Jed didn’t return till early afternoon, and then he was keen to get going, asking if she’d eaten, grabbing a pile of biscuits for himself. When she asked what the rush was, he merely said that he didn’t know how long the good weather would last and wanted to show her all he could before the helicopter took her away from the island.
‘You’re being incredibly kind,’ she said; but he brushed it off, giving her an unfathomable look that curled her toes and set her senses racing. She realised she was developing a king sized crush on him based, no doubt, on nothing more than lust and close proximity. Anyway, he seemed disinterested in her, and she didn’t need any more complications impinging on her emotions.
This time, they drove south along the coast for a little way then turned inland where a creek cut between low cliffs. Within roughly a quarter of a mile of progress over a bumpy chalk track, they came upon a flat, grassy area, guarded by hills and edged by woods. It was a riot of wild flowers: red campion, star of Bethlehem, ox eye daisies, vetch, the bright orange and yellow of tiny ladies slipper and some sort of cerise coloured orchid, among very many others.
Smiling, Jed opened the door of the vehicle for her and helped her down, then linked his hand with hers and led her over the grass to where the creek flowed chattering over pebbles.
‘Oh, this is amazing,’ she exclaimed, looking around her. She could see quite substantial remains: stone walls, some so high she realised they must once have formed houses; tumbled masonry; lower dividing walls. A ruined village stretched along the edge of the creek, the dwellings closest to the water crowning a steep bank. The whole place felt peaceful and welcoming, as though people had lived prosperous, contented lives here.
When she voiced this to Jed, he said, ‘They did. There is excellent fishing on the coast and in the rivers here, and they grew corn and other crops. We have the idea of the Vikings as brutal warriors raiding defenceless people, but they were no more bloodthirsty than anyone else of their era. They spent most of their time as peaceful farmers. Anyway, come and see the great hall.’
He led her further onto the meadow and she saw, now, that a grassy mound rose up above the level of the rest of the village. They walked round it till they came to an arched entrance, the stones that edged it incised with runes and carved with sinuous shapes, serpents or dragons, she wasn’t sure which. Then she was following Jed inside. It was quite dark and gloomy, but openings high in the walls shed enough light for her to see that the place was built of large stone blocks. It was dank and very chilly. She shivered.
‘It’s a bit unwelcoming now, but when it was in use it would have had fires and some sort of hangings to keep out the cold,’ he told her. ‘But we’d better not linger. It’s stayed intact for hundreds of years, but I never feel entirely secure in here. I wouldn’t want us to be buried under tons of rubble if the roof fell in. Originally there would have been wooden pillars and a veranda to shore it up a bit, but those have rotted away.’ He put his hand on her elbow to guide her to the entrance.
Back by the creek, they sat on the turf for a few minutes, enjoying the warmth of the day and the tranquillity of the place. Tamsin pulled up a blade of grass, thoughtfully chewing the end.
‘Penny for them,’ Jed joked.
She faltered, gathering her thoughts. ‘I seem to have almost forgotten Damien since I’ve been here, but I don’t know if that’s because I’ve realised he isn’t right for me, or if it’s the enchantment of the island crowding him out of my mind. It feels as if there is some sort of magic here…seriously, it seems real.’
She looked up at him and then her breath caught in her throat. He was staring at her in that penetrating way he had. He leaned forward and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and she felt a jolt of emotion. Before she knew what she was doing, she had bent towards him and captured his mouth with her own. He tasted of salt sea air, his lips both soft and firm, his tongue moving into her mouth, the hand that had touched her hair wandering down her arm then up to her collar bone, tracing and exploring. The kiss deepened. Her mind was reeling and her body was responding of its own accord, nipples tightening as his fingers moved towards her breasts. She felt the beginning of moistness between her legs.
Then he was leaping to his feet, not meeting her eye.
