by Marnie Perry
Again he was amazed at how easily she let him win their small battle of wills. She had tried to hide it and she would never admit to it, but she was pleased by his peremptoriness.
As they ate they chatted and laughed and as they did their laughter became less and less strained and the argument or “spat,” as he had called it became less and less important.
When they had eaten and he had given her a disapproving look because she had not eaten all he had put in front of her he said, ‘would you like to take a walk? I’ll show you the river.’
She said with alacrity, ‘yes please.’ She made to rise but he was up before her and held out his hand which this time she accepted.
They walked hand in hand through the trees towards the river. When they got there she let go of his hand and ran towards it. She stood staring in awe at the crystal clear water and the sight of the fish leaping in and out as though showing off to her. She turned to him and the smile she gave him made the sun seem pale in comparison.
He said mischievously, ‘now are you glad you didn’t stay in the car.’
She pursed her lips and have him an impatient look, ‘you do like to push your luck don’t you.’
‘Always.’
She stuck out her tongue and he laughed, ‘there it is again, that oh so ladylike habit.’
She laughed too and he came to stand beside her. He took her hand again most gratified when she squeezed his fingers affectionately.
They sat down and were silent for some time just enjoying the scenery and each other.
Eventually his tone serious he said, ‘look, I don’t want really want to resurrect what happened earlier but I have to say this, you might get some aggravation from the Carters about it. I’m leaving tomorrow and feel as if I’m leaving you in the middle of the fray.’
She looked across the river and said, ‘don’t worry about me, I’m used to aggravation.’
‘Maybe, but I still feel bad. I was the one that was rude, you did nothing wrong, but they might tell others, they seem to know everyone in Eden and they might treat you differently, maybe give you a hard time, make you uncomfortable.’
She saw the truth of this but said, ‘Sterling, I don’t think for a moment that Annie Bloom or Dean would give me a hard time, they’re decent people, and if they do it would only prove they weren’t very nice people to begin with, and I don’t believe that.’
He gave her a doubtful smile, ‘you see the good in everyone don’t you.’
‘Perhaps I just prefer to believe that there’s some good in even the very worst of us.’
He wondered if she would still believe that after she discovered what kind of person he was. It was just such a pity that he had to disabuse her of that belief.
He said, ‘if everyone thought as you did the world would be a lot nicer place that’s for sure.’
Her face tuned pink, ‘the world is a nice place, on the whole.’
He shook his head at her naivety and innocence. ‘If it is, it’s people like you that make it so.’
She looked away again, ‘now you’re being silly again.’
He took her hands and there was no trace of amusement in the eyes that looked into hers as he said, ‘I’m neither being silly nor lying, neither am I being charming, but telling the truth as I see it.’ He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her fingers one by one, then her eyes then her cheeks and finally her lips. His kiss was so gentle and tender that she wanted to cry suddenly. ‘I want to tell you that I’ll miss you, and that I’ll never forget you, Adela Faraday, never.’
She was deeply moved her eyes filled with tears as she took his face in her palms and kissed him as he had done her, his eyes and cheeks and lips. Her voice trembled as she said, ‘I’ll miss you too, Sterling Hennessey, so very much.’
He took her in his arms and laid her down on the grass then put his head on her chest, he could feel the erratic beating of her heart as she stroked his hair and layered it through her fingers, it send a shiver through him.
They lay there contented, or at least she was. Hennessey was thinking that he shouldn’t have called her by her full name again, he cursed himself for that, the last thing he wanted was her to be distracted now, but was relieved when she had made no comment on it. He ran his hand up and down her leg as he said, ‘this is what they must mean by contentment.’
She said nothing but her grip tightened in his hair as she made a kind of purring sound that did something to his insides, it was the same sound she had made the evening before when he had pleased and satisfied her.
His head still resting on her chest he continued to run his hands up and down the outside of her leg then slowly moved his hand to caress the inside of her thigh. The little moan she gave encouraged him to move his hand further up to her belly then under her top to her breasts. She tensed but only for a moment as he raised her top then her bra over her breasts and began to massage them gently but firmly as he took her left nipple and rolled it round and round between his thumb and forefinger.
She gave a satisfied little sigh as she griped his hair tighter with one hand and reached under his shirt with the other and began to run her fingernails slowly and sensually up and down his back settling on the space between his shoulder blades sending tingles all down his spine as it had last night. He moved so that he was lying to the side of her and treated the other nipple to the same treatment making her groan afresh. He buried his face between the mound of her breasts and licked the hot skin there. He looked down on her breasts the nipples of which were hard and erect, then he looked into her eyes and saw the desire and anticipation there.
He smiled and she gave a shaky smile back. He bent his head to kiss her taking her mouth gently at first running his tongue over her lips then with more urgency and when his tongue found hers she groaned out her pleasure as she received the scorching kiss. He moved his hand down her stomach to the space between her legs which she parted in readiness for him; his hand reached into her panties and found her sex which to his satisfaction was already very wet.
He inserted a finger inside her and she arched her back and moaned aloud, he inserted another and began to cares her clitoris with his thumb until she moaned and writhed beneath him.
