His hands were snaking their way over her body. They were reaching for the very spot they sought and then they were between her thighs trying to part them.
“Jason . . .!” she gasped and her lungs sucked in a sharp breath of air, “Stop it,” she whispered weakly; digging her nails softly into his broad shoulders.
She was tense. Ridged with panic and pleasure at what was unexpectedly happening to her.
The heat was beginning to swell and spread quickly and deep within her.
His fingers were exploring and probing her. And having found what they desired they were moving slowly and rhythmically against her tender pulsating throbbing flesh.
His touch was bringing her to a peak she never knew existed.
She contorted with delight. The electric spasms his fingers were causing deep inside her were making her thrust her hips involuntarily towards him.
She felt surprise at her arousal and shock at her response to his excitement.
And there was no denying it, he was excited.
She could feel the power and urgency rippling through his muscles.
And then she could feel the full weight of him above her and then he was in her, and in that moment Jason’s unseeing eyes flew open.
Instantly he was wide awake.
“Beth . . . is that you?”
They both froze with his words.
It took her a moment to realise he hadn’t known it was her beneath him.
“I’m sorry Beth . . . I’m sorry. I can’t stop now. Don’t make me stop Beth . . . please,” he groaned as he began his rhythmic beat, battering against her sensitive flesh. He was taking her reluctantly but willingly along with him to heights she’d never known before.
His lips and body were plundering and penetrating hers.
Together they climaxed and as Jason made one final deep trust into her he called out her name.
They both collapsed entwined together.
Drained of energy, she lay there beside him. Exhausted from what had just happened, she pulled the tangled silk sheet protectively over her, shielding her body from Jason’s unseeing eyes.
“Beth?” he spoke hesitantly.
“Who do you think it is?” she asked him bitingly. Her body was still trembling from the stimulation and tension she had just endured.
Had Jason mistaken her for Trudy? Or even worse . . . was she just another body in his bed upon which he could release his sexual frustrations?
Her stomach churned and curdled, tying itself into knots.
Inside she was cringing with disgust at the thought he had used her.
Was it only her body he had desired?
All she knew at that moment was that Jason had woken up and he had wanted the woman beneath him.
And he had taken what he had wanted.
Beth pushed hard against him. Her hands were on his chest forcing him off her.
“Let me go Jason . . . Get off me. Get off.”
“Damn it Beth,” he swore beneath his breath.
He rolled from her onto his back covering his unseeing eyes with his arms.
Scrambling to the edge of his bed she turned and put her feet on the floor.
“Beth, I’m sorry . . . I didn’t realise . . .”
He was searching and feeling for her even as she moved, but she was no longer there. He was grasping at thin air.
She had left his bed and had gotten as far as the door before she realised she was totally naked.
She couldn’t leave the room with nothing on.
Her inbred modesty wouldn’t permit her to do it. So she grabbed the nearest thing she could find.
It was his bathrobe which he had draped over a chair last night, and as she scrambling into it she tied the belt tightly and angrily about her waist.
Giving one last look over her shoulder, back into the room before she fled, she saw him naked and vulnerable on the bed. He was reaching for her.
“Beth . . .” he called out to her, but she was no longer there.
She had only just managed to leave the room with her dignity intact before she gave an emotional sob and burst into tears.
Once down stairs she went to her own room in the annex.
She dressed and gathered a few things together in a bag, before she left the house heading for the beach . . . to be alone.
She had to get rid of the smell and the feel of him on her body. She couldn’t use the shower upstairs. There was the risk of running into Jason. And she couldn’t chance meeting again, not so soon after what had just happened.
No . . . she had to get away, and she had to have time to think.
She was still too raw from what had just occurred.
The beach was the only place she could think of where she could wash away her troubles. She had to clear her head of all thoughts of Jason and think about what she had to do.
When she was on the beach with only the sound and the feel of the waves on her skin, she felt calmer. It was soothing and gradually she began to regain her perspective on things.
After getting dressed, Beth made her way back to the house to face the remainder of day . . . and to face Jason.
She was in the kitchen making coffee when he walked in.
“I’m sorry,” was all he said to her before taking a hesitant step in her direction. “We need to talk about what happened between us this morning . . .”
