The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots

by Hill, Loretta

  ‘Bloody idiot’s going to the toilet.’ He stepped back, returning her personal space to her, much to her relief and disappointment. ‘You’ll have to wait here till he’s safely back inside his donga.’ His sigh was jagged and once again his hand was in his hair pulling at the locks in agitation.

  To distract herself from wayward thoughts, Lena decided to take the opportunity to defend herself. ‘You know, you’ve really got the wrong end of the stick this time.’

  He didn’t seem to be paying attention – in fact he had begun to pace – so she continued a little more forcefully. ‘I’ve locked myself out. That’s why I’m here. I thought this donga was Sharon’s and was going to ask her if I could wait with her till the office opens.’

  He stopped pacing. ‘I see.’ She couldn’t make out his expression in the dim lighting but his voice sounded sceptical.

  ‘Look, it’s not my fault all the dongas look the same. This wasn’t planned, despite what you and your overly large ego might think. I’m not stalking you.’ When he said nothing she added with raised chin, ‘I have more pride than to beg friendship from someone who clearly holds me in such contempt, thank you very much.’

  He closed the distance between them again, so that they were nose to nose. ‘That’s what you think? That I believe I’m above you?’

  If he had meant to be intimidating, he was way off the mark. Her thoughts immediately returned to jumping him and she sucked in a breath to calm herself.

  ‘Well?’

  ‘Well, yeah,’ she squeezed out somewhat hoarsely. ‘Why else would you –?’

  ‘Oh, shut up,’ he snapped and suddenly she realised his voice was as hoarse as hers. ‘The reason I avoid you, the reason I can’t ever be your friend, is because I’m protecting you.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘From what?’

  ‘Me, you fool.’

  He grabbed her face between his palms and brought his lips to hers in a kiss that was as drugging as it was unexpected. Her heart jumped and she seized handfuls of his T-shirt to steady herself and pull him closer. She had once thought that kissing Dan would be like slaying a dragon. Now she knew that she was the one being slayed.

  ‘Do you know how hard it is for me?’

  She couldn’t answer because his lips brushed the words against her mouth and didn’t lift to let her speak. She assumed it was a rhetorical question though. In any case, she couldn’t think, let alone reply at this point.

  She arched her body into his, fitting her curves into his hard male planes and delighting in the sensation of feeling like they were two pieces that fitted perfectly together. In the haze that was passion, she heard him struggle to talk again.

  ‘Every time I see you . . . every time you walk into the room . . . every time you look at me with those damned eyes . . .’ finally, he lifted his head and his own eyes bored into hers ‘. . . this is all I want to do.’

  Her heart beat like a tribal drum, reverberating through her ribcage as he suddenly released her hands to touch her hair, pulling out the black lackey band and dropping it on the floor. Her hair fell out, wisping against her cheek. His fingers threaded through the loose strands, splaying them on her shoulders and down her back with such gentleness she almost choked.

  A soft sigh whispered off his lips. ‘Tell me to stop.’

  She shook her head. She couldn’t.

  With a groan, he hooked an arm around her waist and took her lips again. Of their own accord her hands moved up his chest, exploring the contours, until they reached his shoulders and tested their broadness. He tore his mouth away, his breathing laboured as he touched his forehead to hers.

  ‘We shouldn’t.’

  ‘I know.’

  He started at her words. Slowly his free hand feathered down her cheek, under her chin and down her neck. His fingers caught on the collar of her pyjama shirt; he undid the top button and then the next one. Her breath never made it out of her windpipe when he paused on the third. His eyes searched hers for any sign of withdrawal. She knew she could stop him if she wanted to.

  She didn’t.

  After what seemed like an interminable moment his fingers undid the third button and moved down to finish the rest. She couldn’t meet his gaze as he parted her shirt and brushed the underside of her bare breasts with the back of his knuckles. ‘Lena, look at me.’

