My Lies, Your Lies - Susan Lewis Page 0,52

her everything, how Sir had unzipped the psychedelic dress and helped to remove it; how he’d undone her lacy bra and slipped off her panties and while she’d lain naked on the grass his eyes had drunk her in as he’d removed his own clothes, but Joely couldn’t find the right words to tell the story as Freda wanted it told.

Freda had gone into some detail about the tender exploration of unfamiliar bodies, hot, breathy kisses and the breaking of the final barrier that had allowed him to take her completely. She’d even talked about the tears of happiness and the music he’d chosen to celebrate the momentous event. Nothing triumphant or rousing, as Joely might have expected, but the Allegretto Scherzando from Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor – a gentle, playful piece, Freda had told her, that he’d performed himself, seated, still naked, at his uncle’s piano. At the same time his young student, also still naked, had stood behind him with her hands on his shoulders as she swayed and listened and adored him.

Joely didn’t normally consider herself a prude, but she simply didn’t want to write sex that left nothing to the imagination, which was what Freda had requested. All she felt comfortable with was capturing the essence of it, laying down the structure, and if graphic was what Freda wanted she must fill in the bold detail herself, or the innuendo, or the artful metaphors. It would be her choice.

Sighing, Joely pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes as though to push out the tiredness. It was the weekend and she needed a break, although she had no idea what she was going to do, given that Andee wasn’t free and Freda hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to be social.

She glanced at her phone in the vain hope it might have a suggestion, but as usual there was no signal.

So, Callum and Martha had no doubt already taken off for their romantic break while she was here in this ivory tower feeling unsettled by the shenanigans of a precocious fifteen-year-old girl and the older man who’d submitted himself to her so readily.

Submitted wasn’t the right word, she knew that as surely as she knew that he’d orchestrated the entire seduction. And yet it wasn’t him she was feeling so bothered by, she realized, it was the older Freda who seemed to want her to feel more tenderness and understanding for Sir than he surely deserved. Her client’s manipulation hadn’t succeeded, exactly, but there was no doubt that Freda’s dislike of her younger self struck an odd contrast to the affection, even love that she still seemed to feel for her old music teacher. And wasn’t it interesting that she’d gone on to marry someone who shared Sir’s passion for music – unless, of course, Sir and Mr D were one and the same person.

Now that was a twist to the tale she wouldn’t have predicted, nor would she dare to suggest it, given her client’s aversion to second-guessing.

‘I’d rather not talk this evening,’ Freda announced as Joely emerged from the tower staircase into the kitchen. ‘You probably consider that rude, but there it is. If you wish to go out to find more entertaining company, be assured I shall not feel offended.’

Since Joely had no one to go out with, and certainly didn’t want to sit in a bar or restaurant alone thinking of Callum and Martha somewhere together, she accepted the silent rule as they ate the spicy pasta dish prepared by Brenda and cooked by Freda.

‘Why don’t you join me in the den to watch a film?’ Freda offered when it came time to clear away their plates.

So Joely did, and was neither surprised nor put out to discover that Freda had already decided on their viewing. It was only when she realized what the film was that she wished she’d said she’d go to her room and read.

And God Created Woman, the erotic story of a young girl with abundant sexual energy who causes havoc in three men’s lives. An old favourite of the parents’ if Joely remembered correctly.

So were there more men to come after Sir? Or was this Freda’s attempt to get her ghostwriter to visualize her young self as a nymphet not unlike Brigitte Bardot?

Who knew what went on in that woman’s head?

The film wasn’t particularly engaging; really nothing more than a vehicle for Vadim to show off his sex-kitten wife, Joely thought, and