Read Online Seven Scarlet Tales by Justine Elyot - Free Book Online Page B

gone. ‘But I’m just looking out for you. If you go with him, I go with you.’
    Bruno’s posture was stiff and alert. Poppy wondered what he was plotting. Surely he wasn’t going to take Emma up on her offer? Surely the thing for him to do now was to make an excuse and bow out?
    ‘Perhaps you will like to come to my hotel for a drink?’ he said at last.
    ‘Good man,’ said Emma with a nod. ‘I won’t charge you for me if you don’t want me. If you like, I’ll sit in the bathroom while you two get down to things. But I’m not letting Poppy go alone. If you do want a threesome, though, I’ll have to charge you the market rate.’
    In the cab on the way to Bruno’s hotel, Poppy felt numb and bemused. Bruno sat beside her while Emma took the front seat. He put his hand on her thigh and whispered into her ear, ‘Don’t worry.’ When he noticed Emma looking in the rear-view mirror, he turned the whisper into a nibble of Poppy’s earlobe.
    She whispered back, ‘I’m scared. What are you doing?’
    ‘Nothing you don’t want. She is watching. I will have to kiss you. Do you mind?’
    Poppy didn’t. The nearness of him gave her butterflies and their lips were already so close, nearly touching. The warmth and scent of him were exotic somehow, deliciously different.
    He put an arm around her and pulled her into his lips. They kissed for the rest of the journey while the taxi stopped and started, the gears squeaked, and Emma made desultory conversation with the driver.
    Poppy felt her apprehension turn to excitement. It was like being in a spy drama, having to keep Emma in the dark about the true nature of their relationship. There was a spice of danger that didn’t seem too real. Allyson was nice. The club was legitimate. Bruno had some funny ideas about it, but he didn’t understand, that was all.
    She let her body twist and turn against his, let him press closer and allowed his hand to wander up and down her leg, stroking the nylon along her inner thigh so that she tingled and trembled. She was as wet now as she had been after he spanked her. He must know that, if he wanted it, she wouldn’t object too strenuously.
    She moved her lips near his and tried to brush them, inviting a kiss, but he turned his head away.
    ‘This is the place,’ he said to the cabbie.
    The three of them tipped out of the car, and streamed up the steps to the lobby of a mid-range hotel, close to the St Pancras Eurostar terminus.
    ‘It is not a luxury place,’ Bruno muttered, shepherding them into the lift, which he had to summon by means of a secure key card.
    ‘Not exactly,’ Emma agreed, frowning at herself in the elevator mirror, under the glare of a striplight.
    ‘I’ve stayed in much worse,’ said Poppy reassuringly. ‘In Paris, funnily enough.’
    ‘Oh, really? Where did you stay?’
    ‘Near the Place de Clichy.’
    Bruno laughed.
    ‘
C’est logique
,’ he said.
    The lift arrived at his floor and they trooped along to his room, accessed once more by the key card.
    ‘Well, here we are,’ announced Emma, spreading her arms wide. ‘Where do you want me?’
    He didn’t want her, Poppy thought, and he made it pretty obvious by the way he looked at her.
    ‘You can help yourself to a drink from the minibar,’ he said. ‘Perhaps take it into the bathroom.’
    ‘You want to get straight down to business, eh? Can’t blame you. She’s a pretty little peach, isn’t she?’
    She tickled Poppy beneath the chin. Poppy squealed and sat down on the edge of the bed, watching the hostility between the other two take its course.
    ‘I would like some privacy,’ said Bruno, opening the minibar for Emma.
    She took a bottle of mineral water and swigged from it before retiring to the ensuite.
    ‘Any funny business, Poppy, and you just need to shout, OK? I’m here for you. I’ll take you home afterwards.’
    ‘Thanks.’
    Poppy watched the door shut behind her, then looked shyly up at Bruno.
    ‘So, do you want