Forbidden Desires (8 page)

‘Where’s Lewis?’ asked Edmund, walking beside Harriet while Noella went on ahead.

‘On the telephone, as usual. He said he’ll join us in a few minutes.’

‘Is the bikini for swimming in, or purely decorative purposes?’ he enquired with a smile.

‘Oh it’s multi-functional. I can look decorative and swim at the same time.’

‘I’m sure you can; in fact, it’s hard to imagine you looking anything other than decorative,’ he observed.

‘Hey, these loungers are quite comfortable,’ called Noella, settling herself down beside the pool and covering herself liberally with sun cream.

‘For someone who’s so bothered about the sun you’ve got a very good tan,’ remarked Harriet.

‘Fake, honey. It’s all from a bottle; you won’t catch me burning in the sun or frying to death on a sunbed. Edmund, can you do my back for me?’

Edmund took the bottle from her and then spread the lotion over her shoulders, legs and arms, all of which were left exposed by her striking blue and white swimsuit with its contrasting diagonal floral pattern. ‘Roll over, I’ll do your back,’ he said when he’d finished, and with a sigh of contentment Noella obeyed.

Watching him work the lotion into Noella’s skin, Harriet tried to imagine how his supple
fingers would feel on her flesh, and what the sensation would be like if the fingers were then to stray into the inside of her bikini bottom.

‘Keep right on, sweetheart,’ whispered Noella when he’d finished but Edmund merely straightened up and turned to Harriet.

‘Would you like some on you? We don’t want you getting burnt and having to stay out of the sun for the next week.’

Harriet stared at him, her eyes wide; he stared back at her, his fingers gripping the tube of suncream tightly. ‘Perhaps that’s a good idea,’ she conceded, ‘although I don’t usually burn.’

‘Lie down on the lounger next to Noella’s. I’ll start with your back.’ His voice was brisk and impersonal, and Harriet wondered if she’d imagined the look of desire in his eyes a moment earlier. Stretching out on her stomach she tensed in anticipation of his first touch.

‘Relax,’ he said softly. ‘What do you think I’m going to do to you?’

‘I hate the first bit of cream going on, it’s always so cold,’ said Harriet, hoping he’d accept her explanation.

‘Personally I like contrasts,’ he responded, his fingers moving lazily over her flesh. ‘Cold cream on hot skin, warm water on cold flesh, they’re exquisite contrasts.’

His fingers were exquisite too. They skimmed across the surface of her body and brought every nerve ending to life so that when he’d finished she tingled all over her back. ‘Now for the front,’
he said calmly. Harriet rolled over, keeping her eyes closed to blot out the sight of him. As his fingers touched the fragile bones at the base of her neck she felt a sudden surge of desire and her nipples hardened, brushing against the flimsy fabric of her bikini. Her stomach muscles jumped nervously and she deliberately tried to slow her breathing as a wonderful glowing sensation began to spread through her.

With careful strokes of his fingers, Edmund spread the cream across the exposed tops of her breasts, now thrust upwards by her position, and he felt the tissue swell beneath his hands. Without thinking, Harriet gave a soft sigh and arched her back a little to allow him easier access.

‘What’s going on here?’ called Lewis, his voice breaking into her sensual reverie.

‘Harriet was worried she’d burn,’ explained Edmund, offering the tube to Lewis. ‘Here, you take over.’

Harriet opened her eyes and stared up at the two men standing over her. Lewis looked down at her, his dark eyes unfathomable. ‘You carry on,’ he said to Edmund, after only the slightest hesitation. ‘I’ve got some more calls to make.’

‘You haven’t brought your phone out here,’ complained Harriet.

‘He’s a busy man,’ Edmund reminded her. ‘Come on, let me finish and then you can go in the water. Can you move your legs a little wider apart?’

Harriet continued to stare up at her husband
and suddenly he smiled at her, ran his fingers through her hair and then moved away to sit in the shade, leaving Edmund free to work on her legs.

Slowly Harriet parted her thighs and felt Edmund’s hands massaging cream into the tops of her feet, and the place where the skin was stretched tightly over her ankle bones, before moving up over her calf muscles and then, at last, he was rubbing the cool cream into her burning thighs.

Despite herself, Harriet knew that her legs were trembling, and when he spread his fingers wide and eased some of the lotion into the joins of her thighs she was horrified to realise that there was a tightness behind her clitoris, a tightness that always meant the start of her body’s ascent to a climax.