  There was a need in his voice and she couldn’t deny him. She raised her chin to drown in the dark pools that were his eyes and his hands moved upwards to caress her breasts.

  The last of her restraint was gone and she plunged her hands under his shirt. His skin was smooth, warm and firm. There was a sprinkling of soft hair in the centre of his chest. His muscles jumped under her fingertips as she brushed over them; she felt the rush of his desire almost as if it were her own.

  He picked her up and pulled her legs around him; she threw her arms around his neck as they stumbled towards the bed and fell.

  She rolled with him, entwining her legs through his, their lips quite frantic now.

  In one swift move, he pulled off his shirt and covered her with his body but not his weight. Their lips didn’t break contact as he crushed her breasts against his now naked chest.

  And then into the heady silence plunged the sudden and eerie wailing of an alarm.

  BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

  At first she didn’t know what it signified or where it was coming from until Dan reached over her body and slapped a clock beside the bed so hard it smashed into the back wall. Although his hand returned immediately to her waist and his lips to her neck, the noise had already jolted Lena back to reality.

  She was in the client’s bed. Pretty much naked. And it was five-thirty am.

  Five-thirty am?!

  Oh, God!

  Not only had she done the one thing she swore she’d never do again, but in minutes the whole camp was going to know about it.

  Very soon outside Dan’s donga would be a bustling traffic jam of men getting to the showers and the mess hall. When they saw her leaving Dan’s room, they would think the worst. And why shouldn’t they? It was the truth!

  Oh hell, was she really one of those women who just kept making the same mistake over and over again?

  With a strangled gasp, she pushed frantically on Dan’s chest. ‘I can’t do this. I can’t!’

  Dan immediately pulled away from her and sat up. ‘Lena, it’s okay.’ He touched her shoulder. ‘You’re trembling.’

  ‘Can’t you see how wrong this is?’ She threw the words at him as she covered her body with his sheets.

  The bed creaked as he stood up, his expression cast in shadow.

  She glanced frantically at the door. ‘I have to go before somebody sees me.’

  He nodded. ‘Then you better hurry.’

  His words kicked her into action. Lena scrabbled off the bed, almost falling over as she snatched up her discarded shirt. Her fingers fumbled a little too roughly on the buttons and one of them popped off, bouncing on his vinyl flooring. She groaned in frustration. Her shirt now gaped open over her breasts. Dan went to his wardrobe. Shadows played across his naked chest and back, making her ache. A flying T-shirt hit her chest. She put her hands up to catch it.

  For Pete’s sake, focus.

  If anyone saw her leaving Bulldog’s donga at five-thirty am, in his clothes no less, they’d both be burned at the stake. And that was after World War Three ensued.

  Lena pulled the shirt over her head. ‘Is the coast clear?’

  He went to the window and peered through the blinds. ‘Yes.’

  Suddenly she got cold feet. She couldn’t just leave without saying something about what had just happened – maybe apologising for her behaviour or at least trying to explain it.

  ‘Dan, wait –’

  ‘There’s no time.’ H
e turned around to look at her, his voice firm, his eyes blank. ‘We’ll talk about this later.’

  For now, it was clear he had packed his emotions away, so Lena said no more and instead moved towards the door.

  He opened it and she stepped out onto the gravel. There were noises coming from the dongas all around them; she could hear alarm clocks and thumps. She could hear shoes on gravel in the next row along. Panic started to set in. It wasn’t going to work. They weren’t going to get away with this. Lena’s heart leaped into her throat as she heard a door creak. But to her greatest relief, the tousled bed-hair emerging was bright red – Sharon. She stepped out of her donga onto the path with a towel and toiletries bag in her hand.

  Thank you, God.

  Lena felt Dan’s presence behind her. ‘It’s okay,’ she threw at him breathlessly. ‘It’s Sharon; she’ll look after me. It’s better that way.’

  ‘If you’re sure.’

  ‘Yes.’

