‘I don’t know, Joel. I’m not your mother.’ He had a pitiful look in his eyes when she said that, which Victoria found slightly distasteful, and so she changed her tack. ‘I tell you what, though. I’ve got a whole load of guest passes to my gym that I’ve never used. Why don’t you go down there and . . .’ She was going to say ‘work on that nice little arse of yours’, but instead she said ‘check out the competition? I mean, it’s supposed to be one of the best. You could pick up some ideas.’

Joel pushed his lips out in a sulky way, and she wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d said ‘It’s not fair.’ Instead he said ‘Okay, I could do with some exercise,’ although he’d managed some impressive feats of endurance last night.

‘Don’t spend too long hanging around the sauna. You get all sorts in there.’

‘I can look after myself, thanks,’ said Joel, although it had crossed Victoria’s mind that Joel might not be a stranger to gay sex. He certainly liked her to pay a lot of attention, some of it quite rough, to his rear end. And while Victoria was experienced enough to know that this said nothing at all about his sexual preference, she wondered if a male lover might be better equipped to give him what he so clearly wanted.

‘Anyway,’ she said, clearing her mind of the not unappealing image of Joel being used by some brawny muscleman, ‘I shan’t be home late. We can have dinner together.’

He shrugged. He was taking altogether too much for granted – like sleeping at hers every night, letting her pick up the bill for everything, assuming that sex was on tap when he wanted it.

‘I tell you what, Joel. Why don’t you cook for me?’

‘Oh, but . . .’

‘Not buts. Let’s taste some of your traditional Australian cuisine. Come on, I rather fancy seeing you in the kitchen in a little pinny.’

‘And nothing else?’

‘Whatever takes your fancy.’

‘I could put it on now if you like.’

Oh God, he was indecently keen to dress up in humiliating outfits. What had she done to him? Was she really such a ball-breaker?

‘No, darling.’ She patted him on his backside. ‘Go to the gym, stop off at Waitrose on the way home, and have dinner ready for eight. Here’s some money.’

‘Can’t you cancel?’