Free Confessions of a Wild Child by Jackie Collins

little virgins.’
    ‘Hmm . . .’ Olympia says, blonde hair flying in the breeze. ‘You might want to correct that statement.’
    ‘Huh?’
    ‘I was going to tell you when we got to the house. Y’know, like sitting around the pool sipping white wine. But yeah, last night I did the deed for the second time.’
    ‘The second time,’ I say, quite startled. ‘Who was the first?’
    ‘Oh, some commie French bastard,’ Olympia says vaguely. ‘He kept on lecturing me that my father should be shot, and that I didn’t know anything.’
    ‘Sounds like a real charmer.’
    ‘Yeah, right. Like a fool I smuggled him into the Paris apartment one night, and he refused to settle for Almost. So I did the deed. Silly me. I hated every vile minute of it.’
    ‘You did?’ I ask, wondering why she did it again if she hated it so much.
    Olympia glances over at me and wrinkles her nose. ‘It was horrible!’ she exclaims. ‘Stick to Almost, it’s much more enjoyable.’
    I decide now is not the time to question her more. Better she should concentrate on her driving – which is still appalling.
    I sit back and begin thinking about Gino’s words to me. ‘You’re gonna finish school, go to college, get married, have kids an’ settle down.’
    No, Daddy Dearest, I am certainly not. I want a life, a career. I want to be powerful and respected. I want to build hotels like you. I want in on the family business. I might be a girl, but I can do anything a boy can do. You’ll see. You’ll get it.
    As these thoughts are drifting through my head, Olympia announces that we are practically there.
    We turn off the freeway onto a narrow road hewn out of rock. We are parallel with the blue Mediterranean and sandy beaches. It all looks blissful.
    ‘This is gonna be so fab,’ Olympia says with a happy sigh. ‘Prepare yourself for a crapload of good times!’
    Oh yes, I am totally prepared.

Chapter Sixteen
     
    S et high in the hills above Cannes, Olympia’s aunt’s villa is closed to all intruders. This does not deter Olympia, who jumps from the car and forces the huge wrought-iron gates open so that she can drive the Mercedes up to the house. I am excited – this is indeed an adventure.
    The villa itself is painted pink with closed wooden shutters on all the windows, and incredible gardens filled with bougainvillea, mimosa and jasmine. The smell of the flowers is overwhelming.
    ‘How’re we getting in?’ I ask tentatively.
    ‘No prob,’ Olympia says, once again leaping out of the car. ‘There’s a broken catch on an upstairs window, all I gotta do is climb a tree and we’re in!’
    Olympia is nothing if not resourceful, she’s also the queen of ‘no prob’. I watch as she shimmies up a tall peach tree, springs the shutter, opens the window and climbs in. A few minutes later she opens up the front door from the inside and ushers me in. ‘Welcome to Casa Good Times,’ she says, grinning broadly. ‘We are the new tenants!’
    My sense of what an adventure this is revs into overdrive. I am actually in the South of France – a school runaway, and nobody knows where I am! I feel totally free.
    Take that, Gino. Girls can do anything.
    The villa is an amazing place with many rooms filled with furniture covered in dustsheets and more than a few cobwebs here and there. Out back there is a leaf-strewn swimming pool surrounded by several sunbeds with plastic covers.
    ‘My aunt only uses this place a couple of weeks a year,’ Olympia reveals, starting to pull off some of the dustsheets. ‘The work force moves in a couple of weeks before she does. Do you realize we could probably stay here for months before anyone finds us? Nobody would ever dream of looking for us here.’
    Hmm . . . I hadn’t actually imagined being on the missing list for months. Gino will have a shit-fit if he can’t find me – that’s if he ever discovers I’m missing.
    Or maybe not. Does he even care? Who knows? I certainly don’t.
    While I mull this