Frisky Business (31 page)

He glanced at his watch. ‘Sure. Thanks.’ He sat in an armchair opposite Kit. ‘All set? ’ he asked him, nodding to his rucksack.

‘Ready as I’ll ever be,’ Kit said sourly.

‘You look very … smart,’ Ethan said, a smile playing about his lips as he took in Kit’s outfit. ‘Mr Manhattan goes camping.’

Kit glowered at him. ‘Well, I didn’t have any of the kind of clothes they said we should bring. Anyway, some of the stuff is old. Romy gave me the rucksack. And the sleeping bag.’

Romy had managed to intervene when Kit was allowing the sales assistant to persuade him that he should buy a spectacularly expensive sleeping bag.

‘She says it’ll take me all the way to Everest base camp,’ he had told Romy.

‘Really?’ She had flipped the sleeping bag over, examining it. ‘Does it have a plane built into it?’

‘You know what I mean.’

‘Yes, but you’re not going to Everest base camp, Kit. You’re going to Wicklow. I have plenty of sleeping bags at home. I’ll lend you one.’ It had taken some doing, but she had finally succeeding in convincing him that a normal four-seasons sleeping bag would be perfectly adequate for the Wicklow mountains.

‘When
do you get back?’ she asked now as she handed Ethan a mug of coffee.

‘I’ll be back on Sunday,
if
I survive this weekend,’ Kit replied.

‘Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. You’ll look after him, won’t you?’ she said to Ethan as she sat down beside Kit.

‘Of course I will,’ Ethan said.

‘Hey, what makes you think Ethan will be more capable than me?’ Kit asked indignantly.

‘Well, obviously I’m a dab hand at all this survival stuff from my time in the jungle,’ Ethan said, smiling crookedly.

‘Oh yes, how could I forget about your time in the jungle?’

‘And we’ll have Tank with us too. He’s bound to come in handy.’

‘True. He could probably fell a tree with his bare hands.’

‘And I’ll make us all cocktails out of the bark,’ Ethan said. ‘It’ll be fun.’

‘If the worst comes to the worst and you don’t manage to build a shelter,’ Romy said, ‘everyone can just move into your jacket for the night.’

‘Very funny,’ Kit said sulkily. ‘The smile will be on the other side of your face tomorrow when you’re zipping to your death on a wire.’

‘Oh, are you going to Hannah’s hen weekend then?’ Ethan asked her.

‘I’m just going down for the day. I’m not staying overnight. It’s too awkward with Luke.’

To her surprise, Hannah had repeated her invitation for Romy to go to her hen do. After what she had heard Hannah and Ethan saying at Thanksgiving, she had assumed Hannah had only asked her out of politeness and wouldn’t really want her there. But she had pressed, and seemed to genuinely want Romy to go. It was all very confusing.

‘Come down for the day at least,’ Hannah had begged.

‘Then
you can do some of the activities and have lunch with us, but you won’t have to worry about staying over with Luke. And do bring him.’

It would have felt churlish to continue to refuse in the face of so much persuasion, so Romy had capitulated and agreed to go for the day. She was glad she wasn’t staying overnight, though, not just because of Luke but because she wanted to be able to cut it short if she felt any hostility from Hannah. It was weird because she never did feel any antagonism from either her or Ethan – it seemed to be the idea of her as Kit’s girlfriend that they didn’t like.

‘Well, I suppose we should be off,’ Ethan said, draining his mug and putting it on the table.

‘Okay. Bye, sweetie,’ Kit said, turning to Romy and surprising her by giving her a lingering kiss on the mouth. ‘Have fun tomorrow at Hannah’s do.’

‘I can’t believe you guys are together again,’ Ethan said, narrowing his eyes at them.

‘Well, it’s true!’ Romy said brightly, snuggling into Kit as he put his arm around her, playing her part as one half of a loved-up couple perfectly.

Ethan frowned slightly, looking confused.

‘I’ll just go and say goodbye to … um … Luke!’ Kit said, getting up from the sofa. Romy thought that was overdoing things a bit, but at least he had remembered Luke’s name – though she was starting to warm to ‘Whatsisface’.

‘Be quiet,’ she warned to his retreating back. ‘Don’t wake him up.’

‘So, I hear you’re employing Kit as some kind of handyman,’ Ethan sniggered when Kit had left the room.

Oh – that snigger wasn’t good. ‘Not exactly “employing”, but he’s doing odd jobs around the place in lieu of part of the rent.’

‘Right
. Well, good luck with that.’ Ethan smirked in a way that made Romy decidedly uneasy.

‘Why do you say it like that?’

‘Because … have you seen his work?’

‘No, but are you saying you don’t think he’s up to it?’

Ethan looked at her sceptically. ‘Are you serious? You didn’t even find out if he could actually do any DIY before you hired him? You always were too easy on him, you know.’

‘Well, he told me he fixed things up in his apartments in New York all the time.’

‘That’s true,’ Ethan nodded. Then he smiled to himself as if recalling something funny. ‘Were you ever in any of his New York apartments?’

‘Well, no, but he has his own tools! He wouldn’t have his own tools if he wasn’t into DIY, would he?’

‘Yeah, he has his own tools all right.’ Ethan chuckled. ‘Have you seen his tools?’

‘No.’

‘You should get him to show you his tools some time,’ Ethan said, seeming amused.

‘It’s very basic stuff,’ she said, rattled by his attitude. ‘Just fixing things for the tenants, putting up shelves, that kind of thing. I’m not going to be asking him to build an extension or rewire the house.’

‘Thank God for that at least!’

‘What? You really don’t think he can do basic handyman jobs?’

