Blaze

by Willa Fox

  “I said it’s nothing.” My jaw grits tight. The last thing I expect is for him to snag the front of my top and haul me forward. His lips sweep over mine in a kiss that proves exactly as temping in reality as it does in my head. His mouth is supple but insistent. My head leans back as I open my mouth wider, allowing his tongue to savour me. I’ve lost my mind. That’s why at first I think the screaming is happening inside my head. But then Nate pulls away, his attention dragged towards the beach.

  When I turn too, my stomach lurches. Some teenagers have been diving off the outcropping rock ledge. And now the two on the top are screaming at something in the water. Instinct kicks in and I’m racing towards the water in an instant.

  3

  Nate

  This isn’t the way I thought I’d get Tammy stripped naked tonight. She’s so fast it’s almost impossible to appreciate every curve of her that’s on display. Her skirt falls to the sand and her top comes off a second later.

  How the hell does she undress so quickly? I’ve barely got my jeans off before she’s sprinting into the water. By the time I’m following her in, she’s almost halfway to the floating body. The kids overhead are still screaming their lungs out. Distantly, I hear the lifeguard whistle but there’s no way anybody is going to get to the kid before Tammy does. And then my body hits the water too. I swim out to meet her. I reach her as she’s making her way back to shore. Grabbing onto the kid’s other arm, I help her pull him out of the water. His friends converge on us. So does a small crowd of onlookers.

  Tammy ignores everybody as she checks his throat for blockages and starts to perform CPR. A pair of lifeguards arrive. One of them is a big guy about my age.

  “Ambulance is on its way,” he says to Tammy. She doesn’t respond but just points to the kid’s chest. Together they breathe life into the poor kid. As the wail of the siren can be heard, the kid jerks to life and sputters. He’s got tears in his eyes. His friends wack him on the back and hug him.

  That’s when Tammy finally takes a breath of her own. The big lifeguard throws his arm around her and pulls her into his side. “You okay?” he asks her. He bends down and kisses her temple. Something explodes inside my chest. I take two steps forward and then freeze when she locks her arms around his waist.

  “Yeah I’m fine. Thanks Jared.”

  She glances up at me when she says this but I can hear the unshed tears in her voice. Without thinking, I reach out and grab hold of her arm. She comes away easily as I wrap my arms around her. Jared frowns. He searches my face.

  “Aren’t you Nate Hunter?” he asks.

  I nod. His expression becomes grim. He and Tammy trade a look but he doesn’t say anything. Instead, he goes off to speak to the paramedics when they arrive to look after the kid.

  “Does your entire family hate my guts?” I ask her.

  She laughs. “Not just my family,” she says. “The whole town.”

  “Well then, I think we should get out of here before they bring out their pitchforks.”

  She wriggles in my arms. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little scrutiny?”

  The taste of her is still on my lips. A little sea water couldn’t erase that. I bend my head so that our noses are almost touching. “Since we’re on two opposite sides of this development,” I say, “I was thinking I might try out sleeping with the enemy.”

  She’s still shivering but where our bodies touch, it’s warm enough to give me a hint of the heat that I’ve been imagining since we met. She pushes at my chest, her lower lip caught between her teeth.

  “We aren’t going to do anything like that,” she says. Then she stomps away to pick up her clothes from the sand. I’m smiling as I do the same.

  “I’m not hungry,” she insists when we get back to the picnic. Not that any of it can be salvaged. What hasn’t already been carted away by seagulls is infested with ants or has had sand kicked on it by us when we started running.

  We pack everything up and dump it in the trash cans set up by the council. I use the blanket to wrap around her body as we head to the car. “This isn’t the way to my place,” she says, a frown on her face.

  “I’m taking you back to mine.” I hold up a hand to forestall her protest. “I live about two minutes away and you’re shivering like crazy.”

  “I’ll survive.”

  “Good for you.”

