Chapter 2
Chapter Two
When Ivy awoke the sun was already up and she had a moment of panic before she remembered where she was and where Darien was.
She never slept in like this but a building headache reminded her forcibly of last night’s indulgence in feelgoods and she threw on her robe and rushed to the bathroom to search for headclear.
The suite was quiet and Colvin’s door was open so she walked barefoot across the plush carpet to check. Sure enough he was gone.
For an instant she panicked, thinking he might have been disgusted with the whole setup and with her and left. Then she saw the note on the stasis keeper and rushed to read it.
Checking the wall chrono, she calculated she had time for a quick shower herself and after placing the breakfast order, she grabbed a few of the high end lotions and shampoos and let the multiple shower heads and pulsating water finish the task of erasing the effects of last night’s indulgence.
She never went out anymore, not since Darien had been born and although she might have a small glass of wine from time to time after a really bad day, she wasn’t much of a drinker.
She’d deliberately gone easy on the feelgoods at the club but her tolerance was low nowadays.
Deciding what to wear today was easy since the beach was their destination.
She picked a striped one piece that did amazing things for her figure and hid the stretch marks.
She was proud of being a mother but vain enough not to want to show herself to Colvin.
Discussing her son wasn’t on the agenda for this week.
Neither was sex, although she had to admit he was tempting.
Although he was probably fifteen years older than her, he had a great body and the silver threading through his close cut hair was attractive.
Ivy pulled on the coverup which matched the swimsuit and slid her feet into practical sandals just as the door opened and Colvin came in.
He was clad in gym shorts which did nothing to hide his endowments.
He had a towel looped around his neck but his chest and abdomen were bare, glistening with sweat, the cut muscles and delicious Adonis vee plainly visible.
She felt an ache of pure desire in her core and thought maybe she ought to reconsider her stance on not being intimate this week.
After all she was an adult and so was he. Down girl! See how today goes.
“Good morning, beautiful,” Colvin said. “Don’t come any closer—I need the shower.”
“Did you have a good workout?” she asked, distracted by the idea of him naked in the same small space where she’d stood not long ago.
“Yeah, the hotel has a good assortment of weights and machines, and it wasn’t too busy. Despite all our modern tech, a soldier’s body is still his best weapon so I keep mine in fighting condition,” he said seriously.
“Breakfast is on its way so better get that shower.” As soon as Colvin disappeared into the bathroom with his toiletries in his hand, Ivy rushed into her room and shut the door, annoyed to realize she hadn’t called Darien yet.
As soon as her son’s image popped up in the holo, she relaxed. He was eating breakfast, devoting a lot of attention to chasing the tiny floating cereal animals in the milk.
“I already ate the dragon, mommy,” he said. “And I’m gonna catch the turtle next and then the horse and—”
“Sounds good, don’t forget to drink the milk when you’re done and take your vitamin,” Ivy said. “I miss you.”
“Miss you too but Marisa read me three books at bedtime last night.” Darien loved to be read to.
“He’s doing fine,” the childcare worker said, appearing in the holo field. “We’ll be off to the center soon. Today’s finger painting day so we’ll have a project to show you tonight.”
“Thank you so much for doing this,” Ivy said. I’m sorry about the short notice.”
“All part of the job.” Marisa was cheerful. “And don’t tell anyone but Darien is one of my favorites. He had a tiny meltdown last night at bathtime but otherwise it’s been fine,. You enjoy your vacation.”
“I’ll try. Love you,” she said cheerily to Darien who nodded emphatically and waved his spoon, heedless of the milk he was flinging everywhere in Ivy’s kitchen.
Colvin took a cold shower after seeing Ivy in her pretty bathing suit and coverup which didn’t cover much.
He toweled off and dressed in his swimsuit, pulled a pair of shorts over it and added a tee shirt before emerging into the hall as the door chime sounded.
Guessing it was breakfast, he headed toward the door, surprised Ivy was in her room with the door closed.
She was already dressed for their day at the beach.
As he passed her doorway he heard the low murmur of voices and guessed she was on a com conversation.
