‘She watched us,’ I said.
‘Who?’
‘You know who. Did you set this up?’
‘Of course not. But she knows me, so …’
I steadied my feet on the uneven ground while he slid out of me. He had a tissue ready and I did my best to clean myself up, but when I pulled up my knickers and leggings I knew I hadn’t caught it all.
‘You’ve got form for shagging in alleyways, then?’
‘I’ve got form for finding those corset fittings quite … stimulating.’
I pouted at him and he cupped my face in his hands, bending to look deep into my eyes.
‘Passion, love,’ he said. ‘I have a passion for you. I can’t keep my hands off you. Sometimes I try it, but I just can’t.’
‘I’m the same,’ I said, barely able to speak for the wild thumping of my heart. ‘I want you all the time. More than my body can even take. It frightens me sometimes.’
‘Don’t be frightened. I’m falling, Sarah. Fall with me.’
‘Sink or swim,’ I whispered.
He nodded, his expression sombre. ‘Sink or swim,’ he echoed. He kissed me on the lips, a quick but hungry smacker, and stepped back to straighten himself out.
‘Now then,’ he said, ‘if all that’s dealt with, let’s go and get something to eat. I have a proposition for you.’
Chapter Four
‘Does this proposition have anything to do with Miss Frost and her exclusive gatherings?’ I asked, fiddling with a napkin.
We were in the Upstairs at the Ten Bells restaurant in Whitechapel, Jasper thinking – quite rightly – that I would appreciate the whole Jack the Ripper vibe it had going on. Not that I didn’t find it odd that this area’s most celebrated son was a hideous serial killer. But I was too preoccupied with my crumpled, rumpled, post-coital appearance to give it too much thought, as I squirmed squishily on my wooden chair and browsed the menu.
Surely I looked every inch a woman who had just been roughly fucked in an alleyway. And Jasper looked every inch the perpetrator. It was strange, in fact, to see him looking less than impeccable for once. I couldn’t take my eyes off his grubby cuffs and sweat-damp hair. The evidence, the guilty traces, gave me butterflies.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Not at all.’
‘But what are they? You’ve been to them before, I gather.’
‘Private parties, kinky sex parties,’ he said.
I gave the room a nervous scan to make sure nobody had heard, but Jasper seemed unconcerned. Perhaps he really had decided to out himself.
‘I haven’t been to one in years. You heard what she said,’ he continued. ‘Not because I didn’t want to, mind you. Just that our schedules never synchronised, once my directing career took off.’
‘Too busy for bondage,’ I said.
‘Well, quite. You’re curious, aren’t you?’ he said, with a smile.
‘Anyone would be. What happened at these events, then?’
‘I’ve told you. Kinky sex. You know the kind of thing. Or do you need reminding?’
His smile was filthy now and he reached out to stroke my wrists, causing me to drop my menu just as the waiter approached.
We ordered starters – veal tongue for him, duck egg with morels for me – and I returned to the theme.
‘Who did you go with? Ava Rose?’