  She throws me daggers with her eyes but I won’t be dissuaded. It’s a warm night but she’s in a bit of shock and she’s probably lost a lot of fuel. Her eyes become saucers when I pull up into my driveway.

  “This is where you live?”

  I glance at the house that’s been built right into the dunes. It’s raised up from the sand with wooden steps leading down onto the private beach. “For now.”

  She mutters something about rich people and steps aside so I can open the front door. “Drop everything on the bathroom floor and get in the shower,” I tell her. She peers at me with one brow raised. “I promise I won’t peek.”

  Of course when I hear the water running I can’t think about anything else but her smooth skin with steam wafting off it. Then there’s the issue of what she’s going to wear. The thought of her in one of my T-shirts without panties is too much to bear. Thankfully, my phone rings just after I call for the pizza.

  “Hey, Mum,” I say, sitting down on the couch.

  “Hi, darling.”

  “How are you feeling today?”

  “Better. The therapists won’t tell me anything though. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?”

  She’s too smart for her own good and too good for my old man. Always had been. Yeah I told the therapist at her facility not to ever discuss her progress in front of her. She’s not some lab rat and she won’t get any better if they treat her like she’s disabled.

  “Sorry I haven’t had a chance to come see you this week,” I say, doing a terrible job of changing the subject. “Work has been crazy.”

  “You’re twenty-nine, darling,” she says. “Work shouldn’t be all your life is about. You never even had a chance to be a kid.”

  I run my hand through my hair. “Life isn’t about fun, Mum.”

  She gives a soft laugh. “Then you’re not living it right, baby.”

  It breaks my heart hearing her say those words. Some dumb shit runs into her on the fucking sidewalk no less and she’s talking to me about fun. The doctors are sceptical that she’ll ever walk again but I’ve got her in a state of the art medical facility where I’ve been assured that they’ve had some miracle breakthroughs. It’s expensive as hell but I’ll do anything to keep her there.

  I hear the bathroom door open. “Listen,” I say. “I’ve got to go. But I’ll come see you next week okay?”

  “Of course,” she says. “Nate. I’d rather not be here if it means you needing to do something that makes you uncomfortable.”

  I smile softly. “I love you. See you next week.”

  I hear footsteps and when I glance around, Tammy is leaning against the door wrapped up in my bathrobe. Everything about her is soft except for the flinty expression in her eyes. “Who was that?” she says before I have a chance to explain.

  My lips curl up into a smile. “My mum.”

  “Oh.”

  I brush past her on my way to the bathroom and touch her hip. “Pizza’s on its way. I left my credit card on the hall table.”

  And then I head towards the shower, my dick pressing against hard against my boxers. I know exactly the kind of fun I want to have but I don’t think my mum would approve of it if she knew.

  4

  Tammy

  This is getting out of hand. The reaction I had when I heard Nate tell someone on the phone that he loved them isn’t normal. It was like acid was corroding my insides. And then he told me it was his mum and now I’m sitting here all warm and glowing. So when the pizza guy arrives, I tell him I’ll pay him fifty bucks if he gives me a lift back into town. He nods, glancing at me like I’m insane.r />
  “Give me a sec.”

  I race back inside and gather my things. I don’t relish the idea of sitting in a stranger’s car without panties on but anything is better than staying here and potentially getting myself into a compromising position. The bathroom door opens just as I’m scrambling for my stuff.

  Nate comes out dressed in only a pair of black sweats. Shit! He takes one look at the situation, me scrambling to get my skirt on under the robe and the pizza guy hovering at the door. Uh oh. He’s pissed as he stalks to the front door. I don’t hear the exchange but I do hear the pizza guy thank him before the front door closes. His expression is almost as dark as the water in the ocean this evening. My heart races a mile a minute. Even worse than when I was in the water and realised just how out of shape I’d become. I back up as he comes into the room.

  “You were seriously just going to disappear?” he asks.

  “We shouldn’t be doing this,” I say.

  “Doing what? What exactly do you think is happening?” He takes a couple of steps into the room. I back up and my legs hit the side of the couch.

