“Oh, not at all,” I said, slightly tipsy and quite mellow from the varied assortments of wine the dueling chefs had served with each little tappas treat.
While he talked to his friend, Pash, I sauntered around the shop admiring all the beautiful diamond rings in the cases. “See anything you like?” he whispered against the back of my neck as he pulled me by the waist into his chest.
“There’s nothing in here I could ever afford,” I said with a sigh. “For this kind of money, I could buy a Jaguar Convertible.”
“Well, that would be hard to wear on your finger.” I held up my right hand and glanced lovingly at my claddagh. “This works fine and it’s not nearly quite so heavy.”
He chuckled and led me from the shop. We walked a long time, looking out at Megan’s Bay and at all the ships coming in and going out. Roman pointed to several and told me about each one—technical stuff I didn’t understand, but also things about the owners or the captains or someone on the crew he knew. Seemed being on the water made people quite randy.
It was twilight and as we watched the sun setting, he took me in his arms and kissed me, letting our lips and tongues mesh until I felt self-conscious about everyone having to go around us.
“I take it you’d like to take this to a place a bit more private.”
I looked up into his heated eyes, and whispered, “Yes.”
We walked back through the city and to the side alley off of Back Street where he had parked his Jeep. He helped me in and we drove back up the mountain.
I recognized when we missed our turn but didn’t think much of it until he pulled off the road and drove thru a field and then suddenly, we were facing the bay from a very high promontory.
He put the Jeep in reverse and cut the engine. With an arm thrown over my seat, he turned to me. His eyes were hot. I could feel the passion rolling off him in waves. The moon was rising and it was huge. It was one of the biggest I’d ever seen, a warm pumpkin color giving off a glow that denied the night. I’d seen a few like it driving down Sunset Boulevard at home, and often felt as if I was driving right into it, it was so huge. This one, I felt I could reach out and touch.
“I want to see you,” he whispered, and reached over and inched my dress up over my legs, thighs, waist and then chest. He tossed it onto the back seat and as easy as that, I was naked in his Jeep with the luminous moon making my body glow.
I watched his eyes fill with yearning and his lids go heavy. He grabbed a windbreaker from the floor behind my seat, rolled it up, then jammed it behind me to prop me up in the corner.
“Have you ever heard of Tantric sex?” he asked.
“I’ve heard of it, but I’m not really familiar with it.”
“Tantra is a school of studies, and among the life lessons is how to achieve the ultimate sexual delight and how to channel your sexual energy so that you nurture each other more completely. There’s a special connection when a man and woman appreciate each other’s bodies. And it’s as erotic as hell once you truly open up and allow every type of exploration. It is the ultimate in touching and feeling. Let me teach it to you.”
“I love your enthusiasm for all things carnal,” I said jokingly. “Is there no limit to your sexual expertise?”
“I am only limited by my partner. But so far, you’ve been remarkably willing.”
“Teach away.”
“The first thing we do is to look at each other. Really look at each other, in the most intimate of ways. I look at your yoni, the word for female genitalia and you look at my lingam, the word for my wand of light, and we do this without talking for many, many minutes. I like to go for fifteen or more.”
The way he said that made me very unsettled. He’d done this before, with others. I didn’t have time to dwell on that though. He grabbed my ankles and pushed them together so that the bottoms of my feet were touching. “I know how limber you are, so sitting like this, Indian style for several minutes shouldn’t bother you.”
He sat back and looked at me, his eyes focused on the inside triangle of my legs. Without hair there I was very vulnerable, my womanly flesh was bold and gaping. My thighs flexed as I felt him looking at me. A part of me wanted to draw my legs together to shield my womanhood from his view, but a wild and wicked side of me wanted to spread myself even wider and show him everything he desired to see. I saw heat flare in his eyes and they darkened to luminous pools of inky black. “Lovely, you are so lovely,” he whispered reverently.
