She looked at him, her beautiful eyes considering him. Her lips were swollen and red; he couldn’t stop kissing them, addicted to the pleasure that suffused his brain. Her lips were like a drug and he constantly needed more. “So what exactly is it we’re doing here?” she said after a while.
The pancake was ready and he moved over to flip it before returning to his spot between her thighs. “Getting things started.”
“Getting what started?”
“The long overdue Cory and Trish thing.”
“Which tends to falter at the first hurdle.”
“Not this time.”
“What makes now so different?”
“Because there is too much to lose, and I don’t really want to chase you all over the world unless I have to. We have it good here.”
She didn’t looked convinced. She didn’t trust him and he hated it. Okay, he got why she didn’t; he just wished she would understand that it really was different this time. She would seriously pack up and leave if he fucked up again.
“I thought this was all too scary to deal with,” she said, taking the pancake he offered to her.
“Yes, well, time to man up, I guess.” He kissed her again, getting lost in it until the vague smell of burning tingled through his nostrils. Damn it, pancake burning, but he didn’t care. He let it burn for a while longer before he pulled himself away and scooped it up. One in the trash.
The process repeated and he tried to tear himself away sooner so they’d actually end up with something on their plates.
They ate on the sofa. They guys had left for work already and the house was quiet. On the one hand, he didn’t want to leave, happy to stay here on the sofa and rub her feet all day, maybe watch a movie or two, but he also wanted to go out, explore the world with her at his back. He actually did love having her on his bike, their tiny little bubble of space travelling around the world. They could cruise down to one of the little villages beyond Estepona, stop somewhere for lunch, maybe even go for a swim along the way.
“Come on, let’s go.” Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to be out there. It occurred to him that if things went to plan, they’d be doing Europe together from now on, then returning to Australia together. He could even see them on the flight, next to each other, arriving in Bangkok for a few days of hanging. It was daunting for a moment, but also exciting. They were going to share from now on, starting today. “Do you want me to take you home to change first?”
“That would probably be a good idea,” she said and took the helmet from him. At least she was willing to give him this change, tentatively if nothing else. He wasn’t going to let her go this time, in case she dissipated like mist.
Chapter 57
The coast of Naples stretched out ahead, almost a little misty in the morning sunshine. Alexi stood with Rosalie at his side and watched as the boat steadily moved closer. The salt of the sea was refreshing and it wasn’t too hot this time of day.
Mount Vesuvius stood farther back like the sleeping beast it was, quietly ignoring the life milling around its edges, covered in dark green vegetation.
They had travelled through the night after a day at sea. Throughout dinner last night, he’d asked her about her research and she’d explain in detail. Her face lit up when she spoke about the things she’d discovered. He did envy her a little at the simple pleasures she received from her work. In truth, he’d been committed to the profit more than the nature of his work. It was all a commodity in the end, whether forestry, land, infrastructure. It was all about delivering something for the highest degree of profit.
They passed a few fishing vessels, no doubt pursuing meagre catches in these waters. There was a car waiting to take them wherever they wanted to go. He’d booked lunch at a nice restaurant down the coast a bit, up a cliff and looking back at Naples.
Turning, he saw Rosalie’s eyes on the coastline approaching in the distance. She looked beautiful, her hair moving with the sea breeze. During the previous day, she had relaxed a little in his company, but she had retired early, leaving him to seek his own cabin, where he lay on the bed watching the ceiling. Ideally, he’d wanted to talk with her more, but sometimes Rosalie required time by herself—he remembered that.
That person she had been, the passionate girl who believed anything was possible was still in there—a bit tempered, but still there. Fundamentally she hadn’t changed all that much.
“Are you hungry? Breakfast is ready to serve.”
“I suppose we have a busy day ahead.”
Unfortunately they weren’t going to be entirely alone. He had requested the site be closed for them, but the Italian authorities had denied him. Money didn’t always have its way. The woman walking just ahead of him proved that. It used to deeply annoy him when he didn’t get his way, but now he found it a bit comforting at times, to know that there was more to the world than wealth.
Croissants, scrambled eggs and fruit was what she ate. “I am looking forward to today,” she finally said when she finished. The coast line was closer now and it would only be about half an hour before they arrived.
“It will be an interesting day,” Alexi agreed, although he was more intrigued by the company than the site. He wasn’t completely uncaring about archaeology and ancient worlds, but he had an objective in mind and switching off from an objective went against his nature.
The car sped them to the site down narrow streets after having picked them up from a jetty along Torre de Greco. They had to drive through a dense, modern residential area before the houses turned older, built with white stucco walls. The archaeological site was a grey mass surrounded by houses. A few empty tour buses were there, having been relieved of their passengers. Seeing them annoyed Alexi. He still wanted the site for just the two of them, but then Rosalie would probably not care.
Stepping out, he paid the entrance fee with a couple of hundred euro bills and walked in. The whole site was made of stone and was eerily quiet. A few colourful but elderly tourists were seen wandering around, wearing comfortable shoes, sun hats and cameras around their necks. “Merv, come see this,” a woman with a broad American accent said. “You’ll never guess what this was.”
