by Miranda Lee
When the tour had ended, they'd driven to Cable Beach to have lunch, sitting on the grass under the palms and talking about silly things. Nothing heavy at all.
Gerard had not been mentioned once, and had rarely entered Leah's thoughts.
Afterwards, they'd strolled along the beach, hand in hand. Leah had found the experience warm and sweet, and not too sexually tense, although things had become momentarily strained when they'd come across another couple walking towards them, stark naked.
Cable Beach was a well-known spot for nudists, but this couple hadn't exactly been hiding in the sandhills or lying discreetly face-down in the sand. Naturally they'd had good bodies, otherwise they probably wouldn't have been making an exhibition of themselves.
'Just what I need,' Gareth had muttered under his breath.
'Fancy her, do you?' Leah had teased, trying to break the instant tension between them.
'Nah,' he'd mocked back. 'But the bloke isn't half bad.'
They'd both dissolved into giggles, which had brought a haughty look from the woman and a glare from the man.
Leah grinned at the memory.
'Well, whatever 'this and that' was,' Alan said drily, 'he's put a happy look on your face. Which is good to see.'
'What makes you think it's a he?'
'Honey, you're talkin' to good ole Alan here. If anyone knows what makes a female tick, it's me. Which reminds me...could you mind the boat for me tonight?'
Leah's face fell. Gareth had asked her out to dinner again tonight.
'Okay, okay, I get the picture,' Alan said in droll tones. 'The boyfriend has plans for you tonight. So perhaps we could find a compromise?'
They'd reached Alan's parking spot, the dust settling around them now that the wheels had stopped turning on the dirt road.
'What kind of compromise?'
'Is he a tourist?'
'What?'
'The boyfriend. Is he a tourist?'
'Yes...' No way was she going to tell Alan who, exactly.
'Do you know where he's staying?'
'Well...yes. The Roebuck Bay apartments. Why?'
'I'll ring him from my mobile phone right now and we'll sort something out.' He started punching in the number. 'What's his name?'
Leah bit her bottom lip. Alan frowned before his expression suddenly cleared. 'Good God, it isn't? Not your ex's brother?
Her guilty face told it all. Alan put his finger on the 'off' button.
'Leah, Leah...if what you said about the ex is true, then you're playing with fire. This is the sort of scenario Greek tragedies are made of.'
'I'm not sleeping with him!'
'Not yet, you mean. But I know that look on a woman.'
'What look?'
'That he's-crazy-about-me and I'd-like-to-eat-him-up look.'
Leah winced. 'Does it show that badly?'
'Yes.'
'I know it's an awkward situation,' she admitted with a ragged sigh. 'He says he wants me more than any woman he's ever met.'
'Mmm. That's a good line. I've used it myself.'
'It's not a line, Alan. Gareth's no conman like his brother. If he was, he'd have sworn love at first sight and swept me into bed. I told him I wasn't sure which brother I was really attracted to and he said he's not at all worried. He's supremely confident I will eventually choose him. In truth, Alan, he's everything I could possibly want in a man. If I'd met him first, I know I would have fallen for him. But everything is clouded by my having fallen in love with and married Gerard first. Gerard is not a man easily forgotten.'
'Monsters rarely are,' Alan pointed out drily. 'They can be such fascinating creatures.'
Leah shuddered. Yes, Alan was right. Gerard had fascinated her from the start. But that fascination had blinded her to the real man underneath. The monster.
'How can I tell if what I feel for Gareth is the real thing, Alan?' she asked, her eyes pleading with him for an answer. 'Or just an illusion?'
'Am I right in presuming you lust after both brothers like mad?'
'Oh, God, it sounds awful when you say it like that. But I do. I like Gareth a lot more, though. He's much nicer. Sweeter. Softer.'
'Not too soft, I hope,' Alan muttered drily, and Leah blushed. 'Look, Leah, sometimes lust is best confronted. Your feelings often clarify after you've been to bed with someone. I guarantee by morning you'll know which brother you prefer, in bed and out. A man reveals a lot about himself when he makes love.'
