At once, Rachel stepped in front of him and kissed the woman, hard and full on the lips. ‘He’s taken for the moment, sweetheart,’ she said as she pulled away, ‘but maybe when I’m finished with him, how about you and I have some fun together?’
The woman looked visibly disheartened to hear that Tomek was taken off the market, but elated at the prospect of spending some time with Rachel afterwards, even though it wasn’t going to happen. Quietly, the woman slipped away, and Tomek thanked Rachel for coming to his rescue.
To their left was a small walkway that led to a bar. They cut through the entrance and ordered themselves a soft drink each: Coca Cola for Tomek, lemonade for Rachel. Beside them, on a nearby sofa, were two men doing lines of cocaine off each other’s stomachs, like it was a shot of vodka and they were on some party island in the middle of the Mediterranean. One of them snorted hard and looked up at Tomek, his nose and mouth covered in white powder. ‘Care to join us?’
Tomek baulked at the man’s remark and watched him rub his nose for a few seconds before replying. ‘Not for us, thanks. Where’d you get it from?’
‘BYOD. Bring your own drugs,’ the man replied, then went back to his cocaine, this time doing a line from the other man’s arse cheeks.
‘Guess that doesn’t make it illegal,’ Rachel whispered in his ears.
‘Even if it was, we probably couldn’t arrest ’em. Imagine the amount of naked flesh that would come running out of here if we did. We’d have to sanitise everything at the station, and even then I don’t think we’d ever get it clean.’
‘So long as no one does a dirty protest,’ Rachel added.
Once they’d received their drinks, they returned to the orgy. Within seconds of their return, a man approached them, completely naked, wearing a pilot’s hat and a pair of tinted ski goggles over his eyes. He was overweight, with incredibly hairy arms and the chest of a bear.
‘All right there, darling?’ he said to Rachel. ‘Don’t recognise you.’
As soon as Tomek realised he wasn’t the target, he took a step back, quietly sipping his drink.
‘Tomek…’ Rachel said, holding out a hand for him. ‘Tomek…’
‘Don’t know who you’re talking to.’
‘This your first time here, darling?’ the man insisted.
‘I’m with him,’ Rachel said, grabbing Tomek and pulling him over.
‘No, we’re not.’
‘Yes, we are.’
‘That’s all right,’ the man said. ‘You can ride me like a horse as much as you want, I still won’t bite.’
‘No, thanks,’ Rachel insisted. Then added politely: ‘Maybe some other time.’
Reluctantly, the man shuffled away, shoulders slumped, clearly upset at the rejection. Once he was out of earshot, Rachel pulled Tomek down to her eyeline.
‘What the fuck was that about? I came to your rescue when you needed it.’
Tomek shook his head. ‘I’m not kissing no man on the lips.’
‘Coward,’ she hissed.
But before he could respond, something caught Tomek’s eye. A figure. Naked from the neck down, wearing nothing but a silicone donkey mask over his face. Bewildered, Tomek slapped Rachel on the arm repeatedly until he caught her attention.
‘You go,’ he said.
‘Why me?’
‘Because you’re a girl, and last time I checked, he’d been sleeping with Angelica, who was also a girl.’
‘Thanks for the biology lesson,’ she said in a huff, before setting her plastic cup (also presumably for safety reasons) on the arm of the sofa and making her way towards The Donkey Man. Meanwhile, Tomek followed slowly behind, hanging back and watching from afar, cautious not to get too close.
‘Hey,’ Rachel said.
The man looked down at her. ‘Hey, how you doing?’ he replied in a soft French accent.
‘Fancy going to a private room?’
‘Sure.’
It was that easy. Ask and you shall receive. No foreplay, no introductions, just, “Do you want to fuck?” “Yes!” “Excellent, come this way.”
‘Mind if my friend joins?’ she asked, pointing to Tomek.
‘Erm…’
‘Great.’
Without waiting for a response, Rachel grabbed Tomek by the arm, and dragged him out of the room and into the corridor. As they neared the individual rooms on the other side of the manor, the sound of sex grew louder and louder. Women and men screaming at the top of their lungs, bedheads and other items banging into the walls. Fortunately, they found an empty room at the end of the corridor, and Tomek shut the door behind him. Inside, the room was quiet, still. In the middle was a four-poster bed with a handful of sex toys – dildos, whips, stirrups, chains – laid out on the surface. Tomek didn’t want to know whether they’d been used or not, didn’t want to go anywhere near them. This was a simple hotel bedroom that had been turned into a sex dungeon, and he never wanted to stay in a hotel again.
Then The Donkey Man clapped his hands, bringing Tomek out of his reverie.
‘All righty then. Shall we?’
Rachel’s voice turned authoritative. ‘Actually, no. We’d rather not, thank you. We wondered if we could ask you a few questions about your recent relationship with Angelica Whitaker instead.’
