Read Divertissement for Free Online Page B

you.”
    Interesting.
    * * * * *
    Ellen
mulled over that conversation as they headed west. She didn’t doubt them, after
all Jane had known John for years and Annie for almost two, but as far as she
was concerned, he’d always been the same, a demanding Dominant lover and a
friend. A rather secretive friend at times, just like now. He steadfastly
refused to say where they were going or what the surprise was, but she could
make a pretty good educated guess that it involved sex.
    She hoped.
    They
arrived after dark at his cottage in Cornwall. No surprise that. He’d taken her
down here a couple of times.
      “We’re here?”
    He turned
off the ignition and reached over and squeezed her thigh. “Yes, my love, we’re
here and here we spend the night. It’s too late to take you the rest of the
way. We’ll go in the morning.”
    Go where?
They weren’t that far from Land’s End. Maybe the Scilly Isles. She’d gone there years back on a
family holiday and Julia had broken her ankle climbing the rocks and that had
rather ruined the rest of the stay. Still, her still-bossy elder sister wasn’t
here now to disrupt things.
    Thank God!
    Although the look on her sister’s face if she ever got a look
at John’s attic playroom would be something to remember.
    * * * * *
    Ellen
awoke early and slipped out of bed, leaving John snoring gently. She dressed— well, she pulled on her blouse and skirt from yesterday and
went downstairs for coffee. Mug in hand, she walked down to the jetty. Planning
on dipping her toes in the water and sitting there awhile, pondering on life,
John, sex, John, her niece Annie, John, whether or not to follow up the lead
about a stock of glass buttons she heard about in Brussels and John. Hell, she
might as well skip the non-immediate and dwell entirely on the man she left
sleeping in the wide sleigh bed.
    The new
boat, moored at the end of the jetty, almost put John out of her mind.
    Heaven’s
alive! Was this the surprise he’d mentioned? What did he have planned? Kink on the high seas? Might be a bit cramped. In her
experience, boats never had quite enough room. Though getting in close quarters
with John wasn’t such a bad prospect.
    Her coffee
was cooling in the morning air, but Ellen barely noticed, just stuck to her
original plan of sitting on the end of the jetty and letting the crabs nip at
her toes. Only the crabs weren’t out this morning. So she sat undisturbed until
John called as he came from the cottage.
      “Is that the surprise?” she asked once he was
within earshot.
    “No. That
is to take us to the surprise.”
    So, maybe
it was the Scilly Isles after all. “Going anytime
soon?”
    “After breakfast. Come on in,” he said “We can’t hang around all day or we’ll
be going against the tide.”
    * * * * *
    She helped
load the boat. An interestingly assorted cargo it was too—towels, a large,
heavy backpack, blankets. “Are we staying the night?” She wasn’t exactly
enthused about camping.
    “Don’t
think so.”
    Very
informative that was! Still, she helped stow them below along with the picnic
hamper and a carton of bottled water. “Are we headed for a drought?”
    “Just hand
the small box, will you?”
    Ellen
recognized that. One of his many toy boxes. So, sex
was on the agenda. Pretty much a given around John.
    “Here you
are.” She resisted the temptation to drop it and see what fell out.
    A couple
of baskets followed. They obviously weren’t going to starve, and—a bit of a
surprise this—a rolled tarpaulin that he lashed to the deck.
    “What do
you have on under that?” he asked, eying her up and down.
    “Nothing except my skin.”
    “Good. Put
on a lifejacket and let’s cast off.”
    They set
off, almost due north in the bright of the morning. After about half an hour,
Ellen turned to him as he steered the boat. “That’s Goose Island, isn’t it?”
    “That’s
right.”
    “But it’s
private property.”
    “Yes.”
    The man
could be very