BLINDED BY DESIRE

by Arabella Sheen

  He couldn’t see where she was pointing, but he could remember roughly where the rock pools were.

  “You’re avoiding having to lie down beside me aren’t you? You know you’re going to have to do it sometime, and the problem will still be here when you come back to me.”

  “Don’t be silly. Of course I’m not afraid to be with you.”

  “I didn’t say you’re afraid to be with me, I said . . .”

  But she didn’t let him finish what he was about to say.

  “I know what you said Jason, and I’m not staying here to listen to you . . . And you’re wrong. I’m not afraid to lie with you on this beach.”

  Yet even as she said the words they sounded lame to her and she certainly hadn’t convinced Jason that she meant what she’d said.

  Without saying any more, Beth walked over to the rock pools and sat cooling her feet for a while. But there was no staying away from him for long.

  Reluctantly she went back to where he was lying almost naked on his towel.

  Gingerly she began to remove her T-shirt and shorts, leaving only her bikini to cover her modesty. Unscrewing the top of a lotion bottle she started to rub factor-eight sunscreen into her skin.

  “It’s moments like these I miss seeing what you’re doing Beth,” he murmured quietly beneath his breath.

  Perhaps it was just as well she hadn’t heard what he’d said or she would have coloured with mortification and embarrassment.

  At last she was ready and she crashed out on her towel to relax.

  Soaking up the peace and quiet about her, she lay listening to the gentle rhythmic rolling of the waves lapping against the shore.

  The heat of the day was beginning to lull her into a dreamy sleepy state.

  It was her first opportunity in months to have a mini break and get away from the hustle and bustle of England.

  And what a place to be.

  She couldn’t have asked for a more idyllic location.

  Except for the goat herder’s house where they were staying this was a billionaire’s life style.

  Jason might be used to sunning on beaches for most of the day, but she wasn’t.

  When Jason had first suggested they go to the beach, she’d thought there would be nothing for him to do, but she couldn’t have been more wrong.

  Within the hour he’d become restless of listening to the ipod he’d brought with him, and pulling out his ear plugs he stood up decisively and reached down, teasingly smacking her on her rear.

  “Ouch! . . . Why did you do that?” she complained, rolling over onto her back to look up at him.

  His hands found hers and he pulled her protesting to her feet.

  Then following the sound of the waves he started pulling her towards the water’s edge.

  “Time for a dip.”

  “But I’ve only just rub the sun cream on and I was just getting settled.”

  “Which is a danger,” he told her in no uncertain terms. “If you fell asleep you could run the risk of too much sun and you’d get sunstroke . . . again. Now move woman. Neptune is waiting.”

  “Oh alright,” she conceded reluctantly.

  Together they walked to the water’s edge where she carefully tested the water. Cautiously with one foot she checked the temperature. But before she knew what hit her, Jason was scooping her up into his arms and walking into the deep blue of the Aegean Sea.

  She was gripping him tightly. Her arms were locked around his neck.

  “Put me down Jason. Take me back.”

  She was screaming loudly in his ears and ignoring her shouts, he continued to walk deeper into the sea.

  Carefully he was feeling the way with his feet beneath the surface of the water.

  They were several meters from shore and she was still struggling frantically in his arms.

  “Hold still Beth or I’ll drop you,” he threatened.

  The head lock she’d on him became a vice grip.

  She was practically strangling him.

  “Jason take me back now! . . . I mean it . . . I can’t swim . . . I can only paddle in the shallows.”

  She was yelling at him and she buried her face in fright in his neck.

  Instantly he came to a halt dropping her legs into the water, but he was still holding her body tightly close to his.

  Flattening her against his chest it was now Jason’s turn to hold Beth clamped to him without a centimetre to spare.

  “What did you just say?” he shouted at her.

  They hadn’t gone very deep.

  The water had scarcely reached the top of his trunks, but she was terrified.

  Her arms were firmly gripping him about his waist and there was no way she was letting go.

  Slowly he eased her away from him and gradually she relaxed.

  Her grip on him slackened.

  “I can’t swim properly,” she repeated. “I can only doggy paddle near the shore.”

  He was astonished.

  “How can anyone in this day and age not swim?”

