‘What about the tattoos?’ I asked quietly.
‘We’ll have to keep his sleeves down,’ said Jasper. ‘Shouldn’t be a problem, though I like mine rolled up.’
‘To the elbow,’ I said, with a flash of lascivious visualisation.
‘Right, that’s good,’ said Jasper to Dimitri. ‘There’s no need to bare her bottom really, but could you just lift her skirt?’
I heard Rosie give a little whimper. God, how could she do this? I didn’t think I could ever be so bold in front of others. But then, she always had been one for jumping into things with both feet while I hung back, reserved and cautious. At university she had had a string of boyfriends, to each of whom she had given her heart with unreserved passion. That none of them had worked out was a pity – at the time I had thought she was too impulsive and ought to hang back a bit and get to know them better first. But now, watching her with Dimitri and seeing the obvious trust and love between them, I wondered if it was me who had the problem. Me, who had played it safe at college with my predictable, undemanding, unexciting long-term boyfriend. Had I used him as a deflector shield to keep the man I really needed – the man like Jasper – at bay? Perhaps I had. Perhaps Rosie had been doing things right all along.
Would she marry Dimitri if he asked?
I watched her twist her ankles as her lover raised the hem of her skirt over a pair of ‘naughty weekend away’ knickers. I smiled. I bet she hadn’t realised she’d be showing them to the room when she put them on.
They were of black lace with a heart-shaped cut-out over her bottom, baring most of both cheeks. I had a feeling there was a slit at the crotch, too, but she kept her thighs clamped together so I couldn’t really tell.
‘Oh, now that’s perfect,’ said Jasper. ‘A bit of coverage, and a bit of bare skin. Ideal. Did you plan this, Rosie?’
‘Not exactly,’ she said defiantly.
Dimitri placed a big flat hand over the exposed part of her bottom. I could see how she quivered. I almost wanted to change places with her. No, scratch the ‘almost’. I did want to.
‘There, now, give her a bit of a warm-up,’ suggested Jasper. ‘Just what you’d consider to be a good start to a long session.’
Dimitri’s first stroke was a mild little slap to Rosie’s lower cheeks and I could see her unclench her shoulders and relax into it, lulled by how gentle his opening salvo was. But she shouldn’t have been deceived. Half a dozen love pats later, he started to smack like a pro and her jolts and squeaks made my cane stripes scorch in sympathy.
It was incredibly arousing to watch – more so than Trix’s film, even, because Dimitri himself was so absorbed in what he was doing. His face, which could be anything from adorably boyish to terrifying, became a mask of masterful concentration. He came across as so many different things – an artist in the rapture of creation; a stern taskmaster; a lover giving pleasure to his beloved.
He was compulsively watchable. I could see why his acting career was on the up.
Poor Rosie – lucky Rosie – panted and clenched as her heart-shaped cut-out turned by degrees from creamy white to fuchsia pink. Once it was a good, deep shade, Dimitri stayed his hand and looked up at the camera with questioning eyes.
‘That was beautiful,’ said Jasper. ‘Really perfect. Well done, and well done, Rosie. Now, if she can take it, I’d like to try some strokes with an implement. Rosie, could you go and bend over that stool there?’
I knew the stool of old and a sense memory of its prickly velvet on my bare forearms swept over me.
Rosie trotted over, avoiding all sideways eye movement, and arranged herself with her bottom facing the room.
‘What implement?’ Dimitri wondered aloud.
‘Well, you have about seven hundred belts to choose from, don’t you?’ said Jasper. ‘Why not use one of those?’
Dimitri selected one of the wider of his plethora of leather accoutrements, one without studs, I was rather relieved to note. It was a brown, rather weathered number with tooling that made it look cowboyish.
‘OK,’ he said, wrapping the buckle end round a fist and marching back over to Rosie. ‘You know how you love the belt, my darling?’
Rosie made a groaning sound.
‘Take it like a good girl,’ he advised. ‘You know you can do it.’
‘How many?’ she begged to know.
‘Well, I guess
I should ask the director. Jasper?’
‘Oh, I’ll leave it with you,’ said Jasper with a grin. ‘You know better than I do what she can take. You need to be in shot, so … yes. If you could stand there, keep a bit of space between you and the footstool. I need a good angle to shoot your hand and her bum … that’s perfect. Take it from there.’
‘OK.’ Dimitri pulled the belt taut from his fist.