Fuming Bella decided to waste the rest of the day with a bit of gardening to stop her brooding over James, she had only been out for less than an hour when a cheery voice came from the side gate. appearing in the back garden juggling a bunch of flowers in one hand a a ridiculously large homemade apple pie in the other.
Bella was bemused that Helen somehow managed to look glamorous no matter what the occasion, her she was kneeling down in a flowerbed, hair up and a check shirt and cut off jeans while Helen looked radiant in a white flowing skirt and scrappy lilac top. Bella thought of the last time she saw her stood buck naked in front of a group of salacious amateur photographers while the stranger called the tunes.
Helen’s smile was a enquiring one, sort of probing that Bella was both OK in herself and with what happened at the club, Bella reassuringly smiled back, in truth the last thing she wanted was tension with the neighbours even if she secret thought her husband wanted a threesome with them, she was also intrigued to get Helen’s viewpoint on that evening as well as finding out more about the man who had occupied so much of her thoughts over the last week.
Bella offered to make coffee and passed Helen a knife and two plates to get a slice of the apple pie. Strangely she pondered the apple that Eve had procured for Adam and the fallout from that as she took the first bite of a rather fine apple and cinnamon pie, still warm from the cooking.
“You had me worried when you ran out like that” Helen was the first to break the ice “are you OK now Bella” Helen said with just the right amount of concern painted on her face, Bella didn’t buy it of course, this was a woman who she was quite sure would trample over anyone in the pursuit of her own hedonistic power.
” I’m fine, honestly, it was just, you know, it was a bit intense” Bella replied
Helen smiled ” your not wrong honey, I can tell you I was burning up, it was hot”
Bella both admired and was resentful of her openness and honesty to stuff she always somehow felt uncomfortable with, perhaps that was her weakness and Helen’s trump card, she wished she could be so, she thought the word, brazen with her sexuality, no brazen is a ugly word, liberated, that’s better.
” he can be quite intense, quite persuasive but he is a pussycat really” bullshit thought Bella, more like a panther or a Jaguar the one thing this enigmatic devil was not is a pussycat, she thought.
Bella to cut to the chase ” so who is he?” Bella had a feeling she wouldn’t get a straight answer and of course she was right
Helen pondered, she knew she had to be deliberate with her answer ” Lewis is a,” she paused and tried a different tack “me and Troy, we how best to say, lead a adventurous lifestyle, we don’t always play by the norms that other couples play by, well we belong to a exclusive sort of club.”
Oh my god they are sex people thought Bella pleased that she managed somehow to stay poker faced through that revelation, however it did make more fearful of both for herself and James.
Sheepishly she enquired “and this Lewis, he is also a member of the club I guess?” Bella was probing now
“Not quite,” Helen retorted “he is the club, he owns it, we play by his rules, he is the God of his kingdom” the last bit sounded well creepy to Bella, not just that Helen said it but that she said it so matter of factly.
“So how do I get into this club?” Bella asked hoping it didn’t sound too much like a plea to join.
Helen smiled sweetly “Well there’s the thing honey, you can’t just join, Lewis himself decides who is in the club” All of a sudden the stranger sounded like a right douchbag, deciding who would enter his precious club, yet at the same time Bella couldn’t deny there was a delicious thrill from this secret society that she wanted, even needed to find out more.
“How did you and Troy get started in all this?” She casually asked while finishing the last of her slice of pie.
“Well we were already in the lifestyle, swinging, open relationship,” sex people again thought Bella “and we were introduced through a mutual friend the rest as they say is history, anyway I have to get going, loads to do and see, just glad you are Ok Honey, enjoy the rest of the pie and I would love to see you at the photography club again, probably not as exciting next week though” she laughed as she stood up to leave ” isn’t it also great that Troy and James are getting on so well too, just like you and I” she walked towards the door
“You know we are straight, I mean we are not into the open stuff you mentioned don’t you Helen” Bella clumsily fell over her words.
“of course you are Honey, of course” Helen gleefully remarked as she waltzed out the door.
A while later Bella stood in front of her wardrobe, she had decided if James had better things to do than escort her to her friends event she was going to show him, she looked at herself in the mirror, what the hell was she thinking, the reflection she saw before her was both pleasing and scary, she didn’t see her own image but that of a femme fatale, a sheer black shirt with a slight paisley patten showed off her Lacy black bra, the black leather miniskirt stepped well short of her knees, black stockings and a sleek black pair of heels finished the ensemble. Her hair was down and slightly curled (it had taken her a age) and make up strong and bold without being over the top, if she had felt like the hunted at the party and photography club tonight she looked every bit like the huntress. Doubt then started to overwhelm her, it was too much, it wasn’t her, it was her friend Mia’s night she did t want to overshadow her, no, she was going to do this, she was going to be bold for once in her life.