So he wouldnât be coming, and sheâd be alone on this last night of her vacation. It was such a shame.
It was now almost midnight and the shaved ice had long ago melted in the silver bucket that held the unopened bottle of champagne, leaving a sad and dispirited icy slush. Sheâd been silly to order champagne. Now when room service picked up the cart theyâd know that sheâd been stood up, and how pitiful was that? Or maybe not. Maybe one of the staff would just steal the bottle himself and take it home himself. It really didnât matter to her. Sheâd be checking out tomorrow anyhow.
The whole thing had been foolish anyhow: leaving the keycard to her room there on the chaise lounge by the pool where he could find it. Theyâd been talking for hours and the sun had long since set. She couldnât in good conscience sit there in the dark, so sheâd left her keycard under his towel on the chaise, right were he should find it. Sheâd hoped heâd take the hint. Thereâs been enough flirtation when theyâd talked, but it hadnât worked out. She should probably feel embarrassed about that kind of schoolgirl come-on, but she was old enough that she didnât embarrass easily. Maybe he hadnât found the card, or maybe heâd found it and just turned it in to the desk.
But Greg hadnât looked like the kind of man who would miss a hint dropped by a lady, not with those dark eyes that seemed to see right inside her and that air of sensual intensity about him. She could tell that he was looking or a woman just as much as she was looking for a man, and sheâd caught him staring frankly at her breasts when he thought she wasn't looking. When she made her exit after planting the keycard, sheâd seen his reflection in the sliding door, watching her as she walked away, so sheâd even put a little sway in her walk to give him something to look at. That sway had made her aware of her own wetness, a wetness that had started while sheâd still been talking to him, looking at his lips and thinking of what heâd be like.
So sheâd been sure heâd come. Even if she wasn't a twenty-two year old hottie like the other girls around the pool, she was still a very attractive woman and she looked great in a bathing suit. She still made men stare. When sheâd gotten dressed in expectation of his arrival, sheâd been pleasantly impressed with how good she looked in the mirror: tanned, rested, and healthy, with that erotic depth she noticed in her eyes whenever she needed a manâs company. Had he shown up, he wouldnât have had a chance. But obviously sheâd miscalculated somewhere.
Well, it was too late now. She sighed, thinking of her own silly vanity, and blew a lock of dark hair out of her face, stood up and removed the clingy sundress and hung it back in the closet. She stepped out of her pantiesâshe hadnât worn a bra, she didnât need one; her full, slightly disproportionate breasts were one of her best featuresâand took out a sarong and wrapped it around her naked body, tucking the fabric in over her breasts. The sarong had been everything on this vacation: robe, bathing suit cover, housecoat. It had been the one thing she could wear after her first days of sunburn when everything else felt like emery paper against her skin. Now it just felt natural, her second skin, and her nakedness beneath it was just naughty enough to remind her that she was on vacation.
The champagne bottle caught her eye, the hard length of the neck protruding from the silver bucket, the cork still wired tightly to the bottle. It stood on a white-draped hotel service cart, along with a plate of shrimp and a dozen fresh oysters centered around one perfect peony blossom. The oysters would have been her little joke for him. The peony was for her.
She picked up the flower now, and ran it over her face, feeling the cool softness and inhaling the cloying scent. She looked at he champagne and decided, no, she didnât want to drink tonight, not alone. Up until tonight it had been a wonderful vacation: swimming, sunning, shopping. Her body felt strong and toned and ready for anything, and her light sunburn made her skin glow and feel exquisitely sensitive. It would have been wonderful to feel a manâs lips on her body tonight, but she hadnât really been looking for romance on this trip and she wouldnât let its absence spoil things now.
She turned off the room lights and plopped down on the bed, flicked on the bedside light and picked up her book. She leafed through the pages, trying to find her place, then sighed and tossed the book aside. She needed more than printed words. She picked up the flower and sniffed it, then sat up and tucked it behind her ear. She got up and went to the balcony, opened the sliding door and leaned against the sill, looking out at the night. It was warm and balmy, and the stars were brilliant over the ocean. She slipped into the heels sheâd worn that evening and stepped out onto the balcony.
