Chapter 15

Looking back on it, staying along the coast from Dhekelia made no sense. They probably should have stayed at a small hotel in or near Nicosia. But the sense of shame that was pervading the investigation meant that Lester was happy to keep this as quiet as possible. As in allowing the two of them to stay at a beach resort. That final afternoon in the office Andrew went to see Brodie again.

“Can I ask you a question about this whole investigation?”

“Sure.”

“Why the secrecy? It does not seem to make any sense and if anything is impeding getting a quick result.”

“Politics at head office mainly. Protecting our turf, showing that we are more than armed guards at bases.”

“But this is small potatoes. There is no way a Corporal in the Pay Corp is stealing millions. Last year I got sent with Vestie to BUTEC to check out suspicious behaviour there. And we both know all the subs go through there, all of them. How is this more important than doing an overdue inspection at. Well any number of category one facilities?”

Brodie grumbled under his breath.

“Too fucking smart. This came along at a time when head office was doing a lot of thinking about fraud, throughout the whole Ministry. We were told to make this a priority. Now sure it is using a tank to shoot a rabbit but this is almost a training exercise. I don’t know for sure but I would guess that there have been conversations about doing nothing. Just recall Grey and keep him under close scrutiny in Worthy Down and hope that no one on Cyprus notices that he had his fingers in the till. But they want to start to build up expertise in fraud investigations. This summer is hardly the time given all the chaos around the place but when has that ever stopped them. So politics, evidence of something that they were already worried about, international embarrassment, turf wars.”

It still did not make sense, but at least Andrew was in the tank and not the rabbit. He would see Brodie at the Empress Building at 7.00 on Monday morning for the trip out to Brize Norton.

Getting off the Tube at Embankment Station Andrew found himself hurrying up the road. The prospect of meeting Rupashi had him all but jogging to get there. He laughed at himself, cool Andrew, real cool. He was first there and stood at the end of the bar, lager in hand, thinking about Rupashi Rai and their relationship. From meeting her that very first day at Cambridge, practicing his horribly accented Hindi, to the suppressed attraction, the day where they ended up at this very bar after introducing her to Jim. And of course to last January; to that amazing night at the Savoy. He stood there smiling like a maniac and didn’t notice Rupashi until she was standing next to him.

“You look like a pervert.

He laughed.

“Guess who I was thinking of. It is good to see you too.”

He looked round, checking over both shoulders.

“Am I allowed to hug you? You know, in public.”

It had been weeks since anyone had whacked him.

“You arse. But thank you for checking.”

They hugged and Rupashi held the hug for a couple of heartbeats longer than expected.

“We need to find a seat or I need to get a crate to stand on. This is absurd.”

Andrew got the drinks while Rupashi found them a table.

“It was great to get your call last night.”

“It has been strange not talking to you. There is part of me that wants to meet you once a month and build on our friendship but then we both know what that would really end up as. So I have resisted temptation until it was safer. The reason for meeting today is that Pranav and I are about to start officially going out and that means that the likelihood is we will get engaged at some point down the line. I have spent the last six months getting to know him. That I was spending time with him finally got Mum to calm down and she went from pushing a man, any man, at me to sitting with me and talking about life with Pranav. I think part of her craziness was the fact that I was rebelling against her. Once I got with the plan she became much more reasonable. So I wanted to talk to you, tell you that.”

She paused and took a sip of her drink.

“Congratulations. I am pleased that you are so happy.”

Rupashi looked at him closely.

“When you joked I was a temptation did you mean it?”

It was his turn to eye her carefully.

“Yes.”

“What would you have said, what would you have done, if I had said we should meet at the Savoy?”

Andrew took a gulp of lager, he was unsure where this was going. Time to be honest.

“I would have booked a room.”

“Just like that?”

“I am mostly broken of the habit of being paternalistic. I have moments of relapse but if you had asked to meet at the Savoy I would have booked a room. You don’t think I haven’t thought about that magical night in January?”

They were going to get drunk the way they were gulping down their drinks. Rupashi looked down at the table before finally meeting his eye.

“Everything is so slow. He is very proper, too proper.”

Rupashi looked abashed at saying that.

“There is a reason we are meeting tonight, and that Pranav and I are not officially dating yet.”

Andrew interrupted.

“Officially according to who?”

“The community, our families, myself. There is a party tomorrow night where it will be openly acknowledged.”

Andrew had berated himself for being so passive, so lazy, for a many weeks, in fact for all of his life when he thought about it.

“So this is your last night as a single woman? Tomorrow you will have a boyfriend, even although that is just semantics.”

Rupashi didn’t look too happy at being called on that but she did nod.

“How improper do you want me to be?”

The question startled her and then a beautiful smile burst upon her face. She nodded, even although it was a question that required more than just a nod of the head.

“Oh no, you are going to have to tell me all the things you want me to do.”

