Chapter 29
Time passed and nobody seemed to know anything about it and if they did, they weren’t saying.
For a while Riva questioned anyone who would listen about the Russian girl, Anya, who had vanished from their shared house so suddenly.
She felt wretched knowing that somebody could disappear like that without leaving a trace, and nobody even cared, so she decided to spend her night off in Lottie’s apartment.
She needed to cheer herself up and a little bit of luxury might be just the ticket, she reasoned, but as she was climbing the stairs, she met Bobby coming down.
They stopped short, gazed at each other and then both spoke at the same time.
‘I have wanted to—’ said Bobby.
‘I need to—’ said Riva, and she knew that more than anything she wanted them to be friends again.
They both wavered, but then he held out his arms. Relief washed over her as she fell into them and any remaining shred of resentment about his lack of care at the beach evaporated.
‘You on your way to Lottie’s?’ he asked once he’d let go.
She glanced towards the door. ‘Yes, she said I could use the apartment.’
‘Super. I’ve had a bottle of champagne chilling in Lottie’s refrigerator ever since she left.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. It’s a Frigidaire from America. We don’t have one in our apartment.’
She laughed. ‘I meant the champagne not the refrigerator.’
He raised his brows. ‘Ah, yes. Well, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked up and down these stairs, or how many times I’ve sat on the top step waiting for you to turn up. Oh Riva, I’m so sorry. You were right and I was a stupid thoughtless fool—’
He was talking rapidly as if he couldn’t wait to get it all out and she was forced to interrupt. ‘No. I lied. It was my fault. I told you I was a strong swimmer.’
‘I’ve missed you,’ he said.
‘I’ve missed you too.’
‘So, champagne?’
They didn’t make love that evening, nor on her next night off the following week, nor on the one after – each time he had returned to the apartment he shared with Archie in the wee small hours.
But on the fourth night together she sat looking at him as he sprawled on the sofa smoking and listening to the wireless.
She was evaluating her own readiness when, ‘Why don’t you stay?
’ she said. The words had just slipped out but then, more definitely, she said it again. ‘Stay with me tonight.’
She curled up next to him on the sofa and kissed him. There’d been plenty of kissing and talking, and now she felt as if she’d known him all her life. But not like an old friend. This was very different.
They went up the wide steps to the bedroom where she encouraged him to undress her slowly, item by item, until she was standing naked before him, not feeling at all bashful. One thing Riva was secure about was her body. She was healthy, strong, curvaceous, and she knew men found her attractive.
‘Shall we?’ he said, but then he stopped as if words had entirely failed him.
She sat on the bed moving deliberately slowly as she then lay back with her legs just slightly apart. In that moment, as he kept his eyes on her, the energy coursing between them was thrilling.
‘God, Riva,’ he said and tore off his own clothes. Still standing he leant over her and trailed his fingers from her throat down to her navel. A charge swept through her, and she instinctively raised her hips.
He grinned. ‘Oh no, not yet.’
She laughed and held out her arms to him. ‘Come here, you clown.’
He shook his head.
‘I haven’t, you know, before,’ she said.
‘I guessed.’
He placed a palm on her stomach and then slid his fingers down to her thighs, parting her legs further, stroking her until she could no longer bear it.
She pulled him down on top of her and ran her hands all the way down his back and then, grasping his buttocks, she tried guiding him into her.
With little experience she was counting on instinct.
But then he whispered, ‘Not so fast,’ and searching his face, she wondered if she might have done something wrong.
But he didn’t look bothered and reaching down for his trousers he drew something out.
‘What?’ she said.
‘“Gentlemen’s rubber goods” they call them. You must have heard of them. Ghastly things,’ he said laughing, ‘though I’m reliably informed the Americans will come up with something much better soon.’
After he had rolled the ghastly thing on – she’d watched through fluttering lashes and semi-closed eyes – he went slowly, taking his time, and when he finally entered her she cried out, partly in pain and, for a moment or two, partly in frustration.
Frustration because an unwelcome voice in her head was commenting, remarking, making notes.
But then, without noticing how it had happened, she realised something had changed and instead of feeling weird and somehow under observation, she and Bobby were suddenly in tune.
She stopped thinking altogether and seemed to know exactly what to do.
Why had nobody told her it would be like this?
There she was, lying in Lottie’s bed with nothing in her head at all.
She closed her eyes. It was fast. It was furious. And it was over.
Afterwards they both panted from the exertion and until they could breathe normally neither spoke.
‘Well,’ she said eventually. ‘Can we do that again?’
‘What, now?’
She nodded.
He laughed and his blue eyes crinkled up. ‘Give me a minute to recover.’
But a little later he guided her, and she learnt how to help him recover and that would happen another time that same night.
In the morning she woke to see him gazing at her. ‘Hello,’ he said.
She breathed him in, the smell of him. Bay leaves and cloves. Something old-fashioned anyway. Nice. Spicy.
‘Look, I meant to say this last night, but other things seemed to be happening and I got distracted.’
‘What?’ she asked.
‘My mother.’
‘Your mother? That’s a funny topic after what we’ve just spent the night doing.’
He guffawed. ‘You’re right. But she’ll be here for a couple of weeks. I won’t be able to spend the night here.’
‘Oh.’ She got out of bed and stretched, and he sat on the edge of the bed watching her.
‘Thing is, she’s not going to a hotel this time. She’ll be staying here.’
‘In this apartment?’ she said, taken aback.
He laughed. ‘No. In mine and Archie’s.’
‘Really? Why not the best hotel like before?’
‘She’s suddenly got a bee in her bonnet about money. I’ve got someone coming to clean the place.’
She grinned. ‘You could always nip down here for a quick fix.’
He laughed. ‘Something tells me nothing I do with you will ever be quick.’
‘Oh, I don’t know, it could be rather fun,’ and she swayed her hips provocatively in front of him, bending down so that he had no option but to take one of her nipples in his mouth. And they had their first attempt at fast unprotected sex, with Bobby withdrawing only just in time.
‘Are you regular?’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘Because there’s also the rhythm method. It’s not foolproof but at least we’d know which days to be more careful.’
‘I’ve heard of it. I’ll draw up a plan. A sex plan,’ and she roared with laughter at the thought of what her mother would say if she knew. She had no idea how her parents had managed to produce two daughters.
He smiled and kissed her on the nose. ‘I’ve got to go.’
‘Oh no, really?’
‘She’s arriving later today and I need to tidy up the apartment before the cleaner gets here … You know I may be away soon don’t you. I’m doing my pilot’s training here in Malta,’ he said, ‘but sooner or later will be completing it in England.’
‘Will you be gone for long?’ she asked.
‘Don’t know yet, but let’s not worry about it now.’
‘All right. Off you trot then. Back to Mummy.’
He grinned at her.
‘By the way,’ she said. ‘I meant to say earlier, I don’t know how I could have forgotten, but a girl from my house disappeared.
Three or four weeks ago. I’ve been asking around, but no one seems to know anything about it.
She was young. Underage I think, and Russian.
I heard her crying. She said she was afraid. ’
‘Do you know what she was afraid of?’
Riva shook her head. ‘No. Of something or someone, that’s all she said, and then she just vanished.’
‘I’ll ask around.’
‘Discreetly.’
‘Of course.’
Then he dressed and came to kiss her where she now sat on the edge of the bed. She pulled him towards her and undid his trouser buttons and his underpants.
‘Oh God,’ he groaned. ‘You have very quickly become such a wicked woman.’