Heller (16 page)

“Hey,” I
yelled out as we finished our prepping. “It’s traditional for a man
to do the barbequing. Any volunteers?” Sid and Clive volunteered
but I hovered anxiously over their shoulders, not trusting them,
and giving them unwelcome advice on cooking the chicken and salmon.
But what man likes to be told how to barbeque by a woman? That’s
right, none – and they politely told me to shove off. Wanting
everything to be perfect, I rushed around setting out the cutlery,
placing a couple of bottles of white wine on the table,
supplementing it with some fancy foreign mineral water for Heller
and juice for Niq. Finally everything was ready and all the food
was presented.

I was totally
frazzled by the end and took an enormous gulp of chilled white wine
as I sat down, breathing a huge sigh of relief. Everything looked
delicious – particularly Heller, who had finally changed, but not
much for the better as far as I was concerned. He was now wearing
faded blue jeans and nothing else, bare-chested and barefoot. God,
he was so yummy! I looked down at my dinner, not wanting to torture
my poor libido any further. When I glanced up, his eyes were
resting on my face again, but I was pretty sure that a mere
split-second before, he had been checking out my boobs. He cast me
a lazy smile that wasn’t exactly wholesome in nature and I lowered
my eyes to my dinner again quick smart, heart racing.

The dinner was
demolished. There was no other word for it. Everything was eaten,
down to the last lettuce leaf, and my pride was swimming in their
compliments afterwards. Even though I had made them slave for me,
Daniel and Niq volunteered to clear up, so I jumped into the hot
tub by myself with a very full glass of wine and closed my eyes in
bliss, enjoying the gentle pummelling from the jets. What a life! I
couldn’t believe my luck to have landed this wonderful job.

After
everything had been cleaned up, everyone piled back into the hot
tub with me, decently dressed this time. But it was a squish with
us all in there, Heller, Sid and Clive being such big men. I found
myself uncomfortably crushed between Daniel and Niq, barely able to
breathe.

“I guess you
shouldn’t have hired another person,” I complained to Heller.
“There’s not enough room in the hot tub for me.”

“You could
come and sit on my lap,” he suggested, that sly smile on his face
again. For sure I was becoming a major source of entertainment for
him.

“Thanks
anyway,” I responded, firmly banishing from my mind the thought of
me doing just that, snugly ensconced on his lap, leaning against
his chest, my arms around his neck, his arms around my waist, my
hands buried in his hair, breathing in his very essence. I’d kiss
him slowly while I slid my hand down to his . . . Oops! I’d better
save that fantasy for when I was alone I decided hastily, noticing
that everyone was looking at me. Heller threw me another lazy
knowing smile that made me worry he had some telepathic
ability.

We chatted in
general for a while before Niq and Daniel climbed out, deciding to
spend the rest of the evening playing the Xbox at Daniel’s flat,
leaving me alone with the three men. I was very unnerved to
discover that Sid and Clive’s much-loved hobby was collecting
pornography. Clive was his normal taciturn self not saying much of
a word, but Sid enthused over their collection. Some of their
photos dated back to the birth of photography itself, their films
dating back to the beginnings of cinematography. As well, their
collection included a fine set of naughty Victorian-era postcards,
a few anatomically explicit Roman artefacts and their pride and joy
– a genuine Palaeolithic carving of a fertility goddess, all huge
belly, bum and boobs.

I’d never
heard porn being discussed so casually before. I felt really
awkward sitting in that hot tub full of big men as Sid explained
the different categories of porn they collected. All I could think
about was that Niq lived here, in a building with such a
collection. Again, as if he could read my mind, Heller calmly
assured me that the twins kept their collection, which was in
reality quite valuable, well-secured, and that Niq was certainly
not exposed to anything unsuitable at any time.

