‘Helena’s husband’s character has been constant throughout both films,’ said Mark patiently. ‘I don’t think the audience will accept a radical change at this point.’
‘Contrary to what we’re led to believe, people do change,’ said Lewis bitterly. ‘I wouldn’t have believed it myself a few hours ago but now I
know it’s true.’
‘Are you all right?’ asked Mark anxiously.
‘No, I’m not, but that’s not important. What’s important is that this film reflects the truth, and the truth is that by the time the confident, strong, emotionally-detached husband is half-way through his little experiment he discovers that he stands to lose more than he’d ever realised.’
‘I tried to tell you that at the beginning,’ Mark pointed out.
‘Save it, Mark. Just write it the way I tell you. Our hero, if that’s the right word for him, has casual but exhilarating sex with his wife’s best friend and instead of thoroughly enjoying it he ends up feeling empty and annoyed.’
‘With the friend?’
‘No, with himself! Are you deliberately trying to wind me up?’ demanded Lewis angrily.
‘Only getting the facts straight. Right, so it’s a sudden change but brought about by a particular incident. That makes it a bit easier for me.’
‘I’m so pleased,’ said Lewis sarcastically.
‘So you should be; I’ve got to make this thing hang together. How about Helena? Is she finding her affair empty and unsatisfying too?’
‘No!’ retorted Lewis shortly, and Mark heard the sound of the receiver being slammed down at Penruan House.
The scriptwriter got out his notebook and began to write. It wasn’t really as hard as he’d made out – he’d guessed what would happen from the very beginning.
*
‘We had a wonderful time,’ exclaimed Harriet, running into the drawing room and kissing Lewis enthusiastically. ‘Wait until you see my picture.’
‘Picture?’
‘I had one done of me in Victorian costume, I look really demure.’
‘Noella had one done too,’ said Edmund, ‘but she looks like someone who was on the game, don’t you honey?’
Noella pulled a face. ‘That’s because I’m too well-built for the costume. I guess Victorian maidens were slender and sexless.’
Lewis tried to sound interested in their day but all he wanted to do was take Harriet to bed and make love to her, just as he’d made love to Ella but this time with love and feeling. ‘Did Oliver have a good time as well?’ he asked.
‘Sure, he wasn’t that turned on by the historical part. He said all those costumes and the mud just made him grateful he was living in the twentieth century, but he sure enjoyed his trip into the copper mine.’
Harriet shivered. ‘I didn’t. It was freezing cold and I kept worrying about what would happen if the train broke down and we got stuck in the bowels of the earth.’
Edmund rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment. ‘I’d have kept you warm,’ he said softly, and Harriet turned her head to smile at him. Lewis’s heart began to race and he quickly stood up.
‘I’ll ask Mrs Webster to make us some coffee,’ he murmured.
‘What did you do all day?’ asked Harriet innocently when he came back.
‘Spent a lot of time with Mark and then sat outside enjoying the good weather.’
‘Where’s Ella?’ asked Noella sharply.
‘She sat out for a bit but then said something about taking a bath and I haven’t seen her since,’ said Lewis smoothly.
‘I must have a proper talk with her after dinner’, said Harriet. ‘She hasn’t mentioned breaking up with Simon yet, and I know she’ll want to talk about it. At one time it looked as though they were going to get married.’
‘I don’t think her heart’s really broken,’ commented Lewis.
Harriet stared at him. ‘How do you know? Has she discussed it with you?’
‘No, but she seemed quite cheerful. It’s a pity she can’t swim,’ he added.
‘Why’s that?’ asked Harriet, who knew perfectly well that Ella could swim.
‘A waste of the facility.’
Edmund nodded. ‘I know what you mean. No strutting around in her bikini and no shared pleasures of the pool for our Ella.’
‘Oh, she wore a bikini,’ said Lewis with a grin. ‘Quite a neat little number too.’
A warning bell sounded in Harriet’s head. ‘Has she talked to you about working in any of your films?’ she asked.
‘She’s dropped a few hints, yes.’
‘Just don’t use the casting couch to try her out,’ warned Harriet, smiling to hide her genuine fear.
‘Why not?’ asked Lewis softly. ‘Does the thought of that disturb you?’