The night was velvety soft and fragrant, and the warm offshore breeze felt like a caress against her new tan. Below her was the sapphire glow of the swimming pool, empty now, and as blue and as smooth as a piece of ice. She looked over the palms that screened the pool from the ocean, and off across the darkened beach to where the moon shone on the ink-black tropical waters, making a road of silver that led straight to where she stood. She looked up at the other balconies above her, then down to those below. Each was shielded from prying eyes, but as far as she could tell, she seemed to be the only one out enjoying the night.
It was a beautiful night: calm and soft and filled with mystery, the air a sensual pleasure against her skin. Darkness and beauty, and that inexpressible ache, that soft longing. The night had always spoken to her, had always called to her, some message she could never quite make out. She felt the darkness within, the mystery, something soft and yielding, but shot through with threads of wild light. The sound of the breeze through the palms and the surf upon the shore. She leaned upon the balcony and turned her face to the wind, letting it take her hair, bathing in its dark promise.
She was deliciously tired. If she hadnât gotten so sexually aroused earlier by his eyes and shoulders, the way he used his hands, she would probably be in bed asleep by now. But as it was, her weariness only made her that much more aware of the empty ache in her body. She felt tired, but she longed to feel a manâs arms around her and feel the hunger in his kiss. She felt exquisitely alive.
Susan ran her hand down her throat, over her chest, and then down over her breast, imagining his hand on her, the way heâd touch her: softly, with trepidation, and yet with a sense of command that would leave no doubt as to what he was going to do with her. His hand would cover her breast like a cloud over the moon, encasing it in shadow, in the delicious darkness of the night. And darkness would come from him. He would be a shadow covering the light. The mystery of the night would come from him and eclipse her, folding her into his exciting darkness and drawing her in.
She had played this game before, trying to touch herself as her phantom lover would touch her, but sheâd never been able to create that feeling she sought, the urgency and savage desire she dreamed of feeling from a manâs hand on her body. She knew what it would feel like: it would feel like the waves upon the shore, like moonlight on the dark ocean. She could feel it with the certainty of a dream, but so far sheâd never actually felt it.
The breeze picked up her hair and blew a few strands across her face, tickling her lips. She smoothed it back in place, and her hand slid down her body to where she needed to be touched. The wall of the balcony was solid, no one could see her below the waist, and there was nobody out now anyhow.
It was so beautiful. She took the night into herself, opened herself up to it and breathed it in. The very air was like an aphrodisiac, thick with the scents of flowers and ripe fruit and the sexual musk of the ocean. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the waves on the shore, powerful and rhythmic and steady. Her hand found the spot on her sarong and she pressed her fingers against herself, pressing the fabric up between her legs. She would need some relief if she were ever going to get to sleep tonight. Her breasts felt unusually full and heavy, and she ached with a feeling of hollow emptiness. She could feel the waves of the ocean inside her.
Her vibrator was still in her make-up bag, but she didnât want that now. She leaned on the balcony and slid her hand inside the sarong, feeling Gregâs fingers there instead of hers. He was touching her, as softly and knowingly as the warm breeze that enveloped her. He was holding her in his arms and touching her, unable to help himself, determined to make her let go tonight. She was trying to tell him no, that she hardly knew him, but that was only for form, to ease her conscience. She wanted this too: his hunger for her made her weak.
He dropped to his knees in front of her as her hand slid inside the sarong and against her wet and aroused flesh. Oh, he was wicked! He grabbed her buttocks in his hands and pulled her towards him. She saw him on his knees, his mouth open and his tongue reaching for her, and she was already starting to melt against his lips even as she protested in her mind and told him no. But he would not be put off. It was a favorite fantasy of hers that her lover wouldnât stop, no matter what she said, that he would take her, rip her out of her own reserve and bring out the wildness inside her. It was her own deep secret. She felt his hot breath upon her, the strength of his fingers as they dug into her buttocks and held her tight, insisting that she yield to him.