The Lady and Camilla Ch. 06

I sat back and smiled, thinking that this was going to be an easy opportunity for Victoria to fail as a make-believe escort. She looked to one side as if in thought, and then she mouthed an "oh" at me. I nodded: yes, you understand me correctly.

"Just a second," she said, "I need to take a trip to the bathroom."

She stood, picked up her bag, and walked towards the ladies bathroom. Alone, I snorted in disbelief, and then convinced myself that she hadn't really understood what I meant at all. Or if she had, she'd have second thoughts while she was in there.

A few minutes later I heard her return and I looked around ready to be dismissive of her efforts.

My mouth fell open as I saw from her bare calves that she was no longer wearing her tights. My eyes scanned her skirt, her jacket and, yes, there was a large triangle of bare skin formed by the collar where before there had been a white blouse. Had she actually taken her blouse off? I craned my neck to try and see more, to see if she really had removed it or had just unbuttoned it a little more and parted it beneath the jacket.

"It was getting a little hot in here," she said as she sat down, and she flapped at her jacket collar as if for air. But in reality it was to show a flash of bare skin. And my mouth fell open again as I realised she was no longer wearing her bra either. And I have to admit that I suddenly felt a little turned on by the tease.

Her sense of satisfaction at having surprised me was overwhelming.

"Can I let you in on a secret?" Victoria said quietly as she leant towards me. She put her elbows on the table and her jacket crumpled up around her, exposing even more of her breast. I leant forwards to mirror her body language and I know she saw as I glanced down at her chest. "I'm not wearing any underwear," she whispered.

She giggled. I picked up my glass and raised it to her as if in a toast: she had genuinely surprised me.

"None at all?" I asked. She shook her head. I hadn't expected that, but I wasn't about to ask for proof by looking in her bag. I had no reason to doubt her now.

Still, although she had gone along with my little game, I wasn't going to give in to her idea of coming with me to Scotland.

The waiter appeared before us. I saw his eyes flash towards Victoria's chest, and then to a spot a few inches above her head. I doubt if he knew that anything had changed, but he was certainly wondering how he hadn't noticed my client's bare skin before. I felt somewhat disappointed that he paid me almost no attention at all.

"Would you like anything?" he asked, glancing at our near-empty bottle of wine.

I looked at my watch: I had told Victoria she had to last an hour, and that was only fifteen minutes ago. I had forty-five minutes to fill.

"Do you have any amaretto?" I said, and he turned to look at me.

"Yes, of course."

"Two amaretti then, please," I said. I wasn't even going to ask Victoria. This would give her a taste of what my world was like: at best the escort hat the illusion of choice, but often it was no choice at all.

"And could you order taxi for us?" I added. An idea had suddenly struck me. "For thirty minutes time?"

He looked at his watch. "Of course," he replied, "Two amaretti, and a taxi for ten thirty pm."

"Half an hour?" Victoria said and leant forwards again to rest her chin on her hand. And again, her jacket crumpled against the edge of the table. I couldn't resist glancing down, wondering if I had caught a half-sight of a nipple or not. She smiled knowingly at me and I wasn't sure I liked this reversal of roles.

"I thought we could leave sooner," she continued, "And I can get out of this jacket." She sat back, satisfied with herself at her flirting. "It rubs a little on my nipples."

"Why wait until we get back?" I said, and I stared at her, daring her to understand my meaning.

Her chest rose and her eyes went as wide as saucers. Just then the waiter returned and put our glasses onto the table. I thanked him and he left.

"Cheers," I said as I picked up my glass and held it towards Victoria, "Here's to a brief rendezvous." We tapped our glasses together. "It's a shame I have to leave tomorrow."

I knew she would follow my meaning: I had pushed her to something that she was not prepared to do, and I had shown her that my world was not as straightforward as she had believed.

She put her glass down, sat back against her chair and crossed her arms in a huff. I tried to soften the moment with a smile, not wanting to make a big deal out of her defeat: it was the best outcome for both of us, after all.

"I won't need to leave until later in the day," I said, "If you want to meet for brunch."

