Chapter 38
Noah wouldn’t quite be able to recall his precise movements the next morning.
But somehow, after more than a few glasses of champagne, they all made it out of the dining room.
Afterwards Johan had rushed off, eager to develop the night’s photos and the rest of them had stayed, first huddled in the small sitting room, and then fanning out and away from Opal.
At some point someone had turned on the small TV set.
No one seemed to be able to sit still for very long, and for a while at least they had found themselves swaying joyfully to that night’s Top of the Pops broadcast. It took some time before one by one they sank into the two plush deep green velvet sofas that were cornered around a log burner still piled with last winter’s supplies.
He and Opal had shared one, and Adam sandwiched himself between Heather and Ruby on the other.
There was laughter, and storytelling. Whatever icy tensions had been born out of the party were melting away.
Noah remembered how Adam started smiling at him again, although he wasn’t sure what he had done to invite Adam’s recent coolness.
Noah was glad, maybe even more than glad, to see it vanish.
People dispersed. Perhaps Adam left first, and then Ruby and Heather drifted away, hand in hand. Whatever animosity had festered between them had also gone.
Noah must have moved over to be closer to Opal, or maybe it was her who shuffled nearer.
But eventually they were wrapped up limbs and her head of pink-gold hair was splayed across his lap.
Mostly her eyes were closed, but intermittently they would open and look up at him, accompanied by a lazy smile.
‘Noah.’ She breathed his name like a wish. ‘Do you know that you’re the most beautiful boy in the world?’
‘You don’t think of me as a man then?’ Noah was teasing, but Opal’s brow furrowed with concern.
‘I don’t, no …’ she said finally, ‘but that’s no bad thing in my book. Men are usually … disappointing.’ She lifted her hand up to Noah’s face and ran her thumb over the ridge of his cheekbone. ‘Do you think I’m beautiful?’
‘Yes, of course.’ He didn’t need to think about it. There was no question that Opal Fairfax was a beautiful woman.
‘Will you kiss me again?’ Opal’s voice was quiet.
There was something plaintive about her request. She sat up and knelt beside him on the sofa, framing his face with both her hands.
The warm amber of her eyes was mesmerising, and they stayed like that, locked in a moment of maybe, for a long moment.
‘Do you want me to kiss you again?’ Their lips were so close that the question was barely audible, asked instead by the movement of the air between them.
‘I think that if you don’t, I might implode.’
He closed the gap and brought her to him. Her mouth was hot. The soft sound of her deep breathing was all he could hear, and his hands ran over her body in a frenzy. The next thing he knew, he was on his back, and the weight of Opal was all over him.
He longed for a fraction of the desire that she felt for him.
Because even in the daze of whatever it was that Johan had slipped into that bottle, even with the dizzying touch of flesh against his, when Noah opened his eyes and saw the beautiful woman who was mounting him, he felt no fire in his belly.
No tingle in his fingertips. No yearning in his soul.
He was here now, though, and what kind of boyish behaviour would it be to turn away, and wimp out like he had the other night at the party? He’d known the promise he was making, then as he was now, by pulling her into his arms.
She had made her feelings known, but she had never been the one to make the first move; she was too much of a lady for that.
Instead, on both occasions, she had waited for him to find the courage.
And then it always seemed to burn bright and fast. Suddenly he was back to only the embers of his conviction.
She straightened up again, unbuttoning her blouse and revealing the white lace of her bra. She gave him a coy smile and he took his cue to do the same. He was relieved when she reached behind her back to free her breasts. He couldn’t have faced the embarrassment of such a fumble.
She laid her hand softly on the back of his head and brought his lips to her chest. He tried to concentrate on the sound of her moans as he sucked on her nipple. She was beginning to grind against him, and he felt an encouraging stir; maybe he would be able to perform after all.
Spurred on by that heartening sign, he slid his hand down her back, reaching for her arse, pulling her closer to him and then pushing her back down into the sofa.
He was on top now. He hoped that this play of dominance might excite him further.
She brought his mouth back to hers and then trailed her fingertips down his back, around his sides and towards the waistband of his jeans.
She unbuttoned his fly, and Noah tried to stem a feeling of rising panic. What if he wasn’t hard?
He was so caught up in his own head that he didn’t immediately notice that Opal’s kisses had grown lighter, more hesitant. He opened his eyes and froze. Tears were running down her cheeks.
‘Opal? What’s wrong?’
She sniffed but didn’t open her eyes as she spoke. ‘I’m not sure I can …’
Noah felt a flood of relief. He pulled himself off her and quickly did his trousers back up. Perching on the edge of the sofa, he gently stroked the tears from her face.
‘It’s OK, Opal, we don’t have to.’
Her eyes flew open, and Noah saw gratitude in them. It made him feel guilty. He was not the knight in shining armour that she thought him to be, but rather the coward hiding behind a shield of chivalry.
‘I thought … I felt that I wanted this, wanted you, so badly, but maybe I’m not ready.’ Opal sat up then, sheepishly pulling her blouse around her shoulders. ‘I am still married after all.’
Noah nodded. He hoped that he looked understanding, although he found it hard to comprehend that Opal might feel guilty about ‘cheating’ on a man who so flagrantly did so in front of her and all the guests at her party.
Noah had begun to suspect that Martin was having an affair at that dinner where he had stormed off.
Ruby’s dig about his wanderings had hit a nerve.
But then at the party he hadn’t even tried to hide his affection for the silver-dress-clad teenager that he hung on to all evening.
‘I’d kind of assumed that you two had … an arrangement,’ Noah said honestly.
Opal laughed. ‘That would require my husband and I having some sort of transparent conversation, which is something we’ve never been any good at.’
Noah pulled Opal into a hug, instinctually.
It was only after she laid her head on his chest that he began to fear again that he was giving her the wrong impression.
He needn’t have worried. Opal sighed heavily and they sat for a moment before she whispered, ‘I think we should probably go to bed now.’