He leaned back against his door and continued to stare at my body. My eyes followed his as he let his passionfilled eyes rove where they wanted. He searched my face, honed in on my chest as if trying to memorize my breasts and lingered adoringly at my wantonly displayed womanhood. He casually took a cigar and lighter from his console and lit it, all the while keeping his eyes intently on the area between my spread thighs. Then he settled back and puffed on the cigar, not letting his eyes leave me.
I was feeling very self-conscious now. We were out in the open, I knew not where, I was stark naked in his Jeep while he was still fully clothed, and he was looking at me as if I was his prized possession and he couldn’t stop admiring it.
“Uh, I think part of this Tantric connection thing is missing, you still have all your clothes on and I do not see your lingam in evidence.”
“A problem I promise to remedy very soon, just let me look at you for a little while longer.” He took a puff on his cigar and as the smoke curled and rose lazily into the night air, he really did look like a sultan gazing wonderingly at one of his new harem girls. When he finished with the cigar, he snubbed it out in the ashtray and then began removing his shirt.
I watched as his wondrously masculine chest came into view. He flexed his muscles and pulled his shirt off, tossing it onto the backseat. Then he opened the door, stepped out and removed his shoes, socks, pants and jockeys. Everything was dumped in a heap on the back seat. He got back in, closed the door, and with much more difficulty than I’d had due to the tightly confined space, he managed to pretzel his long legs so that he was also sitting Indian style.
And there we sat, intimately looking at each other, head to toe and all the areas in between. My breasts were warm and tingly from his gaze, my nipples puckering in the night air, yet I was anything but cool. I admired his long sleek legs, his muscular thighs that were firm and hard. I loved how male he was—his big body, burnished by the sun, with black, curling hairs generously covering every masculine inch. His arms resting on his thighs were also liberally sprinkled with crinkly hair and it was all I could do to keep from reaching out and touching them and running my fingers up and down their length to hear the slight rasp. The thatch at the base of his penis was lush, full and dark, yet I could still see his large sac resting on the seat. His erection was impressive, bouncing gently off his belly, nearly stroking his navel. And the head, now angry-looking was poking out of the bunched foreskin and leaking copious amounts of pre-cum. I ran my eyes back up his chest, to his flat nipples partially hidden within the thick mat of hair, to his strong throat and hard jaw. His soft lips were slightly compressed as if he was in pain, and his eyes, well, they were staring like lasers at me . . . where I was getting slick and ready.
After a few more minutes he reached over and grabbed my ankles and spread them. I was now sitting up with my legs spread as wide as my hips. “Show me your vagina,” he whispered hoarsely.
And I, not knowing whether I should do this ultimate, humiliating, debauching and revealing thing, hesitated. “Please,” he added.
“I told myself once, that if I had the opportunity to be with you again, that I would go the limit, enjoy every single facet of being with you, making love with you, and being your woman, but this, is a bit . . .”
“Please,” The look in his eyes was so hot, and so full of lust that I caved. Some depraved part of me wanted to show him what he wanted to see. I slid my hands down my thighs and used my fingers to spread my labial lips wide. I saw him shudder and more pre-cum lea
ked from the head of his penis as it jumped in response. He stared, his eyes so intent I could feel the heat of them on me.
“Show me how you pleasure yourself,” he said and I almost swooned from the sound of his voice, gravely and tinged with agony.
I shook my head.
“Tantricas find much pleasure in watching that singular delight from both perspectives. I can learn so much about you from watching you caress your body, so please don’t refuse me, let me watch you touch yourself.”
“I have to close my eyes. I can’t do it with my eyes open.”
“That’s fine, just know that mine won’t be,” he said with a devilish grin.
