Malcolm and Juliet by Bernard Beckett Read Free Book Online Page B

camera. My first time eh? Gee, I have to warn you, it’s really rather tacky.’
    Malcolm’s partial relief was quickly swamped by a more substantial anger. How could the world be such a tease? He felt a childish wave of tears and ducked his head down behind the camera before he had to explain.
    ‘Hang on. I’ll just check out the focus. Yeah, Okay.’
    He tried not to listen. He tried to block out the words, stop them penetrating the wounds of his disappointment. It was no good though. He was still a researcher and sex was still fascinating.
    ‘Okay. You know Todd right? Well, no you don’t, but you know who he is. I’ve told you about him before. We do kickboxing together, only he doesn’t turn up so much these days. Anyway, last year, me and him were going out.’
    ‘You never told me that.’
    ‘Thought you weren’t meant to interrupt.’
    ‘Sorry.’
    ‘Right. Well we were, but I didn’t tell anyone, because it was just our thing, sort of. Anyway we had been together five months I guess and at first it went pretty well. But then he really started to want to have sex with me, and looking back maybe I should have just said yes and been done with it, but I wasn’t sure I liked him that much, and it was sort of fascinating seeing the lengths he was prepared to go to. Hiring motel rooms, planning weekends away for his parents, long walks in the country, getting a key to that tacky caravan those guys have hired down at the camp ground—you’re not really all that dignified are you, boys?
    ‘Anyway, the harder he tried the more fun it was resisting. I got to the point where I was sure that I’d be a bit of a let-down anyway, after all of the buildup. Also, I have to be honest, it was pretty cool having so much control.
    ‘But then, one day, the strangest thing happened. We were training together in the gym, doing some sparring, and everybody else had left. For some reason, all that exertion perhaps, the sweat in the air, I don’t know, something anyway, I started to feel drawn to him. Here I was, ducking and blocking, when all I wanted to do was jump him, you know what I mean?’
    Behind the camera Malcolm nodded. He had a fair idea.
    ‘I tried to fight it, by concentrating on fighting him, but the more hard-out I went the worse it became. I still remember the startled look on his face when I floored him with a footsweep and then jumped right on top of him.
    ‘“You got those condoms here?” I asked, and his eyes were wider with fear than excitement as he shook his head.
    ‘“Go get them,” I told him. “You’ve got five minutes.”
    ‘He was out of there so quickly I was sure he was never coming back, and there was so much energy pumping through me, I pummelled the bag the whole time he was away.
    ‘Todd tried to look calm and in control when he walked back in, but his face was red with panic and he was still puffing away from the run, and anyway, I’m bigger than he is. I pushed him back into the changing rooms and lay him down on one of the little benches, like I knew exactly what I was doing. It was ridiculous. The space was so small and I ended up falling off at the worst possible moment. I had a bruise on my arse for weeks.’
    ‘I remember that.’
    ‘It was good though, in a funny sort of way. I don’t know why exactly. I felt so powerful, so close to so many different possibilities. I remember afterwards looking down at him, all limp and confused, and almost feeling a tiny bit guilty.
    ‘A week later he rang to tell me he’d found another girlfriend and like I say, he doesn’t come to kickboxing all that much any more.
    ‘Oh, but listen to me rambling. This isn’t what you want at all is it? You’ll be more interested in the technical details, like the way—’
    ‘No, no! That’s fine,’ Malcolm shouted. He’d had all the detail he could bear. ‘Battery’s almost out.’
    ‘Oh, okay then. Well, guess I should get to the gym then. Almost got me going there you know, with