Читать книгу For Hire: The Intimate Adventures of a Gigolo - Luke Bradbury - Страница 12

May Day

It wasn’t as if I had a clue what Tash looked like. But I couldn’t help creating a mental picture of my clients, sketching out the life they might live even before I’d seen them. It was based solely on what they’d told me over the phone.

She had introduced herself as Natasha when she’d picked up the phone, ‘But everyone calls me Tash,’ she’d said. She’d called me out for an eleven o’clock session on a Monday night in Luton. That struck me as odd. Most other people were in bed at this time because of work the next day. It suggested she didn’t want the neighbours to know. I figured that that likely made her a thirty-something housewife whose hubby was away on business.

I was standing on the forecourt of Luton railway station waiting for a cab to take me to her place. The station was almost deserted and then a car swung off the road, the light box on the roof advertising Ace Cabs, and I relaxed. The car drew up and the driver leaned over to the passenger window.

‘Where to?’

He drove me out beyond the town centre, where the housing was less crowded together. We turned off the main road and up a side street to the address Tash had given me. I was dead in the middle of Thirties suburbia, and Tash’s was one of the middle houses in the row with a little tiered garden out front. The wooden gate clicked shut behind me, and I hurried up the path and rang the bell.

Minutes later the front door was opened and Tash hovered in front of me, a nervous, close-mouthed smile across her face.

She didn’t look anything like I’d expected at all. Her feet were bare, which only added to the vulnerable air that wrapped itself around her. She must have been all of twenty-one. She had long straight blonde hair that looked like it had been ironed. Her slight frame was dressed in hipster jeans and a loose pale pink silk top and she had delicate, pretty features. To be frank, she was gorgeous.

So, what is it you’re after?

‘Luke, do come in,’ Tash half-whispered in a voice that suggested that now she’d got what she’d asked for, she wasn’t altogether sure she knew what to do with it.

Tash took my coat and hung it on the rack, and asked me if I’d like a drink. I followed her down the hall and into the kitchen. This was all normal stuff I did with any number of my clients, but Tash gave the clear impression from her nervy air and measured, step-by-step manner that she was biding her time, gearing herself up for the session.

‘You’ll come with me upstairs?’ she stated, not looking me in the eye.

‘Sure, Tash,’ I agreed, hoping that my light mood might put her at her ease at least a little. ‘Just show me the way.’

Tash handed me my tumbler, and I followed her up the stairs to the first floor.

‘It’s a nice house you’ve got here,’ I commented.

‘I’ve been here about eighteen months.’

It wasn’t just small talk on my behalf—it was a nice place. The house looked neat and simply decorated, the walls in pale colours that matched her top. It felt just the right size for a young girl to make a home of.

‘I still feel like I’m settling in,’ she smiled.

‘It can take a while, can’t it?’

I noticed she found it easy to talk when it wasn’t about what I was doing here in her home.

Tash led the way across the landing to her front bedroom. She opened the door, and for a second before she turned on the light, I could see the bed highlighted in the golden glow from the streetlamp outside. She hurried over to the bow windows to draw the curtains and shut out the world, all the while keeping her back to me.

I went and sat down on the side of her bed closest to her and waited. I ran my hands over the duvet each side of me and flattened it down. I kept my mouth shut and watched her. I knew she couldn’t stand at the windows forever, her hands gripping the edge of the closed curtains.

Tash turned and I gave her my warmest smile on cue. I patted the bed beside me as though we’d known each other for years. ‘Come and sit down,’ I beckoned.

Tash could handle that. She walked over to me, and sat down square beside me as if we were waiting for a bus. Her hands held each other on her lap and she stared straight ahead. I could see that I was going to have to take this one real slow.

I leaned back slightly on my arms so I looked as relaxed and unthreatening as possible.

‘You haven’t been here long?’ I turned to her and started the small talk rolling, even though she still wasn’t meeting my eyes.

‘No, I moved here for work. I’m in office admin. In the town.’ Tash’s shoulders dropped a little, though her voice remained stilted.

‘That’s quite a change, settling into a new job and a new house. Just one of them’s stressful enough.’

‘I know!’ she nodded with her smile and, forgetting herself, turned her head and looked right at me. ‘It’s taken me this long to feel at home.’

