“Lead the way!” I said in a jubilant whisper, like we were in cahoots, “Where shall we go…to, um, network?”
“I’ve been told there are migrant birds just arrived from Africa at Bovey Heathfield. The nightjars come here to procreate,” she said.
“Whoa! Nightjarring, I’d love to! I’ve never seen them in their natural habitat before. Nightjars would be a great tick for my world bird list.”
“My car is just outside. We need to get to Bovey before nightfall if we want to spot the nightjars. They’re well camouflaged even at dusk, but I think we’ll be fine if we leave straight away after tea.”
“This gets me all excited,” I said in a low voice. “Maybe I’ll get lucky.”
“Yeah? What else excites you?” Robin looked at me like I was a delicacy she was savoring.
I shot her my most devilish smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I had no idea what game I was playing, but I was diving in head first, and I wasn’t sure the pool was deep enough.
CHAPTER 8
Robin drove fast—too fast. She had a silver hummingbird hanging from her rearview mirror, which swung like it was really flying. Taking the blind, winding turns on the wrong side of the road at high speeds was jarring enough, but when we arrived in a desolate area, parking in a vacant lot near empty factories, my imagination ran wild.
“Is this safe?” I asked. As the perceived danger quotient rose, surprisingly, so did my libido.
“Completely. Any bloke up to no good wouldn’t hang around here on the off chance two women showed up, now would he?” She grinned. “Besides, it’s not like we’re defenseless.”
Before I got out of the car, she handed me my knapsack I had stowed in the ‘boot,’ which was such a silly name for a trunk! It was almost as bad as saying ‘bonnet’ for the hood, because in my mind, a bonnet is what Miss Muffet wore on her head while sitting on her tuffet eating her curds and whey. Several times I asked her to spell a word, only to realize it was her pronunciation and not the word itself I didn’t know.
“You talk funny,” Robin said after this had happened more than a few times. But seriously, who was she kidding?
I hesitated by the car to adjust my binoculars and focused the lenses on a bush. It wasn’t quite dark yet, but it would be soon enough. I shivered.
“You’re not scared, are you?”
“God no,” I lied, watching each step as I followed along the well-worn path, appreciating the mosaic of purple heather and yellow gorse, until we stood at the top of the clearing near a shoulderblade-high granite boulder overlooking the heathland below. We listened intently, taking shallow breaths. All I could hear was what sounded like frogs.
“Euuuuurrrrruerrrrrr.”
“Hear that?” she said.
“Oh yeah…that’s what it says in the book. Their call does reverberate.”
“You did your homework.”
“I enjoy learning about the local inhabitants of whatever area I happen to travel,” I said, as if I was this savvy world traveler.
“I do too—especially the local women.”
She was a player, I told myself again. But the difference was this time, I didn’t even care.
“Oh, really?” I said.
She grasped my hand, and with it, the most pleasant sensations traveled through my body. “Walk this way, I hear them over there.”
I let her lead, becoming more aware of her rich lemongrass and sea salt scent. She was so determined and capable in everything she did; even the way she walked was regal. Her knowledge of the surroundings was textbook accurate without sounding boastful. Her deep voice lulled me into an erotic trance.
A male nightjar, with his wings clapping, flew right by us.
“Did you see that?” I said, excitement mounting.
She kissed me then, and I melted in her arms. As I luxuriated in her soft lips, she backed me up to a boulder nearby, and our urgent kisses grew hotter and more fervent. The pebbled pavement littered with twigs and lush prickly vegetation would be inhospitable for a comfy quickie, but lust overshadowed inconvenience, and I began immediately considering how to make it work.
The insistent niggle to my senses raised doubts in my mind. Did I really desire a mad dash to get naked, followed by uninhibited meaningless coupling, only to leave in a week’s time with nothing but faded memories? I mean, no matter how good I imagined sex with her would be…
“Wait.” I placed my palm on her chest. Her heart beat as wildly as mine. “Incredible,” I murmured, distracted.
“I want more,” she said, between kisses.
“This is just too fast.”
“You are a baby.”
I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the tone of her voice. Was she just teasing?
“And you’re pushy.” I moved past her and started to walk back toward the car when the nightjar’s courtship dance presented itself a short distance away. I focused my binos and stood awestruck for a moment. Poking my elbow into her arm, I whispered, “Oh my God! Would you look at that?”
We watched in silence until she said, “Well, at least someone is getting a good shagging.”
“Maybe if you weren’t so impetuous.” I was torn between being turned on by someone who obviously asserted her dominance, but I wasn’t completely comfortable letting go of this amount of control to another woman. It had been too long, call me cautious, but I was also rusty and didn’t want to fuck this up. Why should I care what she thought of me, I wondered, but I did care, a lot, and that’s why I stopped her when my body wanted the complete opposite.
“That’s a big word, impetuous, that is.”
“Hasty then.”
“Come on, show’s over. I’ll drive you back.” She seemed impatient more than anything else. Maybe she wasn’t used to not getting her own way, and I’d irritated her in some way by not going along with her whim.
