Diamond (12 page)

‘Was Kathy Watson the one—?’

‘Ooh, you’d know her if you saw her, love. Used to be down the club every night in that silver dress, hardly anything to it. Slow-dancing with all the married men.’

God, yes, I remember
.

‘Nobody knows who the lad’s father is. Could be one of any number of fellas. Hardly surprising he turned out the way he did.’

‘What’s his name, then?’

‘Jason Watson. Bad lot. He was in all the papers. Caught red-handed but got away from the coppers. A few weeks back, it were. A wanted man.’

‘Is there a reward?’

Jean shrugged.

‘Nobody’s got the money round here, love. I expect he’s long gone by now, anyway.’

‘But the girl, Mia, is still on the estate?’

‘I don’t know. I try to keep out of it all.’ Jean sighed. ‘Almost makes me glad I was never able to have kids of me own, seeing what they’ve all come to. Why can’t they look to people like you and Deano instead of all these bloody drug dealers? I don’t know.’

‘They’ve no hope,’ Jenna suggested. ‘Nothing to aim for but pipe dreams and cartoon bling.’

‘Eh? Cartoon bling? What’s that, then, love?’

‘Oh, nothing.’

‘This place has lost its heart,’ said Jean. ‘It were so different, once. Do you remember?’

The rest of the visit was taken up with nostalgia about the thriving social scene of thirty years ago and more, the days before Leonardo – before
Jason
– was even born.

Jenna didn’t dare refer back to the subject for fear
of being seen to take too deep an interest, but she kept the names deep in her heart, ready to be brought out later. Jason Watson. Mia Tarbuck. Ready for the Google treatment, as soon as she could get on to her phone.

By the time she left Auntie Jean’s, there was a large-ish mob swelling on the pavement and sitting on the wall.

‘Jenna Diamond,’ shouted one child, leading to a general repetition of her name that rang around the street. They massed around her, an unkempt swarm, smelling of bubble gum and dirt.

‘Why ain’t you in America no more?’ asked one little girl. ‘’Ave you left
Talent Team
?’

‘Why?’

‘Where’s Deano Diamond?’

‘Are you living back here now?’

She blocked all the questions with an upraised palm and a shake of her head.

‘Let me past, please,’ she said. ‘Let me pass and I promise I’ll come and do a talk at your school.’

‘Cool!’

‘Lame!’

Opinion seemed to be divided here, the girls being keener on this suggestion than the boys in general. Jenna made a slow but steady progress through the jostle, but when she got to her car, the wing mirrors were bent and there was a crack on the windscreen as if a piece of gravel had flown up from the road and hit it.

‘Who did this?’ she demanded, but laughter and shrugs were her only reply. A couple of older boys smirked over the handlebars of their bikes. She thought, vividly and suddenly, of Leonardo. He would have been one of them, once.

‘You want to watch yourselves,’ she said. ‘Keep out of trouble. Once you’re in, you’re in and it gets harder and harder to stop.’

‘What are you, a Fed?’ asked one in disgust.

She climbed inside the car and turned the key in the ignition. Even then, it was some time before the kids would get out of the way enough for her to drive off.

Jenna didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she was a bit shaken.

Don’t be daft. It’s just kids. You were one, once. You aren’t going to let a bunch of snotty kids scare you off the streets where you grew up, are you?

Back at the house, the kitchen fitters were piling back into their van, ready to leave for the day.

‘Are you almost done?’ she asked, bumping into the last at the gate.

‘Another day should do it,’ he said. ‘Got the worktops fitted now – it’s looking good.’

She went straight up to the attic, where she found a shirtless Leonardo crouching down to brush in the street level detail of his latest work.

He didn’t turn around, though he must have heard the attic door creak and slap down on the boards. She watched him, his dark hair brushing his bare shoulders, his spare, strong frame, the little gap in his jeans she could put a finger in and tug to tighten them over his abdomen. He was barefoot and the soles of his feet were filthy.

‘Evening, Jason,’ she said, once he had put the brush in his jam jar of water.

He still didn’t turn but she saw his shoulders tense.

‘Who’ve you been talking to?’

‘My old next-door neighbour. Went round for tea.’

He stood up and turned, facing her down.

‘So, did you find out what you wanted to know?’ he asked tonelessly.

‘Only what I already knew. Except your name. I didn’t know that.’

