‘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’s mysteries in an illustrated slip cover. She didn’t have to open the card inside to know who they were from. The card 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 reality. 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 unseasonably cold, andfighting 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 forHolby 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 her alter ego’s. 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 callhim 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.’
