Silver Lining

by Diana Simmonds

  They swam several laps, virtually ignoring each other as they exercised cramped sinews and enjoyed the sensation of the water and the rhythmic pull of their strokes; it was a new and surprisingly seductive experience. Finally Amanda turned on her back and floated, gazing up into the night sky as her blood, warmed by the effort and the cognac, pumped through her body. Her breasts broke the surface of the water and her nipples responded immediately to the night air; she was aroused and thought back to the last time she’d had sex. It had been with Natalie and was a long time ago and—she remembered it suddenly and clearly—it had been perfunctory and unsatisfying. And the ridiculous drunken kisses with Clancy just didn’t count, she reminded herself, even though recalling them made her clitoris throb and burn.

  Her head bumped lightly against the side of the pool and she let her body sink to the vertical until her feet touched the bottom. She looked around for Margo and saw that she was at the other end of the pool. She stretched out her arms along the smooth, cool edge of the pool and laid her head back until she could see the stars once more. Her body floated up and out and she breathed deeply and slowly, enjoying the luxury and pleasure of the moment and the rare sensation of the cognac in her veins. Then she heard the rippling splash of swimming arms and her body was nominally rocked by the tiny swell of an approaching body. She looked up and watched Margo watching her as she breast-stroked slowly along the pool, her shoulders barely breaking the perfect surface of the water.

  Amanda knew, as Margo swam ever closer, dark eyes focused on hers, that if her hostess’s long fingers were to reach out, she would not stop her. Margo glided up to Amanda and slid her hands along her naked body. They were at the shallow end and Margo stood, flicking the water from her hair and slicking it back as she looked down at Amanda. As her heartbeat increased its tempo Amanda watched Margo through her eyelashes; the candlelight illuminated the rivulets of water as they ran down her body and fell from her chocolate-dark nipples. Without thinking about it, Amanda floated, arms anchoring her to the slick wet edge of the pool; cognac burning her blood. As if by reflex, her legs parted and Margo slipped back into the water to reach for her.

  “Oh baby,” murmured Margo eagerly. “You ready for me or what?”

  Amanda closed her eyes, feeling the cognac and the way it made her flesh pulse. She felt her limbs moving as if they had acquired lives of their own and each leg reached out and curled about Margo’s waist. Amanda heard the moan rise in her throat and drift in the night air as Margo’s long, strong fingers slid up her thighs and massaged the long muscles that kept Amanda’s legs clamped about her.

  “I want to fuck you, babe,” Margo growled and her hand pushed higher and higher, compressing the flesh as she drove for Amanda’s crotch. “I want to fuck you now, hard.” She leaned over and her lips were frenzied and rough as she consumed Amanda’s mouth and drove her fist up and into the spasming liquid softness. Amanda gasped and reared up as her body revolted against the sudden assault. “That’s it, babe,” Margo panted, taking Amanda’s response for excitement rather than shock. She grabbed for her and dragged her forward through the balmy water until Amanda straddled her thighs and she pumped hard, thrusting upward with the strength of her legs, her thumb massaging Amanda’s clitoris in time with her own shuddering, grunting arousal. It was painful and at the same time physically irresistible and as if from afar, Amanda watched and felt her own body buck and roll on the ride of Margo’s surging, muscular thrusts. Unable to resist and overwhelmed by Margo’s ardor, Amanda lay back in the water letting it envelop her. Again she glimpsed the stars in the velvety Sydney night sky and felt her body clasping inwardly and rhythmically on Margo’s fist as the drenching weight of the pool ebbed and flowed about them. The sensation was brutal and exciting.

  With a guttural sob Margo lifted Amanda and fastened her lips to the exposed breast. She tormented Amanda’s nipple with her tongue and teeth, gorging on the swollen areole until Amanda grabbed at her head, gasping with pleasure and pain, pulling at Margo’s hair. She shook herself free and switched her attention to Amanda’s other nipple, teasing it into a swollen, surging response. Amanda cried out as Margo bit into the tender flesh then ran her satin-hot tongue up to Amanda’s neck. Finally she captured Amanda’s mouth in a deep, probing, cognac-scented kiss. Amanda’s breath came in short, choking gasps as a roiling, alcohol-fueled orgasm began to build deep inside her.

