by Latham, D
"Hi Elle, it's Claire," I said 'hello' back, "just to let you know that we're ready to exchange contracts. All the paperwork's in good order, and the funds are all in place. Do you want me to wait until you're back or go ahead now?"
"If you're happy, then go ahead now," I said, a little plume of excitement rising in my tummy.
"Ok, will do. I'll do the exchange now, and it'll complete before three this afternoon. Congratulations. Are you having a nice time?"
"Lovely thanks. I'm in Tuscany with Lucy right now. Do you want to say hello?" I handed the phone to Lucy who chatted to Claire for a few minutes, before handing it back to me.
"Hi Elle, just to let you know that you exchanged about a minute ago. Would you like me to call you when it's complete? Only I know that you can't exactly go and get the keys."
"No, but can you let the estate agents know for me please, and explain that I'm away?"
"Will do, and I hope you're really happy in your new apartment."
We said our goodbyes, and I ended the call. "I exchanged on the flat, completing this afternoon. I'm so excited," I squealed. Oscar smiled indulgently, and asked the butler to fetch a bottle of champagne. Ivan gave me a hug and a kiss, and Lucy chattered about interior designers that she knew.
We toasted my new flat with champagne. In truth, I wanted to fly home there and then, and just go and sit in my new flat. For the first time in my life, I had somewhere I could truly call home, that didn't belong to the council, or somebody else. I realised at that moment, that I had somewhere I belonged, and somebody I belonged to. It was a heady feeling. All the dreams I'd had, felt as though they were coming true. I thought back to the day I'd moved into James' place, feeling as though I'd 'arrived', with my new job, and sophisticated apartment share. This was ten times better.
"I bet you wish you were at home now, don't you?" Lucy said, accurately reading my thoughts.
"Well, yes. I wouldn't be rude enough to rush off though." I admitted.
"Elle, if you want to go and see to your new flat, I will understand," said Oscar, "I know just how much this means to you. I won't be offended." I looked at him sitting with his arm around Lucy's waist, and realised that not only would he not mind, but he could crack on with shagging her in every possible way, without me to worry about. I was going to be a bit of a gooseberry.
"If you truly don't mind... It does feel as though I'm being rather rude and ungrateful," I murmured.
"Not at all. Fly home with Ivan tonight, Lucy and I will be fine, I promise, and have the rest of the week sorting out your new place." Oscar said, smiling at my excitement. Ivan squeezed my shoulder, and kissed my cheek.
"I can take some time, and we can shop for your new place, plus we need to visit Windsor, organise the clearance there. Saves spending our weekend doing it. We still have all afternoon and evening to enjoy Oscar's beautiful home, and hospitality. We don't leave until eight."
I beamed at the two men that I loved, who both tried their best to ease my passage through life, and felt a surge of gratitude towards them. I spent the afternoon chatting excitedly to Lucy about furniture and interior design, showing her a couple of the magazines I'd bought at Gatwick, with some ideas for colour schemes, and the latest styles of sofas.
We had the most amazing dinner that evening, eating early, outside on the terrace, as the sun began to set. Oscar explained that a lot of the food was grown on the estate itself, by the farmers who leased the land from him. Almost as soon as we had eaten, it was time to go. The guards took care of our bags, and I hugged Lucy, and told her how happy I was for her. When I said goodbye to Oscar, I hugged him hard. "Thank you for everything. You have no idea how much you've done for me. Be good to Lucy yeah?"
"I will, and you have no idea how much you did for me too. I owe you, not the other way round."
"Come on Elle, your new flats waiting," Ivan called out from the car. I hopped in, and waved goodbye as we set off down the winding driveway.
It only took around two hours before we were back in London. Roger was there to meet us, and took us straight back to Ivan's, where Bella and Tania were waiting to greet us, beyond excited that their daddy was home. We sat up for a while, chatting about our holiday, the food at Oscar's place, and the possibility of James and Lynzi becoming an item. By midnight, I was asleep on my feet, and Ivan led me to bed, and slipped in beside me, pulling me into his arms.