Colvin hoped it wasn’t her work bothering her when she was supposed to be on vacation but then he heard her tell someone she loved them and a pang of jealousy stabbed him unexpectedly.
A boyfriend? He wouldn’t have thought so, since IDA presented her as his available match. As forthright as Ivy had been so far, he couldn’t imagine she was hiding a boyfriend to go on this date.
None of your business, he told himself firmly as he gave his thumbprint to the room service order and stood aside to let the robo arrange the dishes on their table.
Ivy emerged as the door closed behind the robo and she looked a bit sad around the eyes but once she joined him at the table and they began uncovering dishes and sharing the generous portions, her mood lightened.
“I’m going to be too full to swim,” she said at length, pushing away a plate with three strips of bacon and a half a stack of pancakes.
Colvin speared the bacon and one pancake and added it to his plate. He hadn’t been kidding about the Ardannan requirement to eat big meals. “We’re going antigrav sailing today, remember?”
“I think maybe the feelgood was doing the talking last night,” she said, eyes wide. “I can sit on the beach and read while you swim and body surf or whatever you’d like to do. Maybe I’ll splash in the waves a bit in an hour or two.”
“You said you’d always wanted to soar above it all like a bird,” he reminded her. “I’ve already made reservations for the equipment I want us to use so I’m not letting you back out now.”
“Is that how you talk to recruits?” she asked with a smile.
“Maybe a little,” he admitted sheepishly. “But you’ve set my mind to us flying today and I’m looking forward to teaching you how to do it. I’ll go easy on you, I promise, and if you don’t like it, we’ll find a different activity to try. Maybe scuba diving.”
“I suppose you’ve done antigrav hundreds of times?”
“Thousands more likely, usually in much worse conditions than a pretty, peaceful beach. This will be a nice change.”
They gathered their things, which Colvin insisted on carrying, and made their way to the beach. After staking a claim to two of the big lounge chairs, each with their own red-yellow-and-white striped umbrella, Colvin took her hand and led her to the antigrav kiosk.
“We’re going to start with the simplest antigrav sled,” he told her, checking over the equipment with a practiced eye. “Take a few runs over the waves close to shore, get a feel for it. If you fall off there, no harm done other than getting wet.”
“You reserved the big tandem antigrav flyer,” the staff person reminded him. “No need to work up to it—just take the one you wanted and go fly.”
Colvin fixed him with the stare that intimidated Special Forces operators in full body armor. “You just uttered the worst advice I ever heard. I hope you don’t tell all your guests to be so rash. The lady hasn’t flown before and I’m going to make sure she feels in control before we go aloft”
“I think you have another customer waiting,” Ivy said tactfully to the staffer. “We’ll be fine. My date is extremely experienced with antigrav.”
Colvin liked the way she’d claimed him, even if it was merely for the benefit of a fool of a staff person.
He led her to a quiet section of the beach, showed her the basics, got her to practice balancing on the sand and then supervised her first flight, which was over the waves at about the three foot mark.
Ivy had an appealing lack of self consciousness as she toppled into the water more than once and forgot how to manipulate the controls, keep her momentum and balance at the same time.
She maintained her cheerful disposition and poked a little fun at herself over her clumsiness.
”I can walk on sky high heels even when I’ve had a few feelgoods so why can’t I do this? ”
Colvin had infinite patience for his self appointed task and he was enjoying her cheerful attitude. They laughed and joked and eventually she was able to do a run out and back without falling off.
“Now we can go check out the flyer and take a real bird’s eye view,” Colvin announced.
“But we’ll use the tandem rig, right? I’m much better on the antigrav than I was at first but I’d be too scared to fly by myself,” she said.
“I’d never let you go off by yourself,” he said firmly. “Tandem it is.”
“I’ve made a note to suggest better training for the kiosk operators,” she said. “Other guests might not know as much about antigrav as you do and a careless suggestion could result in someone getting hurt.”
“Even though I’m sorry to hear your job intruded on our morning, I can’t argue it’s an important safety point,” he admitted.
“I’m sorry—it’s hard to switch off the IDA managerial part of my mind.” Her apology was matter of fact. “My boss did say he’d want my input on anything I noted as a guest which we should improve.”