Page 25 of A Night with Damien Spur

‘More lasagne?’ she asked.

‘It’s so delicious, just a little.’

Panna cotta next. He took a spoonful of the luscious, quivering cream and slipped it in his mouth.

‘Sublime,’ he said. ‘You are superb. The most beautiful woman I have ever met.’

And that was when Sophie got up from the table, leaving her dessert unfinished, and did what she did best.

‘So why be shy?’ She pulled him towards her. ‘Nicholas, I’m not sure I can just be your friend. Please kiss me.’

He gave her a dry little peck like a budgerigar.

‘No, properly… like this…’ She teased his mouth open with the tip of her finger and sucked his bottom lip. After which she plunged her tongue into his mouth and played with his.

Nicholas, helpless with lust, thrust his hips against hers. ‘You are hot as hell,’ he said.

He felt such love and now he couldn’t escape. That was it. A fatal touch of lips that changed everything.

‘Do you realise what you’re doing to me? I’ve gone twenty years without having an affair and then you come along with your passionate kisses and sweet breath, and now it’s such an effort to keep strong.’

She took his hand in hers. ‘Come on,’ she said, her voicehusky with wine and desire. ‘Let’s go to bed. We don’t have to do anything… compromising. We could just, you know, have a cuddle.’

Nicholas was in a dream state. And when she dropped her dress to reveal her naked beauty he could hardly breathe.

‘I want you so much,’ he said.

‘I want you too,’ she said. They huffed and puffed, moaned and groaned and still, despite a thrilling ride, Nicholas – at the point of entry – held fire.

‘No! I cannot take you,’ he cried.

‘What? Why?’ Sophie shoved him back against the pillows. ‘You really think that just because we haven’t actually had sex, you’re not having an affair?’

‘In my mind, yes. I just know that if I did go all the way I’d have a meltdown. I’d feel so guilty. Probably have to tell my wife and she’d literally kill me.’ The thought of her made Nicholas’s penis shrivel. ‘Sophie, I have to go,’ he said, flustered, bundling sheets round his middle. ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone.’

Nicholas left, hurrying to his car, already picturing the loving conversation he’d have to his wife on the phone. How he’d describe his day of work to her.

I am a good man, he thought virtuously.I am a very good man. I didn’t cross the line.

***

Claudia hatched a plan for Sophie.

‘Viagra,’ Claudia said. ‘You can get the tablets over the counter now. Make him minestrone and drop one in his soup.’

Sophie liked the idea.

But the pharmacist at Boots said she couldn’t buy it.

Sophie called Claudia. ‘I thought it wouldn’t be that simple. In order to buy the pills, the man has to come in and have aconsultation…’

‘Well… we could ask Bryan, my gardener,’ Claudia said. ‘I’m sure he’d do it if we offered him twenty quid… I’ll try him out when he comes next week.’

Bryan was good with plants, but the problem was he was a compulsive talker, which really irritated Claudia, but if she was going to ask him for a favour, best to be friendly.

Not easy. He’d already annoyed her by arriving Thursday morning at 8.50 a.m., when he wasn’t due till nine o’clock.

‘You’re ten minutes early,’ Claudia said icily.

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