Suddenly she rolled sideways off the lounger, nearly falling into the pool in the process. ‘That’s enough,’ she said, her voice just a fraction too high to sound casual, ‘I want to swim now.’

Edmund nodded, and Harriet was aware that he knew precisely how she felt and why she’d moved at the moment she did. ‘Go ahead,’ he agreed. ‘Noella, are you going in?’

Noella, who’d been watching the pair through her sunglasses, sat up and put her legs to the ground. ‘I’ll just dabble my feet in the water,’ she announced. ‘Harriet can tell me how cold it is.’

As Harriet lowered herself into the pool, Oliver Kesby appeared from the direction of the
pitch-and-putt course. He smiled at Noella who raised a hand in greeting.

‘Is the pool all right for you?’ he asked.

Harriet, who’d just dipped her shoulders beneath the surface, stood upright again, trying to stop her teeth from chattering. ‘Fine,’ she assured him. ‘At least, it should be fine once I start swimming. There’s only a problem if you try and keep still.’

‘I expect it’s warmer where you live,’ replied Oliver, eyeing Noella appreciatively. Her large firm breasts were clearly defined beneath the swimsuit and he found her tanned shoulders and limbs highly arousing.

‘We heat our pools,’ retorted Noella.

Oliver nodded. ‘I’d like to, but the cost would be astronomical and not many people holiday in Cornwall these days. They fly off to America, to Disneyland and Orlando.’

‘You’re blaming us for the cold water are you?’ asked Edmund, standing up and removing his slacks.

‘Not you personally,’ said Oliver hastily.

‘Edmund isn’t an American!’ laughed Noella. ‘That’s probably the biggest insult you could offer him. Isn’t that right, honey?’

But Edmund, who’d dived in and was now moving through the water with a powerful crawl, didn’t hear her.

Noella watched him catch up with Harriet in the deep end, and saw the two of them become immersed in a conversation that entailed a great
deal of laughter, despite the fact that laughter didn’t come easily to her husband. With the slightest of frowns she turned her attention back to Oliver. ‘Do you swim?’ she asked.

‘All the year round, although during the winter months I use the local baths.’

‘What else do you do to keep fit?’ asked Noella.

His pale blue eyes looked uneasy. ‘Oh, you know, a bit of weight-lifting, some karate, that kind of thing.’

‘Very macho. How about women?’

‘Women?’

‘Sure, you know, people like me!’

Oliver’s mouth tightened. ‘I do know what a woman is.’

‘I’m sure you do, honey, and how to treat them. All I meant was, is there a special woman in your life right now?’

‘Right now?’ he asked, looking at her meaningfully.

‘Yeah, right now.’

‘There wasn’t, until yesterday,’ he answered softly.

Noella smiled. ‘You know, that was just the answer I was hoping to hear. Where’s this little cottage of yours?’

Oliver pointed to a gap between some nearby trees. ‘Over there.’

‘You in this evening?’

For the first time he looked a little nervous. ‘I should be, but …’

Noella saw him glance at Edmund, who was
now pulling Harriet around in the water. ‘Don’t worry about my husband, I can take care of him. Will you be in?’

The temptation was too great for Oliver to resist. He knew that it was a mistake, that this woman and her friends were out of his league, but at this moment the thought of actually touching a woman like Noella, let alone making love to her, was irresistible. ‘Yes, I’ll be in,’ he promised.

‘Great, I’ll see you later then.’ With that Noella lay back on her lounger, put her glasses on again and closed her eyes. After a moment’s hesitation, Oliver left them. He had a lot of tidying up to do if Noella was going to keep her word.

In the pool Harriet was laughing as Edmund put his hands on her waist and lifted her in and out of the water. Every time she re-entered the pool she found herself nearer to his body until finally she was actually brushing against him and their legs entwined so that his upper thigh was between hers. ‘I want you, Harriet,’ he whispered. ‘I want to make love to you, to hear you cry out for me the way you cried out for Lewis last night. You know that, don’t you?’ Harriet nodded, the pressure against her pubic bone was delicious and she didn’t want it to stop.

‘I’ll give you pleasure in ways you’ve never dreamt of,’ he continued, his hands tightening against her bare waist. ‘You saw me with Noella in Polperro, didn’t you?’ Again Harriet nodded. ‘Well, I’ll take you like that, out in the open where
people might come along at any moment. I know you’d enjoy it. I’m right, aren’t I?’ Again she nodded, feeling the water move against her vulva as their legs trod water together.

