I'm Richey Davis, caught up in the kind of day that will surely live on in my memory forever. So far good fortune, sex, revenge and more sex had come my and the day was still young.
To park the car, I needed to proceed down a side lane to a row of spaces behind the house. That meant cutting through the back garden, a journey I was glad I undertook. For just the other side of the fence, new neighbour Zara was busy soaking up the late-afternoon rays. Stretched out on her stomach on a sunlounger, one leg raised, Zara's chin was perched on the back of a hand, whilst the other held a novel at the spine.
My gait slowing almost to a halt, I savoured the gently roasting flesh of Zara's shoulders and back. The straps of her bikini top had been loosened and eased aside to prevent a horizontal tan line from spoiling the golden brown effect. My eyes travelled down a luscious spine to a bikini bottom that was little more than a string thong, her bum cheeks displayed like two ripe mangoes. It was some sight and, after the incident in the park with Natalya, all that watching and no doing dictated that my urgings had reached critical proportions and my balls were near to bursting. "Nice day for it," I observed.
"Mmm very," she affirmed without looking up or acknowledging my presence though seeming to know I was there via some mystery female intuition radar.
"A real sun trap out here this time of day," I added.
Head turning aside, Zara laid down the book and pushed a pair of designer rimless shades off her nose as I peered over the waist-high fence that separated us. "Still up for the party later?"
"You bet," I replied before enquiring: "What's the, um, dress code?"
Zara wrinkled her nose. "If it stays this hot, t-shirt and shorts. We'll probably have a barbie out here."
I nodded. Just as well, I thought to myself, my fetish gear being in the wash and all.
"Sorry to be a pain, but can I beg another favour, Richey?" Zara enquired, twiddling a few stray strands of her around a finger.
"Depends what it is," I replied playfully.
"Nothing too strenuous this time, I promise."
"Oh go on then," I replied, mock-grudgingly. "Seeing as you asked so nicely."
She smiled. "You can save the physical exertion for later."
I raised my eyebrows. "Well I'm usually the first up to dance," I replied with a grin, adding: "And the last one off."
"Oh reallllllly?" she purred. "Most of the men I know have two left feet."
"Not me, salsa...lambada...breakdance, it all comes naturally."
Zara smiled. "So we've established you have stamina in bundles and a good pair of feet. Do you happen to have a good pair of hands too?" she said with a grin, reaching aside to take the plastic orange suncream dispenser in hand. "You couldn't do the hard-to-reach bits before I burn to a frazzle, could you?"
I was over that fence quicker than Ed Moses in his prime.
To be honest, she looked athletic enough to manage an all-over lotion, but I wasn't about to argue, perching on the edge of the sunlounger, my bum brushing her near thigh. Upending the bottle, I squeezed a dollop of cream into my palms and rubbed them together, heaving a deep long breath. She lifted the feather light ends of blonde hair and I touched a neck that was as elegant as a swan's. Slowly my hands dispersed a light film of cream over the warm skin. "Oh you DO have great hands, Richey," she purred.
Palms shifting to her shoulders, I rubbed gently at first, becoming more purposeful as I reached the shoulder blades, using my thumbs to indent the soft flesh below. "Oh gosh, that's wonderful," Zara sighed, immersed in the sensual massage.
I worked the remnants of oil from my fingertips into her upper spine, before reaching once more for the bottle. The next squeeze unloaded a dollop of cool lotion directly on her mid back and Zara shivered. "Mmm, that's it, work it in hard," she mouthed hoarsely.
Palms flat, I dispersed the oil on and around her hips, peering down longingly at the raised curve of her arse. She seemed to read my mind. "Do that too, Richey, please."
I flexed my fingers in readiness but sadly it wasn't to be, the voice coming harshly from the other side of the fence: "Oh I see you haven't taken long to forget mum."
In the excitement of the afternoon I'd almost forgotten about my ex's troublemaking daughter Shannon. Our eyes met and she spat: "Why don't you just fuck her here in the garden?"