'You think so?'
'I know so. Now, shall I ring Gareth and offer him a free night on The Zephyr with his own private and very pretty serving girl? I'll even put clean sheets on the bed in the master cabin,' he added with a wickedly saucy grin.
Leah didn't know what to say. To have Alan make such an offer with her approval was tantamount to agreeing to let Gareth make love to her.
The thought blew her away. She wanted him, but she was terrified of the consequences.
'A lady can always say no, Leah,' Alan said on seeing her instant panic. 'It's a big boat. Your inviting him to share its beauty for a night is not necessarily an invitation to share more. Make that clear to him when he comes aboard. If he's the nice man you say he is, he'll respect that, won't he?'
Yes, she thought. He would. Gareth was not like Gerard. He was not a monster.
'All right,' she said, and let out a long-held breath. 'Ring up and ask him.'
Gareth was coming, Alan told her a couple of minutes later. With bells on.
He wasn't wearing bells when he stepped from the Zodiac onto the deck of The Zephyr at seven-thirty that evening. He wasn't wearing very much at all, Leah thought, a lump forming in her throat as she looked him over. Bright board shorts. A blue singlet top with 'Broome' emblazoned across his very nice chest in iridescent yellow letters. And leather thongs which he immediately shook off his bare feet.
She wasn't wearing much more, she supposed. She did keep some spare clothes on board, but not many. After Alan had left earlier, to take the cruise party back to shore, she'd dashed down below, stripped off the shorts and top she'd had on all day and showered at length.
The pink shorts she was now wearing were short shorts, just covering her buttocks. The T-shirt was modest enough, however, white and baggy, with large pink hibiscus flowers providing some refuge for her braless breasts, both of which were suddenly feeling very vulnerable. She almost wished she'd left her hair down instead of scooping its damp mass up into a high ponytail. She could hide a fair bit when her hair was down these days.
'Thanks, Alan,' Gareth called out, waving towards where the Zodiac was already speeding across the water back to shore. He turned to face her, lifting up his other hand which was laden with two heavy-looking plastic bags.
'Chinese,' he said, smiling. 'And champagne. The best'
'You shouldn't have.' She tried to smile back, but it felt like a grimace. Of all the times for Gareth to sound just like his brother. Gerard had always bought the best. Of everything.
'Why not? You deserve the best.'
Her heart flipped over. Now that was nothing like Gerard. He'd only ever bought the best as a reflection of his wealth and success, never for anyone else.
Now her smile was real. 'I meant the Chinese, silly. I was going to cook something. Alan has a very well-equipped larder on board.'
'Not tonight. Tonight I don't want you to do anything except lie back and relax.'
Leah only heard the words 'lie back'. She knew she had to say something before it was too late. 'Gareth,' she began tautly, while the rest of her body thrummed, 'I don't want you to think that inviting you here for the night was an invitation to...to...'
'Hey,' he interrupted softly. 'I said relax, remember? You call the shots. I won't be doing anything you don't want me to do.'
'But that's the trouble,' she muttered agitatedly. 'I do want you to.'
His eyes darkened appreciably. 'I wish you hadn't said that...'
'I wish I hadn't too,' she groaned. 'Oh God, this is dread
ful.'
'No, it isn't dreadful.' Gareth placed the plastic bags down on the deck then came forward to curve gentle but firm hands over her shoulders. 'It's inevitable,' he murmured, and gathered her close, his mouth dipping to cover hers, his dark head blotting out the moon, his kiss blotting out everything for Leah but his lips and his tongue and his hard male body pressed against hers.
Her reaction was the same as it had been the other day. She was besieged with instant need. And a hunger which obliterated everything but the moment.
'No, don't,' Leah moaned when his mouth lifted temporarily for breath.
'Don't what?' he whispered back while his mouth rained wet kisses over her face and neck.
'Don't stop.'
He just laughed, then startled her by gripping the bottom of her T-shirt in both his hands and stripping it up over her head and ponytail, then tossing it away onto the deck.