  When Sharon noticed Lena moving towards her, her mouth fell open and her eyes practically popped from their sockets. ‘Lena?’ She stopped walking and simply stared.

  Lena didn’t look back at Dan as she reached Sharon’s side, but heard him go into his donga and shut the door behind him.

  ‘Sharon.’ She clutched her friend’s arm. ‘I need your help.’

  ‘No shit.’

  Sharon was a lifesaver but her help didn’t come without a price that was called best-friend privilege.

  ‘You better tell me everything!’

  They met for smoko at ten am and took a walk on the coastline, away from the bustle of site. Everything looked so normal. The stark white office boxes sat in solitude on the red dirt while trucks drove by; men hailed their mates; and a smattering of utes ran errands back and forth across the yard. As Lena looked out over the water at the wharf, she could see two big ships moored near the end. The ship loader crane was filling their bellies with iron ore straight from the conveyor and Gavin’s crew was driving another pile. It was just an ordinary day. The sea was so calm. So undisturbed.

  So unlike her.

  She had butterflies for blood. She was frantic and cool all at the same time. She didn’t know what to do. What to say. What to think. Where to start.

  But Sharon did. ‘So what are you going to do about this?’

  She swallowed. ‘What do you mean?’

  Sharon folded her arms. ‘I mean are you and Bulldog an item now?’

  Lena started. ‘No! I mean . . . I don’t know.’ She shook her head in confusion. ‘We never spoke about that.’

  Sharon was silent for a moment. ‘I take it he’s not as indifferent to you as you thought.’

  Images of their encounter burned their way across Lena’s mind, leaving her weak at the knees. ‘No.’

  ‘Is that really such a bad thing?’ Sharon enquired cautiously.

  Lena was silent for a moment, trying to get a handle on her emotions. ‘Apart from my questionable history and the promise I made to myself never to let this sort of thing happen to me again, if the men were to find out about it, all hell would break loose.’

  Sharon shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans, worry lines creasing her forehead. ‘Well, I can’t deny it would be best to keep it a secret. The guys hate those idiots at TCN. Not that I blame them. There’s too much bad blood. You don’t know half the things they do to each other. Because I’m the bus driver I hear everything, and let me tell you, some of it’s pretty malicious. If the Barnes Inc boys discovered you were doing the client –’

  ‘I’m not doing the client!’ She hated the way Sharon kept talking about it like it was a done deal.

  ‘Then what are you doing, Lena? ’Cause you’re certainly not being very responsible. If I hadn’t been there this morning . . .’ She broke off.

  Lena cringed. She was right. There had only been a lucky ten seconds between Sharon whipping her into her donga and the next guy coming out of his. She would have been seen for sure, in Dan’s T-shirt no less. Sharon had given her one of her shirts to put on instead before she left to go to reception to get the spare key. Dan’s T-shirt now lay neatly folded under her bed, the only proof her early morning escapade had really happened.

  ‘I know,’ she croaked. ‘If any of the guys had seen, it would be all over camp in seconds and then the men would take it as a personal betrayal.’

  ‘So don’t tell anyone,’ Sharon suggested. ‘I won’t either.’

  ‘Don’t you see?’ Lena gritted her teeth. ‘That’s exactly what things were like with Kevin. I am not sneaking around again. The men won’t find out because there is nothing to find out.’

  ‘And what does Bulldog think about all this?’ Sharon demanded.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Sharon said no more, but Lena got the impression that she found this answer highly unsatisfactory. Perhaps she thought Bulldog could persuade her where she couldn’t. Sweat broke out on the back of Lena’s neck. If Bulldog did have feelings for her, they would be difficult to resist, but she had to stick to her guns. She made up her mind long before she even met Dan that this wasn’t going to happen a second time. All the same, an uneasy feeling did prick her conscience. She really had no idea what Dan was thinking at this point.

