Chapter 19. Dangerous.
I was pretty busy at college that week, with exams coming up, though I took the Tuesday afternoon off to assist Dani with a female client, Sarah Winstone, a slim, middle-aged woman who I’ll tell you about later. I didn’t do much, just helped with the straps and chains, and watched Dani working. It was fun, though. Sarah was dressed as a young girl. She had admitted to doing something naughty - I can't even remember what is was now. She had big, frightened, doe-like eyes, which she kept fixed on Dani all the while she was being admonished. Dani was standing, hands on hips, questioning her like a strict headmistress. Sarah was biting her lower lip nervously, and then started to sob quietly. Dani sat down and ordered her to lie across her knee, in preparation for a spanking. She complied meekly, even asking whether she should take her knickers off. It crossed my mind that she would be the perfect client for me to practise on.
I had a text from Angela that evening, thanking me for my contribution to Andrew’s undoing, though I felt I had done very little to assist in Dani’s scheme. Dani rang me on Friday to say she had no clients that weekend, and that she’d see me the following Friday evening. She and Debbie had arranged to meet at Ishtar Bar, a local Turkish restaurant, at seven. I was looking forward to it with interest. I didn’t hear from Maddy all that first week, but she rang me on Saturday morning.
“Hi, J! How are you, darling?”
“I’m fine thanks, Maddy. How are you? And how’s it been at work?”
“I’m good. Andrew. Oh, my god, the poor thing. He’d been so quiet and subdued. People kept asking him if he was feeling OK. He couldn’t even look me in the face. So at the end of work yesterday I asked to speak to him. He agreed, reluctantly. I went into his office and he closed the door. I took a seat, but he just paced up and down. I said to him, “Look, Andrew, if you really can’t go through with this, you know you could always refuse and take the consequences. All right, you might end up on Pornhub or something, but what the hell? What you did isn’t a crime.” He looked at me aghast, and started stammering. “I don’t even know what she’s planning to do with me. How can I make a choice? I can’t stop thinking about it.” So I told him. “You know, all I think she will do is to help you to find your real self. Don’t be nervous. Dani’s not a monster. She sees things in people that others don’t. Relax, Andrew. Think of it as therapy.” “Therapy?" he said. "You’re joking. I don’t know why I did that…with Steve. Why did I do it? Idiot!” “Maybe you did it because you found him attractive. For once you escaped all the conventions, and just did what came naturally. That’s a positive thing. Have you spoken to him since?” He had, apparently. "I did call him once," he said, "just to…you know…make sure he was OK and that.” “So you're still friends?” He said, "I guess..." I asked him about Angela. Appaerently she rang him on Monday and they had "a long talk.” So I asked him what she said. I thought she might have told him he was dumped. So did he. But she seems to be playing a long game. Apparently, she said something about him “always having a place in her life”. I think Andrew thought that was positive, but I thought it sounded ambiguous. Don't you?"
“Knowing her, yes. We'll see what happens. Dani's invited me to go out for dinner with her and her doctor friend next Friday. I’ll let you know what she's like.”
When I got to the restaurant that Friday evening, I spotted Dani, by herself, in the corner. I could see why they’d chosen this place. It had separate, high-sided booths, so that each party had privacy. I waved and went over to join her.
“Hi J. Sit down. Debbie’s on her way.”
I sat opposite her. She was sipping a glass of white wine. There was an open bottle of Sauvignon Blanc on the table between us in an ice-bucket. She poured me a glass.
“Your favourite, I see,” I remarked. “How’s things?”
“Busy, darling,” she smiled. “I've been run off my feet. My arm is quite aching. I’ve had some very bad boys this week. Pity you weren’t free. But it keeps me fit, I suppose.” She glanced at the door. “Oh, here she is. Debbie! Over here!” - and then, in a whisper - “be careful, J. This one can be dangerous.”
A young woman was approaching. She wasn’t quite what I had been expecting. Dani had said she used to be a GP, so I was imagining someone serious and professional-looking, possibly middle-aged, and probably dressed in something conservative, a black trouser suit or something of that sort. Instead I found myself looking at a woman in her early thirties with short, almost cropped, bleached hair, a squarish face, sharp blue eyes, and big silver hoop earrings. She was wearing a black spandex cat suit with a low round neck, short boots with high heels which came about a third of the way up her calves, and a little red leather jacket. She wore a plain silver necklet and carried a shoulder bag. She had a very youthful and careless air about her, and she almost skipped over to our table. She embraced Dani with unrestrained affection, which she broke off suddenly, in order to turn her attention to me.