My temperature rose to boiling and my brow crinkled. "Um, sorry about this, Zara," I whispered, considering it best to go before Shannon caused any more of a scene. "I'll see you at eight."
"See you, Richey."
Clambering back over the fence, I shot an indignant look Shannon's way. Though annoyed, it was going to take a lot more than some jumped-up kid to spoil my fun. "Jealous are we?"
Shannon snorted. "Jealous? Yeah right," she added with heavy sarcasm, before returning inside through the patio doors, her meddling done.
I followed, wondering whether to get my own back or leave it. A tough nut to crack and accustomed to getting her own way, Shannon was usually capable of giving as good as she got. My benign demeanour said let it drop and indeed I would have, were she not so intent on screwing up the rest of my afternoon by hanging around like a bad odour.
Flush from a morning fleecing her father, Ronnie Carver at cards, I reached into my jeans. "Shannon, here's fifty quid, why don't you run along to the cinema for a couple of hours?"
Shannon surveyed the money covetously before turning up her nose and raising a middle finger in defiance. I knew deep down she wanted the cash, and she knew that I knew she wanted it, but she didn't want to allow me the satisfaction. "Typical Shannon, always cutting off her nose to spite her face," I observed wryly.
"Cut off my nose and I'll cut off your balls," the belligerent schoolgirl retorted, tossing back her chestnut mane.
"Grow up," I replied, the best comeback I could muster, the quick and insightful lines exhausted for now, staunched by the bratty teenager's bad attitude.
Fuck it, I thought, I could play games too. Taking a seat in the armchair adjacent I decided to stay put and watch MTV2 with her. Out of the corner of my eye I could see her growing ever more frustrated. I suspected that by now she regretted not accepting the Β£50, hoping I'd become bored soon enough. In actual fact I was quite enjoying both the music and the teenager's discomfort.
In desperation she tried to get shot of me by flicking onto C-Beebies. It failed miserably. "Awesome, I love SpongeBob," I gushed in genuine appreciation.
Shannon frowned. "Okay, okay, I'll take your fucking money," she said resignedly.
Once a negotiator, always a negotiator and I stifled the urge to grin. "That offer's long been withdrawn."
She gave me a fuck-you glare before standing.
Getting into the little game, no longer was I burdened with having to bite my tongue for the sake of keeping the peace. I'd be gone in a week. So what if I pissed her off? As she went to depart, I stated firmly: "Excuse me, but did I say you could leave the room?"
She hovered in the doorway, still in the mistaken belief that she was in control. Little did she realise. "You what...? Who the fuck are you to tell me...? You're not my dad."
Bingo. The rabbit had fallen into the trap. "Oh yeah," I observed matter-of-factly. "I saw your dad in The Crown this lunchtime. When was the last time you saw him?"
Immediately I touched a nerve. If she deemed me a loser, and I admit I've had my moments, her father wrote the book on losers. "He gave me all his money. No wonder he never paid a penny in child support for ten years, he was always gambling it or pissing it up the wall."
Shannon's bottom lip quivered. She knew it well enough, just wouldn't admit it in front of me. Fathers are supposed to be hero figures right? Well, she was defending the indefensible and could only come out looking stupid if she argued her father was anything other than a waster. Not only that, she'd conveniently forgotten my contributions that had put her through school this past year. I'd been more of a father to her in a year than Ronnie had in eighteen. But again it wasn't something she'd acknowledge, let alone admit.
"I don't suppose you've met his new girlfriend yet," I commented, adding bitingly: "GIRL being the operative word. Some horrible little tart of a thing she is, about your age, if not younger. He seems to like his girls young does your dad."
Shannon was starting to flush with anger and upset, her cheeks a match with her flaming hair. Of fiery Irish stock, she spat back: "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"I'm only reporting what people have told me. Quite a reputation he has..."
Suddenly Shannon flew at me, the nerve end I'd touched now exposed. Little powder-puff clenched fists glanced off my chest as she worked herself into a hissy fit.