I murmured a
vague non-committal response to Sid’s invitation to visit them in
their flat and view their collection one day. I almost giggled out
loud with alarm at the thought of me sitting jammed between Sid and
Clive on their lounge, eating popcorn and nonchalantly watching
with them naked men and women doing unbelievably rude things to
each other. Or women and women, or men and men, or women and
equipment, or even women and animals by the sound of what Sid had
said. I was dying of embarrassment at even the thought, feeling the
telltale burning in my cheeks again. Sid was insistent though and I
squirmed, ill-at-ease, not knowing how to deflect him anymore
without being straight out rude to his face.

“Sid,” Heller
stepped in. “I don’t think Matilda would be comfortable doing that.
She’s not into that type of entertainment. Let it go.” I threw him
an extremely grateful glance. After an initially surprised
reaction, Sid was immediately apologetic and repeatedly told me he
was sorry if he’d caused me any offence.

“Of course
not, Sid,” I lied, and waved away the whole incident. “Don’t
mention it. Your collection sounds fascinating, and one day when
I’m a bit braver and know you a bit better, I might come and see
it.” He was mollified by that.

Remembering
that I had to work the next day, I didn’t stay up too late, but
retired to my flat to have a quick shower and watch some TV before
hitting the sack. During the night I had another erotic dream about
Heller. We were in the hot tub, just the two of us, and I was not
only sitting on his lap but straddling his lap, both of us naked.
We were exchanging steamy deep-thrusting tongue kisses and his
hands were on my breasts, gently kneading and teasing, while mine
were tightly clamped around his neck my fingers digging into his
shoulders. I was about to lower myself onto his enormous erect
shaft, groaning with anticipation, when Sid sidled up to the hot
tub with a video camera and asked would we mind if he filmed us to
add to his collection. I woke up at that point, over-aroused, and
tossed and turned for the rest of the night in frustration.

The next
morning, I gave myself the luxury of a sleep-in and then hit the
gym hard. I was starting to enjoy pushing my body with exercise and
was reaping the rewards of looking mighty tight. I’d moved up
another kilogram in weights and was being rewarded by some great
definition in my arms. I dressed casually and sauntered down to the
office. Daniel was helping Niq with his schoolwork. They both
looked up as I entered and I smiled, walking over to Niq, ruffling
his hair and ruining his sculpted hairdo, much to his annoyance.
Then I sat down at my desk and turned on my computer.

“How’s it
going with the client?” Daniel asked.

“Not bad.
She’s keeping me on my toes.”

He raised his
eyebrows, but finished up with Niq before he came over to sit on
the edge of my desk. In a subtle voice I gave him a brief, but
honest, rundown of my activities with Lily. He gave a low whistle
and raised his eyebrows again.

“Have you told
Heller all this?” he asked.

I shook my
head. “Only a censored version. I’m worried he’ll pull me off the
job if he thinks I can’t handle it.”

“She sounds
like more than a handful.”

“Oh yeah!
Look, you’re going to have to be fairly creative with the
accounting for this case. We need to disguise the cost of her
second hotel room and the incidentals I’ve had to pay for so far
when you send the final bill to her husband.”

“I’ll see what
I can do,” he promised and returned to his desk.

I checked my
emails. They were mostly spam or from family members – same thing
really. My family is notorious for indiscriminately and eagerly
forwarding every unfunny joke, fake appeal for money and urban
legend that lands in their inbox. Unfortunately, none of them had
ever heard of snopes.com. Tediously, I deleted email after email
from parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles and cousins.
There were only three gems amongst the trash. Two of them were
emails from my twin cousins who were currently living and working
in legal careers in London. Typically they had each sent their
email to me at the exact same time on the same day. I hadn’t seen
them for a few years now and missed them both terribly. We had
virtually grown up together, were the same age and they always
insisted that they weren’t really twins at all, but triplets with
me, even though I didn’t look anything like them and could only
dream of being as smart as them.

The other
email was from Dixie, providing tremendously lurid details of a
date she had on the weekend with a fellow worker at the fast food
restaurant. Dixie always liked to take a souvenir of her conquests,
and she’d attached a photograph she had taken with her phone of his
slumbering naked body. He was well-built, but looked young.

This one’s
no keeper – he’s cheating on his girlfriend with me! Sexy
bastard!
she wrote in her email.

