“Can you tell the supermarket people to give her a tab? I’ll pay it.”
“You bloody well will, bro.”
“Thanks. You’re a diamond, Luce. I’ll remember this when your birthday comes around.”
“Ha, right. Not a year’s subscription to your crappy newspaper this time, then?”
Jeremy grinned, giving her the thumbs-up and hustling Michelle out of the office.
Alone in the van, once Jeremy had hared off in the pursuit of news, Michelle lay on the narrow bed and gazed up at the spotlight on the ceiling.
Life was strange, she surmised. One minute you were a man’s slave, running his hotel and having no more pressing priority than shaving your nether regions for the next sex orgy. Days later, here you were, in a caravan, in fear of your life, with the future stretching out like a desert, devoid of certainty or reassurance.
What will become of Charles? She hated herself immediately for the question. She should not care what happened to him. He can look after himself.
But then she thought of all the plans she had had for the pair of them. Becoming his legitimate partner, then eventually his wife. Meals out. A shared house in the posh part of Goldsands. Exotic holidays. Perhaps even children, though the sex parties might have to take a backseat for a few years.
She shut her eyes, understanding at last that Charles would never have wanted any of that. She had wasted two years of her life, exchanged her self-respect for a bit of hot sex. Were all men like him? Would she ever find a place to be herself without fear or shame?
It seemed pointless to hold her breath.
Chapter Ten
The campsite was never quite silent until after midnight. Even then, a terrified bleat from the neighbouring field or the snorting of a horse might break the stillness. More usually, winds would sweep down from the cliffs to bend and stretch the guy ropes and make the canvas creak.
For this reason, among many others, Flipp found it difficult to sleep in the tent. To give him credit, Rocky did his level best to wear her out before they spooned against each other inside the do
uble sleeping bag. She yawned and stretched pleasurably at the memory of their earlier trespass into the swimming pool, closed for the evening but still tepid from the day’s bright sunshine. All the lifeguards had gone home and the rest of the staff were in the entertainment complex, doing rubbish versions of Lady Gaga songs for the edification of the other campers and caravanners, while the moon shone down on the open waters.
“Come on,” Rocky had urged, pulling himself over the fence and extending an arm down to Flipp.
“We’ll get caught.” She giggled, letting his hand close over hers, scrabbling up the ridged wood.
“No, we won’t. Come on. Trust me.”
The faded plastic of the water chute looked more glamorous by moonlight, as did the lifeguard’s tall chair. The water lapped quietly against the sides of the pool, whispering invitations. Rocky shed his jacket first, turning to Flipp and gesturing her forward.
“Skinny-dip time. Last one in gets ducked.”
“No way.” objected Flipp, but her T-shirt dress lay on the grass already, and she was bending over to unlace her boots.
By the time the boots and knickers were off, Rocky was in the pool, his broad chest and shoulders rising from the water like a sexier Triton, his face beaded with droplets, teeth bright white in the grey-washed light.
“You need a conch shell,” Flipp told him, sitting down on the edge and splashing at him with her toes.
“A conch shell? Why?” Rocky laughed, making lunges at her ankles, which she skilfully avoided.
“And a trident. Then you could really look like Triton.”
“Who’s Triton? Should I be jealous?”
“Oh, you know. Son of Poseidon. He could calm the waves of the sea.”
“I’ve seen The Poseidon Adventure. Is it something to do with that?”
Flipp snorted. “Didn’t you do Greek myths and all that at school? Jason and the Argonauts. The labyrinth. The Odyssey.”
“Odyssey used to be a nightclub in Marine Street. I didn’t pay a lot of attention at school. I wasn’t geeky about Greeks.”