Adela was hardly capable of thought, if she had been she would have asked herself why sensible Adela Faraday was lying beneath a man in the open air letting him do these things to her, wonderful, pleasurable, ravishing things. But right now she was incapable of rational thought; she was acting purely on primal instinct and pleasure, as though she was intoxicated.
She moaned again as his teeth bit gently into her nipple. She removed her hand from his hair and to his pants where she began to undo his belt but to her surprise his hand gripped hers and stopped her. He raised his head she met his eyes and said huskily, ‘let me please you too.’
He smiled, ‘later, first you.’
Adela was torn between wanting to please him and being grateful to him for his consideration of her, for his unselfishness. She would perhaps have thought that he was not turned on by what was happening between them, except that when she had touched him before he had grabbed her hand proved otherwise, he had been aroused. That thought was gratifying and at the same time terrifying. But the next moment all thought was driven from her head as he once more began that movement with his thumb and fingers that sent her into a paroxysm of ecstasy. She moaned and called his name out loud as the orgasm ripped through her, then another and still another until she lay spent and completely content.
Then as her mind once again began to rejoin the real world she waited for him to enter her and complete the act of lovemaking, but to her surprise he laid his head beside hers and looked into her eyes that were still glazed with passion. He smiled a soft, tender smile and stroked her cheek gently with one had while with the other he straightened her clothes. She swallowed hard and her voice a whisper said, ‘Sterling, don’t…don’t you want to…to do it.’
He kissed her forehead, ‘I tol
d you before I don’t want you to do something you might regret.’
‘I won’t regret it, Sterling, I couldn’t regret it.’
He frowned and something appeared in his eyes, that same something she had seen the previous night but could not for the life of her ascertain what it I was.
He said, ‘I want to please you, to give you an experience you’ll never forget, and if I do make love to you it might be something you’d rather hadn’t happened.’
‘What…what do you mean?’
He looked away then back at her before saying, ‘I have no condoms with me, so unless you do…’
He left the sentence unfinished and watched as realisation dawned and her face became very pink. ‘Oh, oh I see.’ He smiled. She wet her lips and said, ‘but I could, you know, to you.’
He propped his head onto his palm and looked down at her and the shy, bashful expression on her face caused a tightness in his stomach and his heart to flutter in his chest. His voice was husky as he said, ‘thank you, but I’m afraid that I might not be able to stop there,’ his palm stroked her face, ‘you’re a lovely, passionate, sexy woman and it would be so easy to get carried away with you, and I promised myself I wouldn’t let that happen, it wouldn’t be fair to you. I don’t want you to leave this country with something more than memories of me to take with you.’ He kissed her, ‘don’t worry about me, pleasing you is a pleasure for me too. That was lesson number one wasn’t it?’
She didn’t look totally convinced but what could she say, he was being the perfect gentleman, pleasing her whilst asking nothing in return, what more could a woman ask?’
In fact he hadn’t completely lied to her; he had been pleased with her response just as he had been last night. There was something so vulnerable and defenceless and artless about her, about the way she acted and behaved and never more so than when she lay beneath him and let him take control of her. But when she had offered shyly and nervously to pleasure him it had surprised him, there had been that same something in her eyes, that something he had never seen in the eyes of a woman before, or perhaps he had never looked for it, never wanted to look for it.
But if he had been taken aback by that he had been amazed when she had taken it for granted that he would have full sexual intercourse with her. She had been ready and willing and although that had been his intention when he had planned this day, somehow he couldn’t do it, not even then when she had all but offered.
It had been somehow very touching and he was rarely touched by anything. In that moment he had let her get to him, let her reach a part no human being had reached for a long time, and he couldn’t do it. Maybe he was a cold hearted bastard, but perhaps he wasn’t a cold hearted evil bastard.
He shrugged aside those feelings and concentrated on why he was here, why he had done what he just had to her, he knew this might be his one and only chance to get the information he needed while she was vulnerable and liking him again.
He had to go for it, it was now or never because tomorrow he would have to leave, it would seem odd if he made an excuse to stay since he had told her his cousin’s wedding was the day after. So he took a deep breath and said, ‘can I make a confession?’
‘You want to find a church?’
He pinched her buttock, she cried, ‘ouch,’ then giggled.
‘No, to you. It’s apropos to what I was saying before I was interrupted by all the kissing and stuff.’ She laughed gaily but his tone was suddenly serious as he said, ‘I just wanted to say that although I feel guilty about leaving you to face the towns folk I know you’ll be all right, you’ve made some good friends there, and anyway you’re moving on soon. No, it’s not that I feel most guilty about, it’s something I mentioned before; you started to tell me something that’s been worrying you. I would hate to leave thinking that you have something on your mind, or that you’re troubled in some way that I could have helped you with.’ He raised his head to look down at her flushed face. ‘You were saying something happened when you were in Alabama. Will you tell me now what that something was?’
She said nothing only lowered her eyes and the fingers she still had in his hair tightened.