They walked down heavy stone roads, which gave way to packed earth. The houses were in different states of disrepair, some looking almost inhabitable, while in other areas, they were plain rubble. There were stretches of round arches, which Alexi assumed had been businesses. There were remnants of temples and wide tree-lined avenues, then narrow back alleys.
“If you had lived in Herculaneum, which of these houses would have been yours?” he asked after a while. “Would you have been wealthy?”
She smiled. “You would have been. I would probably have been a temple attendant.”
They walked into a building with clay pots along the wall. “I would guess this was a tavern,” she said. Frescos on the wall suggested drinking. The people in this region had been quite literal in their depictions from what he could remember.
They kept exploring, walking towards the wealthier part of the city, where frescoes, courtyards and fountains greeted them around many corners. Rosalie studied some of the frescoes. “Academics have noted that the women tend to be fairer than the men, suggesting they predominantly stayed indoors. Also research on their bones indicated the fashion was for larger women.”
Many of the figures on the walls were nude. “They were much more open about sexual life,” he said.
“Yes, but some say the phalluses dotted around the place were actually charms to protect against malicious spirits or intents,” Rosalie smiled. “But yes, they were. A rich man, such as yourself, would have had slaves, as well as courtesans. It was a normal part of life. I suppose not so different from today. Perhaps nothing really changes.”
“Except when the rich man falls in love with a temple attendant. What would have happened then?”
Her eyes travelled to him, a small frown on her brow. Her lips parted slightly and Alexi felt a rush of heat to hi
s groin. “Temple attendants were often celibate.”
“A hopeless situation, then?” Her eyes lowered, colour staining her cheeks. There was nothing contrived or coy about her, she knew exactly what he meant and she was flummoxed by it. He’d give anything to know what went through her mind in that moment. Her reaction gave him hope though.
Rosalie kept walking, continued exploring, and Alexi kept following her. Yes, the site was interesting, but there was something infinitely more interesting walking ahead of him. Her fingers gently touched the stones of a column they walked past and he almost felt the touch on his skin, unable to remember a time his chest had felt this constricted.
“It is almost time for lunch,” he said, watching as she turned back to him. “I have booked a restaurant I think you will like.”
“Oh?”
Raising his palm, he held it out to her, knowing full well he was pushing the boundaries of their so far platonic dealings. This gave her little choice: she either took his hand, or she purposefully ignored it, and she was much too polite for that. The fact that he knew her gave him some advantages in this thing, whatever it was—seduction maybe? Yes, definitely. He wanted her in his bed. He’d wanted her yesterday, but she hadn’t been ready. Was she now?
As expected, she tentatively put her slim hand in his and he smiled.
Chapter 58
The sheets of his bed were clean and smooth, but Felix still felt restless. For days now, he’d felt restless, but couldn’t bring himself to leave, because the source of this restlessness wasn’t out there, it was back here. The bars and restaurants held no appeal at the moment. Actually, nothing held much appeal at the moment.
Giving up on sleep, he got up and made his way out of his room. The house was completely silent, only the ticking of a clock somewhere breaking the noise. Shadows from the lighting in the garden cast along the floor as he walked to a sofa group and sat down. Maybe he should get drunk. That way he could potentially get some sleep.
The uncertainty and unsettled affairs were catching up with him. The fallout from father’s imprisonment hadn’t really eventuated like he’d feared. Actually, nothing had happened and Felix still didn’t know what that meant.
In the end, he turned on the TV and slid down to lie against the armrest of the sofa.
“Can’t sleep?”
Felix jumped. “Fuck, you scared the shit out of me,” he said, his heart beating violently in his chest. “Don’t you make any noise? Make some noise in the future, please.”
“Sorry,” she said, sitting down on the other side of the sofa, wearing soft little shorts and a shirt that hung off one of her shoulders. Immediately Felix felt himself tighten at the sight of her. She’d always been hot—too hot. Her skin looked dark and smooth in the darkness.
“Why are you up?”
“I think I sleep too much during the day now. I probably need to cut down on that.”
“I suppose, you’re getting better.”
The sofa made a rubbing noise as she tucked her legs under her. “What are you watching?”
“I don’t know. I just turned it on. Any preferences?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe something with lots of guns and blowy up stuff.”
“Violent girl,” he admonished and checked out the guide for the movie channels, finding some disaster movie. That would do. “Do you want anything?”
“No, I’m good,” she said, shifting her head back on the head rest as she watched the screen. Light flickered across her face, casting shadows. The innermost part of her lips glistened slightly with reflected light and Felix had to look away.
Leaning across, he picked up his packet of smokes and lit one, leaning back against the edge so he could keep watching her. “Want one?”
“No,” she said without looking at him. “Restricts blood flow.”