"Sleep baby, you have a busy day tomorrow."
I bounced out of bed at half five the next morning, and after a quick cup of tea, used Ivan's home gym to do a workout before he was even up. I was buzzing with excitement at the prospect of walking into my first ever home, in the purest sense of the word, and was antsy and nervous.
Ivan had to go in to work at around half eight, so promised to drop me at the estate agents to get the keys. From there, it was only a two minute walk to St Saviours dock. He would be free around lunchtime, and would come and see it. Depending on his schedule, he would possibly be able to get the afternoon off to take me shopping. If not, Roger would be at my disposal.
I kissed him goodbye before getting out of the car at the estate agents office, and waved as he drove off. I stepped inside, and saw the agent who had taken me for the viewing. "Ms Reynolds, I thought you were away this week. Your solicitor called us yesterday with the news of your completion, but said you weren't expected back."
"Came home early. I was too excited about this to stay away." He smiled indulgently, and went to a little cabinet to retrieve the keys, found a file with the alarm codes, and handed it all to me.
"I'll take you over there, and show you how the alarm works, and where everything is," he said. We chatted about my holiday on the way over, and stopped at the entrance. He showed me the code to get into the foyer, and I introduced myself to the concierge, who was a jolly looking middle aged man called John. We stepped into the lift, and I pressed the button for the top floor.
"Now the code for the alarm is 7731, and you need to tap it into the keypad just inside the front door. All the instruction booklets are there in your welcome pack.” My tummy fluttered as I unlocked the door. I stepped inside to a beeping noise, which stopped as soon as I entered my code. I walked into the main room, and immediately saw a folder on the kitchen island. "That's your welcome pack. It tells you how everything works, where all the control boxes are, and how they work. It also has all the guarantees and warranties for the appliances, as well as full instructions. Your contact details for the developer are in there, in case of snaggings. He'll expect you to compile a snagging list, so don't be shy, include anything that's not perfect." We were interrupted by a buzzing sound. "That's the concierge downstairs," he said. I picked up the phone.
"It's John from concierge, there's been a delivery for you."
"Thank you, I'll be right down," I said. I grabbed my keys, and followed the estate agent down in the lift. After thanking him, I went over to the front desk, where John produced a large bouquet of flowers, a vase, and a large Starbucks. "He thinks of everything," I laughed, thanking John for taking them in for me.
Back in the flat, I arranged the flowers in the vase, and placed them on the island. I opened all the windows to get some fresh air in, and wandered from room to room, hugging myself with glee as I planned what would go where. Ivan had given me a tape measure that morning, so I measured up the space, and noted the measurements down as I went along, particularly the size bed that would fit between the built in bedside tables in the master bedroom. I'd already made a list of household basics that I'd need while I was on holiday, such as kitchen stuff, and cleaning equipment, but the flat looked as though it had been recently cleaned. The limestone floors were immaculate. If I'd had furniture, I could have moved in there and then. I stood at the island and drank my Starbucks, while reading through the file. I was astonished to discover it had a built in vacuum system, so I wouldn’t have to carry anything more than a hose from room to room, and a safe, which took me a while to find, as it was rather
sneakily hidden behind a false wall in between two bookshelves in the study, which slid back to reveal the door. I opened it using the key provided, and checked out the size. It wasn't anywhere near as big as the one under Vlad's bed, but it was fairly capacious. I locked it back up, and slid the cover back.
I checked that the study had a phone line, and made a note to call BT and sort the phone and broadband as soon as possible. I wandered back to the kitchen, and looked in the pantry, trying to visualise how it would look full of food, and examined the laundry room, with its built in washer, separate tumble dryer, and a rather nifty storage rack for the iron and board. My reverie was broken by my phone ringing from the kitchen. I ran in and answered it.
"Hi baby, what's the code to get in please?" Ivan asked.
"2215, and in the lift, press the button for floor twelve," I told him.
"See you in a minute."
I stood at the front door, to welcome him in. He arrived bearing two more Starbucks, and a big smile. "Everything alright at work?" I asked.