Her wonderful ardent mood from moments ago turned black so quickly, it was like a sudden rain cloud had dumped cold water on top of my head. The guilt of thinking I must have led her on consumed me. I didn’t want to upset her, but something held me back. Surely, I could rewind this tape and start again, but how?
“I’m sorry.” My apology sounded inadequate even to me.
“No worries. I get it.”
I wanted to shout, No you don’t get it at all. I’m not usually this easy and it’s been a long time since I’ve been in the market. I’m not a hopeless flirt who goes around leading unsuspecting women on only to back out at the last second. I mean, who goes off to a secluded spot with a hot woman she has no intentions of fucking? I bit my lip, preferring that pain to chastising myself another second.
We drove the rest of the way in a dreadful silence until I was ready to press my foot over hers on the accelerator just to speed up in order to get the ride back over with. The tight muscles in her jaw gave her a more rugged appearance each time I dared to glance across at the driver’s side. I couldn’t stop stealing glances. I didn’t want to, but my natural inclination was that this was just so damn backward.
It was just as well I stopped us before we got carried away.
I wasn’t looking for a long distance relationship. Faith left me with a big enough hole in my heart without adding an ocean to the depth of my pain. What if I actually fell for this woman? Then what? Who would relocate? Or would we just commute—an idea I found intolerable. Living on separate continents didn’t exactly make for an easy way to spend time with the one you wanted to be with. There sure was a whole lot of water between us, not to mention, the obvious differences in our cultures, figures of speech, food, perspectives, the list was endless. The moment Robin had us back at the hotel, I stalked off without saying anything to catch the tail end of the icebreaker. I was absently piling finger food on a plate when Debs str
ode over in a huff. “Where were you? The organizer, you know, Rachel Smith, grilled me for an hour on our protocol changes. I could have used your input.”
“I’m sure you handled it just fine, Debs.”
“Actually, I did,” she gloated. “Thank you, oh my, there’s Kirk from California—a bronzed blonde god. He is hot. He says he used to surf back in the day when his clueless youth supposedly had him doing all sorts of stupid stunts.”
“How old is he? He can’t be much older than us.”
“He’s in his fifties, I think, but he sure doesn’t look it. I wouldn’t mind seeing him on top of a board without trunks.”
“On top of a broad without trunks? That’s disgusting, Deborah.”
“I said ‘board.’” She smiled, and leaned into me to whisper, “Where is your head, Janalyn? You’re mind seems a million miles away.”
“I’m sorry, Debs, can you repeat what you just said?” I had an overwhelming desire to get out of there, call it a night because I couldn’t concentrate on anything but my misgivings. I was there to work but found it impossible to get what had happened with Robin out of my head. I had to get back on track. I had to stop this nonsense. I was much too old for a schoolgirl crush and too proud for a mindless fling. I wouldn’t lower my standards. Not even for an influential woman with great lips.
“Too bad he lives so far away.”
“Tell me about it.” I sighed, at once remembering Robin’s kiss.
“Wait. Don’t tell me you’re switching teams? Hands off alert: I saw him first.”
“No way, my lesbian card never expires. He’s all yours.”
She breathed a sigh of relief and followed my gaze, which was planted on Robin, now engaged in a lively discussion with a gorgeous Swedish-looking woman who was touching Robin in a way bordering on obscene and whom I suddenly wanted to beat with a stick. I couldn’t ever remember feeling this possessive of Faith. What was happening to me?
Debs grabbed my arm and nodded in Robin’s direction. “If she were my type, I’d be all over her and not standing here with me.”
“Do not go there,” I said.
“Why? Are you considering a life of celibacy?”
“Let’s just say she is way too much for me at this point.”
Debs eyed me suspiciously. “Where were you for the past hour or so?” She pinched my arm. “Do tell.”
“Ow. There’s nothing to tell.”
“I’ll get it out of you. I always do.”
“Hrmpfff. That reminds me, I need to pee. Catch you later.” I walked off and headed out of the banquet room. I could not stand another second watching Robin and Ms. Touchy-Feely carrying on like it was anybody’s business. What ever happened to professionalism? Why did I even care? I certainly let Robin know I was off limits, so now that I was done with her, why was I riddled with jealousy? I strode to the elevator and fumed all the way up to my floor and remained irritated all the way back down again, when my keycard didn’t work.
How on earth did they design an automobile that started with a key in the ignition or by remote control when they couldn’t perfect a simple room key? Back up at my room, I chucked my clothes and headed for a scalding hot shower, but I was seething. Lowering the water temperature and raising the pressure of the showerhead, I endured the discomfort of a cold pulsing jet spray pounding at my naked flesh while replaying nightjarring with Robin and how badly my body had betrayed me over and over again. At least I had resisted the urge for a one-night stand. Two points scored for virtue and another two for fortitude. But did I totally miss my opportunity here? I was determined to put it out of my head, to lay Robin’s perfect body and infectious naughty grin to rest in my mind, and just wake up the next day with a clean slate.
