Chapter Thirty-two
I held Abel’s hand as we walked down the path to the shore.
‘Do you really want to stay?’
‘Yes,’ I said. Because I did, I really did want to stay. ‘I like them so much, Abel.’
He laughed. ‘You can’t possibly. You just met them.’
‘I do, though. They’re wonderful.’
We reached the beach and it wasn’t as dramatic as the coast where we’d spent the day, but there was a different beauty to this cove that I felt myself sigh into just as much.
The water was calmer here out of the wildness of the open ocean.
It lapped gently onto the sand where seaweed clung in scattered lines and trees reached right down to the water’s edge, watching over the beach.
It was gentle, unassuming and understated in its beauty.
‘I’m sorry about my dad. The questions about work and your plans. He can be really relentless sometimes. I bet it was reminiscent of your last job interview.’
‘Not at all,’ I said with feeling. ‘Honestly, Abel. I like him so much. Your mum is a goddess of a mother. I’ll probably start phoning her daily from now on.’ I laughed. ‘But your dad too. I love his interest. And when he asks about your world, it’s so clear that he wants the best life for you.’
‘It just feels so overbearing.’
‘I didn’t grow up with him, so I can’t comment on how it makes you feel. But what I see is someone who really, really, cares about you and what you get out of your life. Maybe that feels suffocating. But it’s also a beautiful thing.’
I swept my gaze from the track all the way across the beach and to the distant hills encircling the body of water.
‘I love this place.’
I felt him step in behind me, his arms encircling my waist and his chin coming to rest on my shoulder.
‘I’m glad,’ he whispered.
I could have stayed there all day, but the light was fading.
‘So, are you going to squeal like a girl when you get in?’ I teased.
‘Probably.’
He stripped down to his underpants and strode towards the water. He’d had that view of me before but I’d never seen him so bare. He was breathtaking. I stripped down to my own underwear, a typical set: navy, pretty, not particularly practical.
He turned to watch me, the water up to his thighs, and wolf-whistled. ‘Just as well I’m about to be in freezing cold Tasmanian waters, Mary Roberts.’
I laughed and walked towards him. I didn’t stop until my skin was pressed against the warm length of him. His hands came to my hips and he looked down at me, my breasts firm against his chest, rising and falling with each breath I took.
‘Fuck, you’re— Jesus.’ He closed his eyes, as though the image was too much for his brain. ‘Honestly, my self-control is wearing painfully thin here.’
I laughed, my arms around his neck. ‘We should probably go for a swim then, huh?’
‘Yes, we probably should.’
‘You first.’
‘No, you.’
‘One, two …’
We dived under on three and the burn was ferocious – it literally took the air from my lungs. I came up gasping, not knowing how to re-inflate. My skin tingled, feeling suddenly – and bizarrely – warm.
We splashed and ran to the shore, wrapping the towels around our bodies.
‘Your mum’s right. It really is amazing.’
‘Yeah,’ he gasped. ‘Warm showers are also amazing.’
We grinned at one another and then raced up the path back to the house.
Theresa was in the garden and Neil was in the shed when we passed on our way to the house. We cleaned our feet in the bucket next to the door and padded into the bathroom, trying (and failing) not to leave splotches of sea water on the floor.
The bathroom was tiny and old and wildly in need of reno-vation, but there was something so charming about the mismatching tiles, the old-school vanity and the toilet with an actual chain for the flush.
Abel adjusted the temperature of the shower until it was hot and perfect and then ushered me in. I heard the lock of the door and then he climbed in behind me.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him under the flow of water.
He closed the shower door and his body came flush with mine, the steam and water enveloping us in an intimate cocoon.
I hung my head back so my face took the flow and it tumbled down around me, hot and delicious. When I shifted my eyes from the jet of water and opened them, Abel was watching me.
He was a beautiful man. And put him in a shower in his underwear and he was positively mind-blowing. The moment felt like something out of a dream. A movie. The Titanic carriage scene had nothing on this.
‘What are you smiling at?’ he asked, his head inches from mine.
‘I’m just … happy.’
‘Because you’re evil? Because you are utterly torturing me?’
I felt my body burn under the intensity of the way he was looking at me. His eyes moved to my mouth, then, without subtlety, his gaze trailed down my neck and chest in a way that seemed to light up every stretch of skin that his eyes landed on.
