by Miranda Lee
‘Mmm. That’s an impressive speech, Leah, and I understand where you’re coming from, but things can be straightforward in theory yet not so easy to put into practice. You’re guilty yourself of letting the past colour your present actions. That’s why you’re hiding away in this remote corner of the world.’
Leah flinched, stung by Gareth’s cool reasoning. But then she rallied. ‘I think I can be forgiven for going to ground for six months. That’s a lot shorter time span than ten years. Besides,’ she added, her chin lifting, ‘I don’t intend to keep hiding away. As I already told you, I am going to go back to Brisbane and ask Gerard for a divorce. Next Monday. After that, I’ll happily go home.’
‘I thought you said you didn’t want to let Alan down.’
‘Alan won’t have any trouble finding a replacement if I give him a few days’ notice. My job hardly requires a degree in either sailing or catering.’
‘I couldn’t do it,’ he said drily.
‘Yes, well, working on a boat is a bit silly if you get seasick.’
‘I don’t get seasick.’
Leah was taken aback. ‘But last night…when you came down below…after you went to the bathroom…you…you looked quite ill.’
‘I felt ill. I’d just witnessed that cosy little scene between you and Alan on deck, which I was already struggling to handle, then I walked past your boss’s cabin and saw his double bed, unmade and rumpled as only two lovers could have made it. I can only tell you I was almost sick on the spot.’
‘He’d had a lady-friend stay the previous night,’ Leah explained, shaken by the extent of his passion for her. He’d felt so strongly about her even then, within an hour or two of their meeting?
Amazing!
‘Why not put off going back to Brisbane till I can go with you?’ he suggested. ‘We could fly back on the same plane.’
‘When’s your return flight?’
‘I was originally planning on staying here two weeks.’
‘What do you mean…originally?’
‘After I met you, I changed my plans.’
‘Whatever am I going to do with you, Gareth?’ she said, shaking her head at him.
‘I could give you heaps of suggestions,’ he drawled, and looked deep into her eyes.
The arrival of the pumpkin soup and herb bread rescued Leah. But not for long.
‘Do me a favour and forget about Gerard for a while,’ Gareth said abruptly once the waitress had departed. ‘You have the rest of your life to ask for a divorce. All I want is two or three weeks without any hangovers from the past. Is that too much to ask?’
‘I guess not…’
‘I want you to pretend we’ve only just met.’
‘We have only just met!’
‘Don’t split hairs, Leah.’ And he set his eyes upon her once more, those intensely penetrating blue eyes. ‘An eternity can be fitted into a few hours.’
Something twisted deep inside Leah, something far too darkly sexual for her peace of mind. This was worse than when Gerard had looked at her across a dinner table. Far worse. Back then she’d waited like a good little girl for her husband to do the seducing. Now she was besieged with thoughts of what she might do to his brother when they left this restaurant.
‘I’m going out to the Willie Creek Pearl Farm tomorrow morning,’ Gareth said as he picked up a chunk of herb bread and broke it apart in his fingers. ‘Will you come with me?’
The Willie Creek Pearl Farm was the only cultured pearling establishment around Broome which catered for tourists, doing tours morning and afternoon. Leah had already been once and found it fascinating, especially seeing the way they seeded the live oyster shells to make pearls. They had a fine showroom of locally handcrafted jewellery as well. Not that she’d bought anything. But Gareth might like to buy something for his mother.
An innocent enough outing, she decided. They would not be alone. Leah didn’t want to be really alone with Gareth. Not yet. As much as she wanted him, she knew sex with Gareth would confuse her even more.
‘All right,’ she agreed at last.
‘You had to think about it long enough,’ he grumbled. ‘What was the problem?’
‘No problem.’
‘Better eat your soup, then, before it gets cold.’
Leah was only too happy to eat her soup. She was only too happy to have a whole meal to devour. Only too happy to be in a very public place where nothing could come of the thoughts running through her mind, and the unchecked desires running through her veins.