That’s better.

Tash’s hands had slipped on to the bedspread beside her. I weighed up whether to reach for one of them, or to leave things be for a short while longer. I didn’t want to frighten her back inside her shell.

‘Have you got to know your neighbours, Tash?’

‘Not really,’ she shook her head. ‘They’re mostly young families, and a few elderly couples. There doesn’t seem to be anyone my age around here…’

She bit her lip. I stretched out my right hand and placed it over hers. I could feel it shaking slightly.

I’m not going anywhere, Tash.

‘I’ve never had sex!’ she blurted out.

Tash was back to looking wide-eyed, staring straight ahead at the curtains. Though she was biting her lip, it still trembled ever so slightly.

‘That’s OK, Tash,’ I said in my most reassuring voice. ‘A lot of girls your age haven’t.’

Not as many as have—but hey.

But then, a split second later, I feared I might have put her off and scrambled to reassure her. ‘But you want to, don’t you?’ I spoke softly.

She turned sharply towards me and spoke clearly and firmly, which I wasn’t expecting at all. ‘I’ve had boyfriends in the past. It’s just that we never went the whole way.’

She was speaking as much to herself as explaining things to me. ‘And I’m twenty-one, and y’know…’ The words trailed off.

I took my hand off hers and reached up to touch Tash’s straight blonde hair. I hooked a strand behind her ear and looked straight into her eyes. ‘And you feel it’s about time you did?’

She said nothing but nodded back.

‘Well, that’s why I’m here, Tash. That’s why you called me, isn’t it?’

‘But not just the sex. You’ll be careful, won’t you?’ she whispered.

She didn’t move on the bed but I could still feel her pull herself away from me.

‘I will. Don’t worry,’ I said, and rubbed her bare shoulder.

That went without saying. I could more or less divide my clients into two camps. Those who booked me for my time and as much hard sex as we could fit in. And those, like Tash, who needed it served up in a gentler manner. The journey getting there and the aftermath were just as important, just as much what they were paying for.

Tash looked down at the small space of pale pink duvet cover between us. She swallowed her fear and bridged the gap between us, taking my other hand in hers.

‘Since I’ve lived here I haven’t had…I miss…’ she stuttered. ‘It’s not just not having had sex…’

She looked up at me with piercing blue eyes full of yearning.

‘You miss just being with a man, don’t you?’

Me saying it made her a little more bold. Her hand reached up my wrist and her fingers and thumb played over it, enjoying the sensation.

‘They must be walking around with their eyes shut in Luton, Tash. You’re a very pretty girl.’

She didn’t say anything in return, but a bashful little smile flashed across her face as if she really needed to hear those words.

I placed my other hand to her neck, drawing her close to me, and kissed her gently on the lips. I pulled back slightly and whispered: ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes,’ she replied in the same tone and moved closer to me.

Our lips met, and hers opened slightly, and I took my cue, teasing her mouth with the tip of my tongue to open wider. She offered me no resistance.

Tash wrapped her arms around me and held on tight. I gave as good as I got, warming her up with my hug. This was where the skill came. Taking a girl like Tash from the chat to the embraces and physical intimacy. And from there to the sex itself. You could fall at the first hurdle. Or the second one, come to that.

Not that they ever have in my company.

But that was the threat hanging over me. That girls like Tash might just go on talking and talking out of sheer fright until their time was up. Which meant that it wasn’t just my job to get her to go the whole way. My expertise lay in making her feel she was in safe enough hands to let her guard down early on and relax into every step of the journey.

We were still both clothed.

‘Tash, if you could undress and slip under the covers, I’ll do the same and join you, OK?’

We unlinked from each other, and she shifted, turning away on the bed, and with her back facing me, began to hitch her slip of a top over her head. She wore no bra.

In the minutes that followed, Tash kicked off her jeans and I headed to the corner of the room and stripped naked too. By the time I’d turned back to the bed, Tash was lying inside, waiting. I didn’t jump in but pulled back the cover and slid in slowly beside her.

We lay there, saying nothing for a couple of moments. I knew to take things carefully, so as not to frighten her off. I hitched myself up onto my elbow, giving her my full attention.

‘You’re fine, Tash?’

‘Yes. It’s getting used to this…’ Her thin voice trailed off.