  “Come for me, baby,” Margo rasped. “Come, baby, come,” and she half rose from the shallows, water streaming from her sleek body. With ungovernable dexterity she turned Amanda so that she could mount her from behind. Despite a violent cough as she inhaled water before regaining her legs, Amanda absorbed and felt Margo’s forceful thrusts and kneading thumb and she gasped as an even deeper connection and wrenching pain ground deep inside her. She bit down on her lower lip, desperate to swallow the scream that threatened to burst from her chest. She understood in a flash of fist-deep agony that Margo was beyond her reach, unaware and indifferent to Amanda’s feelings. At the same time she felt her body heart pulsating and her clitoris throbbing as a dark, racked orgasm approached and as Margo’s swollen, hot clitoris rammed into the cool flesh of Amanda’s butt. The waves of intense physical excitement and torment intensified and receded over and over as pumping blood collided internally with the outward sensations of hearing Margo’s gravelly moans and the sucking, slurping rush of water on, in and around their heaving bodies.

  “Ah, I’m coming, babe, I’m coming,” Margo rasped. Desperate to relieve the stabbing pangs as Margo’s fist thrust into her, Amanda reached back with one hand and grabbed for Margo’s crotch. “Feel me, yeah,” Margo gasped and thrust her clitoris convulsively into the searching fingers. Amanda gripped the pulsing flesh and squeezed in time with Margo’s thrusts. At the same time, Margo reached around Amanda and as she pounded into her from behind, she took her clitoris and stroked around it with exquisite tenderness. The dual sensations of pleasure and pain turned Amanda inside out and she writhed and gasped, beyond control and reason, until her own orgasm and Margo’s rampaging lunges crashed into each other. Margo bit down into the flesh of Amanda’s neck and let out a gruff cry as they sank onto the wide steps of the pool, bathed in the warm water and cooling night air, spent and panting, so caught up in the carnality of the moment neither could speak.

  * * *

  “Hey, you still on this planet?” Malcolm’s hand on her knee brought Amanda jolting back to earth and one of the overcrowded parking lots of Sydney’s international airport. She blinked away the memories that were at once arousing and disturbing.

  “Lordy, we’re here. I must have nodded off. Sorry.” She grabbed her tote bag, tumbled out of the car and followed Malcolm between the rows of cars.

  “Must have been a hard night,” he said over his shoulder. His normally placid tone was gone and in its place was a terse voice that Amanda barely recognized.

  “It was a late one,” Amanda said, breaking into a jog to catch up with him. “I told you.” But the dull ache deep inside and the soreness between her legs made her hope that he had no idea how right he was.

  “Yeah yeah. Whatever. Looks like Dracula’s been at your neck, by the way.” Malcolm continued to stride ahead and Amanda’s mood plummeted as a hot sweat of discomfiture popped on her upper lip. Angrily she brushed it away with the back of her hand and groaned to no one in particular as she followed Malcolm on leaden legs. This is not going to be easy after all. If Malcolm knows everyone will know. And by “everyone” she knew she meant her mother and, even worse, Clancy.

  “Shit,” she muttered aloud, stomping after Malcolm, once again trying to make sure her shirt collar was up high around her neck and cursing Margo and the cognac. And her own lack of whatever it was that she clearly lacked. Character, she reminded herself. You are lacking in character. That’s what her great-aunt Emily had once said anyway, although her grandmother had immediately slapped back at her younger sister: “Horsefeathers, Emily, what in hell
would you know about character?”

  * * *

  “Mom!”

  “Eleanor!”

  The yells rang out across the hubbub of the arrivals area and Amanda watched as an exhausted but comfortably chic-looking Eleanor McIntyre surveyed the mass of faces in front of her. Amanda waved both arms and leapt in the air, beside her Malcolm did the same as he stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled hard enough to cause people in the crowd to turn around and smile. As her mother caught sight of her, the transformation of her face made Amanda’s heart soar. The weariness dropped away and was replaced by a beaming smile that could have lit a lighthouse.