"So there's still time for me to get a train ticket, you mean?" Victoria said with a stern voice. And then the surreal evening became even more impossible as Victoria uncrossed her arms and, without saying another word, she unfastened the three buttons of her jacket. It fell open and I looked at the line of bare skin that ran from her beautiful, smooth neck down until the edge of the table concealed it. My mouth fell open again.

The waiter reappeared beside the table.

"The taxi-" he stopped mid-sentence as he stared at the gaping opening in Victoria's jacket. There really wasn't much on display, just the pale skin on the underside of one smooth breast, but just the thought that, if her jacket were to open perhaps another few inches... "The taxi will be here in twenty minutes," he continued, still looking at Victoria.

I nodded. "Thank you," I said by way of dismissal.

Victoria's eyes were burning a hole in mine and I was forced to avert my gaze.

I looked back as she leant forwards and, with a pull of first one sleeve and then the other, she shrugged her jacket down her arms and placed it on the chair beside her.

I stared incredulously at her perfect, bare breasts.

"You know," she said, "It might take me a while, at first." Her hands moved beneath the table? "But eventually I can work out what someone really wants."

Her hand re-emerged and I saw it was holding a fold of her blue wrap skirt. She unfurled it from across her thigh, lifted herself a fraction off of her seat and pulled at the fabric. She had been unfastening it out of sight and now she pulled it out from under her and draped it over the top of her jacket.

I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. It can't just have been the wine and the amaretto, but somehow I was sitting at a restaurant table with Victoria entirely nude save for the white stilettos on her feet (assuming she hadn't kicked those off already). The woman who usually blushed at the first mention of sex was sitting across from me naked and defiant.

"Can you buy my train ticket for me in the morning?" Victoria asked, suddenly in charge of the situation.

"I-" I mumbled, but then I looked at my watch. "I can," I said, "Although our deal was that I was in charge for one hour." She nodded. "There are still twenty-five minutes left." Twenty-five minutes to get her to back away from this stupid idea.

Victoria picked up her glass and took a sip. "Fine," she said, and sat back in her chair. Could she really last twenty five minutes sitting there naked?

I joined her by picking up my glass and sipping at my amaretto.

"I'm impressed," I admitted, "I'm genuinely impressed." And for once I was lost for words too.

She smiled and accepted the praise, but I still had one more surprise for her. It shouldn't really have been a surprise for her, not if she had been keeping track of time, but I guessed that, what with the alcohol, and being naked, she probably wasn't thinking all that clearly.

We sat quietly for a minute, nursing the remains of our strong liqueurs and making occasional eye contact. Victoria was squirming much less than I would have expected, but as she had more time to contemplate what she had just done – that she was sitting naked in a restaurant - I could tell she was becoming more uncomfortable the longer the silence lasted. Good.

I gave it another minute before I spoke: "The cab will be here in a couple of minutes."

She smiled in relief. "I had better get dressed, then."

I smiled back and gave a pointed look at my watch. "We said one hour," I told her, "That was fifty minutes ago."

"Oh, Camillia, don't be silly," she replied, "I don't think I have anything left to prove." She sat back in her chair with her arms folded across her breasts.

"A deal is a deal." I finished the last of my amaretto and Victoria's face began to glow. "It's one thing to be able to sit naked in a private booth, and quite another..."

As if by magic, the waiter made my point for me as he appeared from behind Victoria. He was about to speak when his eyes fell on her naked body and his chin fell to the floor. Victoria's palms pressed on her breasts to cover her nipples and her shoulders tensed. I smiled and kept my eyes on the waiter until he recovered his composure.

"Your, uh, taxi is outside," he finally said, still staring at Victoria.

"Thank you," I said, "Can I give you this to settle the bill?" I handed him my credit card, forcing him to look in my direction. The evening would all be charged back to Victoria, of course, but if I was pretending to be the client I thought I should also pretend that I was paying.

"Just a moment," he replied, and he left to find the card reader machine.

"This is silly, Camilla!" Victoria hissed across at me, "It's silly, and you can't make me to it."

