‘Good. So it should.’
He pulled out the finger and smacked her bum, leaving a handprint. She flopped forward on to her stomach.
‘Do you have any tissues, Keris?’ he asked politely, and I sprang into action at once, hurrying into the kitchen to wash my hands and get a wad of kitchen roll for my guests.
When I returned, Justin was already back in his shirt, while Maz lay, rumpled and gorgeous, spread all over my cushions.
They cleaned themselves up and began to dress again, utterly comfortable with themselves and their outra
geous sexual habits. I envied them. Could I ever be so free?
‘What did you think, Keris?’ asked Justin. ‘I hope we didn’t alarm you.’
‘No, not at all. God, that was hot. Like that underwear must be.’
Maz grinned, pulling her skirt over the questionable “knickers”.
‘Do you like it? I feel so frisky when I wear it. I mean, I was dying for a shag all through dinner. You should get some.’
‘Maybe I will. So … That was good for you?’
Maz’s eyes opened wide. ‘Well, duh!’ she said.
‘Just … You looked as if you were about to cry at one point. And then you said that stuff about feeling ashamed and humiliated.’
‘That’s what gets me off.’ She sounded a little put out.
‘Yeah, of course, I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m used to those words having negative connotations. It’s odd to hear them used like that, in a sexual context.’
‘Oh yeah, you get used to it,’ she said offhandedly, buttoning her shirt. ‘Or at least, you will if you want to keep on with this stuff. Do you?’
‘I think I do,’ I said.
‘Good. Maybe we can do something next weekend then?’
‘Maybe.’
Chapter Six
‘YOU HAVE TO understand how important it was to keep it secret. Their relationship could never be made public. Have you never had a secret, Kacey?’
‘’Course.’ Kacey shrugged, then made the elementary mistake of moving her jaw in a manner that betrayed the chewing gum within. Patrick pointed long-sufferingly to the wastepaper basket and she trudged over to throw the offending gum away.
‘How do you expect to be able to sing and chew at the same time?’ he scolded. ‘Anyone would think that stuff held your bones together. You seem quite incapable of going without it for more than ten minutes.’
I grinned, watching the little scene from the piano. Chewing gum has been one of the top ten bugbears of my life, ever since I had to write off a school violin whose strings were coated in the stuff. Hilarious joke.
‘Anyway, returning to my original point – you’ve got to give the audience some sense of the risk that’s involved for you when you start seeing Tony. Sure, you’re loved up and full of the joys of spring – but there’s danger too. It’s a love that dares not speak its name.’
‘You what?’ Kacey stared at Patrick as if he had asked her to rip out her hoop earrings and frisbee them across the hall.
‘Like if a Somerstown Crew started seeing a Buckland Boi,’ I suggested. Really, it was such an obvious parallel, I wondered why it hadn’t occurred to Patrick.
A lightbulb pinged over Kacey’s head. ‘Oh, right, I get you,’ she said. ‘They’ve gotta keep it quiet or …’ She mimicked the loading and discharge of a pump-action shotgun.
‘Exactly.’ Patrick looked over at me and smiled, causing my heart to melt all over the white keys. ‘Thank you, Ms Delaney. But which are the Montagues and which the Capulets, eh?’
Be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a deviant.