‘God, I’m sorry. What must you think of me? I’m behaving like a sailor on shore leave. I know it’s been a while since Fi and I split, but that’s no excuse…’
He began to walk away. She called out after him, trying to explain that she’d instigated the kiss, not him. Then she put her hand beside her to lever herself up and felt something hard and quite sharp digging into it. She scrabbled at the soil, curious, thinking perhaps it was a sliver of flint that she could take back with her as a keepsake. But what her questing fingers pulled from the earth was a small, flat disk. She brushed the soil from it and turned it on her palm, seeing the light strike a dull gleam.
‘Jed,’ she shouted. ‘Look!’
He came running back, galvanised by the urgency in her voice, and took the object from her, carrying it to the edge of the creek, kneeling on the bank and washing it carefully.
‘Well, well. Look at what you found.’ He held the disk up between finger and thumb and it glistened gold, its surface shiny now. He handed it back to her. It was about an inch across, the centre quartered into an equal armed cross, bounded by two concentric circles with some sort of flowing decoration round the edge. There was a hole punched towards the perimeter, as though it had been hung from a thong.
‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘It’s Viking work. The design in the circle represented both a solar cross, showing the solstices and equinoxes that divide the year, but also is a symbol of the Norse god Odin.’
‘Then it ought to be in a museum,’
‘Keep it,’ he said. ‘There are enough treasures locked away in cases. Leave it to a museum in your will, if it makes you feel better.’
‘I can’t keep it; it looks like it’s made of gold. It has to be valuable.’
‘Tamsin,’ he said patiently, closing her fingers round the object, ‘nobody will ever know unless you tell them. You’re right, the island is special, and something in me thinks that if you found this thing, it was meant for you. Keep it. Do you think its original owner would have wanted it stuck in a glass case - or possibly just stored with other stuff in a museum’s vaults? It’s a talisman, it would have been meant for protection or to bring some quality into the owner’s life. Now it’s come to you. Keep it. I’ll find you some cord to string it on.’
His words evoked an answering echo from within her and, at that moment, she knew he was right: for some reason the amulet was meant to be hers.
She was very thoughtful as they walked back to the Land Rover. On the drive back, she went over and over the moment she’d kissed Jed: the way the impulse had flared though her unbidden; the touch of his lips on hers; the response of her body. Being that close to him had felt like some sort of homecoming - but that was ridiculous, she barely knew him and he had shown no interest in her that was more than casual friendliness, up to that point. And he’d said himself that it had been a while since he’d split with Fi. What healthy male wouldn’t have responded to a full-on kiss? That had to be all it was, she told herself then turned her attention to enjoying the beautiful scenery.
Chapter 9
She was awake in the night again. Jed had gone out - this time she’d heard the door open and close softly. Swinging her legs out of bed, Tamsin padded across to the laptop and opened the lid, seeing the time was only eleven. It was the twenty-ninth of April, and that made her do a mental double take: time had raced past and soon the helicopter would arrive and take her away from the island. That thought filled her with an inexplicable sense of loss that blotted out any dread she might feel about dealing with the problems she had left behind in her everyday life, and she realised that this place had woven itself into her consciousness and touched her heart.
She tried
to get back to sleep, but, for some reason, her mind was going round and round, alert and jangling with energy. Suddenly she was filled with the urge to be outside, under the sky; a feeling that beckoned to her, made her feet itch and her blood sing. She resisted for as long as she could, snuggling back under the bedcovers, trying to recapture the delicious drowsiness that had sent her into a deep sleep the moment her head had touched the pillow earlier. But it was hopeless, so she gave in and pulled on jeans, sweater and boots, letting herself out into the night.
The moon was still high above the horizon, a fat crescent swelling towards first quarter, and it shed a steady silver radiance that delineated the grasses and painted a wash of pearl over the stone slates on the roof of the Hermitage and the rotors of the two small wind turbines further up the slope behind the dwelling.
Tamsin headed for the cove, as if drawn by a magnet. Part of her knew she might run into Jed, might even surprise him pleasuring himself again, but that caution was overridden by the need to reach the sea, to stretch her limbs, raise her arms and abandon herself to the magic that seemed to be building all around her.