I practically beat the feathers right out of my pillow as I tried to get comfortable and watched some fluff float around. I tried to catch a feather but missed by a mile when the air movement caused by my hand propelled it too far away. Just as Robin seemed to me now. Light years away. I dreaded to think how I’d feel if I couldn’t bear to leave her and vowed not to let it get to that point no matter what. But I couldn’t stop this strong urge, to the point of insistent ache, knowing I was too sexed up to sleep if I didn’t come. With Debs out until I had no idea when, I toyed with the idea of indulging in a bit of vibrator play, but after all that tossing and turning, I could not summon up the motivation to move. It was going to be a long night.
CHAPTER 9
It took me hours to fall asleep that night and seconds to be catapulted into action the next morning, when an urgent knocking at the door echoed in my pounding head, and I had to get up to stop all the racket. The room was still dark with the blackout shades and drapes closed. Debs’s bed remained untouched. I guessed she’d spent the night with Kirk. The door practically rattled as I dragged myself out of bed.
“I’m coming, coming.” I felt like death warmed over, not exactly an ideal look for when I opened the door, and who should be standing there but Robin? My hand shot up to the bird nest that was most likely my hairstyle du jour. “What time is it? Wait! What are you doing here?”
“It’s eight thirty. When you didn’t come down for breakfast, I thought I’d knock you up.”
“Excuse me? Knock me up?” I laughed my head off.
“I thought I’d come on up to check on you.”
She had a dessert plate in her hand. “It’s a peace offering for the way I behaved last night. There was only one cinnamon bun left. I thought you might like it.”
“Sweet, but I’m so late.”
“Here, take it. You’ll be hungry otherwise.” Robin held out the offering. Her hopeful grin melted me all over again.
“That’s very kind, but how did you find me? I mean, I thought they kept room numbers confidential. I may call and give them a piece of my mind.”
“No need, your friend Deborah, I think that’s her name, she sent me to see what was taking you so long.”
“She did, did she? She’s in big trouble.”
“Go easy on her. I have an arsenal filled with powers of persuasion that are too hard to resist.” She stepped closer into the room in order to allow the cleaner to pass with her cart. I stood totally dumbstruck, unable to stop Robin from entering. How embarrassing when I remembered all I had on was a T-shirt and panties, and my teeth weren’t brushed! My body went into flight or fight mode, at once self-conscious to be seen this way. I could bark at her to back off or slam the door in her face, but neither scenario fit with the way I was blatantly being checked out and how completely I was enjoying it. It was as if my entire body was alight with raging hormones until every heightened sense intensified, clouding my judgment. Only temporarily, as I pulled my thoughts away from my sex-starved body.
“Look, I need to wash up,” I said. Her gaze lingered on my bare legs until heat radiated to my cheeks like I had flaming torches set at my feet. I either had to push her out the door or succumb to going up in flames. That’s all there was to it. I made my decision and stuck with it. “And you need to leave.”
“Can do,” she said. “But first, take this.” She held out the delectable offering, and no amount of willpower could keep me from accepting her gift. Our hands brushed briefly, too briefly, when she added, her voice low and deep, “I’ll see you downstairs. I saved you a seat.”
I cleared my throat. “Thank you, but you really didn’t have to go out of your way.”
“It’s my pleasure.”
I closed the door, mouthing, “I’ll bet.” Debs was going to get a serious talking-to. I didn’t meddle in her private affairs—much. Okay, so I was there for her through the awful breakup of her marriage and she lent me a shoulder to cry on when Faith declined my marriage proposal, but this was different. I took a bite of the cinnamon bun. “Oh my God but this is yummy,” I said aloud.
&
nbsp; After I polished it off, licked my lips and fingers, I caught a glimpse in the mirror and was horrified at my reflection. How mortifying to have been seen this way. The bags under my eyes could pack enough clothes for two conventions in more than one climate. And my hair, ugh. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate my hair? The thick wiry mess was often impossible to get a brush through. This time, I used an entire bottle of conditioner and landed a more presentable self in the lecture hall somewhat decent some twenty-five minutes later. It was the quickest shower and blow-dry in history. I even skipped the elevators and ran down the stairs, thanking my lucky stars that there was a break between lectures with lots of hustle and bustle of changing rooms, networking, and such.
Entering the prime gathering area with the buffet at the back, I looked around. My first thought was what happened to that Swedish woman Robin flirted with from the previous evening? Maybe she had been kidnapped by fairies who intended to feed her to a nasty dragon. I could only hope. I glanced at the clock on my cell and groaned before getting a move on. I helped myself to tea from the back of the lecture hall sporting the topic I was interested in. After I added a dollop of milk to the fragrant brew, I said aloud to no one in particular, “Not bad. Not bad at all. I could honestly get into tea.”
“We invented it,” Robin said. Good thing for the saucer, or I’d have spilled my drink on my blazer.
“Tea plants originated in India or China, not Great Britain,” I informed her.
“Yeah, but, it was a Scottish botanist Robert Fortune who introduced tea from China to India and was responsible for bringing the plant here. We’ve had tea long before America was discovered. The English know their tea.”
Across the Pond Page 13