Page 38 of Good Girl
From the simple menu we select large bowls of fresh, green salad dotted with succulent chopped tomatoes and juicy slices of chicken breast and wash it down with ice-cold white wine produced in the region. A white canopy flaps in the gentle breeze above us as the sun beats down heavily on the terracotta tiles.
‘Ah, this is heaven!’ Juno exclaims after our empty plates have been taken away.
‘Would you like anything else to eat?’ I ask, nodding towards the dessert menu the waiter has left for us.
She pats her stomach. ‘I couldn’t eat another thing. In fact, I could probably do with walking my lunch off.’ She gives me a mock-piteous look, which I can’t help but smile at.
‘Yes, poor you. Let’s take a stroll through the trees to the south of here,’ I suggest.
Once outside the town’s border, we stroll along the quiet country lane and through a thick forest of trees until we come out into fields of long grass dotted with vibrant red poppies, their magnificent heads bobbing gently in the breeze.
I watch her stride through the field, her arms flung wide and her fingertips brushing the tops of the plants. She turns to look at me with an expression of such ecstasy, my whole body rushes with joy. She looks so perfect there in her white sundress, her normally pale skin now toasted a light honey from a week and a half in the Italian sunshine. Her hair gleams like burnished copper in the sunlight and I take a mental picture of the scene, wanting to remember it for ever.
A little farther along, there’s a lone tree standing in the middle of the field, its branches casting a long shadow over the ground.
‘Let’s sit under that tree and take a break,’ I suggest.
She nods, flapping a hand in front of her face. ‘Good idea—a bit of shade would be most welcome right now.’
Once we’re under the tree, she lies down on the cool earth with a satisfied sigh and I go to join her, immediately rolling on top of her and caging her with my body. I have an urgent need to be close to her, to soak in every molecule of her being.
‘How do you feel about al fresco sex?’ I murmur into her ear as I bend to kiss her throat, which gleams with perspiration.
‘I feel good about it,’ she murmurs back, her fingertips lightly brushing over my back, sending desire rushing up and down my spine. ‘But won’t someone see us?’
‘Not with the grass so high,’ I reassure her, sliding my hands down her body to find the hem of her dress and kissing her deeply, her mouth hot and wet under mine.
It only takes moments for me to shrug off my shorts and T-shirt, suit up and be inside her. I feel the fresh air on my back and breathe in the heady mixture of Juno’s unique scent—sex and the organic smell of the earth around us—and in that moment I know there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
Afterwards, when we’re both sated and damp with sweat, we slowly get dressed again, then stroll back through the poppies, enjoying the sensation of their caress on our bare legs. I really don’t want to leave this place, but I know we have to. That this is going to end soon.
We’re both quiet on the journey home, lost in our own worlds, sun-kissed and sexually satisfied.
I push away a niggle of despondency as we drive back into the bustle of the city, the magic of the afternoon already slipping away.
We’ve not talked much today, but it’s been a comfortable quiet between us. A wordless understanding of justbeing. It strikes me again how much calmer I feel when I’m around her, like the usual whirlpool of thoughts and overabundance of adrenaline lessens to a more manageable level.
But then that could be down to all the sex we’ve been having. That would take the liveliness out of anyone.
Juno excuses herself to take a shower as soon as we get back and I’m fixing myself a cold drink in the kitchen when my mobile begins to ring.
Tension lodges in my gut when I see it’s my father calling. What the hell does he want? I’m unreasonably annoyed with him for ruining my cosy, secluded bliss with Juno today and I almost ignore it. I stop myself at the last second from pressing the ‘reject call’ button, though, because I know from experience that my father doesn’t like to be ignored and won’t put up with it for long. He’ll just call again in half an hour, then every half hour after that till I pick up.
‘Pronto,’I say after clicking the ‘answer call’ button.
‘Sandro. I want you to go to a charity ball at the Hotel Magnifica Vista in Piazza della Signoria tonight. Take Juno with you and make sure the press get some good photos of the two of you together,’ my father says without ceremony. ‘I’ve had word from your brother’s future parents-in-law that they’re pleased with your relationship with her. It shows you to be a more responsible character than they’d had you down as. It’s good for both their and our public image if it looks as though the family playboy is finally settling down.’
This would be fine if there was any chance of that happening, but the sinking feeling in my gut reminds me that Juno isn’t and probably will never be interested in settling down with a ‘playboy’ like me. As she’s pointed out a number of times, she needs more intellectual stimulation than I can offer her.
Trying not to let my torment colour my voice, I say, ‘We can’t make it tonight. We have plans.’ No way do I want to waste one of the last nights I have with her at some tedious charity ball.
‘Then change them,’ my father barks. ‘I want you there.’ My stomach sinks even lower. I know what the likely outcome will be when he gets like this; it’s his way or the highway, which in real terms would mean excommunication from the rest of my family.
I try not to sigh with frustration, but the pause I leave clearly does the job anyway.
‘I hope we’re not going to fall out over this, Sandro,’ my father says in a dangerously low voice.
‘No. We’re not,’ I concede, running through the issues in my mind. First, I’ll have to talk Juno into going—which could be pretty tricky, because it’s just the sort of thing I can imagine she’ll hate to go to—then I’ll have to find some way to persuade her to have her photo taken, which she’ll also hate and probably refuse to do.