When she got there, she saw that the tide was right out. The sand lay uncovered in a glistening silver sheet all the way to the rocks that led to the outer bay and open sea. She could make out smaller outcrops that would be submerged when the tide was in, and a few isolated pools of water that reflected the path of light from the moon itself. The air was mild and almost still, filled with the scents of sea and flowers. It was so quiet. Even the gulls, in their precarious nests, for once had ceased their squabbling. And she found she wanted to cast her clothes aside, wade in those sea pools, let the faint breeze touch her skin like a balm.
She looked around vaguely but could see no sign of Jed and convinced herself he must have gone the other way, maybe further inland. Anyway, the urge to connect with the elements was becoming hard to resist, so she pulled off sweater, boots and jeans, leaving them above the tide line, and ran down across the sand.
Wetness thrilled her feet and squelched between her toes. It was just a little chilly, but that seemed to energise her. She raised her arms and twirled and danced, laughing with joy, hair a whirling nimbus round her, naked skin sizzling with delicious currents that raised goose bumps and sent a shiver up and down her spine. The Viking amulet lifted and fell, cold against the hollow of her throat on the twine Jed had given her to string it, seeming to send shocks through her skin. She didn’t understand the undertow of emotions that pulled at her; she only knew that she had never felt so alive.
She looked back and saw the crazy patterns her feet had woven, prints criss-crossing black against electric white. The cliffs were luminous in the moonlight, grassy tussocks tumbling to the dark rocks below. The sky was clear, the stars faint but steady. Her mad dance had taken her to the edge of dry sand again, though her toes still sank into the damp ridges the receding sea had left behind.
Then, suddenly, he was there, naked as she was, traversing the floor of the cove from the direction of the sea, twenty yards away, then ten, then closer still. He came towards her without speaking. She saw that, once again, he was hard, his maleness thrusting proudly. She marvelled at his beauty, the way his muscles gleamed under damp skin and his curls moulded wetly to his skull. Without clothes, he was slimmer than she’d realised, yet broad across the shoulders, body tapering towards his hips, his stomach a ridge of muscle where a line of black hair led sleekly to the dense curls that nestled below.
Still he came towards her; still not a word passed between them. She was held in the magic of the moment, barely breathing, and yet with her breath panting a little, her pulse leaping. Then he took her face in his hands, ran his fingers into her hair, bent to capture her mouth with his. A soaring fire passed through her and her senses, which she had thought were totally alive, rocketed onto another level. He sucked on her lower lip, nipping and licking, then explored the inner lining of her mouth with his tongue, and Tamsin’s legs went weak so that she thought she would sink to her knees. But he held her up, arms coming round her, melding her to his chest, the sprinkling of hairs there chafing her breasts, rousing her, making her gasp - the first sound either of them had made.
Then he was pulling away from her, holding her at arms length, ravishing her with his eyes, before bending his lips to her throat, her collarbones, leaving a trail of kisses that made her draw her breath sharply. She twined her fingers into his wet hair, rising passion making her adventurous, while he sent his roving mouth ever lower, first to her nipples, where he nipped and suckled, then drew tantalising circles with the flat of his tongue around her areolas, then across each nub in turn; moving lower still to explore the swell of her belly, the hollow of her navel, then, kneeling in homage to her, coming home to her pubic hair and the secret places it hid.
Then, at last, he spoke, voice growling with arousal: ‘I saw you making love to yourself in the bath pool the other morning. Then I watched you while you swam. I couldn’t help myself. You don’t know how difficult it’s been for me to restrain myself. I’ve desired you since the moment I pulled you from the sea. Tamsin, you’re driving me mad.’
She put her hands down to caress his face. ‘I saw you too, the other night on the beach…ah…God…fondling yourself. You were beautiful. Please don’t stop what you were doing just now - I couldn’t bear it! I need you.’
