel tight with desire. She wondered if she’d hear from him today. He’d looked as intrigued by her as she’d been by him, but then again he could be seeing a lot of women, in which case she might only ever be sent for one night a week.

  She spent so long daydreaming that she was nearly late leaving, and pulled on a straight black skirt and short cropped red jacket with gold buttons without stopping to think whether or not the outfit was suitable for her day. They were simply the first items she caught hold of in her wardrobe.

  She knew she’d made a mistake when she walked into her office and Sue raised her eyebrows. ‘You’re looking very smart,’ she murmured. ‘Have you forgotten it’s Tom’s day today?’

  ‘Tom?’ asked Kristina in horror. Tom was a naturalist. He wandered the world studying rare animals, returning now and again with a mass of incredible photographs and pages of notes that he turned into instant bestsellers before disappearing into the uncivilised areas of the world again.

  Kristina liked him, but he took no interest in material things and always turned up for their meetings in torn cords or jeans and with a shirt that had seen better days, the collar fraying and buttons invariably missing. On Tom’s days Kristina took care to dress down and they ate sandwiches in her office because he hated the hustle and bustle of London restaurants.

  ‘I’m going straight out after work,’ she explained to Sue.

  ‘Hope you don’t scare Tom off then. He’s only seen sabre-toothed tigers and pygmies for the past ten months!’ giggled Sue.

  ‘Well, I’ll growl for him, if you think that will help.’

  ‘It might have some effect!’ called Sue as Kristina closed her door and shut herself away.

  For nearly half an hour she stared sightlessly out of her window, trying to recall the exact way she’d felt when she’d entered Tarquin’s house the night before. She could remember the sensation of Lydia’s hands when she’d been in the bath, and the feel of Tarquin’s tongue between her thighs, but many of the moments had vanished into oblivion and she longed to recall them in vivid detail. To her annoyance the longer the time that elapsed the more difficult this became. It was as though everything that had happened to her in St John’s Wood had been a dream, and after waking the dream was slowly vanishing, as the best dreams always did.

  When the phone rang she began to shake with excitement and had to take some deep breaths before she spoke. ‘Kristina Masterton here.’

  ‘Hi, it’s Jackie!’ said her friend. ‘I wondered how you were.’

  ‘Jackie! I was going to call you later anyway. Guess what?’

  ‘Tell me,’ said Jackie with a laugh.

  ‘I’ve had my first visit, and it was the most incredible experience of my life. No wonder you said you’ve changed since you joined the society. I’d never have believed the way I felt last night when …’

  ‘Look, we shouldn’t talk over the phone,’ interrupted Jackie. ‘Can we meet tonight? Say straight after work, about six?’

  ‘Of course. Where?’

  ‘Franco’s. He never minds if we only have coffee, and I can’t stay long because I’m seeing Laurence at eight, and if I’m late he sends me away.’

  ‘Right, six at Franco’s,’ agreed Kristina quickly. She couldn’t wait to tell her friend about Tarquin, everything he’d done, and also what he’d failed to do.

  The rest of the day seemed to drag by. Kristina knew that she wasn’t paying enough attention to Tom, and she was aware that he knew it too because he kept frowning and glancing at his shoes for inspiration.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked at one point. ‘Don’t you think people will be interested any more? Have things changed a lot while I’ve been gone? I knew it had to happen one day, but the publisher seemed keen when I set off.’

  ‘No, no honestly it all sounds wonderful!’ enthused Kristina. ‘It isn’t you, Tom, it’s me. I think I’m coming down with the summer flu or something. I’m having trouble concentrating.’

  ‘You ought to get more exercise,’ Tom told her. ‘Human beings weren’t designed to sit at desks all day.’

  Kristina thought this was probably true. She wondered if Tarquin had ever taken a woman over his desk, and decided that he probably had. Then her mind wandered and she conjured up a scenario where he was taking her over her desk, while Sue sat outside typing away, blissfully unaware of what was happening inside the main office.

  ‘I’ll leave it all with you then,’ announced Tom, standing up and dumping a mound of papers and photographs on her desk.

  ‘But Tom,’ she protested, ‘that doesn’t look to be in any kind of order!’

  ‘I’ve been trying to sort the order out with you for the past twenty minutes, Kristina,’ he said softly. ‘Either your flu’s worse than you’re letting on or you’ve something else on your mind. Well, I’ve done my bit, and now you can do yours. Let me know how much they’re willing to pay up front and then I can leave the big cities behind again. It can’t happen quickly enough for me either, I can tell you.’

  Kristina felt mortified. ‘I’m truly sorry, Tom. I know I haven’t been any help, but I promise I’ll get it sorted out and you’ll end up with a terrific deal. Trust me.’

  ‘I do, at least I always have before,’ he muttered. ‘You know where you can contact me. Hope to hear something soon.’

  ‘Tom!’ she called, but it was too late and he’d gone without even eating the sandwiches Sue had bought that morning.

