Page 51 of Replay
“Really?”Allegra grabbed the bag from him and sprinkled a few into her hand.She turned them all the right way up in her palm before popping a green one into her mouth and allowing it to dissolve slowly.A warm fuzzy feeling suffused her, as she recalled being wrapped securely in Spook’s arms.
Meanwhile, Ronnie’s jaw worked furiously around the amount of gummy sugar in his mouth.It took him a while, but he eventually swallowed with a sigh.“I can’t believe you’re counting them out individually.What’s that about?”
Like she hadn’t seen him do the same thing with gummi bears.“What’s wrong with a bit of reverence?”Truthfully, she was back to thinking about last night, and how Spook was feeling this morning.She’d glimpsed a side of him last night that had only been hinted at before.Had the sweets he’d fed her afterwards come from this same machine?“Have you seen Spook today?”
Ronnie took time out from squashing individual Jelly Tots flat between his fore-finger and thumb to glance at her.“I said already.He’s on deck with the rest of them.”His eyes narrowed, leaving the shadow of his sooty lashes on his cheek.“Haven’t you?”
Alle shrugged.“I slept late.”
“Too much bonking?”
Orange this time.Alle popped the treat into her mouth and sucked hard so she wasn’t tempted to answer.
“I see, still keeping your lips zipped on the subject, like that’s going to convince me you’re not doing it in every way imaginable.”Ronnie peeled the flattened green jelly off his thumb, and rolled it into a tube before putting it in his mouth.In many respects, he really was an overgrown twelve year old; always playing with his food, with a salacious appetite for sugar and anything even vaguely taboo.
“I’m not saying anything as it’s not any of your business.”
“It’s because you’re cruel.”
“I’m not cruel.”
“Crew-oo-ooh-al!”he sang, making her sigh and tuck her head down towards her chest.“Come on, Alle.One incey-wincey detail to satisfy my unbearable curiosity.You know I need my gossip fix, and I can’t go on the internet to see if they’re talking about you.Please.It can even be as boring as how good a kisser he is, or whether he does tongues.Not that I’m not all in for something juicier.I mean, I have all these thoughts.I have a lot of time, and a lot of thoughts, and Spook’s an enigma, right?So, it’s important to know if he’s succumbed to temptation yet.What sort of temptation?What made him dispense with the vows?More than the simple promise of your pussy, right?Cos, the man has had pussy on tap for years and he’s never indulged.Therefore, you’re obviously offering something extra.”
“You’re right.You have too much time on your hands.Way too much.This is not information you need to know.Unlike say, how your single’s doing.”She got up stiffly, her used muscles protesting, and strolled out onto the balcony.It was an iron grey day, breezy enough to raise goosebumps on her bare arms, but there was sun on the horizon over the Swedish coast.
Ronnie followed her as far as the doorway, the wind blowing knots into the front of his hair, and leaving strands of it curling.“You know gossip is the currency of friendship, right.Besties are supposed to share stuff.”
“It’s really not,” she said, shaking her head.“Also, we’re not.”
He joined her at the railing over-looking the water.The breeze caught his black shirt, whipping it about his narrow form like a set of stubby wings.“Aw, for fuck’s sake woman, can you not release me from my torment and tell me whether he’s nailed you?”A series of dramatic theatrical gestures culminated with Ronnie plastering the back of his hand to his fore-head, and collapsing into a deck chair in a dying pose.“I die from lack of knowledge.Never to know the truth of whether he’s a tits, legs, or arse man, and of whether he likes a cheeky finger slid into his—”
“Stop it.”She slapped him with her cardigan, as she gave up the endeavour to pull it on.“Ronnie, I’m not telling you a damn thing.Grow up.What I do with my boyfriend is my business.In any case, I don’t trust you not to tell the world.Admittedly, not deliberately.I don’t think you’re a rat, so you can quit pouting at me, but you’ve a big mouth and you don’t think about who might be listening in.What’s to say the next time you and he are in the same room, you don’t blurt out something without even thinking about it?What’s to say you wouldn’t do the same if you were put on the spot in an interview?”
His beetle black brows scooted up his forehead.“You think interviewers are going to want to talk to me about Spook Mortensen’s sex life?I kinda thought they’d be more interested in the music.”
“No, I just… Look, never mind.We’re ending this conversation.I’m not going to be your on tap source of salacious gossip.Go and readHello, or something.”
“I’ve only old copies.Besides, they mostly talk about soap stars.The gossip’s better on the internet.”His sooty lashes fluttered.But she refused to be persuaded.
Ronnie turned away from her, cradling his yellow packet.“I’ll be keeping the rest of these to myself then.Bet he doesn’t share his Jelly Tots with you.”He headed back for the shelter of the lounge.
“He does, actually,” she called after him.“Last night, after...”She realised even before Ronnie turned back to face her, eyes widened to a bulging stare and a glow blooming in their amber depths, that she’d said more than she’d intended to, without actually saying much of anything.Trouble was Ronnie could read between the lines.He was damned good at it.
Long fingers steepled before him, he engaged her with a demented, mischievous grin.“Jelly Tots.Spook Mortensen, mister clean living, fed you his Jelly Tots.”The way Ronnie said Jelly Tots turned it into a euphemism for ‘thick, hard cock?’Babe, tell me everything.This is going to be wild.I can already tell.”That point he proved by gleefully rubbing his hands together.
Dammit.This was why it was dangerous to let her brain run on autopilot.Unfortunately, despite sleeping late, her brain remained tired, and her aches hadn’t gone away.“Ronnie, I told you.I’m not telling you anything.”
“Jelly tots,” he said again.His enunciation brought a rush of heat to her cheeks.In fact, she couldn’t look straight at Ronnie anymore.How was he managing to keep a straight face?Okay, so he wasn’t really.He was grinning his enormous lunatic grin, with a side dose of extra lunacy today, but he wasn’t embarrassed by any of this.She was the one blushing.The one whose toes were curling.It was madness.She’d had sex with two people last night, and hadn’t been anywhere near this embarrassed.
“So you’re saying you didn’t just go off and sip tea together all regal and platonic?
She huffed, which in an ideal world he’d interpret as non-committal, as this is really uninteresting, why are we even talking about it.Whereas, in actuality, she might as well have spat out the whole sordid tale in one long breathless paragraph.
“I get it, Alle.You went and did the dirty deed with him.You soiled the saint.Wrapped his halo in thorns.”
“Uh.”Apparently, this was now the only syllable she could sound aloud.
“That doesn’t sound too promising.”Ronnie regarded her all eyes, and smile, and teeth.“Was it not good?Does mister impossibly blond and sexy not live up to his painfully elusive promise?”
