Page 24 of Now and Forever

“You’re not singing?”

“I don’t feel like it.”

We’re quiet again until Eric speaks. “You know, this one time, a beautiful woman I adore told me her mother said singing was the only thing that soothed the savage beasts and ...”

“Are you calling me a beast?”

He seems taken aback. “No ... not at all.”

“You can sing if you want to. I just don’t feel like it.”

Eric nods and bites his lip. “All right, sweetheart,” he says with resignation. “I’ll shut up.”

The tension is palpable again, and neither one of us says a word during the rest of the trip. When we arrive at Frida and Andrés’s, they’re overjoyed and hug us. Frida seems especially pleased and pulls me aside as soon as she can.

“Finally ... I’m so happy to see you’re together again!”

“Don’t be so sure yet. I have him in quarantine.”

“Quarantine?”

I smile mischievously. “I’m punishing him: no sex or snuggles.”

“What?”

“He punishes me when I do something wrong, so I decided that, from now on, I will do the same to him,” I whisper. “So, I’m punishing him with no sex.”

“But, no sex with just you, or with all women?”

Uh-oh.

I wasn’t specific, but I’m pretty sure he understands it’s with all women. Frida laughs when she sees my face.

“So, when he’s punished you, how has he done it?”

I think about his punishments and flush with excitement. Frida just laughs.

“You don’t have to tell me. From the look on your face, I can imagine.”

Her sly grin tickles me.

“All right ... I’ll tell you because I have no shame talking about sex with you. The first time he punished me, he took me to a swingers’ club, and, after getting me all hot and bothered and making me open my legs so everybody could see, he forced me back to the hotel without letting anybody, not even him, touch me. The next time, he brought me a woman and ...”

“Oh God! I love Eric’s punishments, but I think yours is excessively cruel.”

“It’s just so he knows who he’s dealing with. I’m gonna make sure he regrets ever having made me mad.”

It stops raining at lunchtime, and we decide to go to a restaurant in Zahara. As always, it’s delicious, and since I haven’t yet eaten today, I’m ferociously hungry. I devour the lobster, the dogfish, and the baby squid. Eric is stupefied.

“Aren’t you on a diet?”

“Yes,” I respond, chuckling, “I’m actually on two diets. But one of them always leaves me hungry.”

He laughs, then comes close and gives me a kiss. Oh wow.

“Control your impulses, Mr. Zimmerman,” I say as seriously as I can as soon as he pulls back. “And stick to your punishment.”

Frida grins.

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