"You're right," I said, and I stood from my seat, "It's up to you to decide just what you're prepared to go through with." The threat was clear: back out now and don't bother me with ideas of joining in with my professional life again.

Victoria scrunched her face up like a spoilt child and sat back in her chair and I walked over to where the waiter stood by the till. He would have brought the card machine to our table, but now I was leaving Victoria with a big decision to make: if she gave up now, then everything I had put her through would be for nothing. But the alternative...

"Is your friend..." the waiter began to ask. I have no idea how he was planning to finish that sentence and I doubt he did either.

"Oh, yes," I said casually, "It was just a hot flush. I think she's fine now." But at least you'll have a fun story to tell your friends, I thought.

I added a healthy tip onto the bill and tapped my number into the credit card machine. The waiter took it back and it whirred as it printed a pair of receipts. He handed me one of them and I tucked it into my purse.

Victoria should just be shuffling into her underwear by now. I glanced back at our booth and I could see her head moving. She was fidgeting in her seat, so that must be the underwear safely back on. Her clothes had all been tucked into her bag so they must take a bit of unravelling.

I turned back to the waiter and thanked him, as much to kill the time before Victoria emerged as anything. I looked back just as Victoria was leaving the booth, and you could have knocked me over with a feather: she walking across the restaurant completely, entirely, one-hundred percent naked; as long you don't count her white stilettos and the expensive bag slung over her shoulder. Her jacket was tucked through the handles of her bag and her clothes were overflowing the small bag.

The waiter stood motionless by my side and a hush fell over the restaurant. There were probably ten or twelve people left, all at various stages of dessert, coffee or liqueur, and every single one of them was staring at Victoria.

Her steps were unsteady and I guessed her head was spinning. I know mine was. Was this really Victoria walking towards me? Her long legs crossed carefully one in front of the other as she took slow, careful steps across the tiled floor. Victoria, who could trace her family line back to Queen Elizabeth, was naked in the middle of a provincial restaurant?

She stopped beside me. "Our cab will be waiting," she managed to say. Her eyes were barely focussing and I smirked as I looked her up and down.

"Indeed," I said to her, and then turned back to the waiter, "Thank you again for a very pleasant evening." He was like a rabbit in headlights.

"And thank you," he said, and then turned to Victoria, "Both of you." His eyes were intense as he tried to catch Victoria's attention, but she seemed oblivious to everything.

I put my hand in the small of her back and gave a slight push towards the door to set her in motion. Slowly we walked side-by-side. Her eyes were fixed on the exit, mine were looking around and lapping up the attention from our fellow diners. So, this was what it felt like? I had experienced it from the other side so I knew exactly what Victoria felt, but I liked it this way too.

I opened the restaurant door and Victoria stepped out into the street. As I followed her the cab driver looked around, did a double-take, and then leapt out of his car. It was purely to get a better look at Victoria who, bless her, wasn't about to step into a car without the driver opening the door for her.

There was a chill in the air and Victoria crossed her arms over her chest. I glanced up and down the street and heads began to turn.

"Cab for Camilla?" the driver asked Victoria.

I lifted my hand. "That's me," I said. Victoria stood on the kerbside by the car and the driver finally worked out why. He ran around the front of the car and opened the door.

Victoria had many years of practice of getting in and out of cars with her knees together lest any paparazzi try to capture an undignified photo, but I presume she had never done it naked before. Still, the principle was the same, and as she ducked her head the driver followed every movement of her body.

She slid across the back seat and I followed her into the car. Victoria sat motionless, her arms crossed beneath her breasts, and I saw the effect the cool evening air was having on her body from the goosebumps on her arms and her nipples that were pointing straight forwards.

I looked at my watch. "Time's up," I told Victoria. There were still a few minutes of the hour left, but I figured I'd give her time to dress before we reached the hotel.

Victoria remained still, staring out of the window, the night lights of Bristol painting colours on her face as the cab began to move. She had gotten what she had asked for, but had was it what she really wanted? The escort business may have its rewards, but it had a high price of admission and I wondered if Victoria had already seen enough. I had faith that the cold light of day would make her mind up for her.