Ethan sighed. ‘Let me put it this way. Kit is a good handyman in the same way that Mom’s a great cook.’

‘No, I’m sure you’re wrong about that. He put up some shelves for one of my tenants the other day and she’s really pleased with them. She told me he did a great job.’

Ethan
just looked at her, his eyebrows raised meaningfully, waiting for her to catch up.

‘Oh,’ she said when she realised what he was saying. Kit’s mother was a terrible cook, but everyone pretended to love her food because they didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

‘Yeah.’

Oh, shit.
She resolved to go and have a look at May’s shelves as soon as possible.

‘Okay, let’s go,’ Kit said, coming back into the room.

Romy saw them to the door. ‘Have fun,’ she said, ‘and take care of each other.’

‘See you Sunday,’ Kit said, pulling her into his arms and giving her an enthusiastic kiss on the lips.

Mmm, he was still a really good kisser, Romy thought, winding her arms around his neck and kissing him back. By the time Kit released her, Ethan was already sitting in the car. But he was watching them, and he didn’t look happy.

Romy waved them off, hugging herself as she stood on the doorstep. Damn Ethan! He had unsettled her, and it wasn’t just the way he had been scowling at her and Kit just now. She thought of Laura’s Thanksgiving dinner and felt queasy at the thought of what Kit might be doing to her beautiful house. Lesley would be coming over shortly, but as soon as she got the chance, she was going to check out May’s shelves.

‘No Danny tonight?’ Lesley asked later as they sat on Romy’s sofa drinking wine and eating Romy’s home-made pizza.

‘No. He finally let some of his friends persuade him to go out on the razz with them.’

‘Well, good. At least one of us is getting out there.’

‘You
know, I’m starting to think you might be right about Kit,’ Romy said.

Lesley gasped. ‘You mean – about the whole BDSM thing?’

‘Yeah.’ Romy nodded.

‘Oh my God, did he come out to you about it?’

‘No, but … he’s said a few things that make me wonder.’ ‘Okay, tell me everything,’ Lesley said, leaning forward eagerly. ‘From the top.’

‘Well, it’s not that much really. But the other day he was saying that he needs to get more discipline back in his life. He said he had discipline in his life in New York.’

‘He actually used that word – “discipline”?’

‘Yes.’

‘Okay. It’s definitely going into evidence, but it’s not conclusive. Go on.’

‘Well, today I asked him straight out what his secret was and why he needed a fake girlfriend. And he said he could tell me but I’d have to sign a confidentiality agreement first. He said he had them with his previous girlfriends.’

‘Oh my God! May had a confidentiality agreement with her master.’

‘I know. And then later, I said I had an idea about what his secret was, and he was a bit freaked and asked me was it obvious. When I said no, he said I’d probably read the signals easier than most people.’

Lesley frowned. ‘Why would he think that?’

‘I’m not sure, but he was in the kitchen the other day and those books May gave me were lying around. I shoved them in a cupboard as soon as I realised and I thought I got away with it. But he’d been on his own in there for a while. He might have seen them.’

‘That must be it! He saw those books, so he thinks you’re into it and can recognise one of your own kind.’

‘Maybe
. But if he thinks I’m part of that whole scene, why doesn’t he just come out and tell me?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe there’s some kind of secret handshake or something. So, anything else?’

‘No.’ There was also the blindfold, but she didn’t want to bring that up. It would be case closed, as far as Lesley was concerned. Still, she couldn’t help thinking how naturally it had occurred to him to use one. ‘I just wish I knew one way or the other.’

‘You need a way to smoke him out.’

‘But how?’

‘Hmm,’ Lesley said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. ‘I know! He’s away at the moment, right?’

‘Yeah, he’s gone to Tank’s stag weekend. He left earlier.’

‘And you have a key to his flat?’

‘Yes, but—’

‘We should go down there and have a poke around.’

‘And look for what?’

‘Sex toys, leather gear … we might even be able to get into his computer,’ Lesley said, her eyes lighting up.

‘No! I can’t go snooping around his flat.’

‘Okay, then, I’ll go,’ Lesley said, jumping off the sofa. ‘Give me the key,’ she said, holding out her hand.

‘Lesley, no!’

‘He won’t know I’ve been there, I promise. I’ll do a really clean sweep. Do you have any plastic gloves?’

‘What?’

‘The ones you get with hair dye would do fine.’

‘Seriously, Lesley, you can’t! It’s an invasion of privacy.’

‘Okay,’ Lesley sighed, her shoulders slumping. ‘We’ll have to think of something else.’

‘Well, I’m going to Hannah’s wedding with him next weekend and we’ll be sharing a room. Maybe I could do something then.’

‘That’s
perfect! We can set a honey-trap.’

‘Huh?’

‘Why don’t you bring something with you – one of those floggers or something – and leave it lying around where he can see it. Then he’ll think you’re up for it and it’s safe to tell you.’

‘I don’t have any of that stuff. And I don’t want to buy it specially just to trap Kit.’

‘I’m sure May would have something she could lend you.’

‘Probably. But what if he’s not into this kinky stuff? Then he’ll think
I
am and it’ll be weird.’

‘Bring something really obscure, that most people wouldn’t recognise. There was some pretty weird-looking equipment on those websites.’

‘That’s a good idea. I’ll ask May.’

‘Oh, but what if it turns out he is into it and he wants to hang you out of the ceiling?’ Lesley gasped.

‘I’ll just say no. Besides, I doubt he’d bring all his equipment with him on the off-chance I’m going to let him hang me from the ceiling. Anyway, all the books say suspension is really tricky – and possibly dangerous. I don’t think it’s the kind of thing you’d set up in a hotel room.’