But she knew, even when the night came to a thankfully uneventful end, with Gareth amazingly not trying anything when he took her home—other than a goodnight peck—that it was probably only a matter of time before she went to bed with him.
No, not a bed, her mind amended later that night as she lay, wide awake, staring blankly up at the ceiling fan. She wanted to have him where she could see every inch of that beautiful body of his. Not between sheets. Out on the deck of The Zephyr perhaps, in the moonlight, under the stars…
CHAPTER TEN
‘SO WHAT have you been up to all day?’ Alan asked, glancing over at Leah.
They were bumping down the dirt road which led to Gantheaume Point and the spot where Alan parked his jalopy every night. It was three-thirty in the afternoon, and a mild sea breeze was blowing.
‘Oh, this and that,’ she returned noncommittally, though smiling with pleasure at the memory of the day spent with Gareth.
They’d had such fun that morning out at the pearling farm. They’d driven out together in Gareth’s Pajero, but joined up with a party of tourists once they got there.
Everyone had been a bit subdued to begin with, the mostly elderly group traipsing around after the man conducting the tour like chastened schoolchildren. But when Gareth had started asking questions everyone else had suddenly come to life, chatting and laughing together, taking photographs and asking even more questions.
They’d had a delightful mid-morning break of damper bread and drinks on the verandah of the owner’s lovely house before strolling through the showroom where she’d turned down Gareth’s offer to buy her something. He’d seemed pleased when she’d told him she wanted nothing from him but his company.
When the tour had ended, they’d driven to Cable Beach to have lunch, sitting on the grass under the palms and talking about silly things. Nothing heavy at all. Gerard had not been mentioned once, and had rarely entered Leah’s thoughts.
Afterwards, they’d strolled along the beach, hand in hand. Leah had found the experience warm and sweet, and not too sexually tense, although things had become momentarily strained when they’d come across another couple walking towards them, stark naked.
Cable Beach was a well-known spot for nudists, but this couple hadn’t exactly been hiding in the sandhills or lying discreetly face-down in the sand. Naturally they’d had good bodies, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have been making an exhibition of themselves.
‘Just what I need,’ Gareth had muttered under his breath.
‘Fancy her, do you?’ Leah had teased, trying to break the instant tension between them.
‘Nah,’ he’d mocked back. ‘But the bloke isn’t half bad.’
They’d both dissolved into giggles, which had brought a haughty look from the woman and a glare from the man.
Leah grinned at the memory.
‘Well, whatever “this and that” was,’ Alan said drily, ‘he’s put a happy look on your face. Which is good to see.’
‘What makes you think it’s a he?’
‘Honey, you’re talkin’ to good ole Alan here. If anyone knows what makes a female tick, it’s me. Which reminds me…could you mind the boat for me tonight?’
Leah’s face fell. Gareth had asked her out to dinner again tonight.
‘Okay, okay, I get the picture,’ Alan said in droll tones. ‘The boyfriend has plans for you tonight. So perhaps we could find a compromise?’
They’d reached Alan’s parking sp
ot, the dust settling around them now that the wheels had stopped turning on the dirt road.
‘What kind of compromise?’
‘Is he a tourist?’
‘What?’
‘The boyfriend. Is he a tourist?’
‘Yes…’ No way was she going to tell Alan who, exactly.
‘Do you know where he’s staying?’
‘Well…yes. The Roebuck Bay apartments. Why?’
‘I’ll ring him from my mobile phone right now and we’ll sort something out.’ He started punching in the number. ‘What’s his name?’
Leah bit her bottom lip. Alan frowned before his expression suddenly cleared. ‘Good God, it isn’t? Not your ex’s brother!’
Her guilty face told it all. Alan put his finger on the ‘off’ button.
‘Leah, Leah…if what you said about the ex is true, then you’re playing with fire. This is the sort of scenario Greek tragedies are made of.’
‘I’m not sleeping with him!’
‘Not yet, you mean. But I know that look on a woman.’
‘What look?’
