Rendezvous

Esther Verhoef

Rich Dutch businessman, Eric, pursues his 'Grand Design' dream of renovating a run-down country estate in Bordeaux; poor dutiful hausfrau Simone looks after their kids and cooks huge lunches for the gang of workmen. When she exchanges glances with young Michel, a working class Adonis on the team, her dull, safe world experiences a French revolution - can this be love? Now read on: bags of atmosphere and some good recipes...

Extract

My hands slipped under his T-shirt and felt the powerful muscles under his skin, the deep groove of his spine, the curve of his back. The raindrops fell around us; they surrounded us, soaked into our clothes. His hands slipped under my skirt, grabbed hold of my buttocks. He pressed his stomach against me. I gasped for breath, moaned, unabashed. My legs turned to jelly; they could barely support me.
We were startled by a flash of lightning, then an enormous bang, a deafening, crashing explosion which echoed and reverberated and tore the heavens open. The ground trembled and shook beneath our feet.

Parallels