Rupashi’s Indian heritage came to the fore, big time.

“Andrew! I couldn’t.”

It seemed it was more wouldn’t rather than couldn’t.

“Do you want me to strip you naked?”

Rupashi’s headed swiveled back and forth but they were in a small alcove and no one could hear them. She nodded shyly.

“Are you going to strip me naked, run your hands all over my body?”

A much more confident nod.

“Is your pretty little brown hand going to stroke and fondle me, revive me?”

A devastating smile, biting her bottom lip, and a quick nod.

“I had sex three times a week last term and it has been more than a month. Will you be able to cope with my needs?”

In answer Rupashi finished the last mouthful of her drink and stood up, her hand grabbing Andrew’s.

“I know this is the most ridiculous thing ever but do you think you could teach Pranav to talk like that? I want you to throw me over your shoulder and carry me off. Where are we going?”

Neither of them had a bag, had a change of clothes, had anything. The Savoy would ask too many questions but Andrew remembered that there were lots of hotels on Haymarket, or just off it. It was where they had walked with Jim and Freya more than a year earlier. When they found a decent looking four star hotel Andrew was a little frightened how easily the lie came to him.

“My wife and I missed our connection to New Delhi. We are rebooked on a ghastly flight first thing in the morning. But we want a quiet room for the night away from Heathrow.”

It was utter bullshit and Rupashi almost broke his knuckles when Andrew called her his wife. Andrew was sure the front desk clerk had seen all manner of excuses but he was neutral and made no judgement. The room was rented without fuss and the two supposedly weary travellers were soon in the lift to the 6^th floor.

“Your wife!”

“Well it was either that or calling you a sex-crazed lawyer in need of a good fucking.”

They kissed even as Rupashi kept whacking him.

“Beastly man.”

“Rupashi Rai, you have no idea.”

Her smile got wider.

Over the course of the evening Rupashi confessed to being horny the whole time now. She masturbated every day, often more than once. Andrew had uncorked the genie and Rupashi wished for orgasms. It was Andrew and Helena’s general horniness distilled down into one evening. For Rupashi there was some emotion to the evening but mostly it was physiological, she needed to get laid. For Andrew it was more visual and physiological, they fucked four times and twice he had Rupashi at the end of the bed, her legs up his body with her splayed out in front of him. They got into a massive feedback loop getting off on the way the other looked and how they reacted to each other’s bodies. In among all of that Rupashi licked dick for the first time. It wasn’t a blow job, more licking a cock ice-cream cone but the visual of that revived Andrew’s ardour in no time. Their first time had been full of feeling, the sense that it was utterly one-off, whereas this time, as well as giving lie to the whole one-off thing, was all about pleasure. This was peak teenager sluttiness, hormones over sense. And it was awesome. Andrew had needed the evening just as much as Rupashi and neither one of them gave any indication they were stressed or overthinking the evening. After their second fuck Rupashi was lying along him looking ridiculously attractive and Andrew pulled her up his body and they kissed for a long time. He starting kissing her neck and murmuring in his ear.

“Can I tease you?”

She looked up questioningly.

“How do you mean?”

“Whisper wicked things in your ear.”

Her smile was immediate and wide.

“How wicked?”

With a squeak she was flung on her tummy beside him and his hand caressed her bum.

“Do you know what a turn-on it is to be here with you. This impossibly smart, sexy Indian woman. But I think it is even better because of the taboo of all this. I love how you are the one who is impatient with her virginal husband-to-be.”

Rupashi’s hand had Andrew back to full vigour and he wrapped up and moved behind her, Rupashi’s hips rising in anticipation. Rather than pull her to the end of the bed Andrew entered her before leaning forward. He intertwined his hands with her and as his hips started moving he carried on whispering.

“Fucking hell, you are such a gorgeous sexpot. But Ru, close your eyes for me. Imagine all the meetings with your mother, the extended family. Sweet, innocent, clever Rupashi. But we both know differently, don’t we? Imagine the look on your mother’s face if she walked in right now.”

Andrew heard the gasp but neither of them stayed the cadence of their hips.

“Such a naughty woman. Look at her, giving in to her lusts. Turning up today knowing that there was no way I was going to be able to resist. Your younger white lover.”

Another gasp and the speed of their hips got even faster.

“You gasp but your body betrays you. Rupashi Rai, I can’t believe it! You are excited about your young white lover. So naughty, so wicked. So wonderful.”

Rupashi’s orgasm pulled his right behind her. Andrew barely held on from squashing her flat before he rolling onto his back beside her. He dealt with the condom and looked over at Rupashi. Now that they had finished fucking he was a little worried about everything he had said. The smile on her face eased a lot of his immediate concerns. She leaned over and kissed him wearily.

“I like that you see the real me. I hope that Pranav gets to see it too, and soon”

They both chuckled.