‘That he’s-crazy-about-me and I’d-like-to-eat-him-up look.’
Leah winced. ‘Does it show that badly?’
‘Yes.’
‘I know it’s an awkward situation,’ she admitted with a ragged sigh. ‘He says he wants me more than any woman he’s ever met.’
‘Mmm. That’s a good line. I’ve used it myself.’
‘It’s not a line, Alan. Gareth’s no conman like his brother. If he was, he’d have sworn love at first sight and swept me into bed. I told him I wasn’t sure which brother I was really attracted to and he said he’s not at all worried. He’s supremely confident I will eventually choose him. In truth, Alan, he’s everything I could possibly want in a man. If I’d met him first, I know I would have fallen for him. But everything is clouded by my having fallen in love with and married Gerard first. Gerard is not a man easily forgotten.’
‘Monsters rarely are,’ Alan pointed out drily. ‘They can be such fascinating creatures.’
Leah shuddered. Yes, Alan was right. Gerard had fascinated her from the start. But that fascination had blinded her to the real man underneath. The monster.
‘How can I tell if what I feel for Gareth is the real thing, Alan?’ she asked, her eyes pleading with him for an answer. ‘Or just an illusion?’
‘Am I right in presuming you lust after both brothers like mad?’
‘Oh, God, it sounds awful when you say it like that. But I do. I like Gareth a lot more, though. He’s much nicer. Sweeter. Softer.’
‘Not too soft, I hope,’ Alan muttered drily, and Leah blushed. ‘Look, Leah, sometimes lust is best confronted. Your feelings often clarify after you’ve been to bed with someone. I guarantee by morning you’ll know which brother you prefer, in bed and out. A man reveals a lot about himself when he makes love.’
‘You think so?’
‘I know so. Now, shall I ring Gareth and offer him a free night on The Zephyr with his own private and very pretty serving girl? I’ll even put clean sheets on the bed in the master cabin,’ he added with a wickedly saucy grin.
Leah didn’t know what to say. To have Alan make such an offer with her approval was tantamount to agreeing to let Gareth make love to her.
The thought blew her away. She wanted him, but she was terrified of the consequences.
‘A lady can always say no, Leah,’ Alan said on seeing her instant panic. ‘It’s a big boat. Your inviting him to share its beauty for a night is not necessarily an invitation to share more. Make that clear to him when he comes aboard. If he’s the nice man you say he is, he’ll respect that, won’t he?’
Yes, she thought. He would. Gareth was not like Gerard. He was not a monster.
‘All right,’ she said, and let out a long-held breath. ‘Ring up and ask him.’
Gareth was coming, Alan told her a couple of minutes later. With bells on.
He wasn’t wearing bells when he stepped from the Zodiac onto the deck of The Zephyr at seven-thirty that evening. He wasn’t wearing very much at all, Leah thought, a lump forming in her throat as she looked him over. Bright board shorts. A blue singlet top with ‘Broome’ emblazoned across his very nice chest in iridescent yellow letters. And leather thongs which he immediately shook off his bare feet.
She wasn’t wearing much more, she supposed. She did keep some spare clothes on board, but not many. After Alan had left earlier, to take the cruise party back to shore, she’d dashed down below, stripped off the shorts and top she’d had on all day and showered at length.
The pink shorts she was now wearing were short shorts, just covering her buttocks. The T-shirt was modest enough, however, white and baggy, with large pink hibiscus flowers providing some refuge for her braless breasts, both of which were suddenly feeling very vulnerable. She almost wished she’d left her hair down instead of scooping its damp mass up into a high ponytail. She could hide a fair bit when her hair was down these days.
‘Thanks, Alan,’ Gareth called out, waving towards where the Zodiac was already speeding across the water back to shore. He turned to face her, lifting up his other hand which was laden with two heavy-looking plastic bags.
‘Chinese,’ he said, smiling. ‘And champagne. The best.’
‘You shouldn’t have.’ She tried to smile back, but it felt like a grimace. Of all the times for Gareth to sound just like his brother. Gerard had always bought the best. Of everything.
