Page 6 of Vivacity
‘I’m sure I'll regret this,’ Lotta says, ‘but tell us all about it.’
I smile dreamily, allowing my mind to drift back to my final hedonistic night in Mykonos. The Aleomandra peninsula stretched ahead of us as the sun fell on Thad’s spectacular, sprawling villa, the lush gardens alive with revellers and, later, the vast infinity pool heaving with naked bodies.
It was pretty effing special.
‘I’ll tell you if you promise to set aside your British prudishness for a moment and open your minds. Athena, I'm not talking to you,’ I add. Athena may look like an English rose, but the woman loves sex every bit as much as I do. More, possibly.
‘Fine,’ Marlowe says through gritted teeth.
‘Divulge,’ Lotta demands. ‘I feel a Greek holiday coming on already.’
‘Well, it was a traditional celebration of Dionysus.’
Marlowe frowns. ‘Dionysus?’
‘The Greek version of Bacchus,’ Athena, our resident Classics scholar, tells her without missing a beat. ‘Greek Jesus, more like,because he died and was reborn, a fact the Greeks celebrate with a giant phallus.’
‘Of course they do,’ Marlowe mutters.
‘And was there a giant phallus at the party?’ Lotta wonders aloud.
‘There were many giant phalluses.’ I smile happily.
‘Phalli, if you’re declining the noun in Latin.’ This from Athena. Naturally.
‘Oh, bore off. Yes, there was a huge big dick bringing up the rear, and torchbearers at sunset, and wine and fruit bearers, and musicians, and a lot of naked people wearing only masks.’
‘And you…’ Lotta prompts, waving her hands around, clearly hoping for something more salacious.
‘And I was naked, too. We got very drunk and I fucked lots of guys. At one point I was lying at the very edge of the pool, and the water was lapping over me, and the sky was the most incredible coral pink, and all these hot European guys were just tending to me at the same time, you know, and I think it was the best moment of my life.’
I sigh at the memory. It really was perfect. I felt like I could float away on all that sensory pleasure as the sun commanded the sky and those guys commanded my body.
Athena snorts. ‘Lucky bitch.’
I laugh, and the memory shatters. Marlowe looks like she’s trying gamely to process this information while Lotta grins wickedly.
‘Fuck, that's hot,’ she says. She toys with her wine glass. ‘Maybe I can get Aide to role-play that.’
‘It might be a nice change from whatever you two get up to,’ I deadpan. ‘I can see Aide in a fig leaf.’
Lotta’s husband, Aide Duffy, is a reluctant tech mogul and all-round good guy. He’s also hot as fuck in a seriously brawnyway. He likes his manual labour, and it shows. I imagine a fig leaf would be a good look on him.
‘So it soundslike Soph is the only one who’s not banging a billionaire at this moment in time,’ Lotta says later.
‘It was time for Thad to hang up his Speedo thong and start acting his age,’ I say. ‘Anyway, I might be banging another billionaire soon. I have a job interview tomorrow, so I'd better go easy on the wine tonight.’
‘Anyone we know?’ Lotta asks. ‘Or are we not allowed to say?’
I hesitate. Seraph’s NDAs exclude only fellow seraphim, allowing us to talk amongst ourselves about our roles. Camille believes it’s important for us to be able to seek advice and support within the agency when we’re in these intense and often confronting roles. Obviously, that technically excludes all three of these ladies, but if I get this job, it won’t be any secret that I’m working for Ethan. It’s merely the ‘full service’ aspect of my role that will be confidential.
Given two of my friends are former seraphim and the other has an actual Cambridge degree and knows I’m a seraph, I doubt any of them will struggle to put two and two together.
‘Ethan Kingsley,’ I say, my gaze darting discreetly to Marlowe. ‘As in, Kingsley Hotels.’ Brendan definitely strong-armed her into that threesome with Ethan when Brendan was in his Dickhead in Denial Era, and I suspect it’s still an uncomfortable memory for her. Sure enough, she grimaces discreetly and Athena pats her on the arm.
Lotta sucks in a breath. ‘Oh boy. Sleeping with the enemy. Nora and Theo will have a field day with this one.’
One of our closest uni friends, Nora, married another of our mates, Theo Montague, whose family’s eponymous hotel group is Kingsley Hotel’s biggest competitor. The Kingsley-Montague rivalry is well-known gossip in both business and social circles.
