He jumped in surprise; she did it again and ran. Laughing, he easily caught her and gently swatted her bum. She shrieked. His face was against the side of her neck when he stopped laughing. He pressed his lips against her soft skin, at the spot right behind her ear.
Her breathing changed. Their lips met. As their kiss deepened, he became conscious of her soft, full breasts pressing against him. She moaned. He raised his hands. She gasped when his thumbs caressed her nipples. Trailing his lips downward, his mouth boldly replaced his thumb. The grainy gauze of the shirt rubbed against the thin silk of her bra as his tongue dampened her pointed peaks. She shifted restlessly against him. Impatiently, she tugged at the neckline of her shirt until the top buttons loosened. She unclasped her bra. Her breast revealed, face full of anticipation, she closed her eyes.
His heart rate rocketed. God, she was as sexy and responsive as in his fantasies. He hardened and glanced at the bed. He cursed. He didn’t have a condom. “Elizabeth, do you have…”
She interrupted by pushing his mouth onto her chest.
He smiled at her impatience. Bending his head, he greedily suckled. When he shifted one leg to steady himself, his thigh ended up pressing intimately between her legs. Slightly shocked at first when she began to rub herself against him, he became aroused further by her uninhibited behavior; he rhythmically pushed his thigh against her. She briefly protested when he lifted his mouth from one breast to the other. He increased his effort to help her reach her climax. Her body convulsed against his leg then she collapsed against him.
“Wow,” she said a long moment later, after she caught her breath.
Chuckling at her dazed expression, he gave a little bow. “Glad to serve you, madam.”
“Wow. I’ve never…”
“You’ve never what?”
Red-faced, she moved away and fussed with her clothes.
His heart rate descended. His body calmed. He kicked himself for making her uncomfortable and self-conscious. He had moved too fast. “Elizabeth, I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize. I’ve never been with anyone.”
“You mean you’ve never experienced…” His breath caught, sure he had heard wrong. His mind refused to go further.
“No, of course I have, lots of times…”
He started to exhale slowly.
“Just not with anyone else.”
The inside voice in his head screamed happily. She’s a virgin! Bloody great!
“Some guys don’t like an inexperienced woman. You don’t mind, do you?”
“I don’t mind at all,” he managed to answer in what he hoped was a casual voice. She’s a virgin! Bloody great!
“It’s not something I’m…” She stopped and started again. “My family teases me about my love life and lack of it, and… I’ve only recently told Jane.”
“There’s no need for you to feel embarrassed,” he said gently.
“I’m hungry,” she suddenly said.
Amused at how red her face still appeared, he went along with her change of topic. “We shall get you fed then. Which of the five restaurants here would you like to have dinner at?”
“Could we order in? But eat in your room, on the patio? I like your ocean view.”
Over dinner, they kept the conversation light. Keeping specific details to the bare minimum, she told him amusing stories about cultural differences in the practice of medicine here in Vietnam and at home. Proudly, she bragged about her recently published research on a particular parasite. He asked questions but was mainly content to listen. It was obvious how much medicine meant to her and that she loved her work.
After dinner, they sat with their arms around each other and watched the waves. They talked. He expanded on his mother’s death and his guilt, and touched more on his profound regret about his relationship with his father and his hope that his sister would return to college soon.
She reassured him his sister would recover and move on soon, and told him of her own similar experience at sixteen with an older professor. He was upset for her, but he didn’t interrupt while she talked. Afterward, he thanked her for trusting him enough to have shared that. It helped him understand her better.
CHAPTER 14
The Blood!
Jane watched Elizabeth, in her underwear and bra, throw a shirt onto the floor then stick her head into a corner armoire. Her sister pulled out another shirt identical to the one just discarded. Jane laughed. “I like this new girly-girl you. I’ve never seen you this flustered about your clothes before.”
“Arrggh. I can’t find anything right to wear.”
Jane eyed the frayed edges of her sister’s underwear. “You need some new clothes, especially new undies, sexy ones—not grandma type.”
“I hate shopping.”
“How about getting a whole new wardrobe made by a good seamstress? It’s not too much money. Chau’s mom could help arrange it,” Jane suggested. “Which reminds me, should we be better hosts and take Bill Collins off their hands?”
“No. He likes their attention and they like giving it to him. He’s their American pet. They have the patience of saints.” Elizabeth threw the second shirt on the floor and disappeared into the armoire again. A moment later, her head reappeared. “Jane, do you think I’m sexually unappealing?”
Jane almost laughed until she realized her sister was indeed serious. “Is it not going… well?”
“No.” Elizabeth’s face was the color of a pink lychee fruit. “I mean, it’s just not going. I think my being a virgin inhibits him. We kiss, and I want more, but then he always stops. We’ve been dating seriously for days now, and we seem to have gone backward.”
“Days and nothing has happened? Imagine that,” Jane said dryly. Trust Elizabeth to be impatient. The girl waited all this time to have sex and now she wanted it yesterday.
“The blood! He’s afraid of the blood.”
“You’re not thinking clearly. Your brain is clouded by lust. He’s not going to be afraid of a little blood if it means he gets into your pants.”