“And this is Jacinth?”
I was rising to greet her, when she pushed me gently back into my seat, at once sat down beside me, and kissed me on the cheek. I was enveloped in a cloud of subtle, sweet perfume.
“I’ve heard all about you, my dear. Oh, don’t worry, all of it good,” she laughed. “Dani’s lucky to have found such a willing and pretty assistant!”
I felt slightly embarrassed, to tell the truth. Almost intimidated. But the feeling only lasted a few moments. I could sense the intelligence beneath her breezy vivacity. And warmth, as well.
“Don’t mind me,” she smiled, taking me by the hand and looking into my eyes, “I’m just excited to see you both.”
She picked up her glass, which Dani had just finished filling, and took a large gulp.
“Oh…. That’s better. Dani, it’s so good to see you. It’s been too long. How are you? How’s Riccardo?”
“We’re both very well, Debs. It’s great to see you, too. I like your new look. You look about seventeen in that outfit. And your hair… Very cool.”
“Oh, I just wanted a change. I was getting dowdy. That’s what medical practice does for you. I thought our little soirée would be a good excuse. Now tell me all the news.”
“I will. Waiter? Can we have another…. Thank you.”
They began chatting away quietly, leaning towards each other across the table, discussing people I’d never heard of. The waiter brought another bottle of wine. Debbie placed a hand on my shoulder.
“We’re not being rude, Jacinth. We have a tiny bit of catching up to do. Can you put up with our nattering for a few minutes?”
“Course, Debbie. Take your time.” I was quite happy to sit there, sipping wine and casting occasional little glances at my new acquaintance. There was something about her which fascinated me. She was so animated and outgoing, but I felt there was a lot more to her than met the eye. No, that’s a rather weak way of putting it. I felt a tremendously complex emotional personality hidden beneath the extroversion, the depths of which, even on such short acquaintance, I yearned to explore. That’s what made her so captivating. And “dangerous”, I thought. I imagined she must have many lovers, of both sexes. Looking from one of them to the other felt like comparing two agile and beautiful cats. I felt privileged to have been adopted into Dani’s world. Each day I felt more like an adult than a child or a teenager. There is a certain sensation that comes after you fall in love, when you realise that it is reciprocated. You become overwhelmed, engulfed in pure happiness. That was something like what I was feeling that evening.
After my companions had finished their little tête-à-tête, Debbie began to ask me about my life and my plans. She put her arm around me in a motherly way, and listened to me with attentive gravity, as I told her of my wish to get a place at university to study languages, or science. I never normally spoke about myself or my private ambitions, but suddenly it all came pouring out, things I had never confided to anyone else, my secret hopes to be a teacher or a doctor, my woefully idealistic goals. I thought I must be sounding hopelessly naïve, but I couldn’t help myself. What was it about this woman that she could strip me of all constraint in this way, and effortlessly extract my profoundest aspirations? I caught Dani looking at me with an amused smile, and checked myself. I made a weak attempt to turn the tables, by asking Debbie about her work, but she deflected me with some dismissive remark. And she did not extract her arm.
“Well, if you can be at our unit on the tenth, we can show you what we do. Can you, Jacinth?”
“I think so. I’ll be revising for exams, but I don’t want to miss that. Please call me “J” though, Debbie. “Jacinth” is such a mouthful.”
“OK, J. Pretty name, though.”
We had a great evening. The food was delicious. We didn’t really discuss Andrew at all. I gathered he would be delivered to Debbie’s tender mercies, and she would undertake whatever work she thought fit. We were still in the restaurant at ten thirty, all pretty much the worse for wear. We got a cab back to Dani’s place. Debbie sat in the middle. She put her arm around my shoulders and rested her head against mine. It felt so natural, I inclined my head towards hers, and put my hand on her thigh. She kissed my cheek so softly I was not sure she had actually done it. I turned my face to hers. I was pretending to myself that I just wanted to smile at her. We looked at each other for an instant, and then our lips met, and we exchanged a gentle, lingering kiss that lasted almost the rest of the journey. Once home – it felt like my home now – Debbie led me by the hand into the house, and drew me towards a bedroom.
“Night, girls,” smiled Dani. “Sleep well.”