  “At school I never learnt to swim in the deep end.”

  Jason stood there with his arms akimbo.

  “What am I going to do with you?” he asked her totally surprised that she was unable to swim.

  “You don’t have to do anything with me. I can look after myself,” she assured him.

  “No you can’t. I’ve just proved that haven’t I?” He was calming down. “You’ll have to stay in the shallows and splash water over yourself to cool off. I’m not running the risk of you collapsing again from the heat.”

  Then to her amazement he’d turned about and was walking back into the sea again.

  “Where are you going?” she called urgently after him.

  “For a swim,” he told her in a matter of fact manner, as if there was nothing unusual in a sightless man having a swim on his own in the open sea.

  “But I can’t swim . . .” she said.

  “I know . . . but I can. Call out to me occasionally so I can hear your voice,” he ordered. “What do I do if something happens to you?”

  “Beth . . . it won’t. We’ll talk when I get back,” he reassured her.

  Then he left her and waded confidently out of the shallows. He dived into the deep salty waters beyond, leaving her to watch him from the shore.

  She did as he said.

  She sat on the water’s edge cooling her body with the lapping waters and called out to him maintaining voice contact.

  Looking out to sea, she watched over him just as he’d watched over her last night.

  Last night . . .

  She didn’t want to remember last night, but how could she forget.

  She didn’t want to remember the horrors of shivering and nearly dying from sunstroke and worst . . . she didn’t want to remember this morning, when she woke and had trembled in his arms with delight at his touch and his searching hands on her body.

  * * * * *

  Jason finished his swim and returned to the beach to find Beth where he had left her in the shallows.

  “So what’s all this about you not being able to swim?” he asked.

  He was stood above her with his arms akimbo glaring down at her.

  “Do we have to talk about it now?” she asked.

  She was reluctant to begin an argument with him.

  The sun was hot and she didn’t have the energy to have a heated debate.

  “Why not now? You haven’t got a prior engagement have you? You don’t have to be anywhere in particular, do you? Or perhaps you’re going to see Stephan?”

  She sat up quickly and she was shocked at the innuendo in Jason’s voice and at what he was suggesting.

  Stephan was Jason’s friend and the site manager who was working on Jason’s villa.

  She’d gotten to know Stephan a lot better this week because she’d had to talk to him about her garden designs.

  Beth didn’t know why Jason would think she would want to see Stephan again today.

  �
�Stephan? Of course I’m not seeing Stephan. I hardly know him, and anyway he’s your friend not mine.”

  “Well then, if you’ve nothing to do today, tell me why you’ve never learnt to swim and also why you’re reluctant to have a few swimming lessons?”

  “I’ve just never got around to having proper lessons.”

  “Then it’s about time you learnt. We’ll take it step by step. We’ve nothing else to do this week and it will give me something to do.”

  “But you can’t see. . .”

  “Come on Beth, at least give it a try. Nothing ventured nothing gained.”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “I promise . . . I’ll not let you go.”

  And she didn’t know if she liked the sound of his promise.

  Beth reached for one of the bags she’d brought with her and started searching for something to tie back her long dark hair with. She found an elastic band and pulled her hair free from her face.

  Jason helped her to her feet and together they walked from the shallows into deeper water where he began teaching her to swim.

  He was also teaching her to trust him.

  And she did.

  Totally.

  “Now lie on your back and float. I’ll hold you. You won’t go under.”

  His strong hands held the weight of her body and gradually she relaxed in his hold. He let the ebb and flow of the gentle rolling waves carry her. Even out of her depth she felt safe with him.

  She felt he would protect her from any dangers the sea might hold.

  They had been in the water about half an hour when he decided it was time they had a break.

  “Come on, let’s go and have some lunch. I’m famished after all that work. I’ve worked harder this afternoon than I generally do when I’m in my office,” he told her jokingly and she followed behind him as they made their way back to the beach.

  Beth felt exhilarated. She felt as if she’d achieved something this afternoon.

  “Jason you’re a hard task master and . . . and . . . I don’t know how to thank you for your patients and the lesson.”

  She felt embarrassed about taking up his time.

  Jason Andre was a man in demand.