I nervously scooted down and rested my back against the door so I could relax my legs and then I closed my eyes to his bright burning ones. I used the middle finger of my right hand to touch the area at the top of my slit. I heard him groan and then when I grasped the tip of my left breast with my left hand and tugged on the nipple, he gasped and a long moan followed. I circled my clit rubbing it around and around, feeling the pressure build, then as I plucked at my nipple, releasing and tightening on the tip, I dipped into my channel to re-slick my finger and went unerringly back to the nub that was now throbbing and no doubt visibly pulsing. I did this over and over again, working myself up. I could hear Roman’s harsh breath coming in spurts and I almost opened my eyes to see if he was stroking himself, but I didn’t as I knew that it would be my undoing. But the thought had already gelled and with a few more flicks of my finger, my thighs started to jump and my whole labia contracted and gaped. I could feel my release coating me, and I could hear him panting and cursing in Gaelic as my orgasm took me and turned my body to jelly.
I opened my eyes when I heard the door open. Roman was standing on the ground reaching into the back for a blanket. Then he gathered me into his arms, dragging me over the console and gearshift. He carried me with the blanket tucked between his chest and my belly to a flat section under an old majestic tree. He took a moment to stand me up while he hastily opened the blanket and spread it on the ground, and then he gently pushed me down and followed. I had not settled before he was inside me pumping and grinding and moving unbelievable fast.
“The sight of your vagina and your cunt throbbing as you came, God, I’ve never seen anything so magnificent,” he said against my neck as he moved to my ear and enthusiastically licked it with his tongue. “Damn Tess, I’m sorry, I canna hold back this time.”
I felt him jerk and all his muscles went hard as he shoved so hard into me I felt him at the opening of my womb. Then he held fast and I felt each spasm as it sent waves of his ejaculate into me. Muted Gaelic spewed out in long harsh sentences. I arched up and made his groin touch my pouting clit and I came on the heels of his climax. With the moon high overhead and the leaves of the trees rustling above us, I too, babbled a stream of words, but mine were pure nonsense. However, I was absolutely desperate to say them, and chanted them over and over again.
When he fell over on to the side and pulled me into him he murmured, “Where did you learn Hindu?”
“I don’t know any Hindu.”
“Well, it sure sounded like Hindu, it’s the language used in Tantric.”
I looked up at him and smiled, “That’s odd. And you, what language was it you were speaking?”
“Erse, old Gaelic, words of my youth.”
“And what was it you were saying?”
He rolled me back so that I had a perfect view of his rugged face and behind him, the moon. His hand slid between my breasts to cover my heart. “I was saying, I love you, I adore you, I worship you.”
My mouth dropped open and he took that as an invitation to ravage it.
We lay like that for a long time, him covering me, kissing me and stroking his hands possessively over my arms and back.
I don’t know how long it was, as I actually feel asleep for a few minutes but I woke to him carrying me back to the Jeep. I was wrapped in the blanket. He had only bothered to put his pants on. Driving barefoot, he backed up and drove back across the field to the fork in the road that led the rest of the way up the mountainside and to his house.
I was deposited on the sofa while he used the bathroom, then I took a shower and wrapped myself in his bathrobe before going to look for him. I found him out by the pool, his long legs resting on the seat of another chair while he sat at the table sipping champagne and staring out at the water. When he saw me he raised his glass and said, “Come, have a glass with me before I have to go to bed.”
I took the seat opposite him and he handed me a champagne flute he had already filled. I was thirsty and took a generous sip. Something clinked against my teeth. “What?” I said as I held the glass up and angled it toward the pool lights. I saw something gold and reached in with my finger to fish it out.
“Oh . . .” It was a lovely diamond ring, the diamond, a huge multi-faceted oval cut. I remembered seeing ones like it in Pash’s shop. The ones that were similar in size, had been sixty-five to eighty thousand dollars.
“Marry me Tess,” he said as he looked over at me, and I knew without a doubt that if I’d said no right then that I’d break his heart.
Chapter Forty
No is the loneliest word Roman, thank you. I am honored, stunned, and not really sure I am thinking as I should be right now, but I can’t Roman. For so many reasons, I just can’t.”
“Tess, we’ll go over them one by one, and you’ll see that you can. But it’s late; let’s do that tomorrow when we’re both not so tired. “Come,” he said as he stood up and drained his glass, “put that on your finger and come to bed with me.”
