0088 (fontainebleau)
Robert Swindon had met Tato Labastida at Insead Business School in Fontainebleau back in 1986. [31-239-12]
0009 (rehab, promiscuity)
Jams, coins, pages of manuscripts could be found in the most unlikely places; amid all this was Elizabeth – distant, smoking like a chimney. [1-92-18] In the time I’d known her I’d seen uncertainty flit into and out of Elizabeth’s features only occasionally; yet now it seemed to linger there. [23-159-19]
“Have you ever been to one of those rehab places and seen the people there?” [3-154-26]
It didn’t really take a genius to work out what the response was likely to be; [10-134-30] a look not unlike fear slowly came to dwell in wide black eyes. [17-96-19] “It wasn’t my idea, David. [11-93-11] And anyway, Crew’s mother is not too hot on allowing drugs. [12-93-15] And I know he’s influential locally, or at least he thinks he is.” [18-10-17]
No one seemed to mind, and I knew Fran liked the idea of having him along. [28-58-9] I think, not to be unkind, I think she became more … animated, in the company of men, [2-380-15] like a loose bikini. [26-62-11] Easy in, easy out, no hard feelings, it’s been good to know you. [24-137-14]
As they sat sipping their Corona beers dressed in short sleeved Hawaiian shirts, cheap stone-coloured Chinos and dock-sider shoes, only one foreign tourist paid them any attention; a skeletal German clad in a white vest and blue Lycra shorts, who eyed them up through his shades over the top of his guidebook. [31-144-17] She flashed a lascivious grin, picked up her drink and sidled over to his table. [22-143-32] And when the man offered her a cigarette, and she took it, she became completely unkown territory. [5-127-11]
0098 (Axel)
“Actually,” Finney said, “there ain’t nothing you can do for me. [13-89-14] You think this is a game?” [24-264-26]
Jesus, she was used to men who had an erection before they got her through the door! [6-89-14]
Sex is important, like food, but at the same time very simple. [8-190-13] Now don’t you disappear before I get you, mate. [25-270-33] Her climax swelled, almost within reach. [21-253-11]
0096 (folie à deux interrupted)
“You must understand that she almost never takes any interest in men – but when she does, my God… [23-36-7] you have a folie à deux, it’s a mutual madness but each one acts out a different role…” [3-96-8]
The two of us, our mutual lover, three other men, a dog and a gun. [28-58-10]
“Will you show me, Jake? [25-108-10] Maybe it’ll relieve the tension and we can finally get some sleep.” [24-264-17]
I hear irritation in David’s voice. [5-1-21] “What are you doing?” he asked pointedly, tone neither accusing nor encouraging. [17-169-33]
“Meg’s having fun.” [27-87-4]
“Sleep together for all I care,” he continued laughing, “you could probably do with a good shag after all this time.” [31-164-4]
She shrugged, and pushing the sheet back, stretched luxuriously, completely naked. [2-423-3] “With you I feel all predy.” [26-47-25]
He made a deep sound of pleasure as she settled on the hard ridge of his penis, enveloping it with the damp heat between her legs. [21-252-8] Her ego was of sufficient strength to admit that this behavior added up to prostitution. [8-64-20]
“Get up,” he said. [13-44-33] “Come on out to the kitchen.” [18-8-16]
“You’re never going to let me forget that, are you, David?” [11-89-21] She was hugging herself, arms wrapped around her body as if she were very cold. [12-132-11] The darkness of her eyes was steady; they were not unused to sudden pain. [7-76-10] They were like Meg’s eyes – deep and full of emotion. [27-113-8]
0010 (withdrawal, tension)
Like all stolen pleasures it couldn’t last. [23-160-36] After four days of withdrawal this woman was not upbeat. [3-154-29] She expelled a deep breath. [24-264-15] I suppose she was afraid of sex cropping up: misconceptions in the opinion people have of others are often sexual in their content. [8-190-8] She didn’t like to use vulgar terms like banging, [19-57-13] one of the things she liked to do. [11-222-25]
Apart from the cicadas chirping in the languid air, it was silent. [31-99-17] I felt her cheek on my chest, and then my stomach, where it came to rest. [5-97-9] “Getting me high?” [12-93-13]
“You really are taking it, then?” she said, with a sort of repressed awe. [12-7-13]
“You thought I’d jump at it, didn’t you? [7-31-19] A different sort of amusement’s been lined up!” [23-31-14]
My hands run across wool, cotton and cashmere. [28-9-12] She didn’t make a sound; [14-3-1] the tension made her gulp. [6-91-33]
“I’m sorry,” she said. [13-41-30]
Within thirty seconds the brown eyes drifted shut. [17-92-5]
0028 (Lothario)
“You’re mine.” [14-63-28]
The dummy has gone to bed with the Queen of Spades. [26-62-5] I was a grand Lothario, louche and reprobate in the extreme. [5-12-31] “Now, in life, Iago is inside us, tormenting us, calling us weak and impotent and old and black or, heaven forbid, not a man’s man! and calling out for bloodshed and revenge… [3-97-8] and yet, despite this madness, I cannot find it in myself to deny you that opportunity.” [17-264-17]
“Alright,” Lois said wearily. “I give up.” [8-65-19] She pushed her face harder against my chest, saying, in a voice so low that that I wasn’t sure she intended for me to hear it: ” You wouldn’t leave me, David.” [23-160-21]
She was no longer wearing dress and shawl, but a nightdress of loose, rough white cotton. [7-80-13] The comfort of cotton. [21-141-7] The contrast of sensations against my skin is a mock foreplay, a stimulation essential for what will follow. [28-9-12] Superimposed over all that cosmopolitan cool was the memory of her breasts spilling out of that red bustier and her hips swaying on the dance floor at El Tocón Sangriento. [24-127-29]
The Fontainbleu Hotel is built in a semi-circle and with a prudish awareness that they might be overlooked, Sandy murmured gently that perhaps they’d better go inside. [6-92-3] The rugs were no doubt priceless, but they were of extravagant Chinese silk, such as vulgarly wealthy Saudi businessmen cluttered their marble floors with. [2-383-13] Something was wrong that he had not told her about, and she had not asked. [13-105-8]
“She probably took some pictures of your late friend.” [11-161-10]
0097 (death wish)
“You lying eunuch!” Leon said. “We know you too well-” [23-207-16]
“Ooh! Someone’s tetchy” replied Axel. “Must be your time of the month. [31-205-24] This was my technique, the one that has always worked for me in the past.” [28-3-25]
He only smiled. [1-129-14] He suggested they call room service for beer and club sandwiches, or, for that matter, complete dinner: it was getting on to that time of day. [8-67-25]
“You got some kind of death wish, lady?” [11-235-9]
For a moment, Christine found herself wondering… almost imagining. [17-57-38] After half an hour, she moved quietly through the house, not turning on any additional lights as she did so. [21-246-7]
0094 (theological debate)
Anna took a very dim view of my theological debates. [5-66-8] “I do not wish to lose you,” she confessed, “but neither do I wish to keep you here if you could never give yourself to me without mourning what you have lost in a universe which you have never seen.” [17-264-22]
“Ah, the mantra of the psychologist!” Malcolm’s voice was rising disturbingly. [23-236-1] “Suffice it to say that you and I can do without the name, so long as we have the power.” [8-176-19]