They say the imagination is the most vital erogenous zone of them all...
"You think our meeting at
'Les Café Des Poetès'
was random?" he teases. "You think it was coincidence? It was not random. It was no coincidence. I know who you are. I've known who you are for some time. I've studied you. Your past. Your desires. Your tastes. Your life-style. I tracked you to
'Les Café Des Poetès'
with the intention of meeting you. As it turned out it was so much easier than I anticipated. You were easy. A push-over. After all, you are here now. With me."
"So what it this profession that requires you to carry a pistol in the glove compartment?"
"You don't know? You haven't guessed? My profession is women. I take them, fuck them. Then extract ransom from their families. From their husbands. I live well."
She looks at him, a tiny frown between her big piscine eyes. "And now you've taken me, monsieur? I am your victim? Is this true?"
He ignores her question. "All is true, all is lies. All is permitted. Nothing denied. But you were telling me... your fantasy."
"No. I'm no longer in the mood."
"You must tell me. Sex is easy. Eroticism is the challenge."
She glances back at him in the mirror. "Love is promiscuous, but it is never unfaithful." Playful again.
"But sex is always a gift of wings. Tell me now. Tell me the first time you accepted that gift of wings. Tell me quickly before we arrive at our destination. I must know."
"Well... there was an incident when I was seventeen. A holiday with my parents near San Tropez. I spent most of my time on the beach, by myself, bored..."
"You were topless?"
A hesitation. "No. I... lacked confidence. As a teenager my breasts -- my tits, were not large. I felt gauche and awkward. I merely watch other people on the beach. There's a boy nearby, perhaps a year or two older than me. He is sunbathing. He wears only loose khaki shorts. He is dark, attractive, but also seems shy. I watch the families beneath their parasols, the movement of trees, the lovers by the sea, but my eyes keep returning to the youth. He lounges languidly, his legs apart, and it's only after some time that I realise, from where I'm lying, I can see the shadow inside the looseness of his shorts, and that within the dark tunnel of material I see the clear outline of his testicles. His balls. And once seen, I become hypnotised. I can't look away. Of course, I knew in theory about testicles, but I've never seen them before. Not like this. Eventually his eyes intercept my gaze. I'm horrified, but he just smiles. His eyes are dark. I look away in an agony of embarrassment, afraid that he's guessed the objects of my prurient interest. Yet when, agonisingly, I'm forced to glance back, he's neither altered his position or made the slightest attempt at concealment.
"Eventually he stands, indicating I should follow him. Meekly I do so, without fully understanding why. Just that I feel a compulsion, a sense of mysterious intimacy that refuses to be denied. He leads me beyond the rows of parasols and cafes into the wide shaded margin of trees that rises gently from the shore into the hills behind the resort. There are pine-cones on the ground. We walk a long way, until we are some distance from the beach, with the sound of autos as muted as tide. He stops, turns to face me, indicating that I -- too, should come no further. He unfastens his shorts and shrugs them down, releasing the long lazy curve of his penis. I inhale sharply, a little afraid, but excited too. He takes his cock into his fist, begins to wank, slowly with deliberate flourish at first, then faster and more self-indulgently as his excitation grows. I watch mesmerised. The rapid jerking hand, the winking single eye set into the inflamed blunt head, the bouncing testicles beneath in the enticing dark nest of hair. A tension so thick I can taste it. Then, as his stomach flexes and his head goes back, eyes closed, he ejaculates a fierce hail of sperm, long strands of semen spraying into the grass..."
"What happened then? Did he fuck you?"
She shakes her head. "It was only then, at that moment, that I seemed to be shocked awake. I turned and ran."
"But did you want to fuck with him? Did you want to crouch down before him and kiss the last few drops of sperm from the end of his cock...?"
A long pause. "I don't know. Perhaps I did. But it wasn't like that, you're spoiling it now. You're spoiling the memory. I suppose -- yes, I was moist between the legs. But in some ways what happened between us was complete in itself. The exhibitionist, and the voyeur. Although later I certainly thought about what had occurred, and visualise it over and over again. Memorising each detail. He was so attractive, shy in a way, afraid of contact. But what happened between us, even though we never spoke, never touched, it was beautiful."
There are neatly paced rows of vines set into dry rust-coloured earth, and in the distance, a single white slouch-roof farm -- an arch here, a balcony with shuttered windows there. It leans into tired outbuildings with conical spires sheltered in the spattered shade of untidy trees. Pines and areas of gorse too, with beds of lavender and scrubby garrigue. The road reduces down to little more than a dirt track. The car leaving a haze of dust blowing in its wake.
"Why did you take me to the cemetery that first night?"
"Why? Because women like to make love there. It is forbidden. It is erotic. It is decadent, a Gothic novel of sex and perversity."
"Do you take all your women there? Is it a regular part of your seduction scenario. Then, once it is done, how long do they last? You think you're so wonderful, don't you? The man who puts the phallic into Gallic. But how will all of this end?"
"Why do women always want to know the end, even at the very beginning? Isn't it enough that we are here now? Tell me more. Tell me amusing lies. Tell me about your first time."
She's silent for long moments. Her eyes on the unravelling scenery. "The events I must confess to you are ones I can scarcely hope you will believe. They begin at the Grandes École. I was studying existentialism and romantic poetry. An intoxicating mixture of immediacy and sensuality. There was music in the cafés at night and revolution in the air. I have intense friendships and engage in passionate fiery discussions that extend well into the dawn hours. Then I go for what my lecturer -- Dr Dawish Dado, terms 'private tuition' to his study which is illuminated by a log-fire burning in the grate, illuminating walls lined with academic literature and philosophy tomes. He talks of the meaningless of existence, that the only truth is what we experience through the senses. That we are our own creations. Free of all outmoded moral constraints, that it is our duty to be true only to ourselves. We must live for the moment and continually re-evaluate our morality because there is no such thing as permanence. All is fluid. Everything is in a state of flux. Distrust reason, trust only what we can see, touch and feel. Sartre and Coleridge. Kierkegaard and Byron. And then I demonstrate my appreciation of his philosophy and personal tuition by raising my dress and bending forward over his document-strewn desk so that Dado can lubricate, and take me... shall I say, in the way he most preferred."
"And you found this pleasurable?"
"It was not... unpleasing in its way. You must understand that I was young and voracious to experience all the sensations that life has to offer. This was strange to me, and new. I was aroused by his ideas, flattered by his attentions. I needed his patronage in the end-of-term evaluations, and to object would have seemed disrespectful. It seemed an equitable arrangement, at least until I had achieved my grades. It seems that each trimestre he enjoyed such a liaison with a different favoured student, and I was merely fortunate enough to be the latest recipient of his generosity.