‘It would sure as hell disturb me,’ said Noella quickly. ‘I’m popping over to Oliver’s cottage,’ she added. ‘He seems to have walked off with my camera.’
‘How convenient,’ remarked Edmund. ‘Come on, Harriet, show Lewis your picture.’
Harriet reached inside a carrier bag and drew out a framed sepia photo of herself dressed in Victorian costume. Lewis stared at it and felt his desire for his wife increase even more. She looked so innocent, so untouched, and yet her gaze was watchful as she stared out at him. With her long hair drawn back from her face she seemed both wary and trusting. Like a child, he thought, a child with a woman’s body and mind.
‘Good, don’t you think?’ said Edmund quietly. ‘They put one up on display straight away, to trick other visitors into thinking they’d look as good. Noella’s would have proved otherwise.’
‘Noella looks fine,’ said Harriet. ‘I think you’re being really unkind about her picture. No wonder she spent more time talking to Oliver than to you today.’
‘He’s more her type,’ said Edmund in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. ‘It’s just a pity he isn’t rich. If he were she’d run off and leave me and they’d live happily ever after.’
Lewis frowned. ‘Where would that leave you?’
Edmund thought for a moment. ‘Free,’ he exclaimed with a laugh. ‘Free to choose someone who’d suit me better as well.’
‘That might not prove as easy as you think,’ Lewis pointed out.
‘It’s easy enough,’ retorted Edmund. ‘I’ve already met someone. The trouble is, she’s spoken for.’
Harriet looked from her husband to Edmund and knew that she had to get out of the room. She couldn’t cope with the tensions and simmering anger that lay beneath the civilised façade they were both presenting. ‘I’m going to find Ella,’ she announced, and fled from the room.
‘This woman,’ said Lewis slowly. ‘Do I know her?’
‘Know her? That’s a difficult question to answer. You’re certainly acquainted with her.’
‘Be careful, Edmund,’ said Lewis quietly.
‘I’ll be as careful as you were this afternoon when you made love to Ella in full view of Mrs Webster. She was very shocked I’m afraid, and but for Noella’s intervention just now would certainly have left.’
Lewis felt the blood drain from his face as Edmund turned and left him. Caught in the excitement of the moment, and needing to expunge the memory of the film of Harriet with Edmund and Oliver, he’d forgotten all about their housekeeper and her view from the kitchen window.
While the drama slowly unfolded inside Penruan House, Noella was enjoying a drama of her own. All day she’d longed to have Oliver make love to her once more, and at every possible moment the pair of them had touched or exchanged intimate glances as their mutual desire rose.
Now, in the safety of Oliver’s cottage, they were both free to express their passion, and to Noella’s delight she had no sooner set foot inside the hallway than Oliver had gripped her arm and hurried her through the main living area into the room that he used for working out.
They both tore off their clothes, silent but united in the excitement of the moment. Then, still without a word, Oliver lay on his back along his workout bench with his legs on each side, feet flat on the floor, and lifted his hands until they were gripping the end of the lateral bar.
His erection was vast, the veins standing out like blue ropes and the glans swollen and crimson. Noella didn’t need any instructions; she knew exactly what she wanted to do and positioned herself above him, sitting astride his lower abdomen with her own feet also flat on the ground.
She sat with his erection trapped between her softly rounded belly and his own well-muscled abdomen and leant forward so that she too could grasp the lateral bar, her hands on Oliver’s. This meant that her voluptuous breasts were dangling within reach of his mouth. Oliver’s neck muscles
strained as he drew her left nipple greedily into his mouth and began to suck hard on it.
‘Graze me with your teeth,’ Noella urged him. ‘And suck harder – I like my men to be rough.’
Oliver needed no second urging. He nipped the edges of her sharply pointed nipples with his teeth and then opened his mouth wider so that he could suck in the surrounding areola as well.
Noella sighed with pleasure and rocked to and fro on him, stimulating herself between her thighs until she could feel the first tingles of arousal beginning deep within her.
Suddenly Oliver nipped a little harder at her breasts and as the searing heat-filled sensation darted through her she lifted her hips and very slowly eased his penis inside her. As soon as he was safely encased she squeezed her pelvic muscles and gripped him harder until he had to beg her to stop in case he came.