I reached across with my free hand and began to stroke her belly. It was soft and smooth under the bedclothes. She lay still and let me.

‘You’ve got nothing to worry about. You just let me know if there’s anything you feel uncomfortable with, won’t you?’

She said nothing in reply. My hand widened its sweep up her body, and cradled one breast and then the other. I nibbled at her neck and her head stretched back into the pillow.

Is she going to just lie there?

She wasn’t. He own arm reached up to clench my shoulder, and she pulled herself up so that our lips met again. Her fingers ruffled my hair and felt their way tenderly over my scalp and down my neck. I shifted closer to her and we were now clasped in each other’s arms.

It was just a step away for my right leg to swing over both of hers, even as our embrace grew tighter. But with a practised manoeuvre, I held back for a matter of moments to sort out the protection. So, it was her first time. A guy still had to show some respect round here.

After all this time, I’d got condom-manoeuvre down to a fine art, so a girl would barely notice any gap in the flow of action. Though it wasn’t as if Tash was going to, was it? That was one of the advantages of sleeping with a newbie—she had nothing to compare me with.

Not that I wouldn’t compare favourably with the best of them.

I slipped my hand around Tash’s hip bone to steady myself and guided myself between her legs. She winced with the pain of entrance and the new sensation, but I soothed her with the closeness of my breast against hers, and the gentle caresses of my hands.

‘Are you OK?’ I asked her.

‘Yes, I’m just a bit sore,’ she gasped.

And that was the other thing about sleeping with a virgin. It was likely to hurt to some degree. It was my job to introduce her to what it was like to make love. But I had to ensure I took her beyond the pain barrier far enough so she came back for more. Whether with me or her next boyfriend.

After all, there was a reason a woman called in an escort for her first time—it was because she wanted a decent experience. Not for her the ‘walk of shame’ after a tawdry night with a guy she’d picked up in a club just so she could get the moment over with. She wanted a good memory.

I knew full well that was my job. To give Tash an evening she wouldn’t forget in a hurry.

Tash needed tenderness and compassion. To physically feel the warm weight of a man as much as tick off her ‘To Do’ list. And since I knew that the first experience of sex often hurt, then it was all the more important that I compensated with my touch, making every other part of her body feel damn special.

No, it’s not just about the sex.

Our hands and our lips explored each other. Words weren’t needed but I gave them to her anyway. ‘You’ve got a beautiful body, Tash. You really have.’

Tash said nothing but she gave me a shy smile. I followed my words with action, tracing my kisses across her breasts and licking her belly. She rippled with pleasure. Her lips were on my shoulder and her hands played up and down my back as if she was searching out unexplored territory.

I looked up at her, and our lips met again. I could feel her budding confidence in her tongue’s playfulness with mine. My hands ran over her torso and her breasts once again, and then I eased myself away from her.

‘I trust that didn’t put you off,’ I declared deadpan, as I backed off the bed. Tash didn’t shift at all, though the bedcovers were half pulled away from her. She lay naked before me, looking utterly contented.

‘No. Not at all.’

Her voice was steady and stronger, any traces of her initial fear gone. ‘I could lie here like this all night,’ she mused.

I picked up my trousers from the floor and pulled them back on, along with my shirt, which I buttoned swiftly. When I turned back towards Tash on the bed, she surprised me by now standing close beside me, her own clothes back on.

‘That was lovely, Luke. Exactly what I needed.’ Tash rubbed my arm tenderly.

‘I’m glad I could be of help.’

I kissed her forehead.

She went over to the dressing table, picked up the envelope of money and came back and put it in my hand. Some girls paid upfront, others at the end of a session. It was a risk—that they might not have the money. But I’d yet to be stung that way. What I was aware of was that nervous clients such as Tash could be intimidated by me asking for payment before we’d even got started. It could be too blunt an approach—reminding them that our time together was a financial transaction, when what they needed was tenderness.

‘You were,’ she said. ‘Very much so.’

We returned downstairs and she called me my cab to the station. When it arrived, we kissed on the lips one last time. I stepped out of her house and into the midnight darkness. It had been a pleasure to help her out. She was gorgeous, for one thing. And whomever she had from now on, she’d never forget me for being her first.