‘You didn’t need to know.’

‘But, Jason,’ she said, liking the name as she spoke it, thinking it more suitable than the ridiculous Leonardo. ‘Why shouldn’t I know it?’

‘I liked being who I am here. I liked having no past and no future, just my art and my woman. Now it’s spoiled.’

‘Oh, don’t be silly. How could that have lasted anyway? We have to live in the world.’ She felt a flutter at the pit of her stomach, all the same, at being described as his woman.

‘I don’t see why,’ he said, stubborn and grim-faced. ‘What’s the fucking world got to do with us?’

‘What,’ she said tentatively, ‘if I were to find Mia? If I were to find out what really happened and who was really responsible for what went on in that house?’

‘Oh, no, leave it,’ he said, shaking his head and striding towards her. He caught her arms in his hands and held them to her sides. ‘You can’t get involved, Jen. Don’t go near this.’

‘But if you could be vindicated—’

‘It won’t happen. All that will happen is that you’ll put yourself at risk. Stay away from those people, Jen. Even Mia. It’s too late for her. It’s not too late for you.’

‘But it’s not right!’

‘That’s life.’

‘But …’

He put a heavily paint-stained finger to her lips.

‘I’m serious, Jen. Leave it.’

She shook her head, her mouth rubbing his finger so that dried paint flaked onto her lips.

‘You’re filthy,’ she said.

He smiled at last. ‘You only just worked that out?’

‘I’m going to run you a bath.’

‘I’m only getting in if you come with me.’

‘Deal.’

Jenna watched the paint flecks melt in the warm water and lose themselves in the foamy depths. She sat opposite Jason, gazing at his face through the steam, her ankles pressing into his hips.

‘You could do with a hair cut,’ she said.

‘What for? Disguise?’

She smiled. ‘Maybe. If you’re going to take the art world by storm, you need to be able to leave the house without getting arrested. What if we dyed it peroxide blond and cropped it really short?’

‘Fuck off. I’d look like Miley Cyrus.’

Jenna burst out laughing. ‘Hardly. Seriously, it was one of Deano’s best looks. The fashion press went mad over it.’

‘It’s not for me.’

‘No,’ she agreed. ‘No, it wouldn’t really suit you. Your carpet and curtains wouldn’t match, would they?’

He smirked at that.

‘I could go for an all-over body wax,’ he said.

‘Oh, you could. Back, sac and crack. That was all the rage in LA.’

‘Yeah, well, I don’t think I’ll be moving there any time soon. I’ll keep the hair, thanks.’

‘You’re probably better off that way. But what am I
going to do, then? How am I going to bring your brilliance to a world that wants to arrest you?’

‘When did I ever say I wanted to be a star?’

‘Come on. You do.’

He concentrated on cupping her foot in his hands, lathering it up, heel, instep, toes, before answering.

‘It’s a daydream, though. It’s never going to happen for real.’

‘I believe it could. I believe in you. You’re talented – more than talented.’

‘So says the art critic.’

‘All right, I don’t know that much about art. But I have friends who do.’

‘Invite ’em round for cocktails, darling.’ He moved soapy hands up Jenna’s calf.

‘I’m not joking. I know I can’t exactly show
you
off, but I can take your work to be evaluated at a top London gallery.’

‘Ooh, a top London gallery. Fancy.’ There was a hostile edge to his words, mixed in with the mockery.

‘What’s the matter with that? Why are you so chippy with me?’

‘Forget about my artistic career, Jen. Leave it. Let’s do up the house and then think about what’s next after that.’

‘Well. All right. If that’s what you want. I’m not going to leave it, though, not completely. I want you to get the recognition you deserve.’

‘Yeah, well, as far as some people are concerned that’s a front page spot in the court report.’

‘But—’

‘Shut up.’

The abrupt and commanding tone silenced her. She tried to withdraw her leg but he held it tight.

‘Shut up,’ he said, more gently, ‘and listen to me. We’re strangers, Jen. We met a few days back. Why don’t we get to know each other properly first?’

‘I feel I know you.’

‘Trust me, you don’t. I want to show you exactly what you don’t know.’

There was a look in his eye that convinced Jenna he was talking about sex.

‘I have been married,’ she said with a nervous laugh.

‘Exactly,’ he said. ‘To a man who was more interested in what he put up his nose than what he put up you.’

‘Jason!’