  “Nothing should be happening,” I say. “This was all a big mistake. I’m going to leave and I’ll phone you at your office tomorrow to discuss the issue of the Lodge.”

  One second he’s a few steps away and the next he’s right in front of me. His chest blocks out the view of the door. Eep! He grabs hold of the bathrobe that keeps slipping from my shoulders and yanks it off. At the same time he slips his arm around my waist and shoves forward. We fall back on the couch, his heavy frame caging me.

  I haven’t had a chance to put my wet bra or top back on. My bared breasts push up against his chest, my nipples hard and overly sensitive.

  “Get off!” I squeak. He lifts himself up to put some distance between our bodies. Enough so that if I want to, I can wriggle out.

  “Here’s your chance if you really want to go,” he says. “But I don’t talk to anybody I don’t want to. So you can call but I won’t be picking up.” His jaw is set in a hard line. I swallow. The motion makes my chest wobble. His gaze lowers to where my nipples are perked up an inch away from the dark hairs on his chest. The heat coming off him is insane. A bead of something wet drips between my thighs. He dips his head and captures a nipple in his mouth. A single swirl of his tongue is all it takes for my whole body to come alive with sensation. One date. I’ve been on one date with him and I’m ready to let him fuck me. If I don’t stop this I’m going to forget about the Lodge. So I bend my knee, shove it between us and use it to pry him off. His comes away with the grazing of teeth that turns my body to jelly. I have to call his bluff.

  “I don’t sleep with assholes who only care about money so I guess we’re even.” When I begin to slide out from underneath him, his hand moves to grab my hip.

  “Wait.”

  The muscles on his neck clench. I need to get away while my brain is still functioning. Right now it’s sending signals telling me that I should spread my legs. “I need to go,” I say. “If you’re not willing to budge on the Lodge project them we’ve got nothing to discuss and I shouldn’t be here.”

  “What if I am willing?”

  I search his expression. He blinks slowly. He’s so gorgeous it’s hard to think straight. But I have to. If I don’t I’ll be giving up my parents’ memory for sex. The thought makes me deflate. “What if you are?” I say. “Your dad doesn’t seem like the kind of man who’s sympathetic to environmental causes.”

  “Is it just the environmental impact you’ve got a problem with?” He pushes off me completely so that I can sit up. Next minute the robe is around my shoulders and I cover myself up. His eye twitches a little but I won’t break.

  “No,” I say. “It’s personal too.”

  I tell him about my parents. About the car crash that stole everything. I blink to dispel the tears in my eyes. “But that’s not the point,” I say. “There are so many other things that could be done with that site. I understand progress needs to be made but at what expense? You want to make money? There are other ways to develop that are more ecologically sound and won’t have the locals ready to slit your throat.”

  “You’ve done a lot of research.”

  “My cousins are engineers and builders. An alternate development might not make you as much money but it might mean you’ll sleep better at night.”

  “Have you got any of this on paper?”

  I’m practically beaming. “At my place.”

  He sighs. “Come on then.”

  He grabs the pizza and I take my stuff. When we arrive at my place I waste no time shoving the report into his arms. “I’m assuming you want me to look at this right away.” I’m so eager I’m balancing on the balls of my feet. He sighs again. “Okay fine.”

  He grabs me then and yanks me into his arms. His mouth pries my lips apart and he sinks his head to deepen the kiss. When he pulls away my breath is ragged.

  “This is happening,” he says. I know exactly what he’s referring to. Us. “I’ll come by and pick you up tomorrow for real food. And we’re not going to mention any of this stuff. That’s separate.”

  I can still feel the lingering tingle of his mouth long after he’s gone. True to his word he picks me up the next night. After telling me he’s got his people looking into my proposal, I let the subject drop. We have dinner like a normal couple. He comes by the next night too. And the one after that until two weeks go by and I feel like I know everything about him. He doesn’t try anything besides kissing me but I can see the iron restraint in his posture every time he says goodnight. I know he’s trying not to let sex get in the way of what might end up being a complicated situation. But it’s hard. So, so hard.

