Private Lives

47



Sam and Anna didn’t speak at all on the boat back to Alappuzha. Raj was waiting for them at the dock, and they got into the taxi, each preoccupied by their thoughts.

‘Where to, boss? Ajunta?’ asked the driver.

‘Is Ajunta the hotel?’ asked Anna.

Sam shrugged.

‘I guess. I asked Josh to book us somewhere off the tourist trail.’

They were surprised when Raj turned the car out of the town and off the main road, swinging on to a series of dusty tracks where the jungle pressed in so far that palm fronds and creepers were brushing the sides of the taxi.

‘Certainly off the beaten track,’ said Anna, beginning to wonder where they were being taken. Finally they pulled up next to one of the canal-like waterways. Anna looked out of both sides of the car. She couldn’t see anything like a hotel anywhere.

‘Raj, where are we?’ asked Sam anxiously. The driver just grinned and held the door open.

‘Ajunta,’ he said, pointing to a boat. ‘In Kerala we call them ketuvallum. They’re the best places to stay when you are in this part of the world.’

Sam didn’t look convinced until they stepped on board.

‘Wow,’ he whistled, looking around at the interior of the sumptuously crafted longboat. It was around one hundred feet in length with a curved roof made of jackwood and thatch. Arched windows were carved out of the beautifully panelled walls and it had an open stern and port. At the bottom of a short gangplank, two smiling women in cream saris were waiting for them with elaborate cocktails festooned with fruit.

Raj brought the bags aboard and went over to talk to an ancient-looking man in a blue and white cap.

‘This is Captain Sanjiv, he will look after you tonight. I will meet the boat tomorrow, but if you need anything – anything at all,’ he added with a knowing wink, ‘just ask the Captain.’ He bowed and disappeared up the gangplank.

‘Sam, this is amazing,’ breathed Anna as they walked the length of the boat. There were two bedrooms; the largest had a dark wooden bed facing the open window, covered by just a thin curtain of voile, which looked out on to the still green waters.

‘You have this one,’ offered Sam. ‘I’ll slum it in the servants’ quarters,’ although the smaller room was no less luxurious, with a claw-foot bath and a walk-in shower room.

They walked back and up on to the main deck, where a table had been set for dinner. Anna noticed that they were already moving down the waterway and they climbed some wooden stairs to the bridge, where the Captain was at the wheel, his eyes fixed ahead as they motored along the white waterlily-strewn waters.

They both went to change before dinner, Anna putting on a turquoise dress she had picked up as they had rushed through the airport. Sam came on to the deck barefoot in a pair of chinos and a pale grey T-shirt. The sun had tanned his face, bringing out the blue of his eyes; it reminded Anna of that first time she had seen him standing at the rail of the yacht in Capri. She wondered how it was possible for one person to be so handsome.

‘Well I don’t know about you, but I need a drink,’ she said, sitting at the table, where chilled wine had been left for them in an ice bucket. They clinked their glasses together and watched the padi fields and coconut groves slip past, ancient temples silhouetted in the growing dusk. Anna felt herself shiver at the magic of it all. There was a platter of fruit on the table – starfruit, lychees, pineapple – and they picked at it in silence as the sun set below the horizon, sending the clouds pink and mauve and turning the ripples in the water a shimmering lavender, while the women lit candles along the length of the boat, spilling warm light across the deck.

A steward brought out sweet-smelling curries in earthenware pots and laid them on the table. Anna tried a vegetable dish made of melting cubes of aubergine flavoured with lemongrass and coconut. She closed her eyes in delight.

‘This is just amazing,’ she said.

‘The food or the setting?’ asked Sam.

‘Both.’

She looked at him, feeling that shiver again.

‘Apparently these things used to transport rice from the padi fields to the port. And not one nail was used to make the entire craft,’ she said quickly.

Sam chuckled.

‘I like how you gather facts about where you visit.’

‘I wanted to be an explorer when I grew up. My dad used to be in the army and had travelled all over the world before he met my mum. The places he’d been stationed – Hong Kong, Cyprus, Brunei – they all sounded so exotic. I had this big globe in my bedroom that lit up at night and I’d dream about all the places I’d go one day. Funny thing is, the furthest I’ve been on holiday in the last three years is Crete for a week.’

She stopped, knowing that she was babbling. She felt as if she was parachuting into a date situation for which she was woefully unprepared. She wanted the easy banter and jokiness of the aeroplane trip back, but it seemed to have been replaced by something else. Sexual tension? She was both terrified and thrilled by the prospect.

