“You bet it is, my little cub.”
Meanwhile, on the beach, beneath a gibbous moon that silvered the golden sands, Rocky and Flipp lay in a close embrace, lips fused, legs locked, entwined in every place their clothes allowed.
Rocky had a key to one of the huts where deck chairs and the like were stored, and he had dragged out a white plastic sunbed, which, while uncomfortable, at least kept the sand out of their crevices.
“Perhaps we should go inside the hut,” Rocky muttered. “Where no one can see us.”
“Spiders. Cobwebs.” Flipp shuddered. “No one can see us here, not from the promenade. We’re right under the wall.”
“I can’t believe a girl like you is afraid of spiders,” Rocky marvelled. “I thought you were made of tougher stuff. I thought you had spunk.”
“No, that’s you,” snorted Flipp. “Speaking of which—are there many mini-yous walking around town?”
“If you start listening to Laura, you’ll go mad. She’s jealous, love, and she’s a controlling bitch who can’t let anything go. She was lying. I don’t have any kids.”
“As far as you know.”
“As far as Mr. Durex knows.”
“Okay. Well, I don’t either. Just to reassure you.” Rocky snuffled into her hair, pulling her tighter. “Thanks for telling me.” He kissed her neck and she sighed into the cool night air. “God, I want you. Come into the hut.”
Chapter Six
Michelle knew in her heart that Councillor Trewin was not an especially sophisticated man, but she knew Cordwainer’s tastes better, so she was confident that the platter of antipasti and bottle of good Italian white wine would make the meeting a more pleasurable experience for him. Trewin would probably hanker after crisps and sausage rolls, but it was too bad. He would just have to hanker.
“I won’t be back tonight,” she told her chef de partie, who was busy sweating over the grill. “You’ll be able to clear up all right, won’t you?”
“Of course,” he muttered distractedly. “No problem.”
“Table fifteen, two lemon soles, two surf and turf,” shouted another voice.
It was nine o’clock and the Fairhaven Restaurant probably wouldn’t get many more customers now. She could trust her chef to take care of the stragglers while she performed her own waitressing task upstairs. She took the tray and the bottle in its cooler and headed for the back stairs.
While the bar and restaurant still functioned, the guesthouse part of the Fairhaven was closed for redecoration and the smell of wet paint and turpentine lingered about the stairwell as Michelle climbed to the top floor.
She knocked on the door and heard Cordwainer’s beloved tones bid her enter. She put down the tray and the bottle on the small table that stood between her two owners and curtsied formally to both.
“Thank you, Miss Object,” murmured Cordwainer.
“Eh, very nice, but a bottle of beer and a bacon sandwich would have done, love,” said Councillor Trewin.
Michelle, eyes lowered as required, said, “I apologise if my service does not please you.”
“What? Eh, no, it does. It does. Carry on.”
“You may change behind the screen,” said Cordwainer, indicating a sectioned-off corner of the room. Michelle excused herself from their presence, finding a selection of fetishwear laid out on a chair behind the screen. While she took off her trim skirt suit and oiled and talced her naked body, snippets of the men’s conversation drifted over to her.
“So the meeting was productive?”
Michelle strapped herself into the shiny leather harness that crisscrossed her body, showing her breasts and bottom cunningly framed but fully exposed, letting the final strap dangle between her arse cheeks, leaving that element of her costume till last.
“Very, Charles, very much so. Everything signed and sealed now, in terms of planning permissions. We just need to sort out the building contract between us, and it’s all systems go.”
Michelle rolled glossy latex stockings up her legs, covering them up to midthigh, snapping them onto the handy harness clips.
“How did you deal with the environmentalists? Surely there will be trouble when the Gazette gets hold of it?”
“That tame scientist I told you about—he got his people to say that there was nothing unique or irreplaceable about the reserve. It’ll get its status of special scientific interest revoked in the next month or so.”