I slid it on my ring finger and he took my hand and kissed it.
“It doesn’t mean I’ve accepted . . .”
“No, I didn’t figure you would. At least not right away.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but he put his fingertips on my lips. “No, tomorrow afternoon is soon enough for you to tell me all the reasons why this won’t work.”
He picked me up and carried me into the bedroom. I don’t remember how I got out of his robe, how I fell asleep, or how my claddagh ring got switched to my left hand, facing out, telling the world we were engaged. The ring with the monstrous diamond was now on my right hand. I suspected Roman had stripped me, tucked me in and then rearranged the rings. I knew I had been very tired and maybe a little affected by the wine and champagne, and that because of it, I hadn’t even wakened when he had left to go to work this morning.
I smiled as I imagined him in his pristine white uniform climbing the Jacob’s ladder, being led through the ship to the helm and masterfully bringing another cruise ship into port. And he was mine. Mine! All mine. But I knew I couldn’t marry him. It would simply never work.
I got up and fixed some wheat toast for breakfast then took a short walk on the beach. I found the card Roman had given me with the driver’s name on it and I arranged for him to pick me up so I could visit Amy.
I opened the “Cat Closet” and chose a white-onwhite pants outfit with leopard accents. It had been hot on the beach and I knew it was only going to get warmer and it was a nice light crepe. The drive in the car was very pleasant. I love to ride with the wind in my hair and on the islands, it’s a natural thing to roll down the windows to enjoy the ocean breezes rather than turn on the air conditioning.
I walked through the luxurious spa areas to the residential section and found Amy basking in the sun on a large veranda, watching the people parasailing and riding catamarans and oddly enough, talking to a colorful parrot perched on a tall stand. She was a delight. She was happy, bubbly and easily more like her normal self. “This is the paradise you promised me,” she said when she looked up and saw me smiling down at her. “This is Rainbow, he’s almost fifty years old. Somebody taught him a lot of swear words.” Stacey, sitting on a lounger opposite her, stood and greeted me. “Hey, there! We weren’t sure you’d be here today since it’s such a gorgeous beach day.”
“Yes, it is. I took a walk this morning and later when Roman gets off from work, I’m going to try windsurfing.” “Oh good luck, I’ve never been able to stay up.”
“I’m sure I won’t either,” I said with a chuckle. “How is she?”
“Oh, she’s doing great. Really, just remarkable.”
“Memory coming back?”
“Oh yeah. She keeps asking about Carlos. And I’m not sure what to say about that.”
“I’ll talk to her. Why don’t you take a nice long break, come back after lunch. I’ll stay with her until you get back.”
“Thanks! I’ll go eat at the outdoor café.”
I sat down beside Amy and watched her stroking the bird’s feathers. “He’s nice huh? He won’t bite?”
“Oh no, never! He’s a cutie. I wish I could take him home.”
“Do you remember home?”
“Oh yeah, I remember now. I have a lovely house on the golf course and a real skunk is living there with me; or at least he was until he stole my money and ran away.”
“The bulk of your money is safe for now. And right about now I’m sure Carlos is fuming, trying to find out what happened.”
“Good! I hope he has to lift the sofa cushions to find change just so he can eat!”
“Well, I’m sure it’s not as bad as all that.”
“It’s sure going to be when I get back.”
“Don’t make any decisions now, Amy. Wait until we get back and you’re completely off the medicine.”
“Am I going to stay here until I get off the medicine?”
“You could . . . but it’s pretty expensive here.”
“Stacey says Roman is ultra rich and that he arranged for me to be here. Usually you have to book a room here two years in advance.”
“Roman is very nice, and very well connected. I’m not so sure about the rich part, but regardless, we can’t let him pay for all this,” I said with a wave of my hand indicating the spa area behind us.
The Widows of Sea Trail-Tessa of Crooked Gulley Page 22