‘You’re just— Fuck. I want to touch every inch of you.’ He gave a strangled sort of laugh.
I couldn’t bear it any longer. I lifted my hand to his cheek and he tilted his head into it, his eyes closing as though sinking into the feeling.
When he opened his eyes again, the heat of his gaze was hotter than the water that flowed around us.
I felt my body press against his as though drawn to a magnet and the sensation was beyond anything I could resist. The brief kiss we’d had in bed the day before had been a stamp, an indication of where we were going.
The kiss that happened in the shower was our first real kiss.
As soon as I made the subtlest movement to close the gap between us it was as though Abel had been given permission and any self-control he’d been battling evaporated.
His lips were on mine, soft and full, and when his hands found my hips, my organs turned as slippery and warm as the water on my shoulders.
My arms wound themselves around his neck as the kiss deepened and the moment his tongue brushed the inside of my upper lip, I felt myself shudder, a moan escaping.
His hands were firm on my hips and I needed it.
I needed the strength of the way he gripped me.
My back had found the wall and when he broke away from the kiss, his hands held me there.
‘Mary,’ he whispered as though to himself, drinking in the view of me in his grasp. ‘Mary.’
I’d never been self-conscious of my body; I treated it well and it served me well. But I’d also never felt as spectacular as I did when he looked at me right then. Like I was something he wanted to devour. Like I was something that was sending him wild with desire.
As though he couldn’t bear a moment longer without being pressed against me, his hips found mine again, and his leg pushed between my legs, giving a shot of friction right where I wanted it.
His thumbs dipped into the hollow beside my hip and under the elastic of my knickers and I heard myself gasp.
With one hand locked on my hip bone like a handle, the other one began to trail up my body.
His eyes followed his thumb as it moved to my belly button and up the line between my abdominal muscles.
When he reached the underside of my bra, I heard him moan, something low and guttural that charged me with desire.
His thumb brushed over the centre line of my bra, the tiny silk bow in the middle and then along the lacy upper edge that fanned across my breast.
‘This,’ he croaked. ‘I love this.’
My breathing was raspy, my body on fire.
His hand cupped the swell of my flesh over the bra and the sensation was dizzying. I looked down to see how I filled his hand, my pale skin bulging soft above his fingers.
He looked at me as though I was the most erotic creature he’d ever seen, and I felt hotter than I’d ever remembered feeling, like I could be completely swept away in this moment. He could turn me any way he wanted. I was wet and slippery, in every sense, and he could have me in an instant.
But I wasn’t yet lost enough to completely forget where we were. Almost, but not quite.
‘Abel …’
‘Mmm.’
‘We should stop.’
‘Mmm.’
‘Abel.’ I laughed as he nuzzled into my neck and he finally seemed to come back to the world.
He groaned. ‘Is there ever not going to be someone right next door?’ He pulled himself back from me as though trying to compose himself and took a deep, steadying breath.
‘We’ll have to wait and see, I guess.’
We stood under the stream of water, deliberately not touching.
‘Is this tank water? Don’t we need to be water wise out here in the country?’
‘It’s a big tank,’ he said and his hands took my hips again.
It was enough to make me moan and nearly get pulled right back into it, but I needed to control myself.
‘I’m getting out.’
‘I’m staying in. Turning the cold tap on.’
I laughed as I prised myself away from him and stepped out of our steamed world onto the bath mat.
‘Your bag is in the hall by the front door,’ he said above the hiss of the shower. ‘You can use any room you find to get changed in. But you should be quick. If I find you so scarcely clad again, I’m not sure what I’m going to do.’
I laughed, stepping out of the bathroom in my towel and found the bag and what looked like a spare room to get dressed.
Abel had taught me to always pack extra clothes on our trips in case of inclement weather, or mud, or unforeseen events – such as swimming in my underwear, apparently.
This was a Mary so different from the one I’d always thought I’d been.
And now I’d agreed to stay over at his parents’ place.
My body was still tingling as I pulled on my fresh underwear.
The garments clung to all the right places, everywhere that ached to be touched covered in soft whispers of silk and lace.
I was smooth and plump and ready, and the thought that Abel might be the one to remove the feminine lingerie was enough to make me lightheaded.
It took me a moment to calm myself before I felt ready enough to face an evening of appropriately PG-rated interaction.