Immediately she stood frozen to the spot.
“Nothing happened,” she denied quickly and adamantly.
“Of course something happened. You and I . . . we . . .”
“Jason we’re two consenting adults. You didn’t force me. Men often wake-up aroused . . . or so I’m told. The fact you thought I was someone else . . . well.” She didn’t finish what she was about to say.
The fact she thought Jason believed he was in bed with Trudy or another woman didn’t matter.
This morning she had willingly stayed where she was . . . in his bed.
She couldn’t have left him at that moment even if the house had been on fire. She had needed to be fulfilled as much as he had needed to come inside her.
But under no circumstances must he discover her feeling for him had changed.
During the pasted couple of weeks her feeling had probably changed without her knowing when they had been constantly in each other’s company.
He took another step towards her.
“Stay away from me Jason,” she said.
“You’re not going prudish on me now are you Beth?”
“No . . . but I’m not falling for the same trap and let the heat of the moment get the better of me. I don’t do one night stands Jason. And I’m not into casual sex. What happened between us happened. But that doesn’t mean it has to be repeated.”
“Are you saying that I forced myself on you?”
“No . . . I’m just saying it’s not happening again.”
“You liked it as much as I did. We were good together in bed . . . weren’t we?”
She could see and almost feel the tension in his body. He was like a coiled spring ready to explode.
Jason’s dark hair was wet from his recent cold shower. Combed back off his face it revealed the prominent jagged scar from the plane crash.
Occasionally like now, when he was on edge, she could still be unexpectedly shocked by the sight of the jagged line slashed across his cheek.
There was no getting away from the fact that Jason was still a very attractive man.
He could turn any woman’s head if that woman would let him. But she had no intention of letting him turn her head.
She had her feet firmly planted on the ground and when she had been on the beach that morning she’d decided that what had happened between them in Jason’s bed was a one off fling and she had no intention of it ever being repeated.
Yes . . . they had been good together in bed but she had no intention of telling him that.
Unceremoniously she poured out two steamy mugs of hot coffee and placed them
onto a tray before taking them outside to the table on the terrace.
With his hands clenched into fists deep in his trouser pockets, he reluctantly followed her outside and took a seat beneath the shade of the vine covered pergola.
“Have you any plans for today?” she asked him as casually as she could.
She thought she’d play it cool. After all, she was a woman of the world wasn’t she?
It wasn’t as if she was some young school girl who thought a romp between the sheets meant instant commitment from a man.
From where he was sitting Jason looked up at her.
“Considering the condition you were in yesterday, you’re lucky to have the opportunity to make any plans. You could have died. Why didn’t you tell me you were ill and that there was something was wrong with you? Sunstroke’s serious.”
She could tell from his tone of voice he was starting to get angry.
It seemed as if he was still intensely worried about her.
“I didn’t know anything was wrong,” she said calmly.
“Of course there was something wrong. It was obvious. You were shivering like a jellyfish.”
“At the time I thought it was because it was night and because the air had turned cool.”
“That wouldn’t account for your condition. You were nearly in shock.”
“I know that now and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
Roughly he clawed his hands through his dark silky hair.
“Don’t let it happen again,” he commanded arrogantly.
She was amazed he should think she’d do something to purposely make herself ill, but it was pointless denying or protesting.
She’d seen Jason at his best and she’d seen him at his worse.
When he was fighting the hurdles of his blindness, the true strength of his character had always shone through. Despite her resistance and reluctance to be drawn to his magnetism, she liked what she’d seen and she now knew she had fallen heavily for his charm.
“And about this morning . . .”
“Jason, do we have to talk about it? It will only make an awkward situation worse. I’ve thought long and hard about us and I’ve come to the conclusion that what happened has to be a one-off. It won’t happen again. I simply won’t let it. And when we’ve finished your villa and the gardens have been landscaped, you’ll go your way and I’ll go mine.”
She didn’t mention she couldn’t leave him now because her feelings for him had changed. That his very nearness made her want to be with him . . . in the fullest sense of the word.
She knew Jason would always be able to cope on his own.
True, his blindness would hinder him, but she’d seen how he’d managed and how he could organise everyone.