‘Why not? You deserve the best.’
Her heart flipped over. Now that was nothing like Gerard. He’d only ever bought the best as a reflection of his wealth and success, never for anyone else.
Now her smile was real. ‘I meant the Chinese, silly. I was going to cook something. Alan has a very well-equipped larder on board.’
‘Not tonight. Tonight I don’t want you to do anything except lie back and relax.’
Leah only heard the words ‘lie back’. She knew she had to say something before it was too late. ‘Gareth,’ she began tautly, while the rest of her body thrummed, ‘I don’t want you to think that inviting you here for the night was an invitation to…to…’
‘Hey,’ he interrupted softly. ‘I said relax, remember? You call the shots. I won’t be doing anything you don’t want me to do.’
‘But that’s the trouble,’ she muttered agitatedly. ‘I do want you to.’
His eyes darkened appreciably. ‘I wish you hadn’t said that…’
‘I wish I hadn’t too,’ she groaned. ‘Oh God, this is dreadful.’
‘No, it isn’t dreadful.’ Gareth placed the plastic bags down on the deck then came forward to curve gentle but firm hands over her shoulders. ‘It’s inevitable,’ he murmured, and gathered her close, his mouth dipping to cover hers, his dark head blotting out the moon, his kiss blotting out everything for Leah but his lips and his tongue and his hard male body pressed against hers.
Her reaction was the same as it had been the other day. She was besieged with instant need. And a hunger which obliterated everything but the moment.
‘No, don’t,’ Leah moaned when his mouth lifted temporarily for breath.
‘Don’t what?’ he whispered back while his mouth rained wet kisses over her face and neck.
‘Don’t stop.’
He just laughed, then startled her by gripping the bottom of her T-shirt in both his hands and stripping it up over her head and ponytail, then tossing it away onto the deck.
The feel of the night air on her bare breasts was arousing in the extreme. His hot eyes on them sent her pulse-rate haywire. His hands on them brought a dark haze down over her conscious mind. His mouth on them banished every mixed-up thought she’d had these past few days and which were still lurking in her mind, ready to spoil things.
Gerard. Gareth. It didn’t seem to matter who it was, making her feel like this. She moaned in recognition of the overwhelming nature of her erotic intoxication. All she wanted at that moment was for that t
ormenting tongue to keep lapping at her rock-hard nipples, those tantalising teeth to make her cry out with pained pleasure, those all-engulfing lips to suckle her breast ever deeper into his mouth.
She groaned when that hot, wet mouth abandoned her breasts and began sliding down towards her stomach, when he began to sink down, down onto his knees, taking her shorts and G-string with him, stripping her totally of her clothes and her conscience.
The shorts and G-string went the same way as her top, and she found herself leaning against the bulwark, naked and panting. A still kneeling Gareth pushed her legs apart, caressed and kissed the tops of her thighs, then between her thighs, knowing exactly where to probe, to lick, to suck, instinctively honing in on that spot that drove her wild.
Her hands clutched at the ropes on either side of her as she moaned her frenzy, her back arching, her thighs quivering. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to come too soon, and just as she was certain she must hurtle over into that abyss of darkly shuddering ecstasy he stood up, taking her with him, lifting her up to sit on the railing.
Her eyes remained wide on him when he let her go to divest himself of his shorts. The scar from his accident shone white under the moonlight. But it wasn’t his scar which held her dry-mouthed gaze.
Leah swallowed when he moved back between her legs, gasped when his flesh met hers, groaned when he surged deep inside.
She came immediately, her own flesh clasping and unclasping his as she cried out, then just cried, sobbing with her release against his shoulder. He cradled her to him for a long while, then carried her down below, their bodies still joined.
‘In here?’ he indicated brusquely, nodding towards the main cabin where Alan had made up the bed with clean sheets. In fact, that was all there was on the bed. Sheets, and half a dozen pillows. Some small recessed lights in the wall above the bed lent just enough light to see by.