slope of the enamel, his eyes closing. “That feels so good.”
As his cock stiffened further it lifted slightly from the water. Eden switched hands and picked up the soap again, rubbing it one-handed through her fingers until it slipped out of her grasp and plopped into David’s wine glass. He opened one eye briefly. “Is that an attempt to stop me drinking?”
“An accident.” Eden used the soaped hand to increase the pressure on his cock He fumbled the glass to the side of the bath as his limbs began to stiffen. Eden smiled. She knew how close he was to orgasm and increased the speed of her movements. He raised himself up as his legs stiffened and she stopped. A great gout of semen spattered over the taps, followed by two smaller bursts and a dribble. It formed a precipitate in the water, like egg yolk being poached. She emptied the wine from the glass and dipped it into the water, catching the floating semi-liquid semen.
She held it up to the light, oblivious of David’s heavy panting. “I should paint this.”
Chapter 3
Teacups rattled in the overheated air of the sitting room. On the sideboard, incense sticks trailed long fingers of sandalwood smoke while Doulton shepherdesses smiled perpetually at single lambs. The fire had been banked too high for a November afternoon, and the rain outside served to make the room even stuffier than it might have been.
On the coffee table lay the detritus of afternoon tea and one of the plates still had a slice of slowly-drying date-and-walnut. Michelle took a last sip of her tea and returned the cup to the table. “Have you finished yet, love?”
The elder of the two women opposite nudged the other. “Shirley. Pay attention. The lady’s speaking to you.”
“What?” Shirley Burbridge yawned, the teacup she was holding shifting to an angle dangerously close to spilling. “Sorry. I was nodding off. Is there any chance of opening a window or something? I can’t keep my eyes open.”
Michelle frowned. “The spirits like it that way. If I open a window they’ll all clear off and then what’ll I do? Have you finished your tea?”
Shirley looked in her cup. “No, sorry. It went cold. Well, tepid.”
“But you drank some, yes?”
“I suppose. A few sips. There were tea leaves, though. I don’t like tea leaves. We get the bags.”
“If I’m going to read your tea leaves there ain’t much point in using bags, is there?” Michelle smiled to take the edge off her sarcasm. She couldn’t afford to offend a customer. “Pass me your cup. Let’s have a shufti at your future.”
“It’s really my Eddie I wanted to speak to. Vera says you do seances?”
“A seance?” Michelle was torn. On the one had, tea leaves were quick and easy and difficult to refute. On the other hand seances were where the money was in this game. On the third hand, she needed Graham for seances and he wasn’t back from the building site. She shook her head and placed a reassuring hand over Shirley’s. “You should have said you wanted a seance love. I can’t do them on a whim. Different spirits, you see. The ones today are the spirits of prophesy.”
“Can you not just give Eddie a shout? I can’t find the check book.”
Michelle hardened her voice. “Do you want your leaves read or not?”
“Well I suppose…” She handed over her cup.
Michelle poured the remaining tea back into the pot, milk and all. With the cup empty, she placed the saucer over the top, inverted it and twirled the cup three times. She separated the two and peered into the leaves. “I can see money. Quite a lot of it, actually. And a letter.” She frowned. “The letter overlaps the money so they might be connected.”
“That’ll be the insurance money.” The second woman sat with her handbag on her lap. “You mark my words. It’ll be here tomorrow.”
“What else do you see?” Shirley sat forward, obviously more interested now Michelle was saying something she wanted to hear. “Is there anything about the check book?”
“No.” Michelle made a point of shifting position to direct more light into the cup. “But I do see an animal. Something soft?”
“An animal? What would I want with an animal? Eddie was always allergic. We couldn’t even let the kids have rabbits. Our Tina brought a hamster home from school once and he nearly had a fit. He had to go outside for a ciggie while she put it back in its cage. She had to keep it in the shed for the rest of the week until the school holiday was over. “
“It’s a very big animal.” Michelle frowned at Shirley going off at a tangent. “A sheep, I think. It seems very important.”
“A sheep? Where do you think I live? On a farm? Don’t you go sending us no sheep, love.” Shirley sat back and fumbled for her handbag. “What would I do with a sheep?”
Vera gave her a nudge with her elbow. “You could eat it.”
“That’d be the best thing.” Shirley giggled. “As long as someone killed it for me and got all the innards out.”
Michelle coughed in an attempt to regain their attention. “It might not be literal. It might mean something made out of wool.”
“What? Like a jumper?” Shirley nudged Vera back. “Maybe I’m going to meet a tall dark stranger who wears a V-necked cardigan.”
Vera cackled. “Could be the vicar. He wears a cardi. An old yellow one. Looks like nicotine.”
“Talking of which, I’m gasping.” Shirley fished a packet of cigarettes from her handbag and pulled one out.
Michelle put the cup down. “You can’t smoke in here.”
“Only because I can’t see to light me fag.” Shirley laughed. “The whole room is full of smoke.”
“Incense smoke. It’s different. No carcinogens, for one thing.”
“Have it your way then. It’s your house, I suppose.” Shirley stood. “Are we about done?”
“Yes, I suppose so.” Michelle crossed the room and opened the door. “Thank you for coming. I hope you gained some insight into the future.”
“Yeah. A bleedin’ sheep.” Shirley laughed and pulled a twenty-pound note out of her purse. “Here you go, love.”
“Thank you.” Michelle looked at the note. She usually charged forty for a reading but didn’t want to push her luck asking for more. “Will you still be requiring the seance tomorrow?”
“Of course. Will you come to the house or should we come here?” She stepped outside to light the cigarette, then turned back again before Michelle had a chance to answer. “You’ll come to the house, of course. Silly of me. Eddie’s never been here, has he? You’ll have a much better chance contacting him at the house.”
“I…” Michelle took a deep breath. A seance at a client’s house was much more difficult to arrange than here, where she had everything to hand. She slumped in defeat. “Of course. Shall we say eight o’clock?”
Shirley blew a long plume of smoke skyward. “That’s a bit early, love, I don’t usually get up until then.”
“I meant in the evening. The spirits are much easier to contact when the sun is down.”
“Fair enough then. You know best. You’ve got the address?”
“Enfield House? Yes.”
“Right then. See you, love.” Shirley and Val climbed into a silver Mercedes and moments later roared off into the night. Michelle closed the door and returned to the sitting room where she threw all the incense sticks on the fire and opened a window to air the room.
“Twenty quid.” She carried the tea tray to