Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Vicky rolled onto her side, so they were face to face in the dim light. Alex’s expression was hard to read.
‘Is that what you want?’
‘Yes, I wouldn’t say it otherwise. Just a little cuddle would do me fine. We can pretend we’re roommates.’
She’d attempted a mood lightener, but Alex’s face didn’t look pleased.
‘I think we’re a little old to be roommates.’
‘Oh, just come over here a moment. Then I’ll let you off the hook.’
Vicky moved towards the centre of the bed and closed her eyes. Strong bare arms enfolded her, and she realised that Alex hadn’t bothered with one of his own T-shirts. She could feel the outline of the muscles all along his back when she hugged him back.
His masculine smell of shower gel and aftershave, combined with the exertion of their walk, was unfamiliar in her nostrils.
She’d avoided Ian at close quarters in the last months before he moved out and the divorce was signed.
Sharing a bed with a man hadn’t been a regular occurrence for more than a year.
The slight tang of brandy on Alex’s breath was no doubt mirrored in her own, as their faces came closer. All talk of a little hug went out of the window. Once he’d held her, she didn’t want him to let go, but neither, it appeared, did he want to let her go either.
He moved even closer, so their legs were touching too. The cotton of his boxers was soft on her bare legs below the hem of the T-shirt. They couldn’t stay like this forever, but it felt so nice after their terrible discovery of Bruce’s little body.
Vicky took a deep breath and reached across the tiny divide to find his mouth with hers. At first, it seemed like he was about to pull back as their lips touched, but she deliberately increased the pressure, and he responded in the way her body had secretly hoped.
A brief kiss deepened moment by moment into a passionate exploration of each other’s mouths, which sent her head spinning.
The heat of the exchange brought the blood rushing to the surface all over her exposed skin.
She broke off to free herself from her T-shirt, pulling it over her head in one movement, which forced an audible groan from Alex as she gave him a close-up view of her breasts.
The moon gave them just enough light to see each other clearly. Reaching for his hand, Vicky placed it on her left breast, without breaking eye contact. Alex’s eyes were black in the half-light as he moved to take one nipple and then the other in his mouth.
The sensations it produced made her moan out loud, and she was shocked at hearing her own voice in the quiet, still room. The fire he’d started couldn’t be stopped. She moved against him with her whole body, and there was no doubting his answering call.
She reached down to pull her briefs off with one hand, and Alex turned back the cover and pulled the sheet clear.
‘Let me look at you.’
She was too far gone to even worry about him seeing her sixty-year-old body. It had served her well, and after two months of very hard physical work, it was now toned and tanned.
‘You’re beautiful.’
You’re looking pretty good yourself was her last coherent thought, as he moved down her body, kissing every inch until he reached his goal, and her brain exploded into a million pieces.
When she looked at him again, he was smiling up at her.
She pulled him towards her, caressing as much of his body as she could reach. He’d managed to take his boxers off somewhere along the way, which made things simpler. From the way he was letting out little groans, he was as up for it as she was.
He straddled her legs, and she raised her hips towards him.
‘Are you sure?’
The excitement in his voice fired her up even further.
‘Yes.’
‘I’ve wanted this since the day I met you.’
She couldn’t respond in kind, as it certainly hadn’t been her first thought when they’d met at the sanctuary ? very much the opposite ? but there was no doubt she wanted him now. Speech was beyond her anyway.
He moved away a moment, and she worried that he’d changed his mind. She more than wanted this; she needed it. But he’d only delved into a side drawer for a condom, and the warm weight of his body was soon back upon her.
His gentle thrusts turned more forceful as she moved under him again, and they found their rhythm, twisting and turning to reach every part of each other they could, changing positions without discussion.
His lips travelled from her mouth to her breasts and back again, time after time, as she urged him on, raking her nails up and down his back.
At the beginning of the end, he rose in front of her and kissed her hard on the mouth one last time, before plunging back down.
Seconds later she couldn’t tell whose scream was whose.
Thank goodness he lives in an isolated cottage was the last thing that pierced her brain before sleep dragged her under.
