Chapter 21 #2
‘Yeah, I was going to call you later. I—’ She was interrupted by the beep of call waiting. ‘Sorry, there’s another call. Do you mind?’
‘I won’t keep you. I just wanted to tell you that I’m planning a trip to Dublin next Saturday – if that’s okay with you. I mean, will you be free?’
‘Yes, great!’
‘Good. I’ll book the flight, then. I can only get over for the one night, but it’s better than nothing. Anyway, I’ll let you go and call you back tomorrow when I’ve arranged it.’
‘Okay, bye! And thank you so much again.’
She hung up and pressed the button to answer the other call.
‘Hi,’ Luca said.
‘Hi,’ she said breathlessly, holding the mobile to her ear as she slid the vibrator out of the box.
Now that she was on the phone to Luca, she realised she wasn’t sure about the etiquette of phone sex.
Was it okay to have some general chit-chat first, or would that kill the mood?
Were they supposed to get straight on with it?
If only Mr Bossy were at the other end of the line – he would know what to do. ‘How are you?’
‘Fine. Are you okay? You sound a bit…’
‘I just had kind of a stressful day.’
‘Do you want to do this? We could leave it till another time…’
‘No, it’s fine.’ She took a deep breath and let it out. ‘I’m ready now.’
‘So… what are you wearing?’
‘Bra and pants. It’s just an M&S set. I couldn’t find anything sexy. But it’s matching and it’s very nice – pink and lacy, and the pants are boy shorts.’
‘Right.’ She heard him chuckle deeply. ‘How much was it?’
‘Oh, I can’t remember. I bought it a while ago, but I haven’t worn it often, so—’ She broke off, realising too late that he was making fun of her. ‘Sorry – too much information.’
‘It’s fine. But we definitely need to do some more work on your chat.’
‘Not to mention my wardrobe. So, um… what are you wearing?’
‘Black silky jocks and nothing else.’
‘Really?’ That didn’t sound like Luca.
‘No.’ She heard the smile in his voice. ‘Really, you don’t want to know.’
‘No, tell me.’
‘A fleece.’
She giggled. ‘Really? Anything else, or just the fleece?’
‘Combats, boots. It’s bloody freezing in here.’
‘Sorry. It was really cold today.’
‘Anyway, I’ve brought the blow-heater into the bedroom, so it should heat up soon. I’ll strip off then.’
‘You don’t have to. We can just pretend.’
‘No, I will. We should do this properly.’
‘Okay. But those blow-heaters are very expensive to run – they use an awful lot of electricity.’
‘Oh, baby, you’re driving me crazy,’ he said flatly. ‘It makes me so hard when you talk about my electricity bill.’
‘Sorry. Okay, let’s start again.’ She took a deep breath and lay back on the bed. ‘I’m wearing a lacy bra and a thong,’ she said, trying to make her voice low and sultry.
There was a moment’s silence, then ‘Claire?’
‘Mm?’
‘Are you doing a funny voice?’
‘Oh! No!’ She blushed. So much for sounding sexy!
‘So you’re lying down on the bed? I wish I was there with you.’
‘Me too.’ She sighed.
‘Take off your bra and touch yourself the way I would.’
She set the phone down on the bed and removed her bra. Then she picked it up again and distractedly pawed her breasts, pinching her nipples while simultaneously smoothing out the instruction sheet from the vibrator on the bed beside her.
‘Talk to me,’ Luca said. ‘Tell me what you’re doing.’
‘I’m touching my, um… myself. I’m pinching my nipples.’
‘Are they hard?’
‘Hm? Oh yes – very hard.’
‘I’m getting hard thinking about it,’ he said. ‘I wish I was there to suck them into my mouth.’
‘Are you, erm… doing stuff?’
‘Yeah, I’m stroking my dick, and—’ He burst out laughing. ‘It’s going a bit longer.’ He giggled.
Claire laughed. ‘Oh, I wish I was there. I love it when it goes longer and fatter.’
‘Hey, are you calling my thing fat?’
‘In a good way.’
‘What are you – what—’ Luca was struggling to speak, but kept collapsing into laughter.
‘Have you taken the fleece off, then?’ Claire asked, which just made him laugh harder.
‘I’m pretty sure that’s a line that should never come up in phone sex. I’m unzipping my fleece,’ he said in a husky voice. ‘And now I’m taking off my – my scarf,’ he wheezed.
Claire was laughing so much that tears were rolling down her face. ‘I can imagine you unwinding it sexily from around your neck.’
‘Okay, maybe we should start again,’ Luca said finally, sobering up. ‘Let’s both get naked.’
‘Okay.’ Claire wiped her eyes and wriggled out of her knickers. ‘Oh, by the way, I got waxed today.’
‘Completely?’ Luca asked hoarsely.
‘No, but a bit more extreme than usual. The girl I go to is always trying to get me to have a Brazilian or even a Hollywood. But I think she was happy that I let her—’
‘Claire,’ Luca said, in a chiding tone.
‘Oh, sorry. It’s sort of a landing strip, and my legs are all smooth and silky.’
‘Mm, I wish I was there to taste you,’ he said, his voice thickening. ‘I’d lick you until you came in my mouth.’
She felt the rush of moisture between her legs at his words. ‘You’re making me so wet,’ she said. At least it was true and she didn’t feel so stupid saying it.
‘It’s making me hard imagining you lying there, naked and spread out. Open your legs and touch yourself.’
Claire did as he asked, her breathing deepening with her mounting excitement.
‘Taste yourself, like I would if I was there.’
‘Um… what? I’m not that flexible.’
‘Lick your fingers.’
‘Oh… yeah, okay.’ She stuck the thumb of her other hand in her mouth, making loud sucking noises into the phone.
