‘What do you think I want it for?’ Claire laughed. ‘Identity theft? It’s not top secret, is it?’
‘Why don’t you ask him?’
‘I will. I just keep forgetting.’ And it wasn’t really the sort of thing you could ask someone mid-shag. It seemed a bit late at that stage to be worrying that you hadn’t been properly introduced. She’d have to pay more attention to the signatures on his paintings the next time she was in his flat.
‘Okay, I’ll tell you,’ Yvonne said. ‘But I’d better not find you doodling it in your copybook and trying it out with your own name.’
‘Promise,’ Claire said, rolling her eyes.
‘It’s Ffrench-Carroll.’
‘Hmm,’ Claire smiled, cocking her head thoughtfully. ‘Claire Ffrench-Carroll. That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?’
‘Don’t make me regret telling you.’
‘Mrs Ffrench-Carroll. Luca and Claire Ffrench-Carroll. Where’s my copybook? I feel a doodle coming on.’
‘Seriously, Claire—’
‘You’re too easy.’ Claire grinned. ‘He mentioned that his mother had written a book, and I thought I might check it out. That’s all, okay? Nothing sinister.’
‘Oh! Yeah, she wrote a book about Luca,’ Yvonne said, grimacing as if she’d detected a bad smell.
‘It’s about adopting Luca and his sister, isn’t it?’
‘Well, that comes into it. But it’s mainly about how she wasn’t able to bond with Luca and never felt any connection with him.’
‘Oh, God.’
‘It was a big bestseller at the time, apparently. I vaguely remember my mum talking about it. It was quite controversial. She got a lot of praise for being so open and honest about her feelings. But some people thought she shouldn’t have written it – including Luca. It’s a very touchy subject with him.’
‘I’m not surprised. That’s horrible.’
‘I know. It must be awful to have your mother telling the whole world that she doesn’t love you.’
‘What’s it called?’
‘
The Stolen Child.
And her name is Jacqueline Ffrench, if you want to look it up. The Carroll bit is his dad.’
‘This came for you,’ Tom said, emerging from the back room and handing Claire a large parcel.
‘Oh, thanks,’ she said, taking it from him. It felt like books, but she couldn’t imagine who would be sending her books when she worked in a bookshop. Curious, she opened it carefully. She gasped as she lifted out a beautiful, cloth-bound limited edition set of Dorothy L. Sayers’ mysteries in an illustrated slip cover. She didn’t have to open the card inside to know who they were from. It simply read: ‘Thought of you and found these. Mark x’
At ten minutes to eight that evening, Claire sat on the end of her bed trying to relax. But it had been rather stressful getting ready for tonight, and instead of feeling sexy, she just felt frazzled. She had gone for a bikini wax at lunchtime, deciding she should make an effort. Reading over one of her blog posts about phone sex, it seemed unfair, disrespectful even, not to go to the same trouble for Luca as she had for the fictional Mr Bossy. But it was
a lot easier to write about this stuff than it was to achieve it in real life. She had barely had time to squeeze in the salon visit at lunchtime and hadn’t been able to grab a sandwich.
Then she’d had the ordeal of vibrator shopping after work. It had taken her ages to get up the nerve to go into the shop, and all her dithering meant that she had got home late. The weather had turned bitterly cold, and fighting her way home against a vicious wind had only added to her weariness. She cooked and ate dinner with her mother, and had only just finished clearing up in time for
Holby City.
It was a solitary pleasure for Espie, so Claire didn’t have to make any excuses for holing up in her room. But she had no time for a long, leisurely bath or even a quick shower before it was time to sit on the bed and wait for Luca’s call. She poured herself a glass of wine and brought it up to her room, hoping it would help her relax and get in the mood.
She was sure her mother wouldn’t budge for the next hour, but she took the precaution of locking her bedroom door anyway. Then she took a big gulp of wine, set the glass on top of the dresser, and set about finding something to wear. As she frantically opened drawers, rooting through piles of M&S cotton knickers and black woolly tights, she felt hot and bothered, but not in a remotely sexy way. Unfortunately, her underwear collection bore absolutely no resemblance to that of her alter ego. There were no see-through baby-dolls or lacy G-strings. There was nothing here that would give any self-respecting bloke so much as a semi. She wished she could just get into her pyjamas. But she wanted to do this properly.
Deciding that bra and pants was the best she could do, she quickly stripped and put on her nicest set. It was more pretty than sexy, but it would have to do. Besides, it’s what underneath that counts, she told herself, and at least she’d had the bikini wax. She had even let the beautician go higher than usual though she hadn’t had the nerve for a full Brazilian. She sprayed some perfume between her breasts and sat on the edge of the bed with
her mobile beside her. She was just pulling her new vibrator out of its bag when the phone rang, but instead of Luca, the caller display showed that it was Mark. She had planned to call him later to thank him for his present when she wasn’t feeling so flustered.
‘Hi, Mark!’ She tried to inject some calm into her voice. ‘Thank you so much for the books. I love them!’
‘Ah, they arrived. Good.’
‘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, em … 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 balanced 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 lifelike, 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.