He said, ‘if you don’t want to that’s okay, but I felt you were concerned about something. Look, I’m a man of considerable resources you know. I was a marine once upon a time and I can still take care of myself. I put up a good fight for those I care about.’ She raised her eyes to his and he could see that she was struggling with herself. She trusted him that was clear, but she was torn between trusting him and letting someone else in on her secret, and not just hers, but Desi’s too.
He wasn’t sure whether to persevere or if that might seem too obvious. As he waited she said, ‘Sterling, I would like to tell you, I will tell you, but not here, can you come to my cabin tonight? I’ll cook dinner and I’ll tell you everything that happened in Alabama.’
His relief was so intense he almost leapt to his feet and did a little jig but controlled himself and said as sincerely as he could, ‘yes, of course, I’ll be there. I’d go anywhere and do anything for you, I hope you know that.’ Was that too much? Obviously not, because she looked at him with intense gratitude in her eyes.
His delight manifested itself in humour as he said, ‘but dinner at your cabin? Well, that’ll be different, can you cook?’
She was glad of his humour and punched his arm saying, ‘I’ll have you know I’m a great cook. Although I can’t promise to wear a napkin over my arm and carry a tray of drinks aloft, but I think you’ll enjoy it.’
He felt almost dizzy with pleasure and laughed a little more heartily than her joke otherwise warranted but she didn’t se to notice. He asked, ‘what time?’
‘Say, eight?’
‘Eight it is.’ He kissed her lips making sure he was as tender as he could possibly be. He smiled down on her then looked up at the sky which was now cloudy although neither had noticed until now. ‘I think we should leave now, it looks like it’s about to rain.’
Instead of standing up and helping her to her feet he reached around her and took her in his arms then got to his feet. He kissed her again and she smiled and said, ‘you do like to prove how strong you are don’t you?’
‘Only to you.’
She giggled and squeezed his bicep, ‘I hope you’re going to carry me all the way to the car.’
‘Er, well, to be honest I’m a bit worn out.’ She laughed and he added, ‘yes, carrying all that food has taken it out of me.’
She gave him a mock exasperated look and said, ‘wimp.’
‘I know, but I’m in touch with my feminine side so that makes me attractive to women.’
She burst out laughing. He put her down and picked up the bag and they began to walk back the way they had come. They reached the stream and she was faced with the same dilemma as when they had crossed before. But to his surprise, and before he could say anything, she ran and leapt onto the stone she had been unable to reach on the way across, then leapt agilely onto the next one then stopped and turned around and said, ‘come on, wimp, or shall I come back and carry you?’ He pursed his lips and sent her a derogatory look before stepping onto the stone and following her.
When they were both on dry land he said, ‘I owe you for that wimp business.’
She gave him a cheeky grin and just then a raindrop landed on her nose. He said, ‘see, even the gods are with me.’
She laughed out loud and he joined in, they had almost reached the car when it began to rain in earnest. They both ran the last few yards, he opened the passenger door and she hastily leapt in, he ran round to the driver’s side and threw himself in laughing, Adela was laughing too. She never thought when they had fallen out as they had earlier that they would both be laughing together a few hours later, that he had done to her what he had by the lake.
But then she never could have imagined when she began this holiday that the things that had happened would have happened. That she would have met someone like Sterling Hen
nessey, that she would have shared such fun and laughter not to mention intimacy with a man like him. That she would have met someone like Olivia, on the run from a sick, twisted, evil slave trader.
Thoughts of Olivia sobered her for a moment. Tonight she would tell Sterling all about it and ask what he thought. Ask him if she had done the right thing in not calling the police, in leaving Olivia to make her own way in the world, afraid and alone. She now had no doubts about telling him, he would put her mind at rest, he would comfort and support her. She felt as though a great weight was slowly being lifted from her. Yes, she was doing the right thing.
She was brought out of her reverie by him saying, ‘penny for them?’
‘Sorry.’
‘Or are they worth more than that?’ Five million bucks? He thought.
Her voice was very soft as she answered, ‘oh I was just thinking that despite the rain it’s turned out to be a pretty wonderful day hasn’t it? Thank you, Sterling.’
He couldn’t prevent the frown from creasing his forehead as he looked at her. She had not even mentioned the Carters or the argument they’d had. She was so easy to please, so eager too please and this time the affection he felt was genuine and could not be denied. Once again he hated Glissando for being the devil and putting temptation in his way, and he hated himself for letting himself be tempted. But temptation seemed to be the theme of this macabre play, he was tempted by her, she by him, he by Glissando, Glissando by greed and revenge all coming round to meet each other in a horrible, vicious circle.
He didn’t have to fake the hoarseness in his voice as he replied, ‘yes, yes it has, wonderful.’
She smiled a bright smile and before he could stop himself he leaned forward and kissed her. He had meant it to be a fierce kiss that would have betrayed his frustration, but he found himself gently touching his own lips to hers. As he did so he couldn’t help the thought that came unbidden to him that this was how Judas must have felt. He pulled back abruptly, ashamed of himself, of his sudden weakness and now his self hatred was transferred to her for making him feel this way. As he settled back in his seat and switched on the engine he consoled himself that tonight he would know everything, he wouldn’t have to hurt her any more than was necessary, that was at least something he could be grateful for.