Excerpt from THIS VERY BOUTIQUE

‘Ah yes, but is that all it’s supposed to do?’ His gleaming eyes narrow all of a sudden, ‘As I pointed out, there weren’t any instructions in the bag with it, and it’s not immediately obvious how one is supposed to use it.’

That’s true. Items like the Spinetingler aren’t generally supplied with an operating manual. But then again, any red-blooded woman – or man – should know almost by instinct what to do with it. I get the feeling that Sir is just being deliberately obtuse. You get characters like this in the retail trade all the time, and it’s usually best for business to try and play along with them.

The customer is always right and all that stuff, don’t you know?

‘Perhaps a brief demonstration would help?’ he suggests, anticipating me. For a moment he purses his lips, and seems to find it difficult to meet my eyes. But then his broad face straightens again, and gives me a long, almost imperious look.

‘Of course, if you think so…’

‘Oh, I know so,’ he confirms with great authority, settling his large form more comfortably in the chair and tweaking at his long, unglamorous raincoat again. He seems to be making certain that it fully covers his lap.

‘Well, usually a young lady would tend to use this sort of item at night, in the privacy of her bed, or perhaps in her bath in the case of the waterproof version.’ I twist the bezel again, for effect. ‘But sometimes, of course, an armchair will do just as well.’

‘Do you often use it in an armchair?’ Sir enquires.

Ill Met By Moonlight - unedited extract NC17

‘I dreamt about you last night.’

The words were out before she could stop herself, and Robin’s peculiar bi‑coloured eyes snapped open again, instantly flashing their two brilliant hues.

‘Did you know that? I dreamt about you,’ she rushed on, almost panicking. ‘How can I have dreamt about you when I just met you not half an hour ago? It doesn’t make sense!’

Without warning, Robin set his glass aside and slid out of his chair and onto his knees. His cock bounced from side to side as he shuffled across the patchwork rug until he was kneeling in front of her, his great head tilted to one side a little, his gaze questioning and hypnotic.

Compulsively, Lois drank some wine, almost on autopilot, but the second she took the glass from her lips, Robin reached for it, gently prised it from her fingers and set it aside. Still kneeling in front of her, he took her small warm hands in his much larger and curiously cooler ones.

‘The woods and the sea are magical places, Lois, and this cabin is right at the nexus of both their influences…’ He squeezed her fingers very lightly, as if they were crystal and he didn’t want to damage them. ‘It’s hardly surprising that unusual things happen here… What you dreamt last night might have been a part of the future seeping back into the present.’

‘That’s ridiculous!’

But she was shaking. Could she do that? Could she want that? It was all very well to imagine kinky things in fantasies, but for real? That was another story. Especially with a man she barely knew.

‘The world is strange, Lois,’ he murmured cryptically, his thumbs circling her palms in a light, soothing caress that seemed to impact all over her body… especially between her legs. She felt an intense urge to squirm, as if he was touching her there, and the look in his peculiar eyes seemed to say again that he knew exactly what she was feeling.

‘Your dream… was it pleasant?’ With a slow smile, he lowered his head, looking up at her from beneath his sumptuous lashes, and then brought first one, then the other of her hands to his lips for a kiss.

‘I… er… no, not exactly… But it was strange… not something that could really happen.’

The touch of his lips was like cold fire. She was shaking hard now, and she couldn’t tell whether it was fear, confusion, or extreme lust. Or a combination of all three…

‘Are you sure?’

‘I don’t know! I don’t know!’ she almost cried.

He shuffled closer, reached for her, and this time brought her mouth to his in a delicate, gentling kiss.

‘What happened in your dream?’ he enquired, and his breath was like a whisper of perfumed air against her cheek and her ear.

Furious blood flushed her face as she remembered the game, and her body bound and open and vulnerable to him. Hungering for him as it did now…

She tried to turn away from him, but he gently but firmly held her, his mouth against her hair.

‘I can’t! I can’t say…’ His lips were moving, and she suddenly realised he was murmuring softly, describing the fantasy.

‘How do you know these things? How do you know? It’s impossible for you to know what I dreamt…’

‘Hush, my dearest,’ he kissed her jaw, and then her throat, ‘just call it instinct… intuition… My dream, maybe, just as much as yours.’

‘But I’m scared! I don’t know if want to do those things,’ she protested, her heart fluttering in her chest like a wild bird, the strange gull maybe, in her chest, ‘I don’t know if I’d ever really want to do something like that.’

Taking her face between his large, cool hands, he forced her to look at him, straight into the disorientating beauty of his eyes.

‘Then we can do other things, Lois… anything you like. Just say the word.’

‘I d- don’t know what the word is…’

‘Why it’s “yes”, of course, isn’t it?’

And then he kissed the whispered answer right from her lips.