  ‘Damn!’ she exclaimed, picking up a prawn and lettuce one and taking a large bite. ‘Pull yourself together Kristina, this isn’t good enough.’

  She spent the rest of the day trying to make it up to Tom by negotiating with more than her usual tenacity, and when she rang him at five-thirty and named the sum she’d finally obtained for world rights he was clearly both surprised and delighted.

  ‘I thought you were losing your touch this morning,’ he confessed as the conversation drew to a close. ‘But I admit it, I was wrong. Get off home now and take care of that ’flu.’

  ‘I’m just leaving,’ she told him truthfully, but despite her excitement at seeing Jackie she was more than a little perturbed that someone as unassuming and generally unobservant as Tom should have thought she was losing her touch. It made her wonder how she’d be after her next vis
it to Tarquin.

  At six o’clock there were few people in Franco’s, and he gave Kristina and Jackie their usual table, tucked away in the far corner of the restaurant area, despite the fact that they were only there for a coffee.

  ‘You come here and eat soon?’ he queried, putting the cups of espresso down in front of them.

  ‘We certainly will,’ promised Jackie, flicking her blonde fringe out of her eyes, and for once Kristina realised that Franco was more interested in her friend than he was in her. She thought that it was probably because Jackie still had the glow about her that she and Ben had noticed the night they dined with her and Laurence.

  ‘Tell me about your date then,’ said Jackie, leaning across the table and lowering her voice. ‘What did it feel like when you put on the bracelet?’

  ‘Scary and exciting at the same time,’ admitted Kristina. ‘He’s the most amazing man. I suppose it’s his mixed blood or something, but he isn’t like anyone else I’ve ever met. There’s this masculinity about him that English men seem to have lost over the past few years.’

  ‘They don’t want to seem macho any more, that’s why. They’re all trying to be New Men.’

  ‘Yes, but even at the times when they are in control they aren’t like Tarquin! And it was so sensuous. He took everything at such a slow rate. You won’t believe this but even when I left we still hadn’t made love properly.’

  Jackie’s eyes widened in astonishment. ‘You mean he hadn’t …’

  ‘No! I don’t think he had an orgasm himself. He probably had one with Lydia after I’d gone. They seemed to know each other pretty well.’

  ‘Didn’t you mind?’ asked Jackie.

  Kristina shook her head. ‘Not in the least. I would, if I thought I was never going to see him again, but he made it clear that wasn’t the case and it just made me even more excited about our next meeting. And I’ve never had such an intense climax. After all that waiting I shattered into a thousand pieces!’

  At the adjoining table two middle-aged women stopped drinking their coffees and turned their heads towards Kristina and Jackie. Jackie grinned. ‘Better keep your voice down. We’re not here to provide entertainment! How about having to obey? What was that like for you?’

  ‘The biggest turn-on imaginable. The trouble is, all I’ve done today is go over and over it all in my mind. I couldn’t concentrate properly on my work, and every time the phone went I thought it was Tarquin.’

  ‘It gets worse,’ Jackie assured her. ‘Sometimes I can hardly string a sentence together at work after Laurence and I have had a long session. I’m losing interest in everything but our meetings, and I keep picturing things that I hope he’ll do to me. Unfortunately, I can’t vocalise them and there are one or two things he’s never suggested.’

  ‘Don’t you get a chance to mention them when you take the bracelet off?’ asked Kristina.

  ‘I don’t take it off very often,’ confessed Jackie. ‘I used to of course, at the beginning. Now, I prefer to keep it on even if we’re at the cinema or the health club. The other night he made me take off my bikini bottom and let him make love to me in the pool while other people swam all around us. I was terrified we’d be spotted and thrown out, but at the same time it made me come harder than ever before.’

  ‘Does he ever do things that you don’t like?’ asked Kristina curiously.

  Jackie hesitated. ‘He’s done things that I wasn’t sure about to start with, but I’ve always gone along with them and by the end I find that I like them too.’

  ‘Why do you go along with them?’

  Jackie looked slightly embarrassed. ‘I guess I’m afraid that if I don’t he won’t ever see me again.’

  ‘But he’s never hurt you?’ persisted Kristina, remembering the thin red nail marks that had covered her breasts.

  Jackie glanced away. ‘It all depends on what you mean by hurting someone, doesn’t it? He’s tied me up and sometimes punishes me, but to be honest those are the best times. When I’m helpless and being disciplined I feel as though it doesn’t matter how extreme my sexual reaction is because it isn’t my fault. He’s making me behave that way, and so he takes the responsibility out of my hands. If my fellow feminists could hear me they’d probably have me lynched, but it’s the truth, and after all it isn’t real life, so where’s the harm?’

  Kristina shivered. ‘I think that if Tarquin ever starts doing things like that, I could very easily be totally taken over by him. You were right, Jackie. This game’s like a drug, and I’m not sure that people like us should get addicted.’

