Read Online The Adventures of Holly White and the Incredible Sex Machine by Krissy Kneen - Free Book Online Page A

warm and firm and she felt that these were hands that could easily pick
her up and carry her through hard times.
    ‘Mandy.’
    ‘Pleased to meet you. I’m Holly.’
    ‘Pretty name,’ she said; then: ‘pretty girl. Whoever it is that you want is totally
missing out.’
    Holly laughed, but Mandy was not even smiling. It seemed she wasn’t joking at all.
    ‘We meet the first Wednesday of each month—next week, isn’t it?’ Mandy said, looking
up at the clock as if the date might be written there. ‘Our next book is by Salter.
James Salter. You have joined us at a good time. Salter is one of my favourites.
He will help ease you in, so to speak.’
    ‘You really think I should join your book club?’ She held her finger up and let her
ring glint in the gentle light.
    ‘There’s a difference between reading about something and doing it, right? You can
read about a sniper but it doesn’t mean you are going to go out and shoot anyone.
True?’
    Holly touched her finger to her face, traced a line across her lips, considering.
    ‘The Salter will be a kind of easy release, a valve, if you like, to let the steam
out before you explode. And you know, if you keep this abstinence thing up you really
will explode.’ The woman touched her finger to the silver band and tutted. ‘We each
bring something to Sex Club, too.’
    ‘A plate?’
    ‘Oh god no. Although Tania often brings a cake. No, you have to bring something you
have learnt, some story, some fresh adventure. But Sex Club is only a week away so
you will be excused for the first month.’
    ‘I don’t really understand.’
    ‘Just come along next week. You’ll get the hang of it.’
    She turned to a shelf full of books behind her. Pulled a thick grey paperback off
the shelf. A pair of legs, stockings rolled halfway down over a knee, a dimly lit
drape, the edge of a bed.
    ‘Ten per cent discount if you are in the book club.’
    Holly reached for it but Mandy held the book firmly on the counter.
    ‘Are you in the book club?’
    Holly nodded and Mandy pushed the book into her hands. Holly paid cash and fumbled
the change back into her purse. She felt a little tipsy.
    ‘If you have any trouble with the Salter you have to come see me immediately. Promise?’
    Holly nodded again, although she wasn’t really sure what she was agreeing to.
    ‘My door is always open.’
    Mandy gestured to the green door and shifted back onto the stool, pulling her needlepoint
towards her and settling it on her lap. She picked the needle out of the fabric and
jabbed it into the chalked nipple. Holly felt a prick in her breast, as if the needlepoint
were a voodoo doll, the fabric nipple linked to her own flesh. She pressed her fingers
to her chest. Mandy glanced up at her gesture, her brow furrowed. She stared at Holly
hard, questioning. Embarrassed, Holly picked up the book and thrust it deep into
her handbag.
    The fluorescent light in the telephone booth was a startling orange. She stood among
the herbs in the garden and looked back down the stairs. It was impossible to imagine
the bookshop below. The whole thing seemed like a hallucination. It was night outside
and the bright white glare of the streetlight thumped onto her full-fisted. She closed
her eyes and pressed her hand over them.
    When she opened them again it was like Alice, emerging from the rabbit hole, transformed
by what she had just experienced. The real world was mildly disappointing and yet
comforting at the same time. Her nipple still throbbed a little. She rubbed it, feeling
how hard both her nipples had become, pressing out from under the thin fabric of
her summer dress. She remembered her mascara suddenly and scrabbled for her sunglasses
in the bottom of her bag. She picked out the book by James Salter and held it in
her other hand while she searched.
    A woman walked by with a little dog on a leash. The dog stopped to sniff at Holly’s
shoe. The woman glanced at Holly’s sunglasses and snapped at the lead to