"All fine. I think they work better without me there sometimes. More importantly, is everything alright here?" he asked.
"Totally, utterly, brilliant," I said, stepping aside for him to come in. The guards stood outside, and I noticed that Nico had a briefcase chained to his arm. Ivan closed the front door.
"Case full of cash. Thought we'd go shopping. I'm sure you have a list."
"You really do know me too well," I said. I gave Ivan the guided tour, telling him the details I'd found out that morning.
"I think this apartment is nicer than mine, tell me, is there a 'no animals' clause in the lease?"
"Nope, I checked. The girls are fine for sleepovers." He smiled as I said it.
"Good. Now, we need to discuss security. You need to change the alarm code as the estate agents have used it. Nico will look it over to see if it needs upgrading. We can also install CCTV in the foyer outside your front door. Is there a suitable place for a safe?"
"There's one already, come look." I dragged him into the study and showed him the false wall contraption, which he approved of.
"We need to raise the level of the rail round your terrace, and make it bulletproof too. At a push, the girls could jump it at its current height." He wasn't giving up.
"Ok, install whatever security you want. I want you to be comfortable here."
"Good, now, shall we close the windows and go shopping?"
I was reluctant to leave, but locked up carefully, and followed Ivan out to the car. I handed him a spare set of keys, which seemed to make him inordinately happy, and we headed over to the West End, Harrods, to be precise. What followed resembled a trolley dash around the homeware department, as I chose cookware, (which had to work on my fancy induction hob), basic household stuff, a telly and sound system, and a new bed. We looked at sofas, but I wasn't sure about any of them, so decided to wait. We bought bedding, towels, crockery and cutlery. It was the most enormous fun. The smaller stuff was sent straight up to the car, the bigger stuff was being delivered the next morning at nine.
When we finished in Harrods, we went back over to Canary Wharf, and to my surprise, Ivan suggested going to the large Waitrose, to fill up my pantry, and new fridge. We ended up getting the guards to push two trolleys round, as we filled them up with food, drink, and basic household items. "You look like you're having a great time," I said as Ivan picked out laundry tablets and softener.
"I am, remember, I don't get to do this stuff very often, and your excitement is infectious."
We went back to the flat, and the guards lugged everything in. I unpacked while Ivan found the kettle, the cups and the spoons, and made us both a cup of tea. I sorted out the little laundry room, pouring the tabs into a cute little storage box I'd found in Waitrose, and hooking the ironing board and iron into the storage rack. Already it looked more homely.
Ivan filled up the freezer and fridge, and filled the ice maker. "Have you thought about which cupboards you want to use for food, and which for crockery?" I smiled at him. "Ok, what's so funny?" he demanded.
"You. Being domestic. This is just so....normal," I replied. He rolled his eyes, and carried on pulling cups and plates out of the Harrods boxes.
"Food goes in the pantry, crockery in the cupboards." A thought occurred to me, "I thought you were meeting Natalya today?"
"This evening, she's coming over about seven. We can eat once she's gone."
I busied myself arranging the pantry, making it look like something out of a magazine photo shoot. Satisfied, I turned my attention to the kitchen, where Ivan was loading cutlery into a drawer. I stashed the cleaning gear under the sink, and unwrapped my new, fancy, chrome bin, and put a bag in it, before slinging in the used tea bags and wrappings that were piled up on the island.
The last thing Ivan did before we left was to take the cash left in the briefcase, and put it in my safe. I locked back up, and we went over to his place.
Natalya arrived bang on time, and smiled thinly when I was introduced. I followed Ivan and her out onto the terrace, and took a sip of the wine that Ivan poured. "Please be aware that only English should be spoken in front of Elle," Ivan said.
"Of course."
"So, what news do you have for me?"
She shifted in her seat, "Vlad was definitely your father. The DNA proves it beyond doubt. The details of your conception are still sketchy, but I managed to trace a man who was a neighbour of your mothers at the time. He thinks that it was a brief affair, which ended as soon she knew she was expecting. He seemed to think she met your father straight away, possibly passing you off as his. He was named as your father on your birth certificate, of which I purchased a copy." She pulled a file from her bag, and handed it to Ivan. "Inside is the DNA report, your birth certificate, and the report from the neighbour. Is that everything you require?"