He smiled. “It’s certainly not doing that for me.” Finally she looked over at him and he felt his mouth go dry for a second. “I think I have developed a bit of a hard on for you,” he admitted, feeling the exposure he’d just brought on himself, dying to know how she’d react.
“I had kind of noticed,” she said and put her hand out for his cigarette. He gave it to her and watched her take a drag before handing it back. He imagined he tasted her when he put it back to his lips, watching as she blew the smoke out of her lungs. Her attention was back on the film. Well, she hadn’t fallen into his lap at the revelation. He smiled.
He wasn’t bored now, he noticed. All his attention was focused on the girl in front of him, who had now tucked up her knee and was resting her head on it. He wanted her attention back, so he reached his foot out and pushed on her hip. She slapped his foot away. “So you’re just going to leave me here in agony?”
“Yep.”
“So cruel.” Similar in the way to how Trish was, and apparently he was into that. This had been a rather recent revelation, and he had to wonder whether he’d end up like one of those old farts who paid corseted women to whip them. Eh, he thought, there could be worse things.
Reaching his foot along, he teased her again. This time, she kicked him, but he grabbed her ankle, pulling her toward him. She dug her nails into his wrist until he had to let go. “Not going to happen, Felix.”
His father entered his mind. “Why? Have you set your sights on someone else?” Anger infused his blood as he leaned back, putting his arm behind his head.
“Yeah, on the bus ticket that’s going to get me out of here.”
“Where are you going to go?”
“I’m still thinking Amsterdam.”
“And what are you going to do there?” He actually felt a bit of distress thinking about her being gone, as if she was leaving him to the emptiness of his life here.
“There’s always the dancing thing. Or I might get a job in a café or something.”
“You don’t speak Dutch.”
“I’m a quick learner.”
“London would be easier.” Not to mention they had a house in Belgravia.
“Too… ” she started.
“British?”
“Cold.”
“Some would say same thing. Or you could stay here.”
“Can’t, sunshine. Time to go. Burnt my bridges here.”
“And if you can’t get settled in Amsterdam?”
“I guess it might be time to head back to the States.”
He didn’t want her to go, but maybe that was the hard-on speaking. She was utterly delectable, and maybe that was why he’d reacted so firmly to her when she’d showed up, because sooner or later, he’d want to be ensconced in those thighs. The bait had been laid, but she wasn’t taking it.
Tension burned through his body and he turned his attention to the TV, running his hand across his abdomen. He would never get to sleep like this. The film was just meaningless moving scenes and he turned his attention back to her. Well, she was down here, sitting on the couch with him. That couldn’t be meaningless.
“Want some coke?”
“Nope.”
“A drink.”
“You’re not getting me drunk, Felix.”
“There must be something that will loosen those little shorts of yours, which are surprisingly erotic.”
“Nope.”
He groaned in frustration. “I’ll tell you how awfully I was treated at boarding school, the things they did to me.”
“I’m sure my eyes will remain dry. If there is anyone to not feel sorry for, it’s you, Felix. And I’m pretty certain that if there was bullying going on at your school, you weren’t the victim.”
“So brutal. I was young and innocent at one point, you know.”
“Good night, Felix,” she said and rose.
“Don’t go. I haven’t yet told you about mother’s friends hitting on me at a very impressionable age.”
She smiled, but kept walking and Felix flopped back down on the sofa. He watched as she walked up the stairs, disappearing out of sight.
C
hapter 59
The restaurant Alexi had picked was beautiful. The view stretched back across all of Naples, misty and blue in the distance. The water was bright blue and there was a small beach not far away, full of sunbathers on neatly placed sun loungers with white umbrellas. With her skin, sunbathing wasn’t something she did or, arguably, understood.
And then there was the man in front of her. Since the moment she’d arrived in Marbella, she felt as if she’d gone through the wringer with him. As always, there was still that part of him that was utterly mysterious. Today, his attention had been on her; she’d felt it like heat, sometimes making her want to run away. Obviously as a grown woman, she didn’t do such things.
Alexi looked relaxed as he sat opposite her, at the small table at the edge of the restaurant’s balcony. The smell of citrus trees shifted with the salt of the sea. There wasn’t a single other patron in the place. How did they survive with so few customers?
“Have you been here before?” she asked as a way of breaking the silence.
“No.”
The idea that he’d been hitting on her still sat in her mind. It wasn’t overly clear, or maybe it had been and she’d refused to accept it. Perhaps it was a matter of how she wanted to interpret his actions today, which admittedly she didn’t know her thoughts on either.
“We can visit the museum of antiquities after, if you want,” he said, his accent still strong.
“Do you want to?”
“I will do as you wish.”
Were they so different from the people they used to be? Not so long ago, she’d thought he’d changed into something unrecognisable. Perhaps his wealth had clouded her more than she cared to admit.
“Thank you for taking me on this excursion. It’s been lovely. I almost wish it would have been something we had afforded back at Oxford.” In fact, it would have been an absolutely heavenly experience, lovers wandering around Naples, eating at cheap restaurants, exploring a foreign city.
“It is something we can afford now.”
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