  “Mom!” she yelled again, and darted forward, pushing through the crowd as fast and politely as she could, followed by Malcolm whose bunch of three pink, heart-shaped helium balloons bobbed and wove in his wake. Eleanor’s sparkling eyes were shot through with unshed tears as she held out her arms to her daughter and Amanda burst into tears and grabbed her mother into her arms.

  “Hey, honey! Sweetheart, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Eleanor murmured, her fingers threading through Amanda’s hair, gently placing the strands as if she were a child again.

  “Aw, Mom, I’m sorry.” Amanda laughed shakily. “I’m just so pleased to see you. I’ve missed you such a lot.”

  Eleanor crushed Amanda in a fierce one-armed hug as she put out her other hand to Malcolm and pulled him close.

  “Hi, Eleanor,” he said, a wide grin contrasting with his own teary eyes as he watched his friend with her mother. “Great to see you. Welcome to Australia!”

  “Great to see you, my gorgeous boy!” Eleanor planted a smacking kiss on his cheek and nuzzled her face into his neck. “So good, so good,” she murmured happily, hugging them both as hard as she could. Travelers bumped and swirled about them and finally Malcolm pulled away from the two women and grabbed the handle of Eleanor’s wheelie.

  “Let’s get going,” he said, “before we get trampled.” He looked at Amanda and his eyes were warm and seemed to be saying “sorry.” She reached over and pecked him on the cheek, relieved that they were still friends.

  “Yes, we’ve got a bit of a drive, Mom, but it’s easy and we’ll be home in time for you to have a shower and get yourself sorted before dinner.”

  “Get yourself sorted! You’re turning into an Aussie already.” Eleanor smiled and touched Amanda’s face. “And you’re looking well. But a bit tired?”

  Amanda’s hand moved instinctively to her shirt collar and her laugh was just on the wrong side of nervous. “I went to a party last night and it was also a bit of a work thing, so yeah, I’m tired today.”

  “Work?”

  “Yup, it’s a new idea.” She glanced at Malcolm and grinned when he winked at her. “I’ll tell you all about it in the car.” She took Eleanor’s carry-on bag, hoisted it onto her shoulder and led the way out of the arrivals hall.

  To Eleanor’s evident surprise, Amanda got behind the wheel of the Subaru wagon and Malcolm stowed the bags in the trunk and climbed in the backseat where he stretched out happily. Conscious of her new knowledge of Clancy’s fear of the highway, Amanda was more circumspect than was her usual habit as they traveled southward and when Eleanor stopped clutching her purse and placed it instead on the floor at her feet Amanda knew she was relaxed and beginning to enjoy herself when she yawned and began to snuggle into her seat.

  “Eleanor, we’re going to keep you awake no matter what,” Malcolm said, leaning over from the backseat and giving her shoulders a squeeze. “If you can stay awake until this evening you’ll be better for it. So tell me what you’ve been up to since we ran away Down Under.”

  And so the journey back to Two Moon Bay was easy and uneventful as Malcolm concentrated on making sure Eleanor stayed alert and talking and Amanda listened to their chatter. They shared easy laughter and news of Heron Creek and New York gossip but all of it was soon displaced by Eleanor’s pleasure and curiosity at the new sights that unfolded in front of her.

  “It’s so different but it’s so familiar too,” she said as Amanda took the exit lane off the highway, following the signs for Two Moon Bay. “This landscape is so beautiful.” Her head swiveled back and forth as she struggled to take it all in. “I guess it’s the trees that make it different. All this greenery—no bare branches.”

  “We don’t really do deciduous in Australia,” Malcolm said, “unless the trees are immigrants. We’ve got a few Japanese maples around the house—their leaves turn red and gold and drop every winter, but that’s in June.”

  “Amazing,” said Eleanor. “And look at this darling little town. Oh sweetie, no wonder you love it.” Amanda tapped the car horn a couple of times as she drove slowly along Two Moon Bay’s main street and caught sight of people she knew; they waved and she waved back. It was a good feeling and she liked it.

  “Here we are,” Amanda said as she slowed to turn in through the white gates. “Two Moon Farm—your home away from home. Welcome, Mom.” She reached over and squeezed Eleanor’s hand.

  “Thank you, darling. This is gorgeous. These trees! It all looks so cool and would you look at that house, oh my goodness. Is this yours, Malcolm?”

