The Cruel Stars of the Night - Kjell Eriksson [93]
He heard splashing from the shower and again felt desire stir in his body but he told himself to be strong and resist the temptation to be seduced. He had made his choice and in all honesty it was not even a difficult one.
He poured himself more wine and had a bite to eat. He could see her, soapy, her head tilted back and the dark hair hanging down. What fascinated him most—which was making him feel more and more uncomfortable on the hard kitchen chair—was Laura’s complete abandonment in bed. She didn’t seem to have any restraint.
He and Jessica had a pretty good sex life but Laura was something extraordinary. Jessica was controlled, it almost seemed as if she could press different buttons to regulate her emotions. Even the timing of her orgasm seemed to be something she had a button for. She always had one, as if she ran a program where the end point was a given. Afterward she washed herself fastidiously. Now he was used to it, but in the beginning it had felt a bit strange that she never lingered in bed. No, up like a spring and into the bathroom for the obligatory and scrupulous body wash, as if she wanted to scrub away every particle that came from him. It was rare that she came back to the bedroom. Instead she often went off to the computer or even to the laundry room to start the dryer or put a load in the washer.
I wonder how she will give birth, he asked himself and couldn’t help smiling a little. She probably has some program for that as well. Into the delivery room, plop, and then out again. Not that that was happening any time soon. Not yet, she said. She probably had a time plan for that as well, he thought, not without bitterness.
Stig drained his glass, stretched out, and opened the refrigerator but it was as bare as the rest of the house. The sound from the shower had stopped. Stig got up, adjusted his pants in the crotch, and sank down on the chair again.
The door to the bathroom opened and suddenly Laura was in the kitchen. She smiled and Stig found himself smiling and felt very much at ease.
“Was it nice?”
She nodded. Her hair gleamed black, scented with an unfamiliar shampoo. Laura leaned against the fridge.
She grabbed the bottle in order to fill her glass and discovered that it was a little less than half full.
“You did want some after all,” she said. “Didn’t it taste good? It should actually be aired for an hour or even more.”
Stig marveled at her calm. She again placed herself with her back to the fridge.
“We have to talk,” he said and decided to look at her. He wanted her to sit down. It would feel safer with a table between them but Laura didn’t move.
She nodded and Stig launched in.
“We have to talk,” he said with unnecessary hardness and immediately regretted it when he saw her expression. “Don’t get me wrong,” he went on. “I like you a lot. You are attractive, very attractive.”
He looked out the window, unable to continue, swallowed and made a new attempt.
“Jessica watches me like a hawk. I think she senses something.”
“She isn’t a problem,” Laura said.
“Yes, she is.”
“Stig, we love each other, it’s that simple. We always have.”
He stared at her.
“It won’t work,” he said flatly.
Laura smiled.
“Don’t worry about Jessica. She’s a bitch and you know it. It’s me you want, isn’t it? Look at me!”
Laura tugged on her belt and the dressing gown fell open.
Stig stared at her half-bared body.
“What have you done to your thighs?”
“I dreamed about you and I scratched myself in my sleep.”
“I have to drive,” he said, sniffling, rising on unsteady legs.
“You’re not driving anywhere.”
Twenty-nine
“Could it be the bananas?”
Ann Lindell shook her head.
“I don’t think so,” she said with a worried expression.
Damn it, she thought, not now, not today.
Erik had vomited after snacktime.
“He was droopy for a while,” Gunvor, the preschool teacher, went on, “but after that we didn’t notice anything else. It was full steam ahead all afternoon.”
“It must have been something that passed quickly,” Ann said, who was finding it harder now to hang on to her