Reluctantly she released him a little and looked down at his sweat-covered face. ‘I want this to be something we both remember,’ she said in a low voice and Oliver pushed his hips up until she felt the end of his penis strike her cervix.
‘So do I,’ he assured her.
‘Then keep still for a while, and leave it all to me,’ she urged him.
Oliver shook his head. ‘That’s not my way.’
Secretly Noella was delighted. She liked a man to answer back, to take command even when she gave orders, but she also wanted sex with Oliver to be the kind she liked, and he saw the faint look
of anxiety on her face.
‘We’re two of a kind, Noella,’ he assured her. ‘You’re right, this is going to be great.’
Now Noella leant forward more and used the bar to pull herself up and down along his perfectly sculpted body. Oliver knew that she was managing to stimulate her entire pubic area with each pull. When she leant forward the penetration was deep and she would nuzzle his neck and nip the tender flesh beneath his ear before sliding back down him again.
Gradually the heaviness in his testicles turned into an ache and Oliver knew that he was very near. Before he could speak, Noella realised it too and she quickly changed her rhythm. Instead of moving up and down on him she began to rotate her hips from side to side which meant that the nerve endings inside her vagina were teased, sending delicious messages of arousal through her belly to her breasts, which were still being sucked hard by the diligent Oliver.
He’d never been so close to coming for so long and soon began to gasp with the effort of holding back as Noella continued her steady climb to orgasm. ‘Soon,’ she whispered, as her body started to tighten and he felt the involuntary tightening of her internal muscles as well.
Once this happened, Noella moved up and down even more slowly on him; he felt as though he were being tortured by an expert as his penis and testicles throbbed but he still wasn’t given sufficient stimulation to climax.
Noella was breathing rapidly now and she drew back a little from her lover in order to see her nipples extended by his mouth. As her body rocked backwards onto the base of his belly and her breasts were fully displayed to him, Oliver knew that he could no longer keep control and he shouted a warning cry to Noella.
Swiftly she let go of the lateral bar with one hand, leaving her hand free to roam between her legs where it could massage her swollen and aching clitoris while at the same time she increased the tempo of her movements. In the end it was Noella who came first and she shouted, grinding herself hard against his hip bones and twisting her upper torso until he was forced to relinquish his hold on her glorious breasts.
Even as her last quaking movement began to die away, Oliver came too and his cry was even louder than Noella’s as he finally released all the pent-up excitement and tension that had been kept at bay for what seemed an unbearable length of time. His hips jerked and his eyes closed as the spasms engulfed him, and looking down at him Noella knew with absolute certainty that this was a young man who would always be able to keep her happy.
When he was at last still, Oliver opened his eyes and smiled at her. ‘Your turn to lie on the bench,’ he said.
‘What, now?’ asked Noella incredulously.
‘Yes, now, while you’re still in the mood.
Quickly, lie like I was lying but with your feet right at the end of the bench.’
Her heart pounding with excitement at this unexpected turn of events, Noella changed places with him and to her delight he immediately crouched down on the floor at the foot of the bench and pulled her body towards him.
‘First I think I need a drink,’ he muttered, and Noella was about to protest when she realised that he was bringing a bottle of chilled champagne over to her. She heard it open with a loud popping sound and suddenly the ice-cold bubbles were flowing down across her exposed vulva, trickling into the crevices of her thighs and running down between her outer sex lips which were still open after the excitement of her previous orgasm.
Swiftly Oliver began to lap at the bubbles, opening her up with his hands and drinking from her in a way that even Edmund had never done before. ‘You’re beautiful here,’ he said softly. ‘I wish this could go on for ever.’
Noella wished that it could go on for ever as well. She felt him place a hand at the top of her pubic mound and then press down, pushing her clitoris closer to the opening of her vagina and at the same time increasing the feeling in her genitals. She shivered and as his tongue began to move gently over the clitoris she moaned, growing more and more excited as the sensations intensified.
After a time the regular rhythm became
unbearable as her needy body craved a change of stimulation in order to finally peak, and she thrust her hips up higher to increase the overall pressure.
‘Faster!’ she shouted, desperate for him to understand what she wanted. ‘Please – move your tongue faster now.’