“If only I’d paid closer attention to that porn film during my human sexuality class in psychiatry, the part when they talked about reading your partner’s signals.”
“You sound like you’re talking about an Animal Planet film on mating instead of titillating porn.”
“I am titillated. By him! Every time I see him I want to rip his clothes off and feel his body and—”
“Okay, okay, stop!” Jane firmly cut in. “TMI! I get the picture. It’s not a test you can prepare for by studying. Just let it flow.”
“But it’s not flowing. He stops. I need clear instructions on how to get him to keep going.” Elizabeth’s blush was now the color of passion fruit. “What if I tell you I did something so unusual that I probably disgusted him the first time we were, um… fooling around?”
“I’m sure you didn’t.”
“I’m thinking I did,” Elizabeth insisted, still blushing. “That’s why I’ve been waiting for him to make the first move. What if I mess up again? What if I miss an important cue or something?”
“You’re being a mushroom head. Stop overthinking. It will come naturally at the right time, trust me.” Jane couldn’t believe she was giving sex advice to Lizzy, the intrepid, adventurous one. “They don’t let unmarried people stay together in the same hotel room here. How are you going to get together with him?”
“It’s not that strict at the resort. Besides, William and I have been in each other’s room.”
“Lizzy, you have to be discreet. You’re probably being watched a bit closer than the usual tourist. You’re staff there, as little as you do,” Jane reminded her sister. With the orphanage next door, there was no possibility of William spending the night at their cottage.
The sound of a hammer banging interrupted. Elizabeth peered out the window into the orphanage’s courtyard. “Charles has made some progress, I see.”
“Yes, slowly,” Jane said. Charles had offe
red to build a new playground for the orphanage, a one- or two-day project that had stretched much longer. Jane suddenly remembered Elizabeth planned to take William for a tour of the historical fifteenth-century town nearby. “Are you meeting William here for your trip to Hoi An this morning?”
“No, at the resort. I need to go the hospital to check on some patients first though. Did I tell you an anonymous donor from some charitable foundation in New York has paid for many of the patients’ medications?” Elizabeth put on another shirt. “Speaking of New York, William has been staying up late making calls to there. I think he’s looking hard for employment.”
“You ‘think’?”
“He’s not aware I know he’s unemployed.” Elizabeth buttoned her shirt. “He’d feel bad if he discovered I already know Charles is covering his expenses here. Remember Charles told us about William looking for work, when he apologized for William’s abrupt leaving that day at Merry Bar?”
“If William’s embarrassed about being unemployed, then I guess it’s too early in your relationship to be talking about a sensitive topic like that. That reminds me, you have enough money for your trip today?”
“I’m not going to buy anything. William always insists on paying if I even express the slightest interest, so I’m not even going to look at anything at all. It’s bad enough he won’t let me share our expenses.”
“I’m sure he can still afford the occasional day trip and a trinket or two. He’s on vacation, after all. What kind of work does he do? I know it’s some kind of corporate business, work, right?”
Elizabeth nodded. “Something involving studying a lot of spreadsheets. He looks at numbers and sees how a company is doing financially.”
“Some kind of auditing or accounting work, then. He does fit the accountant type—very methodical and detail-oriented. Do you think he’s embarrassed about being an unemployed accountant while he’s dating you, a doctor? Some men might have a complex about that.”
“He definitely fits the type. He’s a proud and prickly kind of guy.” Elizabeth made a face. “Always trying to prove to me he can afford things and never looks at the prices.”
Jane said, “Not everyone counts their pennies like you do. But then, technically, you’re also unemployed. Oh, Mom called. There’s a letter for you from Doctors Without Borders. Dad read the letter and said it’s nothing. I think Mom’s worried you’re going to go somewhere dangerous after Vietnam.”
“She worries too much.”
***
“How about a break?” Chau stood in the doorway of Elizabeth’s office and held two cups of drip coffee in her hands.
“Come in. I’d love some.” Elizabeth smiled at her friend and accepted a cup. “I don’t see your shadow.”
“Bill left to meet with a friend, a Mr. Wickham.”
Elizabeth almost dropped her coffee cup in her surprise. “Bill’s friends with George Wickham?”
“They met in Tai Pei, on the way here. I think Bill must have told Mr. Wickham about your working at the resort. My brother said Mr. Wickham had been looking for you for a couple of days before he met up with you. Bill tried to give him some medical advice”—Chau smiled a rueful smile—“but if Mr. Wickham was looking for you, he must have needed to see a real doctor.”
Elizabeth frowned. William was right: George Wickham had sought her out to cause trouble for William. “Thanks for taking care of Bill. I know he’s a pain.”
Chau set down her cup. “I’m going to marry him.”
“What?” Elizabeth laughed and took a sip of her coffee. “I’m sorry. For a moment I thought you said you’re going to marry him.”
“I did… say that.”
“But why?” Elizabeth said before she could stop herself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“I want to get married. He’s a good man. He appreciates me and my family. I think he’s lonely. Though his mother is alive, he can’t live with her and she won’t let him.” Chau’s tone was both puzzled and sad.