“I should be some combination of horrified and offended about the things you said but the truth is I love being this person. It is probably just as well I didn’t meet you when I was at school or when I started university.”

She kissed him again.

“And I will think about this night during all the endless meetings with my mother.”

They lay beside each other for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Their final time was Andrew against the headboard with Rupashi in his lap, joined but not really fucking.

“I am so glad we did this. I should feel guilty but the truth is I don’t. I would be here with Pranav if the man showed the slightest bit of initiative or interest.”

“Give him time, but don’t be coy with him. You train a man to do something and then praise him when he does it well and he will do it for the rest of time. We are simple creatures. I know you have to deal with the whole ‘proper’ Indian woman thing but in this case I would make an exception.”

She sighed.

“It might not be that easy.”

“I know that you will blush but tell him that you already are taking things into your own hands, so to speak. Tell him you can’t wait for them to be his hands.”

“Andrew. I would get thrown out of the proper Indian woman club.”

She laughed.

“I will think of something. But the man needs to put out.”

The gender reversal made Andrew laugh. They took separate quick showers, avoiding getting their hair wet, before redressing. There was one final thing to chat about before they headed home.

“Thanks Andrew. Tonight was exactly what I need. What I also wanted to talk to you about was our friendship going forward. You introduced me to Lord Barnes and Pranav knows this. He would like to meet you too, but I don’t want it to be awkward.”

Given the last three hours, Andrew was sure it was going to be slightly awkward.

“Okay. I would be pleased to meet him. He and I have to get along for there to be any chance at a long term friendship. So sure, although goodness only knows when that is going to be. I will be back in town the week of September 9^th so maybe that week.”

Rupashi grabbed his hand.

“Thanks Andrew.”

They chatted as they got ready to leave but Andrew thought about the two of them. For the first time he was trying to navigate maintaining a friendship and relationship with someone he had fucked. Moira didn’t really count; the relationship was with her father. He was intrigued as to whether they would be able to make it work. But then Andrew thought about Suzanne. That was likely to be the same situation. Oh well. Rupashi walked straight out onto the street, leaving Andrew to spin some more lies and deal with, a thankfully different, front desk clerk. When he weighed the scales, two minutes of embarrassment was a trivial price to pay for an evening in bed with Rupashi. He really was a slut. They caught the same Tube and after a quick, chaste hug Andrew got off at Baker Street and Rupashi carried onto her home.

It never rains but it pours...

Saturday was to be a day of chores, things that Andrew needed to get done before he left on Monday. So after swimming he had three main tasks to accomplish; get a new pair of sunglasses, having managed to sit on his and break them the previous week; find a chemist that stocked the specialist sun cream he used; and find a bureau d’change that had Cyprus pounds. The first task was easy and at the third time of trying he was able to get the sun cream. Now Andrew could have gone to a paint store as it was about the same consistency but eventually he was able to get two tubes which should last for the month. Cyprus pounds on the other hand were a real challenge. There were lots of places that you could get foreign currency but it looked like he should have gone to a bank earlier in the week. For the longest time there was nothing. But finally he was in luck; he had almost walked to St. Paul’s, so a long way east from Marshall Street where he had started. He asked at a small currency exchange shop not really expecting them to have any.

“Your lucky day mate. I had someone in two hours ago wanting to change them to get some real pounds. We don’t quote a rate for Cyprus, nobody ever has any but I phoned head office and they quoted me a rate. I have roughly £200 worth if you want them. Let me get a sell rate and you can see how much.”

So £200 British Pounds got Andrew roughly £150 Cyprus pounds. He took the lot since it would save him having to deal with money exchange there, at least for a while. Walking back west along Fleet Street as it turned into the Strand Andrew realised he was coming up to the Savoy. His smile was automatic and involuntary as his mind, again, went back to the night with Rupashi. First the night there and then the previous night. Hmmm.

“Andrew. Andrew!”

He was jolted from his pleasant reverie and turned to see who was hailing him. And standing there was Arabella. In a city of millions she had run into him. Rick had it right.

“Andrew, how are you? Good to see you.”

There was no hesitation in the hug. She looked, smelled and felt fantastic. Time to see if he was even slightly coherent.

“Hello Ara. It is good to see you too. How are you?”

“Today just got a whole lot better. I am great.”

There were a lot of ‘how are you’ comments back and forth. After two minutes they had repeatedly established they were both great and it was time to see if they could master the art of conversation.

“Where are you heading? Are you here on holiday? Are you working here? Come on, give me some details.”

“Okay, okay. I am heading back to the flat where I am staying. I am working in London this summer. You?”

“I live and study in London now. I graduated from Edinburgh last June and I am at the LSE doing a PhD in International Relations. That’s where I was, at the library. I stay in a rented place about a mile up the road, not far from St. Pancras. I was heading down to the river to enjoy the day for a bit, let’s catch up, walk with me.”