They had finished eating. Sam went to sit on the white cushion at the bow of the boat and beckoned Anna to come and join him.

‘So do you think Peter had Amy killed?’ she asked, sitting down beside him. She said it both as a way of defusing the tension and because it had been weighing on her mind since they’d left Louise’s house.

Sam took a sip of wine and looked thoughtful.

‘Possibly. It certainly sounds like Amy was prepared to cause him a lot of trouble to get what she wanted.’

‘I found that part of it a bit sad,’ said Anna. ‘She was in love with this guy and wanted him so much that she couldn’t see that blackmailing him to be with her was going to send him the opposite way.’

‘Love does the strangest things to you, though,’ he said, fixing her with those blue eyes.

‘How hard can it be finding a Peter who socialises with James Swann?’ she said, thinking out loud.

‘There’ll be hundreds of Peters in that rich corporate set.’

‘How many will have a good friend who committed suicide?’ She took a swig of her wine. ‘I definitely need to get to James Swann’s party.’

‘Let’s discuss that when we get back to London, because right now I don’t want to think about much at all.’ Sam picked up the bottle. ‘Another?’

Why the hell not? thought Anna, holding up her glass.

‘I’m sorry I slept with Katie Grey,’ Sam said quietly.

‘I bet you are,’ said Anna. ‘Your girlfriend leaves you, your career implodes, and now your lawyer’s dragging you into some murder mystery halfway around the world.’

He shook his head.

‘My career will be fine. Jess and I should have finished months ago, and I’ve been to worse places than this amazing houseboat in the middle of Paradise.’

‘Nothing to worry about then.’

‘Except I don’t want you to think badly of me for being unfaithful to my fiancée and sleeping with a prostitute.’

He looked at her, his confidence gone. He seemed nervous, almost bashful.

‘It doesn’t matter what I think, does it?’

‘It does,’ he said. ‘Do you think I’m a sleazeball?’

She couldn’t help but laugh.

‘Maybe. A little bit. Before. But I think I know you a lot better now.’

‘Good.’ He smiled. ‘You know Mike has spent the last month persuading me to downsize and simplify my life. How come it’s suddenly got more complicated now that you’re in it?’

A bolt of excitement rushed down her spine.

Sam reached over and touched her fingers then stretched forward to brush her lips with his. His kiss was slow and seductive. In the creamy moonlight, Anna felt like a leading lady in some sweeping fifties romance. Her brain felt dizzy. Desperately she tried to recall the solicitor’s code of conduct. Was there anything in it that prohibited a sexual relationship between lawyer and client? She wasn’t sure, but right now she was certain of nothing except the sensation of his soft lips crashing against hers and the swell of desire that curled between her thighs.

He took her hand and led her up the stairs to her bedroom on the mezzanine platform overlooking the backwaters. They were not even in the room before he had pulled off his T-shirt. Rule Three, Rule Three, a little voice told her. Did Rule Three forbid sex between lawyer and client? Not expressly, but it didn’t matter. Her resistance had evaporated.

They tugged at each other’s clothes, kissing, tasting, fingers through hair, lips against skin. And then they were naked, her nervousness forgotten as they tumbled back on to the huge bed, the river breeze washing over them but doing little to cool their need.

Laid back on the mattress, Anna’s eyes fluttered closed. Her thighs parted instinctively and Sam knelt between them, lowering himself to plant soft, tender kisses on her lips and neck. She groaned as his tongue moved south. He traced a circle around her swollen nipple, then took it in his mouth, sucking sweetly until his lips moved lower, over the curve of her belly, through her soft scrub of pubic hair. Gasping, she grabbed his hair to push him deeper. She cried out as his tongue lapped her *oris; hard, firm strokes that sent an arrow of lust directly to her belly.

Don’t climax now, don’t, she told herself, wanting this extreme sensation never to stop. His mouth, damp and musky, returned to hers, and as his hand parted her legs wider still, he pressed his weight against her, entering her slowly until he filled her completely, their bodies melded into one. They moved in time, slow at first and then faster, more urgent. ‘Don’t stop,’ she pleaded, as they rolled over and she pushed herself up so she was straddling him. Her hips rocked against his, her muscles squeezing around him, every nerve ending jump-started to life, waves of pleasure building to a sharp, shivering crescendo. For so long she had denied herself, for so long she had convinced herself that sex was overrated, but as her body surrendered to a sweet, potent orgasm, her head tipped back, and crying out in screams of unfettered joy, she knew how glad she was to be back in business.