With a groan he sought her again, running his tongue over her swollen clitoris, licking her labia, then taking the whole of her into his mouth and sucking and releasing, sucking and releasing, slipping into her vagina, tasting her, then exploring her wetness and all her most intimate frills and folds, till she thought she would literally die of the pleasure he evoked.
He raised his head and his eyes locked onto hers, fathomless in the moonlight, holding her to him with the force of his will, as if he would draw out her essence. Tamsin was mesmerised, bewitched. Her heart was thudding like a thousand drums, and yet she felt a still, quiet place inside her where this felt so right, as if something had brought her here tonight to be with him. And she knew that if this was all there was, she would not undo it, would not have chosen a different path. But, oh how she hoped there would be more, because the thought of leaving him behind was beginning to feel unbearable.
Then he was gently pulling her down, drawing her into his arms, rolling her on top of him, kissing her breasts, claiming her mouth again so that she could taste herself on him. She knelt astride him, hands either side of his body sinking into granular sand. She lowered her mouth to find him, to take his length between her lips. She tongued the pebble smooth head of his penis, long, languorous strokes that brought him to even greater hardness, his hips straining as he thrust between her teeth. Wriggling sideways, she freed one hand from supporting herself and moved it along his shaft in an ever-increasing rhythm. Then he turned her so that they were lying head to groin like commas, his lips finding her core again, while she took him into her mouth once more, lips moving up and down the silken length of him till he gasped with passion. His tongue was tormenting her, moving in and out of her, then up to circle her clitoris, darting back and forth, first soft and light, then hard and all encompassing, mouth lapping and biting and sucking till she thought she would die of pleasure.
But, just as she thought she would explode into orgasm, he sat up, pulled her into his arms again, brushing her hair from her brow, kissing her forehead, her eyelids, her throat until she was awash with tenderness and overwhelmed with emotion. Then he straddled her, pushing her legs apart with one knee, plunging into her. He filled her, the length and the width of him delicious, and, with slow strokes, he moved in and out, in and out, bringing her to the brink of release and then drawing back, again and again, till she thought she could bear no more and would burst apart with the pitch of pleasure he commanded.
She felt a wetness swirl around her feet and realised that, while they had been caught in the thrall of sexual congress, the tide had come in. With each plunge of his length into
her, the waves rolled in, and with each withdrawal they ebbed back down the beach, until the pulse of the sea was the peaking and receding of delight.
Until, at last, consummation would no longer be denied. They both tensed, the final crest of orgasm taking them together, lifting them into an ecstasy that was beyond even the burning need of the flesh.
Then they lay in each other’s arms, utterly spent, the high tide washing away the bodily juices they had expended, cooling their flushed skin, lulling them almost to slumber. Except that the sea was too cooling. So they got to their feet, still dazed with the aftermath of gratification. He claimed her mouth again, then tenderly brushed the sand from her hair, handed her clothes to her, and, taking her hand, led her back to the Hermitage.
They didn’t speak on the walk back, and were still silent when they opened the door and went through to the living area, of one accord making for the bed. There he laid her down and paid homage to her body once more. He was firm and hard again, the symbol of his manhood prodding at her thighs, her stomach, demanding entry, which she willingly granted. This time he took her fast and furiously, riding her hard, balls slapping against her. She had thought herself too exhausted to respond, but sensation flared and sparked though her again, burning in her clitoris and her inner reaches, pulsing in ever mounting waves, till she was thrashing her head from side to side, helpless to stem the flood of sheer animal lust that consumed her.
Afterwards, he kissed her, gentled her, caressed her breasts and her back, held her to him. Then she felt him begin to harden again and she knelt at his side, taking his gorgeous length and girth deep into her mouth, sucking and releasing, moving her lips up and down his shaft, feeling his muscles flex as he arched his back in abandon, till he was pumping into her mouth, a great cry tearing from him, wordless and feral in its intensity, and her own body was responding with a burst of pleasure that took her by surprise and lifted her onto the peak of delight once more, like a vessel cast up on the shore.
Stranded Page 5
