Rosalind lay there, her back coated in a thin sheen of come, massaged into her freckled skin by his fingers and the circles of his palms.
Like any moisturiser, the body warm fluid thinned and spread, and with the constant circular movement, was slowly absorbed into her skin. Hot and smooth and gone.
"Better than Mary Arden, don't you think?"
But the woman was too tired to respond. It had been a busy day for her, shit clients, the server crashed, nothing went right. Then, just after her lunchtime break, fresh air in the park, the crust from her sandwiches feeding ducks, laughing at their silly tails bobbing up in the water, feet paddling furiously, the phone rang.
"Hey, I got back sooner than I thought. How about I get to yours early, make dinner. Prank me when you get off the train, and I'll start running the bath. Soon as you get home, it's time to spoil Rosie."
She went back to her work station, and noticed Sally watching her, a little smile on her face. Sally was the office mum, a Greek woman, somewhere in her forties. A typical Greek cook, always bringing in the most delicious, most lethal desserts and cakes. Traditional recipes, cream, rich custard, thick dark chocolate cakes, sweet dessert pies to die for.
"Rosie," she said softly, "have you got a secret? Is there something you're keeping from us. You know how we love to goss."
Rosie blushed, her cheeks a bright red, and oh goodness, a blaze down her neck to the blaze of freckles across her collar bones. Sally was always trying to fix Rosie up with this cousin, that cousin.
"Theo, he's a nice boy, you'd like him. Or George, George will do the dishes. He's a good boy."
Seems Sally had half of Athens just around the block, and all of them related. All of them, too, with the greatest array of domestic skills, all most unlikely.
"He'll do the ironing, you watch. His mama always made him do the ironing, when he was a little boy. He knows how to look after a lovely girl like you."
Rosalind indulged Sally, she was one of those warm, wonderful women who always knew exactly what to do, what to say, what to give.
"Rosie does," Sally whispered excitedly. "I can tell, she's got a secret. Promise, I won't tell."
She never did tell, Sally. Even though it always sounded as if she was going to blurt it all out at the top of her voice, Sally was in fact the soul of discretion. Nothing passed her by, but nothing passed her lips, either.
"Oh, Rosie, take some of this dessert home with you. There's enough for three servings. You look like you need feeding up."
Sally wanted all the women in the office to be big, healthy girls, just like her.
"Good Greek boys, they like meat on their women."
"Oh Sally," Rosalind laughed, "I'm not marrying a Greek boy, doesn't matter how good his mama says he is. Every boy is perfect in his mama's eyes."
And God help her when nana has an opinion!
That Sally though, how did she always know?
Rosalind did cut the three pieces, as Sally suggested.
Sally counted what was left over. That's how Sally always knew.
Her desserts were always so good, no girl, no woman, would ever dare not take home a piece for her man, a piece for herself, and another piece. Sally always knew. She was the best cook, after all.
As Rosalind left the station, she dialled the number, let it ring four times, and rang off. Into her mind flashed the turn of the taps, adjusted for the hot, needs to be just right. His arm reaching for the crystals, three shakes and the bubbles foam.
She smiles, another busy city worker hot from the crowded train, looking forward to stretching her long limbs in the hot bath. She walked a little faster, eager to get to her apartment, to escape the noise and hustle of the city. Oh goodness, the idea of a hot bath was wonderful.
And of course, he would be waiting for her, a big hug for Rosie as soon as she got in the door. His eyes would light up in huge smile, his adorable crooked smile, his bright blue eyes gazing into her dark ones. He would straighten her glasses for her.
"Got to see clearly, Rosie. Always got to see clearly."
And his finger would touch the tip of her nose, and then the side of his own, two tiny taps. Tap tap. Just like that.
"I see clearly now, you're home. Come on, the bath is run."
And right there, he undoes all the buttons of her coat, all down the front, his fingers quick. Rosalind turns, and he takes the coat and hangs it on its hook by the front door. One of her tapestries is there, a carefully executed picture of a coat hanging by a door.
He kneels before her, and takes one foot in his hand, and eases the tight shoe off her foot, baring her stockings.
"Oh god, it's good to be out of them," she sighs, as she lifts up her other foot, stretching her toes, stretching the tight calf muscles.
His hands run up one of her long leg to the top of the stocking, and deftly unclips the snap of her garter. Rosalind stands motionless as he rolls the stocking down her leg, and he does the same to the other. He runs his warm hands down the back of her firm thighs, a long swift pressure down the centre of the tight muscles, and continuing down the back of her calves.
She stretches up on to her toes, like the dancer she was when just a young girl. As she stretches, he rises to his feet and stands behind her. Again, his fingers are swift on the run of black buttons all down her back. Her bare back shivers in the cool air, or his warm fingers. Rosie doesn't know which is which.
She leans forward just a little, to take the tension of the cloth away from her shoulders, and feels the weight of her breasts a satisfying fill into the cups of her bra, thin straps on her shoulders. He is behind her, so he undoes the two hooks in the strap at her back, and she holds the cloth of the bra and the blouse to her breasts, pressing her palms hard to her soft fullness, holding the cloth there.
He is behind her, so undoes the zip down the side of her skirt. Rosalind shimmies her hips to help him pull the tight fit of her skirt down her long legs to a puddle of grey cloth at her feet.
Rosalind's luscious, curved bottom cheeks are caressed in a soft curve of pale cloth, just a simple band of embroidered lace all around the top. They are cotton and lace, comfortable and figure pressing, just right for the smooth curve of her hips.
He is behind her, so takes the sides of her knickers and tugs them down, one long smooth movement down her long legs. She lifts her feet, one two, and the drift of cloth joins the grey of her skirt pooled on the timber floor, the stockings rolled there too.
He has dropped to his knees to get the froth of cloth all the way down. So he places a single kiss, right at the base of her spine, right where the crease of her cheeks join and become firm.
"Got to get back to the kitchen, Rosie, I'll bring you a drink when you're in the bath."
He slapped her on the ass, playfully, and returned to the kitchen.
Rosalind, tall and wonderful in her undressed nakedness, shut the door of the bathroom behind her, dropped her blouse and bra to the floor, and stood in front of a long mirror, all the way down the wall.
This is what she saw, this is what she looks like after a long day at work, a commute by train, and fifteen minutes of walking at each end. Five minutes to her office, ten minutes to her apartment, fifteen storeys high. Worse, when the lifts don't work.
She is a tall woman, and her legs are long. Her feet are sore, her shoes a little too tight. But worth the pain, for when she wears three and a half inch heels, the top of her head is six foot above the ground, more if she wears her hair, her thick, luscious, dark brown hair, high on her head.
That is as tall as many a business man in a charcoal suit. So Rosalind can stare her clients in the eye, and quietly persuade them that they might be wrong. Even when the customer is always right, sometimes Rosalind can convince them they are wrong, when they are wrong, because she is tall. She can survive in a man's world, even when they are wrong, because she is tall. Proud Rosalind, rightly so.