‘I know how good you taste,’ Luca said. ‘Tell me.’
‘Oh, er… yum!’
Luca chuckled softly. ‘Claire…’
‘It’s delicious. Mm. Finger-licking good.’
‘You’re not doing it, are you?’
‘No,’ she admitted. ‘Sorry, but that’s just gross.’
‘It is not gross.’ He sighed. ‘Okay, why don’t we play with your vibrator? Did you get one?’
‘Oh yes.’ She sat up and grabbed the vibrator with its instructions.
Step one was putting in the batteries. Batteries!
She shunted to the end of the bed, picked them up and tore at the packaging.
Of course, it was practically impenetrable.
‘Just hang on a minute,’ she said to Luca, placing the phone on the bed so she could use both hands.
‘Okay, I’m back,’ she said, balancing the phone against her shoulder while she studied the instructions.
‘What are you doing?’ Luca asked.
‘Trying to figure out how to put the batteries in this thing.’
‘You don’t have any batteries in it?’
‘I didn’t have time. I only got it this evening on the way home from work, and then I had to cook dinner and…’ Once again, she’d strayed into the mundane and was killing the mood. ‘Sorry.’
‘It’s okay. What’s it like – the vibrator?’
‘Oh, it’s… very life-like, I suppose – except it’s purple.’
‘Purple?’
‘Yeah. There was a choice of purple or pink. Maybe the pink would have been more realistic, though it was hot pink, so not really. Anyway, I didn’t have much time to decide – I had to get home and, besides, there was this creepy guy in the shop and I just wanted to get out of there.’
‘Was that your first time in a sex shop?’
‘Yeah. I’ve looked at stuff online, doing research for the blog, but I’ve never actually gone into a shop before. The assistant was very nice, though. If it hadn’t been for the creepy guy I might have hung around longer.’
‘I hope he wasn’t hassling you.’
‘He was just listening in when she was telling me about the vibrators. Then she turned one of them on to show me!’ Claire had been mortified when she had switched it on to demonstrate and the head had started wiggling around.
‘Maybe we should go to one together some day,’ he said. ‘You could have a proper look around.’
‘Oh, that would be good. Thank you.’
‘No problem. So – where were we?’
‘I was just reading the instructions for putting in the batteries.’
‘Why don’t we leave the vibrator for now? You can play with it later when you’ve got more time. It’s probably best if you get to know it on your own first anyway.’
‘Okay, you’re right. I’ll just use my hand.’ Claire lay down and they began again.
She started to forget herself and get into it, losing some of her self-consciousness as she got more turned on.
She began to relax as Luca murmured in her ear, telling her how hard he was and what he wanted to do to her, getting her to touch herself and describing how it felt when he was doing those things to her.
‘Are you close?’ he asked, as her breathing became jagged.
‘Yes,’ she gasped into the phone. ‘So close. I’m—’
There was a tap on the door, and she froze.
‘Claire?’ Her mother called. ‘I’m just making a cup of tea. Would you like one?’
‘Shit! Hang on,’ she hissed into the phone, before tossing it away from her as if it was scorching hot. She struggled off the bed, grabbing her dressing-gown and pulled it on. Then she opened the door, hoping she didn’t look too flushed. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I was just… waxing my legs.’
‘Sorry to interrupt.’
‘It’s okay. I was just finished.’ Ha! If only…
‘So, cup of tea?’
‘I don’t think—’
‘Only I didn’t tell you earlier, but I made paradise slices this afternoon – your favourite.’
‘Lovely!’ She smiled, wanting to cry. But she couldn’t say no when her mother had made such an effort to do something nice for her. ‘I just have to put my stuff away, and then I’ll be down.’
‘Right, so. We can have them while we’re watching Come Dine With Me – I recorded it earlier.’
‘Great.’ Claire glanced at the clock as she closed the door. It was just after nine. She hadn’t realised it had got so late. They shouldn’t have wasted so much time chatting about rubbish – well, she shouldn’t have. She knew she had only herself to blame – Luca had tried to keep them focused.
‘Sorry,’ she said, picking up the phone. ‘Time’s up. That was my mum.’
‘Don’t you have time just to finish off? It’ll probably only take another couple of minutes.’
‘I can’t. I have to go downstairs and eat paradise slices and watch Come Dine With Me with her.’
‘Oh, okay.’
‘Are you going to, um… finish off on your own?’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘But I’ll be thinking of you.’
‘Good. Thanks,’ she said, then laughed – fancy thanking someone for using you as inspiration for a wank.
‘Um, Claire? About that. Before you go…’
‘Yes?’
‘Would you send me a photo?’
‘A photo of me? Naked?’
‘Yeah. With your new hairdo.’
‘Oh… I—’
‘It’s okay,’ he interrupted. ‘If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I’ll be thinking of you anyway.’
‘No, it’s okay,’ she said, wanting to be brave. She needed to get over her inhibitions, and this would be a good start. ‘I’ll do it. Just give me a minute.’
She shrugged off her robe and stood in front of the mirror, since that was the only way she could get herself in the frame. She wasn’t very good at self-shots and it took a couple of goes before she got a photo she was happy with.
‘Okay,’ she said, picking up the phone again. ‘It’s not great, but I’ll send it to you now.’
‘Thanks, sweetheart.’
When they had said their goodbyes and hung up, Claire texted the picture to Luca. Then she got into her pyjamas to go down and watch TV with her mother. She was just about to go when her mobile chimed with a message alert. It was a text from Luca:
Beautiful picture, thank you. Can’t wait to see you in the flesh. X
Claire smiled and tossed the phone back on the bed. She spied the vibrator again. She’d have a play with it tonight in bed, try to get to grips with it. She hoped it was as quiet as the sales assistant had promised.