The feel of the night air on her bare breasts was arousing in the extreme. His hot eyes on them sent her pulse-rate haywire. His hands on them brought a dark haze down over her conscious mind. His mouth on them banished every mixed-up thought she'd had these past few days and which were still lurking in her mind, ready to spoil things.
Gerard. Gareth. It didn't seem to matter who it was, making her feel like this. She moaned in recognition of the overwhelming nature of her erotic intoxication. All she wanted at that moment was for that tormenting tongue to keep lapping at her rock-hard nipples, those tantalising teeth to make her cry out with pained pleasure, those all-engulfing lips to suckle her breast ever deeper into his mouth.
She groaned when that hot, wet mouth abandoned her breasts and began sliding down towards her stomach, when he began to sink down, down onto his knees, taking her shorts and G-string with him, stripping her totally of her clothes and her conscience.
The shorts and G-string went the same way as her top, and she found herself leaning against the bulwark, naked and panting. A still kneeling Gareth pushed her legs apart, caressed and kissed the tops of her thighs, then between her thighs, knowing exactly where to probe, to lick, to suck, instinctively honing in on that spot that drove her wild.
Her hands clutched at the ropes on either side of her as she moaned her frenzy, her back arching, her thighs quivering. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to come too soon, and just as she was certain she must hurtle over into that abyss of darkly shuddering ecstasy he stood up, taking her with him, lifting her up to sit on the railing.
Her eyes remained wide on him when he let her go to divest himself of his shorts. The scar from his accident shone white under the moonlight. But it wasn't his scar which held her dry-mouthed gaze.
Leah swallowed when he moved back between her legs, gasped when his flesh met hers, groaned when he surged deep inside.
She came immediately, her own flesh clasping and unclasping his as she cried out, then just cried, sobbing with her release against his shoulder. He cradled her to him for a long while, then carried her down below, their bodies still joined.
'In here?' he indicated brusquely, nodding towards the main cabin where Alan had made up the bed with clean sheets. In fact, that was all there was on the bed. Sheets, and half a dozen pillows. Some small recessed lights in the wall above the bed lent just enough light to see by.
She nodded in dazed agreement and Gareth angled her inside the narrow doorway before lying them both down on the bed, Leah underneath him, her legs still wrapped around his hips.
Leah was fiercely aware that he hadn't come, his body still deliciously big and hard within her. His control amazed her, as did her own rapidly returning desire. She'd never felt like this so soon after having a climax before. She usually took ages to be turned on again, but her body seemed to be craving Gareth even more for having been satisfied once.
She wanted him to move, wanted to feel his flesh filling hers before partly withdrawing then plunging back in, deeper and deeper. Her heartbeat quickened at the thought, her lips parting, her mouth and throat drying as a shallow panting escaped her lungs. Her legs tightened around him while her tongue swept out and over her parched lips.
Gareth watched the action from where he was leaning over her, his elbows on either side of her tensing body, his hands cupping her face.
'Let me,' he said, his mouth descending to wet her lips with slow, seductive licks of his tongue.
Her mouth gasped open wider, inviting him, begging him.
At last he obliged, his tongue sinking slowly into the waiting cavern, sliding down the centre of her tongue before curling up and raking the tip over the sensitive skin of her palate. He repeated the action over and over till she was beside herself with wanting, her hips lifting off the bed in an effort to take him deeper into her body. She moaned her frustration, her hands lifting to rake her fingers through his hair, her eyes wide and pleading upon him.
At last his mouth lifted and he began to move within her, doing exactly what she wanted, but slowly. So very, very slowly. The feelings he evoked were exquisite as he undulated within her, withdrawing almost to the point of no return before sinking back down into her depths. She felt as if she was floating on a sea of pleasure, cresting with the waves before dropping down into the troughs.
Gradually, however, the sea turned stormy. She was cresting higher, crashing down lower. Her nails dug into his back; her back arched up from the bed.
'Oh!' she cried out as a fierce spasm sliced through her flesh.
'Leah,' Gareth groaned, and exploded inside her, his whole body trembling violently.
