Free Lose Yourself (The Desires Unlocked Trilogy Part Two) by Evie Blake Page A

the Torture Garden!’
    Valentina groans. ‘I can guess what kind of place that is.’
    ‘Come on, Valentina, you’re the one who encouraged me to let my inner dominatrix out. We have to go there now we’re in London.’
    ‘I suppose; it’s just I hate those rubber costumes. I wish we could just wear our own stuff. In fact, I think I would rather be naked, apart from a red cloak, like O.’
    ‘Like who?’
    ‘O in Story of O by Pauline Réage. It’s the most famous erotic novel. Don’t tell me you’ve never read it?’
    ‘You know I don’t like books,’ Antonella tells her. ‘Anyway, the whole point of going to somewhere like the Torture Garden is to wear rubber.’ Antonella slaps Valentina on the backside. ‘Come on! Get your submissive ass into the lift; I’m dying to sit down and have a drink with Aunt Isabella.’
    Valentina opens up the London A-Z and looks at the street map again. She has left Antonella in the house in South Kensington with her aunt Isabella, the two of them halfway through a bottle of Soave and munching through a bowl of stuffed olives. It is quite obvious to Valentina which side of the family Antonella gets her wild side from. Despite being twice her age, Isabella still has the fiery hair and temperament that her niece shares. She is the sister of Antonella’s father, Alexandro, who left the family to run off with a younger woman when Antonella was ten. Isabella, a magazine editor, took it upon herself to represent the paternal side in Antonella’s life and never lost contact with her niece. She has the same sexy exuberance as Antonella – and the same brutal directness. Already she has interrogated Valentina about her erotic photography, insisting in seeing all of her work on her laptop and apparently delighted by the nude pictures of her own niece, while at the same time asking Valentina if she thought it was exploitative of women. Her final question annoyed Valentina.
    ‘And what does your mother think of your photographs?’
    Valentina made it quite clear that she has neither shown her mother her work, nor intends to. Isabella said nothing to that response, although she had arched her eyebrows in surprise. Valentina knows that Isabella was good friends with her mother when they both lived in Milan in the sixties and seventies. Isabella’s enthusiastic appreciation of her pictures can’t help but make Valentina wonder what her mother would make of her exhibition in London. She hasn’t bothered to tell her. In fact, she hasn’t even told Mattia. She has been avoiding talking to her brother since she broke up with Theo, although she was forced to tell him about that when he rang her at Christmas. She’s ashamed to admit to her sibling her inability to commit, since he has been happily married for years. Although Mattia only met Theo once, she knows that he liked him. He had even hinted that he could be the ‘one’. If there is such a thing, Valentina thinks, crossly.
    The rain has stopped and the light is beginning to fade as Valentina walks briskly down the damp streets. So, this is Soho. It is not as she expected. She had been imagining gaudy sex shops and peep show entrances, but in fact all she can see are trendy cafés, bespoke shops, little bistros and galleries, yet there is an air of creativity and a spirit here that appeals to her. It is a tiny, warren-like area. She keeps going around in circles until she finally finds Lexington Street. The gallery is right at the end of the street. She glances at her watch: 6 p.m. Exactly on time. She rings the bell and has to wait a few minutes before the intercom buzzes.
    ‘Valentina Rosselli to see Kirsti Shaw.’
    The door clicks and Valentina pushes it open. She walks past a deserted reception area and into a large gallery space: a square white box. She can see that the exhibition is in the process of being hung. There is a ladder leaning against one empty wall, whereas the wall beside it is already hung with paintings.