Once inside, we stripped off our clothes and showered together, sponging each other down. We shared a towel, and went back into the bedroom proper. Debbie turned the light down until the room was almost in darkness, and then slipped into bed and held the covers up for me to follow. At the touch of her body against mine I began to tremble uncontrollably. How had she done this to me? She stroked my neck, soothingly.
“It’s all right, my darling. Relax, my little Atthis.”
I didn’t understand why she called me that, and I didn’t care, but I noticed that that word “darling” was spoken in quite a different tone from earlier in the evening – with gentleness and apparent affection. She leant over and began to kiss my neck, and then my ear, nibbling on the lobe, sending little shocks through my body. I tried to respond in my own clumsy way. I loved the smoothness of her skin, and the feeling of running my hand up the back of her neck onto her cropped hair. It made me shiver with excitement. I was in such a state of arousal, that when her fingers slid down over my tummy and she began to touch me, simultaneously placing little chaste kisses all over my cheeks and lips, I’m ashamed to say I came violently, like some callow girl. But as soon as I recovered, I burrowed down under the duvet and, separating her thighs, explored her pussy with my tongue. She was already wet, and to my surprise she too yielded after only a minute or two, shaking the bed with her spasms. I pulled myself up and clung to her desperately, and she wrapped her arms around me protectively, her cheek against mine, her hand softly patting my shoulder.
I woke late, with Debbie still in my arms. We didn’t seem to have moved all night - I guess we were both so tired from the drink and from our passion. We lay there together for some minutes. I glanced at the clock. It was after nine. My hand crept up Debbie’s thigh, and she woke with a long, deep intake of breath. But at that moment there was a soft knock at the door.
“Come in,” she called, sleepily.
It was Riccardo, bearing a silver tray with a silver coffee pot and two cups. He placed it on the bedside table and gave us a little bow, before turning towards the door.
“Thanks, Riccardo. Is Dani up?”
“Yes, madam. She’s having breakfast in the kitchen. She said to take your time.”
“Thanks. We’ll be along in a moment.” Riccardo withdrew, and she turned her face to mine, and smiled with such serious warmth that it sent a pang through my heart.
“I could stay here with you all day, J. But I have a client at eleven-thirty. I shall have to go. I’ll never forget our first night together.”
“Nor I. It won’t be our last, I hope?”
“I’m sure it won’t, if you are.”
I kissed her again. My whole being was suffused with an unspeakable joy. I had never experienced such intensity of emotion. I wanted to tell her I loved her, but I realised that would be childish, and all I wanted was for everything to stay the same. I feared that even a small faux pas could tip the delicate balance, and we would tumble back into banality. That fear was groundless, as I later discovered. But I wasn’t sure at that early stage what had happened, and all I wanted was to keep the moment safe and perfect, like a precious jewel in a box, to be treasured and polished at my leisure.
After we had showered and dressed, we joined Dani in the kitchen. She was reading a newspaper, coffee cup in hand. She glanced up briefly.
“Hello, you two. Sleep well?”
“Yes thanks, darling”, (the slightly flippant “darling”, not the one with which she had addressed me), “I think that wine must have been drugged.”
“What, all four bottles?”
“Dani, I’m sorry to say I’ll have to leave in ten minutes. I have a client this morning. But I’ll see you soon, at least.”
“Yes, Debs. But we do have to get together more. I’ve really been missing you. I’m glad you’re moving nearer to here.”
We sat down briefly and chatted, Debbie and I exchanging glances. At last she got up to go.
“I’ll see you to the door,” I said.
In the corridor neither of us spoke. At the door we exchanged numbers, and embraced passionately.
“Call me tonight, please,” said Debbie, seriously.
“I will.”
I watched her drive away, and returned to the kitchen. I sat down.
“I told you she was dangerous,” said Dani, without looking up.
“You didn’t tell me she was beautiful, too.”
“I thought I’d surprise you.”
The conversation lapsed. I was thinking of all the things I wanted to do to Debbie, not after a whole bottle of wine, but when I was stone cold sober. She had only just gone, but already I was longing to hold her again, to bury myself in her beautiful body. My daydreams were interrupted by Dani.
“We have a client at one. Sarah Winstone again. Remember her? I didn’t tell you, but she took a fancy to you.”
“Really?”
“Yes. So I’m going to let you deal with her today.”
“Me? Alone?”
“You have to start sometime. You’ll be fine.”
I was in fact quite nervous of going solo, but I wasn’t going to admit that to Dani.
“Sure, Dani. No problem. I’ll do my best.”