Niq asked me a
question then about astronomy for an assignment he was working on.
I’ll be the first to admit that I know less than nothing about
astronomy, but I went over to his desk and was able to guide him to
a reputable website that provided him with a detailed overview of
the universe and some great images. Settling myself back at my
desk, I was distracted by Heller walking into the office and
heading straight for me. He stood in front of me, hands on his
lithe hips and raised his eyebrows. I presented him with my most
dazzling smile.

“Friend of
yours?” he enquired, dangerously polite, gesturing towards my
monitor. I spun back quickly towards my computer. The photo of
Dixie’s naked man was still showing on my screen. Horrified, I
frantically pressed buttons to delete it, my cheeks blazing with
embarrassment.

“One of
Dixie’s conquests. She likes to share,” I spluttered, wishing I
could disappear into the ether along with the photograph.

His face was
stern, his shapely mouth severe and his voice low. “Do these men
know she is taking their photograph?” I shook my head, avoiding his
accusing eyes. “I’m disappointed in you, Matilda. I didn’t think
you would condone such activities. How would Dixie feel if a man
did that to her? And then shared it with his friends?”

She would
rip his knob off and shove it down his throat
, I thought to
myself.

I looked up at
him, beseechingly. “Heller, I would never do that myself. And I
promised myself a long time ago that I wouldn’t judge other people
on their behaviour. But I will ask Dixie not to do it anymore, if
that’s what you prefer.”

He threw his
hands up in despair, leaned down towards me and said in a fierce
whisper, “I cannot tell your friends how to behave, Matilda. But
please, we have a minor in the room, and I would not expect to find
you boldly displaying such photographs where Niq might view them.
Particularly after your concerns about Sid and Clive’s collection
last night.”

His harsh
words cut me deeply, because he was right. I despised myself
thoroughly at that moment for being such a hypocrite. “I’m sorry,
Heller. You can believe me when I say that it won’t happen again,”
I promised, humbled.

He ignored my
contrition and commenced questioning me intensely about my
activities with Lily, grim and detached. I decided I had better
tell him the entire truth and asked if we could speak in his
office, acutely aware of Niq’s near presence. We moved into his
office, and he shut the door. As I explained what had happened, he
expressed increasing concern about my ability to handle the
situation.

“She’s just
blowing off steam. She’s okay,” I insisted. “She likes me. She
won’t have anyone else. I can handle it.” I was becoming annoyed
with his lack of faith in me. I stood up and drew myself up to my
full height, my hands on my hips, anger shooting flames from my
eyes. “You don’t think I can do this job, do you? You’re just
waiting for me to fail so you can give me the sack, because you
think you’ve made a bad decision by hiring a woman. Especially
me.”

He seemed
bewildered by my sudden fury.
Offence is the best defence
, I
thought.

“I don’t know
what to say to you sometimes, Matilda,” he admitted. “You’re like a
powder keg, ready to explode at any moment with no warning. I’m not
questioning your ability, I’m concerned that this assignment may be
more difficult than I imagined. I would never give you a difficult
client on your first assignment. I didn’t hire you to perform
dangerous work.” He sighed and rubbed his face. “Please continue on
with what you are doing, but keep me informed about everything,” he
requested. I nodded briskly and stormed out of his office back to
my desk, aware that he was watching me, his face betraying his
confusion at my behaviour.

I arrived at
the hotel at noon, surprised to find Mr Hayek present. There was a
small suitcase near the door to the suite.

“Miss
Chalmers,” he came forward, eagerly shaking my hand. I resisted the
strong urge to cross my arms, hiding my breasts from his wandering
eyes. We made polite small talk and he informed me that his
business partners wanted to take him to a future potential
development site while he was here in the country. Unfortunately it
was in another city, so he would be required to be away from his
wife overnight. Would I mind staying with her?

“Oh, please
do, Tilly,” begged Lily. “It will be such fun!”

I smiled as
convincingly as possible, considering that a leaden ball of dread
had just settled in my stomach.