Holy shit! Luca thought, closing the laptop and trying to ignore the semi he had got while he read. It was a good thing he’d decided to check out Claire’s blog, he thought, struggling to reconcile what he’d just read with the Claire he knew. He couldn’t believe she’d written that stuff – she had trouble even saying ‘fuck’. At least now he knew what they were up against. If this was who Claire’s publisher dude thought he was dealing with, it was no wonder she was worried about living up to his expectations. He’d probably dump her as soon as she refused to have a three-way or to let him tie her up. Or, worse, she might feel pressured into doing stuff she wasn’t comfortable with to keep up the pretence.
It just reinforced what he had said to her yesterday. He could teach her techniques, give her experience, show her how to please a guy, and help her discover what she liked, so she could ask for what she wanted in bed. But, more than anything, they needed to work on building up her confidence so she could handle herself in any situation. She needed a bit of this NiceGirl’s ballsy attitude. But the fact that she had written this stuff gave him hope. It must be in there somewhere – it was just a matter of drawing it out.
On Friday evening, Claire raced home from work and packed her overnight bag. She had the whole weekend off work, and was going to spend it with Luca. It was worse than packing for a holiday. She didn’t want to freak him out by bringing too much, but there was a certain amount of stuff she needed. Going through her clothes last night, she had realised she was ashamed of her underwear, and had dashed around at lunchtime buying new bras and knickers – not overtly sexy, but pretty and feminine. She made sure to cut all the tags off before packing them in her case. She didn’t want Luca to know she had bought them specially for him. She toyed with the idea of buying new nightwear too. She usually slept in a ratty old oversized T-shirt or pyjamas that were built more for comfort than to get a man’s pulses racing. But in the end she decided nightclothes wouldn’t be required when she was staying with Luca, so she decided not to bother bringing any.
After work she went to Marks & Spencer and bought thick peppered steaks, huge baking potatoes, fat brown mushrooms, crème fraîche and chives, bags of salad, punnets of raspberries, thick double cream and a couple ofbottles of red wine. She was on a mission. She suspected Luca didn’t usually eat very well, and she wanted to cook him a really good dinner tonight. He had done something so nice for her yesterday, and it seemed only right to return the favour.
She got a bit carried away once she started food shopping, picking up blueberries, Greek yoghurt, eggs, sourdough bread, orange juice and coffee for the morning. She felt a little frisson of pleasure as it dawned on her that she was shopping for a lovers’ tryst – a seduction dinner and a morning-after breakfast. She was finally taking part in life, instead of sitting on the sidelines watching it pass her by.
She took a taxi to Luca’s and arrived laden with shopping bags and her wheelie case, hoping it didn’t look too much like she was moving in. Luca grinned at her as he opened the door.
‘Ready for your sleepover?’ he asked, grabbing her case and waving her inside.
‘I brought some stuff for dinner,’ she said, holding her shopping bags aloft as she followed him up the stairs. ‘I don’t know if you had any plans…’
‘I hadn’t thought about it, really,’ he said absently. ‘I figured we’d just get a takeaway or something.’
‘Well, I thought I could cook,’ Claire said. ‘I brought lots of food.’
‘I’ll leave this here for now,’ Luca said, leaning her case against the couch when they got into the flat. He led her through to the kitchen and took one of the bags from Claire. ‘Steak, cream, raspberries, wine,’ he said, as he unloaded it onto the counter. ‘Are you trying to seduce me?’ He grinned at her.
‘If you’d rather get a takeaway…’ She hoped he didn’t think she was acting like a girlfriend – buying groceries, offering to cook for him.
‘God, no. This looks amazing! I can’t remember when I last had steak. You can come and stay anytime. But you know I’m a sure thing, right? You don’t have to spend your money on me.’
For a second the unspoken words hung in the air between them –more than you’re already spending.
‘Well, I have to eat too,’ Claire said.
‘Okay,’ he said breezily. ‘Let’s get the oven on. I take it you were planning to bake these?’ he said, holding up the potatoes.
She nodded, grateful that he wasn’t going to make an issue of it. Luca turned on the oven and popped the potatoes in, and they stashed the rest of the food in the fridge.
‘They’re going to need a head-start,’ Claire said, waving at the oven. ‘Maybe we could discuss our arrangement while we’re waiting. We still haven’t hammered out the details properly.’
‘Or we could have a quickie?’ Luca said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Claire smiled. But she wanted to get some things straight before going any further. She needed to know exactly where she stood with Luca so there would be no more uncertainty. ‘Let’s discuss our arrangement ? like what times I come here, and how long I can stay.’ She didn’t want a repeat of yesterday’s awkwardness.
‘We can play it by ear,’ Luca said.
‘I don’t want to intrude on your life.’
‘I’ll let you know if you’re in the way,’ Luca replied drily.
‘As long as you promise to tell me the minute you feel I’m crowding you. I don’t want you to be afraid of hurting my feelings.’
‘No need to worry about me being too much of a gentleman.’
‘Okay. Now, about the timeframe – I know you said you’d give me as much time as I needed, but this can’t go on indefinitely.’
‘Right. And this Mark dude won’t wait around for ever. Presumably you’re putting off sleeping with him until you feel you’ve achieved the desired sex-bomb status?’
‘Until I feel I’m ready, yes,’ she said primly. ‘I don’t want him to be disappointed.’
‘So basically your deadline is before Mark’s balls turn blue.’ He chuckled.
‘Well, he lives in London, so that’s not so much of an issue – at least for now. Plus I told him I have a five-date rule so?—’
