Sitting on the midnight train about to leave Paris, I hoped to keep the compartment to myself. Without enough money for a sleeper, I would get only what was available - I couldn't afford to be fussy. But I needed sleep. And to really sleep, I needed to be alone - I could have no disturbances. On this empty train, in the middle of a winter's night, I had a good chance of what I wanted.
My hopes were dashed when she entered the compartment.
We nodded a silent bonjour to each other, but I kept reading, and once her luggage was stashed, she took out a book of her own. Initially disappointed at her arrival - I felt sleeping with a strange woman in the compartment would be particularly disconcerting - I was curious why she had joined me. Lone females usually didn't travel at night on trains, and if they did, they'd have a cabin on the sleeper - for security if not for comfort.
My curiosity led to surreptitious glances at her from over my book. She certainly was a picture. Framed by the long, wavy red hair flowing sensuously down her back, her elfin face was exquisite with large peat-brown eyes, button nose and soft crimson lips. As she opened a leather-bound book, she crossed her slender black nylon-clad legs, giving me quite a show as her little black dress rode high up her perfect thighs to reveal the lacy tops of her stockings.
I thought I saw her glance at me, so I looked away, hiding my focus in the lyrical prose of Mervyn Peake. But I could not keep my mind within the misty walls of Gormenghast Castle for very long. Not with the breath-taking beauty opposite me. The compartment was saturated with her sweet, vanilla perfume, an almost addictive scent that compelled me to drop on my knees before her, that I might possess her.
An Englishman to the core, however, I held myself in check.
And how glad I was that I did hold myself in check - not just so that I did not make a fool out of myself in front of this irresistible creature - but because just then, the compartment door opened and a middle-aged man joined us, sitting opposite me, by the window. The two of us greeted the newcomer with the same muted welcome of strangers forced together. I noticed that a strange looked passed over the redhead's face at the arrival of the gray bearded man - what was that, some glimmer of disappointment?
My heart jumped slightly, as though a switch had sent a voltage through my veins. Did she like the look of me? I was no ogre, that was certain, but still...it wasn't as though I had supermodels queuing outside my front door, and it simply wasn't the European thing to confront strangers, let alone flirt with them.
Shortly after the bearded man had settled down to read the day's edition of Le Monde, we all felt a slight jolt as the train began, slowly, to move out of the station. My eyes fell once more into my book, but I wasn't reading any more. Who was she? Where was she from?
A hundred questions buzzed around my mind as the slumbering streets of Paris passed by in a blur. We were on our way to Venice - my favourite city on mainland Europe - and all I could think about was the woman sitting in this standard train compartment.
It wasn't long before our tickets were inspected. Once over, we would not be disturbed again until morning. The bearded man resumed reading his newspaper, the redhead her book and I mine. I stole secret glances at her. She seemed to be purposely sitting diagonally - leaning in between the seat and the wall of the compartment. Facing me almost directly.
I looked at what she was reading. I could not see the title - her hand was over it. But the author was Anais Nin. No wonder she kept running a hand over her curves like that.
She caught me looking at her. The shock of discovery exploded in my chest and swamped my body - I flushed like a Catholic schoolgirl. I tried to make it look as though I had innocently allowed my eyes to stray towards her, but an impish grin grew across her irresistible face and she held my gaze with those fiery eyes. She licked those divine, voluptuous lips seductively. I was stunned.
Be still my beating heart.
The bearded man rustled his paper and broke the moment. My eyes fell innocently into my book once more. Breathing deeply, I relaxed - it was a long way to Italy. The bearded man turned another page of his newspaper. I looked across at him - he wasn't at all concerned with his fellow passengers.
When my gaze flicked back to the classy-looking redhead, I had to double-check. It was incredible - her dress had ridden up so high that I could see her black lacy panties between those slender thighs. Our eyes met once again, and a fiery chemical connection kept our eyes locked. She grinned impishly, and lifted a delicate hand - the one not clutching her erotic book - to insert a finger between those moist red lips.
She gently drew her finger halfway into her mouth. Her eyes dropped for a moment, and I saw that she had noticed my own arousal. She smiled again, even with her finger still between her lips, for it was obvious how I felt by the rising of the material in my lap.
Slowly, oh so slowly, she extracted her finger from her mouth and trailed it tenderly over her elegant jaw-line, down her soft neck, over the black velvet dress that clung to the delicate curves of her chest and down to caress her pale thigh. She looked me straight in the eye - a glance full of dangerous intent - but I couldn't hold her gaze: I was drawn involuntarily to the tantalising image of her finger as it moved gently up her thigh, under the hem of her dress to meander across the luxurious black lace of her underwear.