‘These look like B&Q garden huts,’ she cuts in, studying the accommodation page now.
‘Oh, they’re really snug and cosy,’ he says quickly. ‘Very tastefully done?—’
‘So you’ve stayed here before? You’re a member of this club, are you?’
‘Uh, yeah, I am.’ Elias nods, and she navigates to the events calendar.
Fancy dress disco
Boxing day BBQ
Hot tub party
Spanking workshop
‘Elias?’ Pearl turns to him. ‘This is some kind of sex club, right?’
‘No, no, it’s a naturist club,’ he insists. ‘But the no-clothes thing is optional. No one forces you. You wouldn’t have to go naked if you didn’t want?—’
‘Oh, great!’ she exclaims. ‘That’s good to know!’
He peers at her as if she’s misunderstood the concept. ‘Honestly, Pearl. It’s not weird or anything, it’s just about being sociable and relaxed and having fun?—’
‘And spanking each other?’ Her green eyes widen.
‘That’s just a bit of fun, it’s all optional?—’
‘“Hot tub party”,’ she reads again. ‘A load of horny strangers feeling each other up in a bubbling plastic pond?’
‘You wouldn’t have to do anything you wouldn’t want to do,’ Elias says sharply, seemingly outraged that she might be suggesting otherwise. ‘You could just… relax.’
Pearl glares at him. ‘It doesn’t sound very relaxing.’
‘I think it is,’ he says sulkily.
‘So, if it’s all optional, and I optednotto take part, what would I be doing while all this spanking and shagging was going on?’
He exhales. ‘Whatever you like.’
‘Right, like knitting or readingWoman’s Weekly?—’
‘I just thought it’d be fun, to give you a bit of a break?—’
‘And we’d go after Christmas?’
Elias nods. ‘If we go for a Twixmas deal, they’re doing three nights for the price of two…’
‘Right.’ She hands him back his phone. It’s not that Pearl is a prude, or that she has a problem with people getting naked in a field bordered by shabby wooden huts just outside Weston-super-Mare. She just doesn’t want to join them. But that’s not the real issue either. These past three months have turned her world on its head, in a good way. Elias is handsome, attentive and kind, and Pearl has told herself that this is good for her – to allow herself to grow close to someone again. He might not be ‘the one’ but Pearl doesn’t want aone. That had been Dean and no one will ever replace him. Pearl had just wanted to feel alive – and, yes, like a sexual being – again.
‘Pearl? What d’you think?’ The mouth that caused her to orgasm just thirty minutes before is now set in a petulant pout.
‘It’s nearly two o’clock. Let’s go to sleep.’ She turns away from him and clicks off her bedside lamp.
‘If you don’t think it’d be fun,’ he mutters, ‘we could do something else.’
‘I’m really tired, Elias.’
He sighs forcefully and switches off the lamp on his side. As his breathing slows and deepens, Pearl lies with eyes wide open, still facing away from him. She doesn’t want him to see that they are now filled with tears. Was she an idiot for thinking that Elias knows her well enough to suggest something she’d genuinely love to do? She flinches as the front door opens, banging back against the wall as Brandon and Abi clatter in. ‘I’m starving!’ Abi bellows. ‘Are there any of those crumpets?’ More banging and crashing. It sounds as if burglars are smashing up the kitchen.