She knew he would survive without her, but she wasn’t sure if she could survive without him.
In reality she wanted to stay with him for as long as she could or at least until his building project was completed and he’d built the villa.
Jason hadn’t said anything. He hadn’t reacted.
He hadn’t agreed to her suggestion that she should stay until the villa was built. He just held out his empty coffee cup for her to refill.
And gradually the tension between them subsided.
Eventually she made a move and got up from where she was sitting.
Slowly she began to clear the coffee things from the table and take them to the sink in the kitchen.
“Leave them,” he told her when he heard the clatter of crockery, “I didn’t bring you here to be my housekeeper. Zoe will be here soon. She’ll do the dishes.”
Beth hadn’t realised they had a housekeeper.
“It won’t take me a minute to wash the mugs,” she offered.
“I said leave them,” he sounded annoyed and frustrated. “You’re not my servant Beth.”
“There’s no need to shout at me,” she protested. “I didn’t know we had a housekeeper.”
“Well you do now. Who do you think filled the fridge and made the bed you were sleeping in last night?”
Unknowingly he had asked the wrong question. There followed a long awkward silence between them.
They were remembering that they had slept in each other’s arms and they were also reminded of what had happened in the bed that morning.
She blushed and turned a deep red as she recalled how they had lain entangled together, joined body to body . . . naked.
He didn’t need to see Beth to know he had embarrassed her.
“Don’t blush Beth . . .” he teased, “Or you’ll look like a lobster.”
* * * * *
They fell into a routine. In the cool of the mornings before the sun had reached its hottest Beth and Jason usually sat outside the goat herder’s house beneath the vine covered pergola.
When breakfast was finished and the wooden table was cleared, the outdoor space became their office.
Beth worked on the laptop. She usually checked emails and incoming messages and Jason was normally on his mobile to Andre & Marsh Architect’s in England to see how the project department was coping whilst he was away.
For Jason there was no getting away from his obligation as an employer.
In his world, the wheels of his billion dollar business had to keep turning.
Even if he wasn’t in the office in the city, its clogs had to be oiled daily and although his partners took some of the load off his shoulders, the ultimate discussions were always his and his alone.
That was one of the things Beth most admired about him. And when she was working with him in moments like these, she could see his dedication and feel his stamina.
She couldn’t help but marvel at his driving force.
With the morning’s back log of work done and having checked with Stephan - the site manager - to see if the villa was on schedule, their afternoons were spent splashing in the cool of the blue waters or lounging on the hot dry beach.
The hot golden sand oozed between her toes as she walked with Jason barefoot along a clear stretch of beach.
It was unspoilt and deserted.
Not a scrap of litter, debris or another human was in sight.
Jason and Beth had the beach to themselves.
The blue green crystal waters of the Aegean Sea sparkled and as the sun bounced off the water, it caught the swell of a wave and shimmered.
Beth had taken it easy for a few days after her sunstroke, but having fully recovered, she was now heading towards an outcrop of rock beneath which she could shelter from the scorching heat of the sun. Walking beside her was Jason manfully feeling his way with a stick.
At some point he had swapped the hospital white cane for a thick sturdy stick that he’d found.
They had reached the spot they were heading for.
Even as she placed the beach towels on the sand for them to lie on, Jason had already striped down to his black swim trunks.
He was standing directly in front of her and she had no opportunity to turn her head away.
Her eyes were glued to Jason and she was compelled to admire the muscular fitness of his body.
He was tanned, toned, tall and slender.
After the plane crash, Jason stopped going to his regular gym in the city.
It wasn’t practical for his daily workout, due to the injuries he sustained. But he exercised at the hospital physio-department and it had kept him in top physical condition and it showed.
The taunt muscles of his abdomen and bare torso rippled with his every move.
And then came the moment when it was her turn to undress.
He was looking unseeingly in her direction and even knowing he couldn’t actually see her, she was still reluctant to take her clothes off in front of him.
“Beth stop fiddling.” he complained whilst feeling with his foot for a towel to lie on. Sensing she was moving away from him he asked, “And where do you think you’re off to now?”
“I’m going over there . . . to a rock pool,” s
he said.
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