‘The Scotsman says, “That’s nothing. I was cleaning my daughter’s room the other day when I came across a half full bottle of vodka. I was really shocked as I didn’t even know she drank.”
‘With that the Irishman says, “Both of you have got nothing to worry about. I was cleaning my daughter’s room the other day when I found a packet of condoms. I was really shocked. I didn’t even know she had a cock.”’
Jake laughs and so do I.
That sets the tone for the evening. It is irreverent. We eat with our fingers and laugh a lot. I totally forget about Mills and what I have to do the next day.
Afterwards, Jake makes me wear a pair of my shoes from my dancing days and do a strip tease for him. Tipsy and laughing I start undressing. It is only a game. It is to put the night to bed.
But when I look into his darkened eyes, my mouth makes a purring sound and my sex swells, hot, wet and aching.
Jake
She seems different tonight, her face is flushed, her lips parted. Sweat dampens her naked skin. She is wild for it, in that desperate way that people have on the last day of their holiday. She grinds her bare ass against my erection and I groan and catch her by the waist, holding her tightly. She wriggles away. I let her go. She comes back like a carefree butterfly.
I watch her push the globes of creamy flesh close to my face and shimmy hard so all her flesh quivers and shakes. That heady, sexy as hell scent of her fills my nostrils and I feel myself losing control. My breathing becomes shallow, my heart races. Your time running around naked and free is nearly over, my love. She turns around to face me, her legs apart. Her folds are swollen and protrude invitingly out of her sex lips.
‘Undress,’ she orders, in a deep silky voice, utterly unaware of how improbable she sounds giving orders when her bits are protruding or how little time is left for her to play the tease. She’s everything I’ve ever wanted.
My eyes never leaving hers, I tug off my clothes in double quick time. She spins around in a deft lap-dancer move and, pushing me down on the sofa, she moves upwards, and with her thighs wide open she begins to lower her sticky sex into my mouth. I watch it come down, the puffy lips oozing and glistening with raw sexual need, her hole gaping and begging to be filled.
Like a hungry man I swoop upwards to meet it on its way down to me. With her hands flat on either side of my hips she leans forward and slips her warm, open mouth over my engorged dick. The glaze of sweat makes her nipples slide against my body.
I hear the sound of her heart beating faster as her breath rasps with excitement. I lick and suck and fuck her with my tongue until she comes with a force that shakes her to her very core.
I spread her legs wide and look at her. Her gorgeous hair is tangled and spread across the sofa. Slowly I let my eyes travel down to her sex, open and ready for me, and I feel that wild, relentlessly primitive urge to possess and brand her. To mark her as mine. If I was in one of those tribal societies where they ink their women to mark them as their property I’d be right there inking her whole body so there is no mistaking what is mine.
Putting my hands on either side of her I mount her. Her mouth opens into a slack O. It gives me immense pleasure to know that the thick, mushroomed head of my cock is stretching her to unbearableness. She locks her legs desperately around my hips to keep me there. Just the idea of her underneath me, helplessly swallowing my cock into her body, excites me and I pound her hard until I explode inside her, my cock pushing so deep into her that her body buckles and shudders.
For a few seconds I stay inside her while she milks the cream of my body with her own. And during that time I sense her as if she is a part of my body, her heartbeat, the flow of blood inside her veins, the increased heat rising off her skin, and the lift and fall of her chest. The sensation is unfamiliar, but strangely beautiful. For a long time I watch the moonlight come in through the window and throw its blue light on her cheek. I want to protect her from anything and everything that could possibly hurt her.
How foolish I was to think
That I could catch a butterfly?
—Butterflies, Shiv Kumar Batalvi
THIRTEEN
Lily
At twelve I take a cab and direct it to an Indian restaurant in Notting Hill. I go into the restaurant, slip the waiter a twenty pound note, and he gladly escorts me out through the back door. I walk quickly along the back street, take a left and walk up the road to the NCP car park. Inside, I keep pressing the key remote in my hand until a car lights up and clicks open.
I get in and drive to the safe house, where I find a parking space, pay the parking charge and get out, locking the car. It is a small building of six flats in a quiet street. At lunchtime hardly anyone is around. I access the apartment block through the street entrance and climb briskly to the second floor. My heart is thudding hard, but I am not in a panic. I know I haven’t done anything wrong. I think I am more bemused than anything else.