About to explain American parents didn’t feel the need to live with or take care of their grown children, Elizabeth stopped herself, ruefully recognizing the futility of explaining that concept to her traditional Vietnamese friend. Chau’s culture valued filial and parental duty above all else. Instead, she simply said, “It’s just the cultural difference between here and America. I haven’t lived at home since I left for college, and Berkeley’s only twenty minutes from Orinda, where my parents live.”
“I can’t imagine not living with my parents if I wasn’t married.”
“You’re not rushing into marriage because you want to leave home, then?”
“Hardly.” In a serious tone, Chau added, “I’m not in love with Bill, nor he with me. Perhaps we’ll have that romantic movie-ending love some day. I’m okay if we don’t. I can be a good wife to him.”
“I’m sure you will.” Elizabeth longed to question out loud if Bill Collins would be a good husband, but she squashed the urge.
“Bill and I can make a marriage together and support each other. He has no job, and no one who cares for him to come home to now. I want to take care of him.”
Elizabeth couldn’t see wanting to take care of a man, much less the annoying Bill Collins, as a good reason for marrying, but then an image appeared of William returning to New York, jobless, alone, and having no one to care for him. She reached a hand toward Chau’s and said with true sincerity, “I understand perfectly.”
***
Later, when she got to the resort, Elizabeth went first to the Merry Bar and talked to Chau’s brothers. She spent some time with them, making sure she got all her facts straight.
Afterward, she found William outside the resort, talking to a cyclo driver.
“Hi, sorry to keep you waiting,” she greeted William.
He introduced the cyclo driver. “This is Tri. He offered us a ride, but I told him we were taking a car to Hoi An.”
As they headed toward their car, she smiled at William. “Listen to you, chatting with a local like you’re Charles Bingley’s twin.”
He chuckled and confessed, “I didn’t understand much of what Tri actually said. I guessed.”
She squeezed his hand. “But you’re trying, and that’s why I love you.”
They settled themselves into the car. Out of a corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a man watching them from behind a palm tree. The driver maneuvered the car away from the resort and she worked to distract William from seeing George Wickham. She was determined not to have anyone ruin William’s enjoyment of the day.
She knew how to take care of Wickham. No one messed with the man she loved.
CHAPTER 15
Escort Service
“You look so serious.” Elizabeth handed Darcy a glass. “Here you go. I brought you an iced tea, love.”
“Thank you.” Darcy turned from watching the waves to smile at her. He loved how the endearment easily rolled off her tongue. “Just momentarily preoccupied with work-related thoughts.”
She sat down at the foot of his beach chair. “Have you been getting one of your headaches?”
He shifted his legs to make more room for her. “No. Why do you ask?”
“You’re been distracted the last couple of days.”
“Have I been boring?” he teased and took a sip. “I’ve been up late making phone calls, work-related calls, that’s all.”
“Tell me about these calls.”
“Nothing worth talking about.” He put down his iced tea and wrapped his arms around her, glad he’d reserved a private beachside cabana this evening. A cool ocean breeze brushed over them, loosening a few strands of her hair to stroke at his face. “I don’t want to waste our time together talking about my work or, as is the case lately, my not working.”
She laid her hands on his arms. “About you not work—”
“Shhh. Let’s enjoy ourselves and the view here,” he interrupted and nuzzled her hair, delighting in the hint of vanill
a he smelled. He loved the way her long hair kept falling out of the clip she used to keep it tied back. She once confessed she kept it long only because she never had the time or money to keep it maintained in a shorter, more fashionable style.
Money. He swallowed a sigh. So stubborn, so sensitive, so poor, his proud Elizabeth always insisting he not spend money on her. The difference in their financial situation must bother her.
Earlier, after carefully perusing the prices on the menu at one of the restaurants in the resort, she asserted she’d preferred a picnic on the beach. Being frugal seemed to be very important to her. He usually went along with her budgeting quirks. He didn’t want to prick her pride by making an issue of it, though he hoped she’d allow him to spoil her as their relationship progressed.
Her fingers tensed atop his arms. “William, you told me to ask if I had questions?”
He wondered why she was nervous. He kept his voice light to put her at ease. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“Jane sometimes calls me a mushroom head, so top heavy I lose my balance, my common sense.”
“Elizabeth, you’re stalling. What is it you’re afraid to ask?” he said gently. When she remained silent, her fingers picking at his sleeves, he added in the same light tone, “Is this another question about my sexuality?”
“Yes… in a way.”
He stiffened. He turned her to face him. “I thought we settled that issue. I’m not gay.”
“That’s not what I mean. I know you’re not gay. It’s just that I would like to…”
“Would like to?” he prompted.
The words rushed from her. “Why haven’t you wanted to sleep with me?”
“There’s nothing in the world I’d rather do now than to take you to my room and make love to you and not let you see the sun for days.”
Her eyes oversized and her cheeks crimsoned. “Oh.”
Chuckling, he lowered his head and briefly touched his lips to hers. “But, unfortunately, this isn’t the right time or place.”
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