He nodded, looking a little shell shocked. "Yes it is, thank you." She finished her wine, and left, no doubt disappointed that she couldn't stay and flirt. Bitch.
"Are you ok?" I asked, as soon as she'd gone.
"Yeah, a little shocked, a little sad. Sad for my father that he never had his own child."
"How come they never had any further children?" I asked.
He wrinkled his nose, "I don't know. Most of the families were huge. I suppose it was a little odd there being only me. I never really thought about it before."
"Maybe he was sterile?"
"Possibly. A lot of men suffered illness due to the chemicals they worked with. I'll try and find out if sterility is common."
"If he was, then at least having you was a blessing in his life. Better than being childless with no way of remedying it." I scanned his face for signs of upset.
"I just hope that Vlad's psychopathy wasn't hereditary. I couldn't bear to be like him." He rubbed Bella's ears as he spoke, she looked ecstatic.
"Ivan, you're not a psycho, I promise you, I'd know by now, and I'd be the first to tell you. The worst trait you have is being a bit of a tosser at times, and that's not the same thing by a mile. My mother was a bit of a loser, but I don't think I inherited that trait, now do I?"
"As usual, you have perfect logic my darling. Ya lublu tebia ee hotchu zhenitsia na tebe."
"That's what you said before. What does it mean?" I demanded. He just smiled an enigmatic smile, and went off to dish up some food.
After dinner, he asked what I wanted to do that evening. "We could have a show'n'tell in your pleasure room. I'm clueless about what half the stuff in there is for." He smiled a salacious smile, and led me down the corridor.
I sat on the bed while he explained the various shaped vibrators and butt plugs. He showed me some weighted ball things that were deigned to be worn internally, and also explained his collection of restraints.
"Is that what you like then, having a woman restrained?" I was curious.
"Not particularly, but it seems to be one of those things that some women enjoy, hence all the cuffs and stuff. Person
ally I like to be caressed, and touched during sex, so usually it's for the woman and not me."
"What else do you like?"
"Pretty much everything we've done really. I like a butt plug, but anal sex is a turn off. I can get turned on by the thought of fucking in public, but I've never actually done it, and I like porn, preferably without anal, and preferably two women. I quite like waxed pussies rather than hairy, and I love my swing. Anything else you want to know?" I shook my head, amused. "So what about you? What floats your boat?" Ivan asked.
"Love your swing too, like the butt plugs and vibrators. Quite like the blindfold. Not keen on being restrained, but loved the titty wank thing you did. Haven't really watched much porn, so can't comment, and have no desire to watch two women at it anyway. We have done it outside, in your pool, remember?" He nodded.
"Well, seeing as we both agree about the swing, I suggest we give it a little workout. I happen to know you're not wearing a bra under that little dress, and it's been driving me crazy all day." He leaned forward and hooked his finger into the top of my dress, and tugged it down, exposing my left breast. He lightly flicked the nipple, then captured it in his hot mouth and sucked. I cried out as a spike of pleasure travelled down to my groin. He freed my right breast, and did the same. I fumbled to undo his trousers, my hands already shaky. He took over, shedding his clothes quickly. I slipped out of my dress and knickers, and stood expectantly by the swing.
"Oh baby, what you do to me," he breathed, gazing at my naked body. He lowered the swing, and helped me in, clipping my hands into the cuffs. "What I'm going to do to you tonight my darling is make you scream."
"I'll scream now if you like, I'm so horny for you," I panted. Just the action of getting in the swing had me dripping in a Pavlovian response.
"Not yet baby. I have a new vibrator that I want to try on you, to see if you like it. It's meant to give you a big orgasm." He pulled out a strange looking contraption. "It's called an 'ultimate O', and I think you might like it," he purred. It was a curious three pronged shape. He switched it on and positioned it so that one prong was directly on my clit, with the other two prongs each side.