  Did he believe they were destined for a relationship? That maybe this was the beginning of something more? As much as she liked to deny it, she did care about him and hurting him was the last thing she wanted to do. But wasn’t it better in this case just to rip the Band-Aid off rather than let wounds fester for days?

  Her resolve to see him and sort it all out as soon as possible strengthened. They needed to talk. Only then could she get past this and move on with her life.

  When she found a private moment later that morning, she rang his office and asked to be put through to him. His rude secretary said that he was in a phone conference with head office, to be followed by a series of meetings, and would be unavailable for the rest of the day.

  ‘Can you just tell him I called and need to speak with him regarding an urgent matter?’ Lena finally said.

  There had been no response from Dan by the time she went outside to have lunch with Sharon. She knew she was being lousy company and was glad for the distraction when Carl came storming out of the office minutes later.

  ‘There you are!’ His eyes roved over both of them with satisfaction before turning to Sharon and saying, ‘Would you mind coming to my office after you’ve eaten? I have a few documents I need you to deliver to Bulldog’s dongas.’

  ‘Sure.’

  He cleared his throat. ‘I was going to give them to him myself but apparently he’s cancelled all his meetings with Barnes Inc personnel today.’

  Lena perked up. ‘Really? Why?’

  ‘How the fu–’ Carl swallowed, threw an uncomfortable glance at Sharon and then continued. ‘How should I know? Got this shi– this phone call from his receptionist saying something had come up.’

  Lena was momentarily diverted from her concerns about Dan. Was it her imagination or was Carl trying hard not to swear? She decided to ask another question. ‘Did she say what it was?’

  ‘No,’ Carl spoke slowly. ‘Just that it was important. No apology, though; apparently I’m not fu–’ His head jerked slightly as he cut off the word and tried again. ‘I’m not worth the consideration.’

  Lena bit her lip to hide her delight. She had not been imagining things.

  ‘I wouldn’t worry about it.’ Sharon threw him a grin. ‘She’s rude to me too.’

  Carl went pink.

  He actually blushed. And then he did the most alarming thing Lena had ever seen him do . . . or rather never seen him do.

  He tried to smile.

  Carl was good-looking in a rugged kind of way – stocky and broad shouldered with dark, weathered f
eatures. But his natural state was cranky – displeased at best. So this new expression sat so unnaturally on his face that she couldn’t help but stare at it in shock. It was not a perfect effort by any means, little more than a slight turn of the lips, so that he actually looked more constipated than happy. Sharon, however, didn’t appear to notice.

  ‘I’ll come by in fifteen minutes.’ Sharon raised her sandwiches. ‘When I’m done with my lunch.’

  Carl’s colour was subsiding but he coughed slightly. ‘No rush, no need to cut your break short on my account.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Sharon said.

  He nodded and then, ignoring Lena, walked back into the office donga. Lena choked and then turned wide eyes upon Sharon, who stared at her with complete innocence.

  ‘What?’

  As Lena continued to stare at her but said nothing, Sharon’s eyebrows drew together. ‘Do I have something on my face?’ She reached up and touched her cheek.

  Lena quickly cleared her throat. If Sharon hadn’t noticed, she wasn’t going to tell her. Why spoil the fun?

  ‘I just thought that was odd,’ she quickly improvised. ‘About Dan, I mean. Why do you think he’s cancelled all his meetings?’

  ‘Who knows?’ Sharon shrugged. ‘Try not to overthink things, Lena. It’ll do your head in.’

  After a few minutes, the bus driver stood up and dusted off her hands. ‘Well, I’ve finished my sandwich now so I might just go get my errands over and done with. You don’t mind, do you?’

  ‘No, not at all,’ Lena assured her. ‘Go ahead.’

  She watched Sharon enter the office donga and struggled to keep a laugh from escaping.

  Carl and Sharon.

  She never would have thought it possible if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. After all, on her first day Carl had told her that if she had a problem with his swearing, she could get stuffed because he changed for no one. Yet here he was tying his tongue in knots in an effort not to offend Sharon.