  ‘Why not? We work hard, we deserve the right to play hard as well,’ retorted Jackie.

  ‘Agreed, but suppose that by playing hard we find that we can’t work as hard any more? What happens then?’

  Jackie went pink and she picked up her shoulder bag. ‘Who cares? It’s time I was off. I would just say this though, Kristina. Your Tarquin sounds a far more subtle and dangerous type than Laurence. With Laurence I knew what I was getting right from the first moment. You’ve no idea where Tarquin’s going to lead you, so perhaps you’re right to be nervous. If you’re not sure, don’t see him again, because believe me once you’re really involved there’s no way out. I’d rather lose everything I’ve got than give up Laurence, and that includes my job. There, I’ve shocked you, haven’t I?’

  ‘A bit,’ admitted Kristina.

  ‘Well, it’s the truth, so remember what I said and be warned. Keep in touch. I want to know what happens next time.’

  Kristina watched her friend walk out of the restaurant and slowly drank the last of her coffee. She wanted to know the same thing, and hoped it wouldn’t be too long before she learned exactly where Tarquin was leading her.

  Five nights later, at nine-fifteen precisely, she was standing once more outside Tarquin’s house in St John’s Wood, her pulse racing as she rang the doorbell. Just as she’d thought the call was never coming he’d rung her at home, about three minutes after she’d arrived back from work, and instructed her to be at his home that same evening.

  It had been very difficult making up an excuse for Ben at such short notice, but in the end she’d invented a sudden visit from an American agent who was only free for the one evening and had to see her. Ben had frowned, but hadn’t questioned her story at all, and she was surprised to find that she didn’t feel as ashamed as she should at lying to him.

  Once again Lydia opened the door, but this time Tarquin didn’t come to greet her himself. Lydia led her into one of the downstairs rooms, opening the heavy door and then standing back to allow Kristina to enter.

  The room was in total contrast to the second floor bedroom. All the furniture was modern: glass-topped tables were surrounded by white wooden chairs with modern striped cushions and the curtains at the windows were cream with tiny pink rosebuds on them. Only the chaise longue at the far end of the room looked old-fashioned and out of place.

  ‘I’m glad you were able to make it,’ said Tarquin as he came into the room behind her. ‘I think that this will be a very special night for us both. Let me take your jacket and then you can put on the bracelet.’

  At last the moment had arrived again, and the minute Tarquin had removed her jacket Kristina held out her arm and he slipped the bracelet over her hand.

  As soon as the tiny gold chain was round her wrist the atmosphere changed. Tarquin’s eyes swept over her and he shrugged off his own jacket, placing it carefully over the arm of the nearest chair. Then he loosened the knot of his tie and undid his top shirt button without once pausing in his serious assessment of the slim figure in front of him.

  ‘Take off your dress and all your underclothes,’ he instructed her. ‘Make sure that you keep your eyes down the entire time, until I give you permission to look at me again.’

  Kristina didn’t want to look away from him. She wanted to see his face as she removed her clothes, see his eyes light up with appreciation and desire, but the fact that she couldn’t, that he wouldn�
��t allow her even that small pleasure, merely increased her excitement.

  She struggled briefly with the zip at the back of her dress and then, once that was undone, let the dress fall to the floor and stepped out of it, leaving it in a heap on the carpet. She turned slightly sideways knowing that her high heels and hold-up stockings emphasised her tight buttocks, and was rewarded by the faintest intake of breath from Tarquin.

  Taking care to keep her eyes down in feigned modesty she bent forward from the waist to step out of her half-slip, and her underwired push-up bra made the most of her normally small breasts, creating what she knew must be an attractive amount of cleavage.

  Her panties were bikini-style and she hooked one hand into the side nearest him and then eased them down her legs as gracefully as she could manage. Once she’d stepped out of those she was left in only her bra and stockings and the need to look at him and see what effect her slow, careful undressing was having on him was almost overwhelming, but she knew that to disobey would be fatal and with an inwards sigh rolled down her stockings, stroking her legs sensuously as she did so.

  Now there was only her bra left and as she reached behind her she paused for a second, almost teasing him as to whether or not she was going to remove it, then she unhooked the clasp and dropped the garment to one side where it joined her slip and panties.

  ‘Face me and lift your eyes to mine,’ murmured Tarquin, his voice huskier than usual. Kristina was warming to the game now and she took her time over obeying but finally she was facing him, standing directly opposite him, and she raised her blue eyes to him, lifting her chin in an unconscious gesture of defiance.

  ‘You did that well,’ he said approvingly. ‘I think it’s time the rest of my clothes were removed too. I’ll ring for Lydia.’

  To Kristina’s surprise he pressed a bell concealed in the fire surround and almost immediately Lydia glided into the room. She was wearing a long purple sari trimmed with gold and looked beautiful and exotic. She needed no instructions but went straight to her employer and started to remove his shirt and tie.