  And then I get a phone call on a Monday afternoon while I’m on duty at the Life Saving Club. “Hello?”

  “Okay,” Nate says. “Let’s do this.”

  I stop breathing. “Are you serious?”

  I scream so loudly it probably busts his eardrum. But he’s laughing on the other side of the line and my body suddenly goes quiet. I’ve never heard him laugh before. He smiles when I say something he finds amusing but never an outright body laugh that comes from his gut. It makes my insides hurt.

  “Thank you,” I find myself saying.

  “No, Tammy. Thank you. Can I see you this weekend?”

  We agree to meet up and I spend the rest of the day grinning like an idiot.

  5

  Nate

  Tammy might have been over the moon but my old man is spitting fire. I knew he would but I’m so far away from caring it’s not funny. He paces around my office with steam coming out of his ears.

  “Years of planning and proposals and you suddenly decide to grow a conscience at the eleventh hour?” he snarls. “Do you know how much money this change in plans is going to cost us?”

  I shrug. “We’ll make it back in a few years when the revenue from the upgraded Lodge starts to come in. And it’ll go a long way to keeping the beachfront intact and appeasing the residents.”

  “Who gives a damn about appeasing a bunch of backwater townies? These people would say no to oxygen when they’re drowning as long as it stops change.”

  “This isn’t about progress, Dad.”

  “No it’s not. It’s about doing what’s best for the company.”

  “And that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

  “Is it? Or have your priorities shifted?” He eyes the proposal like a hawk circling a field of prey. My hackles rise. “This girl you’ve been seeing, what’s she been saying to you? Isn’t she that environmental nut who’s been lobbying us? You doing this just to get your dick wet?”

  There are so many things wrong with this picture, I can’t even begin to process it. What I know for certain is that I’m not doing this because I want to fuck Tammy so badly my balls are in a permanent vise grip.

  The one thing my old man has taught me is how to separate my emotions from a business deal. Even I can’t argue with sta
rk facts in her proposal. All of the experts I’ve had look at the plans agree with her. They also agreed it could undercut the profit of the project by a significant amount. But none of that means anything to me.

  What did get to me was when I told Mum I was thinking of stepping away from the family business and she burst into tears. When she stopped crying, I realised she wasn’t sad. She was so overwhelmed with happiness.

  “Does this mean you won’t be so stressed anymore?” she asked. And I could see just then how worried she’d been about me. What clinched the deal was when I went to see her last. The doctors said she’d made a vast improvement. I’m not a genius but even I could see the correlation.

  My dad does not give a shit. Foam sprays from his lips as he leans over my desk to get up in my face. “Think seriously about this, Nathaniel. We’ve got investors who would be severely disadvantaged if this deal falls through.”

  “I have thought about it. Sometimes you have to take a hit so that you can move forward even stronger.” He taught me that the year after high school when my friends went on a boy’s trip and he forced me to stay behind to work in the company over the summer. He only grunts, the reference going right over his head.

  “I think you’ve lost your objectivity,” he says. “I’m removing you from the project.”

  “That’s going to be a bit difficult when I’m the only one Alistair will talk to and the contactors are used to me.”

  “This isn’t a laughing matter, Nathaniel.”

  “Do I look like I’m joking?”

  He glares at me then, his nostril flaring. “You are just like your mother.” He says it like it’s an insult and I want to punch him in the face. Instead he turns on his heel and stalks out of the room.

  I go into immediate damage control because I know for sure he’s not going to let things lie. But one thing I can thank him for is that I’ve always been prepared for this day. I’ve always known from the beginning that we’d end up on hostile terms. He’s right. We’re too different and we never really got along. That’s why I’ve been working up to this day for a long time. If he thinks he’s going to get the jump on me, he’s got another thing coming. Now all I have to worry about is how I’m going to last another night with my dick in a permanently stiff position.