Waking in an unfamiliar bed with the sunlight streaming in, the shock of seeing a man lying asleep next to her made her heart race, before it all came back to her.
She’d never known sex like it, even in the early days with Ian.
She’d shamelessly seduced him; there were no two ways about it.
All that talk of needing to be hugged and not being able to sleep alone.
She might as well have hung a sign round her neck saying, Shag me now.
It so wasn’t her usual behaviour – but nothing about yesterday had been usual, from realising that Aoife had been hit by her boyfriend, to Dolly walking unaided for the first time, and finding Bruce dead in a field.
The strange combination of events had pushed her over the edge, straight into Alex’s arms.
And very nice arms they were. The soft dark hairs were highlighted by the sun playing on the bed.
But she mustn’t get distracted a second time.
They had to work together in a professional capacity.
She was supposed to be available to assist him with operations.
Had she thrown all that into jeopardy? He was much more valuable to the sanctuary than she was.
If they couldn’t get past this, would she have to resign and go home early?
The man beside her started to stir. Quickly, she pulled back the cover and stepped out of bed. She found her shorts and T-shirt on the floor, no problem, but her knickers were probably somewhere at the end of the bed, and she couldn’t waste time looking for them in case he woke up.
Closing the bedroom door softly behind her, she pulled on her clothes in the living room, picked up her rucksack and stepped out into the dawn of a new day. The short walk of shame to the sanctuary would clear her head.
By the time she’d arrived and nipped up to her bedroom, listening for any worrying sounds from Aoife’s room on the way, of which there were none, thankfully, all she wanted was a shower.
Her fellow volunteer hadn’t been at the forefront of her mind last night, but then she probably wouldn’t have noticed if a bomb had gone off.
Being with Alex had been a moment out of time.
As the hot water streamed over her body, soothing all the unusual little aches and pains caused by the night’s activities, she vowed not to let the episode weigh heavily on her mind.
She’d just had a moment of panic in his house.
Of course she wasn’t going to resign. They were both single, responsible adults, who’d enjoyed a night of passion.
There was no reason for anyone to know anything about it.
It was obviously a one-off. He was so much younger than her and could no doubt have his choice of women.
It wouldn’t be repeated, but neither was she going to regret it.
The memory of his mouth on her breast and the sensations he’d produced deep within her would have to be erased, just as the shower was washing away the sweat their bodies had created.
Vicky smiled as she pulled a clean pair of briefs out of the drawer. But as soon as she was dressed, her heart sank. The next task wasn’t going to be a pleasant one. Breaking the news about Bruce and the return of the poisoner to Maeve and Seamus would be tough.
Suzie sat in her car at a popular viewing point on the coastal road, watching the minutes tick by on her phone. Out at sea, a big cruise liner was slowly making its way across the horizon. It promised to be another gorgeous sunny day.
She sipped some coffee from the takeaway cup in the holder of her red Fiat 500 convertible. A paper bag on the front seat held a couple of pastries, still warm from the bakery on the outskirts of town.
One press and the roof drew back with a sigh.
The delicious scents from the plants growing wild around the edges of the parking lot made their way into the car one by one.
She could detect thyme, rosemary and lavender, along with a couple of others she couldn’t identify.
The smells, combined with the sweet aroma of baking, made her stomach rumble.
Eating one of the pastries might calm the butterflies jumping around inside her.
She was horribly early for the meeting between her elder son, the only father he’d ever known, and his newly revealed birth father. It would be extremely bad form to arrive first. Basically, she was just a spectator at the main event.
It was like the plot of some made-for-TV movie, starring a cast of ex-soap stars, with terrible acting all round and lines of dialogue no one would ever really speak.
In the film there’d be several punch-ups, some heavy drinking and another revelation, maybe that the men were really brothers, separated at birth and adopted by families who only lived a few miles from each other.
Greek dramas, in her experience, tended to err on the melodramatic side.
She ducked down as yet another car went past, this time a taxi. Giannis and Christian would undoubtedly be arriving separately, and although she knew what car her son drove, she had no idea about Christian’s travel arrangements.