‘I wasn’t – maybe you mistook me for someone else.’ Martin looked angry now, and Opal almost felt sorry for him. There was something piteous about the fact that he was too stupid to realise what a sloppy job he was doing of covering up his affair.
Ruby looked indignant, her eyebrows almost reaching her hairline. ‘You’re a fucking liar,’ she said. Her voice was surprisingly cool. She was calm and seemed totally sure of herself. Opal envied her in that moment. This was how Opal should have reacted. And yet even in this moment, she could not find that courage.
‘I think maybe we’ve all had a little bit too much to drink. Let’s retire for now and we could always come back for dessert later. It’ll keep in the fridge,’ Opal said quietly.
There was a moment of silence, and then Martin threw down his napkin. The scrape of his chair against the hardwoodfloor rang out as he stormed out the room. Opal smiled at her guests placidly. All looked back at her with a mixture of disbelief, bemusement and shock on their faces.
‘Debbie, would you like me to call you a cab?’
Deborah shook her head slowly, her gaze vacant, seemingly still processing. ‘Don’t trouble yourself, Pol. I can walk.’
Chapter 25
Ruby couldn’t settle. For some reason that dinner had wound her up, despite being the sort of person who might usually revel in the discomfort of people like Opal and her husband. There was something about Martin’s indignation, the way his gaze had turned from admiring to disdainful in the instant that he felt on the back foot – it reminded her of a child.
He had lied with such brazen outrage, as thoughshewere somehow beneathhim–andmaking up tall tales for the fun of it. It was galling. And then on top of that, Johan had been off with her all day. Ever since the encounter with Opal in the corridor he had kept himself at a distance.
Avoiding her stolen glances and then choosing to sit with Opal instead of by Ruby’s side. She had been momentarily buoyed by how much her low-level flirting with Martin had elicited a reaction from Johan. But then as he mirrored that very same behaviour with Opal, her triumph had soured.
Now, lying in bed, and despite the large spliff she’d smoked out the window, she couldn’t sleep. If she was being honest with herself, she knew what she wanted. She just wished she didn’t have to concede in order to get it.
At around three o’clock in the morning she managed toconvince herself thatmaybe it was actually the feminist thing to do to go to his room.So she did.
At his door, she wavered for a moment, and then steeled herself and tapped lightly on the wood. When Johan opened the door, he was shirtless, wearing only a pair of exceedingly white briefs. She was wearing a pair of plain black pants and a faded Bob Marley T-shirt. He smiled dozily.
‘Ruby, please do come in.’ Even caught off guard in the middle of the night, he remained stubbornly unflustered. Ruby squeezed through the purposefully small gap he’d left between himself and the doorframe. She sat on his bed and held his gaze as he shut the door and sat beside her. He leant in, but she stopped him, her hand clasping his jaw mere inches from her face.
‘I don’t want you to think this means I like you,’ she purred.
He raised a single eyebrow, but didn’t remove her hand as he spoke. ‘Why are you here then?’
‘I’m here because you make me hot …’ she slipped her free hand down the front of her knickers and dipped a finger inside herself ‘… and wet.’
Johan groaned. She could see the white fabric growing taut at his crotch. ‘I think that after how you’ve treated me this evening, you don’t deserve to come until I tell you.’ Ruby still held his face firmly, but this she whispered in his ear. She felt powerful, and there was just something about Johan that made her want to put him in his place.
She pushed him back onto the bed, lifting his legs up so he was lying flat. ‘I never took you for the kinky type.’ He was trying to sound mocking, but it came out breathy and wanting.Ruby peeled her T-shirt off. She watched his pupils dilate as he fixed his gaze on her breasts.
‘Do I have to tie your hands up, or are you going to behave yourself?’ Despite what he might have thought, this was a new role for Ruby. When she was with Jude, these had been the sorts of thingshewould say toher. She figured if she’d found it arousing, why wouldn’t a man?
‘I’ll behave myself.’ Johan’s voice cracked as he spoke, and Ruby felt a thrill run through her. He put his hands behind his head. Ruby knelt over him and held his gaze and she lowered his boxers. Obviously his cock was perfect. She looked up to catch him smiling at it smugly.
‘What do you want me to do with you?’ she asked coyly.
He huffed, his impatience starting to get the better of him. ‘I don’t know, fuck me?’
‘You wish.’
Instead she parted his legs and sat between them, gently caressing the insides of his thighs with her fingertips. He closed his eyes and began to breathe deeply. Slowly she moved upwards, teasing at the base of his shaft. Now he began to moan.
‘Please.’ It was almost a whisper.
‘What was that?’ Ruby asked.
‘Please, please touch me.’
Ruby held out for another minute or so and then caved. Truth be told, she was beginning to come up against the limits of her own unmet urges. She stroked him, and couldn’t help but lick her lips as she felt him getting even harder in her palms. He threw his head back into the pillow, and for a split second Ruby was worried she’d taken him too far. She let go.
The sound that came from his mouth sounded bestial and pained. He looked up at her with something between carnal desire and liquid rage in his eyes. Before she knew it he’d flipped her onto her back and pulled her underwear down.