‘It’s true, isn’t it? You told me yourself.’

‘There’s no need to be crude.’

‘Yes there is. I’m crude because I’m real, doll. Nothing tinsel-town about me. I know what you need and I can give it to you, simple as.’

‘You’re an arrogant prick.’

‘And? What’s your point?’

She pretended to kick at him, but he held firm. He knew, damn him, that she wanted him right now, wanted him to pin her down there in the bath and surge into her, joining their respective energies until they were one. But her pride always made her fight it, even when her desire for him poured through her like liquid light.

‘You know, you’ve disappointed me about LA,’ he said.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I thought it’d all be wild, kinky porno sex out there. Threesomes and orgies and shit. Turns out Bledburn’s got more of that going on.’

‘Has it really?’ She laughed.

‘Oh yes. Really. You’d be shocked, my lady.’

‘I don’t remember anything like that.’

‘Well, you’re a bit older than me. But what do kids do when there’s no work and no nothing in their lives? They shag, that’s what.’

‘That’s what you did.’

‘Of course. I was about the worst, cos I didn’t drink a lot or smoke weed, which were the other popular hobbies round my way. I preferred the other, and so did the girls I knew, mostly.’

‘So you’ve spent the best years of your life in bed?’

‘I hope the best years of my life haven’t ended yet,’ he said. ‘But yeah, basically. In bed, in sleeping bags, on floors, in fields, in alleyways, in the backs of vans. Threesomes, foursomes, moresomes. Then, when I got with Mia, she had a friend who did those parties – y’know, sexy knickers and vibrators and what not. We got into bondage. I’m good at bondage.’

‘Surprise, surprise.’

‘I’m good at the kinky stuff, me. I think it’s because I like to be in control – that’s why I never got into the booze or the weed, thinking about it. I hate the feeling of being out of control.’

‘And was Mia into it too?’ Jenna could barely speak her name without a sharp pain in her abdomen. Was it jealousy? Or anger at how she had abandoned Jason to his fate?

‘Yeah, big time. At first.’ He frowned. ‘Before she started going AWOL.’

There was a silence. Jason dropped her leg and reached for the shampoo bottle.

‘Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about,’ he said. ‘Come here. I’ll wash your hair.’

She twisted around and settled herself between his thighs with her back to him so he could apply the shampoo with strong, sure fingers. Little shivers of pleasure ran from her scalp to the rest of her body.

‘I’m going to give you all the attention you’ve been missing,’ he whispered into her ear. ‘I’m going to show you what you’ve never had.’ He took her earlobe between his lips and sucked it like a lemon drop before letting it slip back out.

His hands clasped beneath her breasts, he began kissing and nipping at her neck while creamy suds slid down her forehead, forcing her to shut her eyes. His palms closed over her nipples, squeezing. She wriggled back against his stomach, inclining her head to encourage him further, showing him that she was his to do with as he pleased. God, he was just so good at it, why deny him?

He clamped her thighs between his, locking her in his clutches. Behind her, between her bottom cheeks, she could feel the slow inflation and hardening of his erection. That wasn’t going to go down until it had had its way with her, she thought with a thrill.

She tilted her head to meet his lips and fall into a warm, wet, steamy kiss.

He stroked her nipples through it, then broke off and grabbed the cup on the side of the bath, plunged it in the water and poured it over her head.

‘Lather, rinse, repeat,’ he said laconically. ‘But I think I’ll pass on the repeat.’

He stood unsteadily, climbed out of the bath, grabbed the nearest towel and wrapped it around his waist. Still
dripping all over the ancient lino, he pulled Jenna up and lifted her into his arms, not even bothering to cover her streaming skin.

Instead, he carried her down to their drawing room campsite and dropped her on the mattress.

‘I’ll get it wet,’ she complained, but he didn’t seem to care at all, although he removed the towel from his waist and laid it down on the bed before putting his back and soaking head on top of it.

He reached down beside the bed for the condom packet and put one on while Jenna was still groping around for a comb or a bathrobe or anything to take off the sudden chill of being removed from the hot water.

‘Never mind that,’ said Jason, pulling her over him. ‘Get on me. Get me up inside you. I want you now.’

The gravelly urgency of his voice banished all thoughts of damp patches and goose pimples from her mind. He was there, next to her and underneath her, his hot skin against hers, and nothing else mattered.