She was beyond replying, beyond anything but holding him to her, savouring her own sensations, and his, rocking her hips against his as he came, and came, and came.
At last he was still, collapsed across her, his lips in her hair. Leah lay beneath him, wallowing in his weight, and his flooding warmth.
The thought finally infiltrated that this was how silly women had unwanted babies, by allowing themselves to be carried away in the heat of the moment.
But, oh, the glory of that heat! And that moment! She could not have stopped him for the world. Thank heavens a baby was unlikely tonight!
Her hands splayed across his back as she held him close to her. She murmured his name as she kissed his shoulder. 'Gareth...'
Yes, it was Gareth she wanted, she decided with an astonishing mixture of satisfaction and as yet unsated desires.
Not Gerard.
Gareth.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
'No, DONT,' Gareth said, flinching when Leah touched a soft fingertip to his scar.
'But I don't find it ugly or anything,' she murmured. 'Nothing about you could possibly be ugly.'
They were lying out on the deck in the stem of the boat behind the wheel. Leah had brought up a few duvets from the bunks below and made a type of mattress for them to lie on under the stars. Gareth was stretched out on his back and she was on her side, propped up on one elbow.
'I want to look at all of you,' she murmured thickly. 'Touch all of you. Kiss all of you...'
She had wanted to do all of those things in the shower they'd just tried to share, but there was hardly room for one in the tiny cubicle, let alone two. Gareth's sheer size had made things impossible and in the end they'd showered separately, any fantasy Leah had had about the shower providing some exciting intimacies temporarily put aside. Not so now. Gareth was lying there magnificently naked and totally at her disposal.
He groaned when she went perilously close to his rapidly reviving penis, and once again Leah's thoughts flew to Gerard.
He'd never groaned when they made love. Had never made a sound. The sounds had all come from her. The moans and groans, the pleas and cries, the gasps and sighs. Stung by this thought, Leah decided she liked hearing Gareth groan, and sought to make him groan some more.
She ran a fingernail up and down the length of him, ever so lightly. His flesh fairly jumped, and the sound he made sent an erotic shiver rippling down her spine. She touched him again, but not with her fingerna
il this time. Three soft fingertips skimmed over the straining flesh, followed by her whole hand, encircling him, teasing him, tormenting him.
Soon it wasn't the sounds coming from Gareth's throat which enthralled Leah but her own arousal. A hot twisting ache was gripping her between her legs and her nipples were standing on end, impatient in their need to be caressed. Leaning down, she rubbed the sensitive peaks all over him, then cupped her hanging breasts around him, rocking backwards and forwards, squeezing the swollen curves into a type of tunnel into which he was thrusting. She heard his raw panting breaths, felt his body stiffen, heard his cry of warning. But she didn't care. She was as much out of control as he was.
She climaxed when he did, without his having laid a finger on her.
Leah lay there afterwards, stunned. Gareth was solicitous in his care of her, cleaning her gently with a warm flannel he brought from below, then drying her with a towel. When she began to shiver he covered her with one of the duvets then slipped in to cuddle her close.
'You all right?' he asked gently.
'I...I don't know...' She felt she was unravelling. Her head. Her body. Amazingly she still wanted him, wanted to do even more things to him, things she'd had to be persuaded to do for Gerard, and some things she'd never done. My God, she'd become a wild woman. A wanton. A...a nymphomaniac!
'Don't be embarrassed, Leah,' he murmured. 'What you did was beautiful and incredibly passionate. I loved it. You loved it. That's because we love each other.'
She turned to look at him in surprise, saw the love for her shining in his eyes, felt her own heart lurch in response.
'I loved you from the first moment I saw you,' he said thickly.
Tears sprang to her eyes at the memory of Gerard saying that to her, more than once. Only with Gerard it hadn't been true.
'You really mean that?' she choked out.
'I've never meant anything more in my life.' Sincerity blazed within the blue of his eyes. Sincerity and the most heart-rending appeal.
'Say you love me too, Leah. I couldn't bear it if you didn't.'
