I caught Iris wandering along the beach in a world of her own. She graced me with a beaming smile as I jogged to catch up with her. "Hi, what're you up to?" I said.

She gazed out to sea. "I just needed to get away from the screens for a while and ruminate on a coding problem. Walk with me?"

I fell into step beside her. As we wandered along the soft, cool sand at the water's edge, I felt an almost irresistible urge to hold her hand. "Was Rachelle excited about going to London?" I asked, mainly to initiate some sort of conversation.

"Oh yes, packed enough for a six week holiday. I just hope London's warm, as she didn't take any sweaters."

"It will be this time of year." Our conversation was banal. What I really wanted to ask was whether she'd been envious of Texan. I decided to go for it. "You know I spent the night with Texan, don't you?" I held my breath.

She turned to smile at me. "Oh yes. She was most impressed, gave you a glowing recommendation. All the girls are lining up."

There was no hint of sarcasm in her voice at all. My heart sank. "And what about you?" I asked.

"What about me?"

"Are you in line too?"

"What a funny question. At the moment Henry, I feel dead from the neck down, as though that part of me died with Christian.

I glanced at her and saw the sadness in her eyes. I decided not to push it, she was clearly very deeply heartbroken. I just felt an overwhelming urge to protect her. I changed the subject. "My brother's coming to stay at the weekend."

She beamed a smile, "how lovely. Are the two of you very close?"

"Yep. He's the next youngest after me. There are five of us."

"Does he know about your harem?" She teased.

"Sort of," I admitted, "he's married, well they all are except me. He's a family man. He thought it was hysterically funny."

"Wait till he sees all the girls," Iris said, "his eyes will fall out of his head when Janine wanders past in her little bikinis." She paused for a moment. "You're seeing Janine tonight?"

"I was gonna leave it till tomorrow night, recover a little, but with Charlie coming at the weekend..." I trailed off, not wanting to say out loud how I was packing as many in as I could, knowing I wouldn't be able to do anything with my little brother in the next room.

"I think she's eager to test drive you after you had such a glowing recommendation from Texan."

With that, Iris wandered back to her villa, calling out "ciao for now."

I had the most amazing night with Janine. Her slender, lithe body contorted into positions I'd only ever dreamt of. It meant we could try out some really esoteric sex, her supple limbs easily manoeuvring to give me the wildest ride ever. At one point she even had both feet behind her head, leaving her wide open to me. She loved the fact that I could easily lift her, as though she was weightless.

Once again, I was up all night banging her into ecstasy. I just couldn't stop myself from taking her again and again, even though I knew I was just being greedy. She actually crawled out on all fours at six in the morning, while I slumped into bed, mindful that I needed to go shopping and stock up ready for Charlie's arrival the next day. I think I passed the technique test.