‘Will you let me?’ he persisted, his eyes boring into hers.

‘I really shouldn’t,’ whispered Harriet, her pulse racing. ‘What about Lewis?’

Edmund’s face darkened. ‘Surely you could—’

‘Harriet,’ Lewis called suddenly, cradling the phone between his chin and shoulder, ‘is it all right with you if I go to the local pub and meet up with Mark tonight? I’ll only be gone an hour or so.’

‘Why can’t Mark come here?’ asked Harriet, and felt Edmund’s fingers dig into her flesh. She realised he thought it was a stupid thing for her to say.

‘I didn’t think you’d want us working in the house.’

‘I really don’t care,’ retorted Harriet, torn between irritation at the fact that he was willing to go off and leave her alone with Edmund and her desire for him to do exactly that.

Lewis raised his eyebrows and then returned to his phone conversation.

‘You see,’ said Edmund with a half-smile. ‘Fate’s been kind to us.’

‘There’s still Noella,’ Harriet pointed out.

‘I have a feeling that Noella’s been making plans of her own,’ said Edmund, who’d already suggested that his wife made her first move
towards Oliver in the hope that this would enable him to begin his pursuit of Harriet – a pursuit that he knew Noella anticipated would end with Harriet joining both of them.

Still Harriet hesitated. ‘I’m not sure,’ she murmured.

‘I won’t give up,’ warned Edmund. ‘And believe me, I usually end up getting what I want.’

‘Suppose it isn’t what I want?’ asked Harriet, twisting free of him and starting to swim away.

‘But it is, isn’t it?’ he called after her, and it was.

‘You’re really going then?’ asked Harriet that evening as she watched Lewis taking his jacket from their bedroom wardrobe.

‘Sure, you don’t mind do you?’

Harriet took a deep breath. ‘I don’t mind, but I hope you know exactly what you’re doing.’

Slinging the jacket over his shoulder he looked thoughtfully at her. ‘So do I, Harriet, so do I.’

Harriet knew with absolute certainty that if he went to meet Mark then she and Edmund would make love that evening and the thought both intrigued and frightened her. ‘Please, Lewis, don’t go,’ she said quietly. ‘Life’s good at the moment, let’s not spoil it.’

‘I’m not spoiling anything; I’m simply going out for a drink with my scriptwriter. Where’s the harm in that?’

She knew then that he was quite determined to have his film scenario acted out, whatever the price, and that once she took the first step,
controlling the outcome would prove impossible. ‘No harm,’ she agreed, turning her back on him to stare out of the window. ‘It’s strange,’ she added as he opened the door and went to leave.

‘What’s strange?’

‘For the first time tonight I understand how Rowena felt that summer we met.’

Lewis’s handsome face darkened. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, this isn’t the same thing at all.’

‘Yes it is, Lewis, it’s exactly the same, except that this time your role is a more passive one. Somehow I think that might prove quite difficult for you to accept.’

‘My “role”, as you put it, will be as passive as I wish, and no more than that,’ he retorted and then he was gone.

In the drawing room Edmund was immersed in a book, but he looked up when Harriet entered. ‘Has Lewis gone?’

‘Yes. Where’s Noella?’

‘She told me she was taking a walk – a walk that will, I suspect, lead her straight to Oliver Kesby’s cottage.’

‘And you don’t mind?’ enquired Harriet, who was beginning to wonder if all men were as detached as Lewis and Edmund.

‘There was a time when I would have minded,’ he admitted, ‘but that time’s past. Tonight I’m rather pleased. Aren’t you pleased too?’

Harriet stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, her hands fidgeting at her sides. ‘I’m not sure.’

Edmund stood up and crossed the room to her. Placing both hands on her shoulders he smiled into her eyes, but she noticed that there was little warmth in his. ‘Come with me,’ he murmured. ‘In a very short time you’ll be as pleased as I am, and that’s a promise.’

Taking her by the hand, he led her upstairs and into the bedroom that he and Noella shared. ‘Stand quite still,’ he said quietly. ‘I want to really look at you.’

As Harriet remained motionless he walked round and round her, occasionally pausing to touch a strand of her hair or run his fingerrs up and down her spine. Her body quivered but she kept her breathing even.

‘You’re really beautiful,’ he said at last, and then his fingers began moving over her stomach and hips. Beneath the fabric of her dress her skin seemed to burn. ‘Take off your clothes and put this on,’ he said abruptly, taking one of his striped shirts off a hanger and handing it to her.