Alphabet Weekends - Elizabeth Noble [114]
She’d come in her sleep a few weeks ago. That had never happened before either. Woken pulsing and mewling at the edge of the bed, the blanket thrown back and the sheet wrinkled and damp. She’d known Patrick was awake and, for a second, before she was fully awake, she had reached for him, wanting more. He hadn’t been hard, though, and although she had stroked him, he’d pushed away her hand gently and rolled on to his side.
Alec was always hard, the minute he was near her. It was like being a teenager at the school disco again, feeling him pressing into her thigh, when he hugged her briefly and said hello. It made her feel incredibly alluring. She saw her own body differently, even. She had taken, she knew, to standing naked for a little longer after the shower, turning left and right, to look at the body he worshipped. All her nerve endings were nearer the surface, and she was thinking, all the time, about him touching her.
They were taking more and more risks, because neither of them was thinking straight. Patrick had been watching her look at herself the other evening. She’d thought he was reading to Ed, but when she turned he was in the doorway.
‘You’re a lovely-looking woman, Luce, lovelier now than when I first knew you.’
She couldn’t read his eyes. And she had reached for her dressing-gown, tying it tightly round her waist. If she was lovelier it was because of Alec, and it didn’t seem fair to either of them to show Patrick that loveliness.
Now, in the woods, they were finishing. As she came, she thought, as she often did, of Marianne’s magnesium flame, and clung to Alec. They stood for a moment, with him still whispering into her ear how beautiful she was, and how sexy. Then he released her, and stood back. She felt him trickling down her thighs. They stared into each other’s eyes, but in her peripheral vision she saw him tuck himself back into his trousers and fasten them, as she adjusted her bra and did up her buttons.
Alec laughed, kissed her, then swung her round briefly. ‘Thank you, Lucy. Thank you.’
It seemed to her a strange thing to say.
V for Vegas
It was bizarre. They had just taxied along the runway, and in the last minute she had seen the Sphinx, a pyramid, the Statue of Liberty and a fairytale castle.
‘Are we staying in any of those?’
‘I told you, it’s a surprise.’
A white stretch limousine was waiting for them outside the terminal building. Tom pulled his Ray-Ban Wayfarers out of his jacket pocket and put them on. ‘Oh, yes!’
‘Is this for us?’
‘You bet. It’s the only way to travel. When in Rome…’
In ten minutes they arrived. ‘The Bellagio – “The city’s most stylish and exclusive hotel and casino. Vast and palatial, its reinterpretation of an Italian village gives it a quality not shared by many of its competitors – elegance.” This is going to be amazing.’ Natalie had bought the guide book at Gatwick, and pored over it for most of the eleven hours on the plane, but Tom hadn’t told her until now where they were staying.
The hotel was breathtaking. The reception area was vast, with a humungous mirrored and bejewelled horse in the middle, and a ceiling of vividly coloured, elaborately blown, glass flower blooms. Ahead, they saw the vast glass atrium, with a botanical garden, and to their right the casino. People milled around, some in black tie, others in velour tracksuits. Natalie could see slot machines and, beyond, gaming tables manned by croupiers in red waistcoats and bow-ties. ‘Wow.’
Tom was smiling at her. She smiled back. ‘Way to trump Paris!’
They were shown to a bank of lifts, and from there to their bedroom. Natalie watched Tom peel off a couple of dollars from the wad in his jacket and give them to the bellboy. He was quite cool in Las Vegas.
She was surprised