I check the concealment of my recording device—all seems well—turn my key in the door, and push. Inside, I’m met by the strong, disagreeable smell of cigar smoke. As soon as I close the door I can see up the hallway and into the living room. DS Mills is lounging on a sofa with his feet up on the coffee table. He is sucking on a cigar and holding a large goblet of brandy in his hand.
He looks at his cigar. ‘You are late,’ he says.
I glance at my watch. ‘By a minute, Sir.’
‘Arrive before I do, in future. I’m a busy man.’ He gestures condescendingly with his finger to the sofa opposite him. ‘Sit down.’ Even beyond the office environment, his arrogance is breathtaking. I’ve heard that he is married, but I can’t imagine the state of the long-suffering wife sitting at home waiting for him. I do as I am told.
‘Spit it out then. What’ve you got for me on Eden?’
On the way here I’d thought of all the different ways I could tackle the subject with Mills, but face to face there is no easy way, so I just blurt it out.
‘The information I have is not about Jake, Sir. It’s about Robin.’
Mills’ eyes narrow dangerously. He carefully places his cigar to rest on the side of his ashtray, and asks coldly, ‘Is this some kind of bullshit joke, Strom?’
I stay strong. ‘I’m afraid not, Sir. I have information that Robin has been seen in the Pilkingtons’ clubs and I believe he might even be working with or for them.’
‘You want me to believe this ludicrous accusation verbatim because?’ His sarcasm and irritation are obvious. He gets up onto his feet and walks around the sofa.
‘I trust the source, Sir.’
‘I’ll be the judge of that. Who the fuck is your source?’
‘A dancer from the club. She’s seen Robin and Tommy Saunders, Billy Joe Pilkington’s number two man, together at the club a few times. That is highly irregular and should be looked into.’
‘A dancer?’ he scoffs.
I swallow hard and sit upright. ‘My duty is to put out any information I uncover so that any future investigations can be informed by it.’
‘Robin can visit any damn club he wants. It’s not against the law.’
I flush. ‘My instinct tells me something more is going on, Sir. The dancer made some serious accusations. A girl he had gone out with went missing.’
‘Do you think I’m going to take the word of some anonymous, two bit stripper over one of my best men? Have you and Eden cooked this cock and bull story up to save his ass?’
‘That’s not fair, Sir,’ I snap back. ‘I followed your instructions to the letter. No one, not even Jake Eden, knows about our arrangement.’
‘I can’t believe you dragged me up here for a bit of stripper gossip.’
‘Have you got a magic crystal ball, Sir? Do you know exactly what is happening at all times and you never ever get anything wrong?’
He glares at me warningly. ‘Watch yourself, Strom, I’m your commanding officer.’
But at this point I don’t give a fuck anymore. He i
s just a bully. And I don’t care if I never work in the force again. ‘I’m just curious why you would not be even slightly intrigued as to why Robin might be fraternizing with well-known gangsters.’
‘What are you implying, Strom?’ Mills stops suddenly in my face. His face looks like it might explode among the bulging veins.
I remain outwardly calm and smile. ‘I’m sure you can deduce the implication yourself, Sir.’
My sarcasm causes him to erupt violently. He thrusts a finger in my face. ‘I’d be very careful, if I were you. You’re walking on extremely thin ice.’
‘I’m not afraid of you. I haven’t done anything wrong. Yes, it was a lapse of judgment to sleep with my target, but I confessed, and offered to resign.’
Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, out of nowhere, it comes to me. I see it clearly, the thing that had eluded me all this time, the thing that I had missed. I stare at him with shocked eyes. My eyes are riveted on him, equal parts fear and disbelief. My voice is a whisper. ‘You showed no curiosity or surprise about the shipment coming in on the sixteenth. You knew about it before I told you, didn’t you?’
He sighs. ‘You stupid, stupid bitch. All you had to do was open your fucking legs and distract Eden while we laid our plans. But you couldn’t just do that, could you? Oh no, you had to be a little Miss Marple, running around poking your fucking nose into things that have nothing to do with you.’