  “Me and Clancy, it was left to both of us.”

  Amanda swung the car around on the crunching white gravel beside the house and turned off the engine. Eleanor hurriedly got out of the car and stood beside it, her eyes closed and face turned up to the sun as she savored her first experience of the scent of eucalyptus trees. Then she looked around, gardener’s eyes taking in unfamiliar shrubs and flowers while Malcolm hoisted her bags from the trunk and stood beside her in the bright sunshine and grinned at her obvious delight. Amanda sat watching for a moment, smiling too at her mother’s reactions and Malcolm’s pleasure in them; then she got out of the car and grabbed her own bags. She stood apart from her mother and Malcolm, listening to the bossy chirruping of lorikeets in the angophora trees. In that instant she knew she was glad to be back and wrapped in the tranquility of Two Moon Bay.

  However glamorous and exciting Sydney might be, this funny little town has a charm all its own and it’s got me. And, she registered, with Eleanor’s arrival Two Moon Farm made her feel at ease in a way that reminded her of Heron Creek and nowhere else. The breeze rustling the trees, the late afternoon sun and the joyous squeaks and shrieks of the bold-as-brass rainbow-colored parrots that had immediately caught Eleanor’s open-mouthed attention wrapped her in gladness. It released the much-needed warmth of well-being through her sore and weary body and she sighed and shouldered her bag. And the good feelings rose and swirled about her heart as the familiar bark and sound of madly scrabbling claws on timber heralded the arrival along the veranda of a joyful dog.

  “Steady, Jess, steady!” Malcolm laughed as the Labrador leapt and hooted her relief that her people had returned yet again. “Eleanor, meet Jessie,” he said and Eleanor bent to offer the back of her hand to the overjoyed dog.

  “Hi, Jess,” Eleanor murmured. “And you are the most gorgeous girl, hey?” Jess’s long, feathered tail threatened to knock over anything within reach as it wagged her understanding and agreement.

  “Flattery will get you everywhere with that wretched dog.” Clancy’s voice was as sunny as the afternoon as she and Thomas Cat watched from the open doorway the scene of greeting before them; then she stepped lightly across the veranda and skipped down the steps to envelop Eleanor in a hug. Thomas Cat stayed right where he was.

  Amanda watched, feeling that she could reach out her hands and be warmed in her turn by Clancy’s evident pleasure at Eleanor’s arrival. The two women clasped each other in a long, rocking hug as Jessie continued to leap and squeak around them. Amanda smiled as she waited and relished the moment. Then Clancy lifted her face from Eleanor’s shoulder and looked straight at Amanda. But the tenderness of a moment before had vanished from her eyes and been replaced by something else: speculation and suspicion.

  “Hi,” she said coolly, as Eleanor released her. �
��Didn’t expect to see you back already. Sydney not agree with you?”

  Amanda took a deep breath and determined to swallow her disappointment and the instant flash of pique that flared in her gut. “Hi yourself,” she responded. “I said I’d be back with Mom and Malcolm. You couldn’t have heard, or maybe you weren’t paying attention.”

  Clancy’s grin was fleeting. “I guess not,” she said. “Or maybe I thought you’d be seduced by the pleasures of the big city.”

  “Really?” Amanda was vexed that heat was beginning at her throat and already rising up to her face. “It would take more than that to seduce me, I can assure you.”

  Not quite true, said her inner voice, actually I was very easily seduced.

  “Well, well,” said Clancy as if she’d heard. “I am surprised. But it’s good that you’re here.” She turned back to Eleanor. “And really good that you are. Now how about I take you to your room—yes?”

  Amanda suddenly became aware that her mother had been watching the exchange with an expression halfway between amusement and chagrin. It did nothing to ease her unease. But she was saved from whatever Eleanor might have been about to say by Thomas Cat. He chose that moment to leap down from the veranda and wind himself in a figure eight around Eleanor’s calves.

  “Oh! You beautiful boy! You’ve decided to speak to me, have you?” Eleanor bent to scratch beneath his chin and around his ears. The black Burmese purred and twirled, his tail twitching with delight.

  “He’s easy for you to remember, Eleanor,” said Clancy. “He’s another Thomas Cat.”