  He was constantly on the phone to his businesses in England and Europe. He was a mega-mogul and teaching her to swim had taken him away from his professional duties.

  His architect’s business had been put on hold because he had been with her.

  They were walking back to their pile of cloth’s which had been left in the shade near the base of the rock’s when Jason stopped abruptly. It caused her to ram unexpectedly into him.

  She was the one who was supposed to be able to see where they were going. Yet here she was pressed flat against the solid wall of his chest.

  Only he wasn’t holding her the way he’d done in the water when she was learning to swim. Now she was being held in a strong fierce grip in his powerful arms.

  Unknowingly she’d collided hard into him, and she had stumbled heavily against him.

  Jason had instantly raised his hands to stop them both losing their balance. But he was too late.

  She was falling and he was falling with her.

  Together they landed entangled on the soft golden sand with such a thud that the air was forced out of their lung.

  Jason hit the sand first and she landed on top of him, cushioned from the fall.

  “Uh . . .” he moaned as the force of her body crushed him.

  “Are you alright?” she asked concerned.

  “I think so,” he said.

  He was winded but he wasn’t hurt.

  Jason began moving his hands searchingly over her body. Wherever his hands could reach he began teasingly poking, prodding her and feeling.

  “We seem to be O.K.” he said in a light hearted way.

  Then the movement of his hands began to change. They became caressing. They were gradually working their way from her waist to her thighs and back.

  “I usually like to be on top of a woman . . .” he teased playfully, “But I’m willing to try it this way for a change.”

  He had a wide grin on his face and there was a hint of laughter in his voice.

  “Jason . . .” she was shocked and appalled at his innuendo.

  “Do I take that to mean . . . yes?”

  “No it definitely doesn’t mean yes. It’s a no.”

  She rolled off of him and lay beside him on the warm sand.

  Still wet from their swim, the salt water on his chest had left an imprint on the material of her bikini. Her nipples were instantly erect and straining from where he had touched her. Her skin felt as if it had exploded.

  Her nerves tingled.

  Jason was still lying where he had fallen. He was stretched out beside her on the hot sand.

  He’s so handsome to look at, she thought. Too handsome.

  Even with his scars there was no disputing his attraction. She couldn’t tear her eyes from his long slender body and she was tempted to reach over and run her hands through the fine dark hairs which were scattered across his chest. But that would be playing with fire and it was already hot enough lying here with him in the sun.

  Then slowly he turned over and faced her as she lay next to him.

  This was her chance to move away from him but she didn’t.

  She couldn’t.

  She was trapped and mesmerized by the look on Jason’s face.

  And then his hands were seeking her and finding her.

  Slowly they began gently roaming over her body. Moving. Feeling their way from her thighs to her breasts and she felt anything but safe.

  “Jason . . . stop it,” she protested weakly.

  “But I thought you said you didn’t know how to thank me for your swimming lessons.”

  Teasingly he began to nuzzle and nibble into the soft flesh of her ear lobe and then moved to her long slender neck.

  “Beth . . . be with me,” he groaned.

  He was almost pleading with her. His voice was husky with desire and emotion.

  “Jason . . .” she said weakly, whimpering his name, “This isn’t serious. It can’t be serious. It’s only temporary . . . you’re out of my league. I can’t give you what the Trudy’s of your world can give you. I can’t compete with your women Jason and I won’t.”

  Her insecurities were showing.

  “Shush Beth . . . shush,” he said calming her. “Trudy’s gone. Forgotten. The moment she saw me in the hospital bed and left me she no longer existed for me.”

  “But I can’t compete with your life style.”

  “I know that’s how you feel at the moment, but right now I’ll take anything you have to offer me.”

  He sounded almost humble.

  Whoever had hurt Jason’s ego, had certainly given a hard pounding to his self-esteem.

  Half-heartedly she tried to push herself away from him but instead of releasing her, the only thing she seemed to be achieving was that he held her closer.

  He pulled her tighter to him and then there was no going back.

  There was no escape for either of them as the heat of their desires began to take over and had to be released.

  He couldn’t stop himself. He took her quickly and there was no pleasure for Beth or for him.

  It was purely a physical release.

  And then he took her again.

  But this time he took her slowly and rhythmically and she was taken to the heavens and back.