Robert Walker - Primal Instinct

“ Day you arrived.”

“ Sneaky SOB, aren't you?”

“ Comes with the chromosomes, you might say.”

“ And just how did you learn that I was on Maui?”

He took her in with his eyes once more. “I'm not ready to reveal all my secrets just yet-are you?”

She hesitated, started to answer but thought better of it.

“ I have long found your work, your record interesting. Doctor, and now I simply find you very interesting.” He moved closer, putting his arm about her waist. “Would you have me shot for my curiosity?” She felt a wave of passion sweep through her, but still she resisted, taking his hand away and snatching the blanket from where he'd tossed it across the arm of the chair. “Better arrange this for you,” she said in her most motherly tone. 'Time you got some rest, don't you think?”

She busied herself with spreading the blanket over the sofa, saying in a near-whisper, “I hope you'll be comfortable here, Jim, and now, if you don't mind, I'd like just to-”

“ Yes, well… I'm sure I'll be perfectly comfortable here, yes,” he sputtered, trying desperately to regain the moment but failing to. Wanting to touch her again, but fearful of the consequences, he instead began making faces behind her back-faces that told of his frustration and anger with himself for being so clumsy-while she fluffed his pillow and pleasantly chanted, “There, there.”

She smelled so clean and fresh, like the island air swirling in from the sea, and earlier he'd listened to the cascade of water from her shower, fantasizing at the time how it would be if he simply joined her. He'd step into the spray and she'd welcome him into her waiting arms, but he'd stepped out onto the balcony instead, and she had come to him in that thick robe, her robust skin shimmering against her auburn hair in the half-light. He wondered now how he could ever allow her to step away from him.

When she turned, he again reached out for her. She took his hands firmly in hers and said, “Good night, Jim. Get some rest. You're overtired, and so am I.”

She quickly left, realizing how teasing and foolish she'd been earlier, having gone to him on the balcony in her robe, but she had found out what she wanted to know. He was extremely interested. “Good night, Jim,” she said in a whiskey-voiced whisper from her door.

Just as she turned, he stole a final glance to see her soft form glide off, disappearing into the adjoining room as she closed the door behind her. He then stared at the sofa, kicked off his shoes and tore away his coat and tie. In a moment he was stripping away his shirt, allowing the cool breeze coming in off the balcony to play over his naked chest. He stripped down to his shorts, grabbed a white terry robe with the Rainbow logo and went in to shower.

In the shower stall, the hot jets of water were soothing on his neck and shoulders, the headache of earlier having become a fist at his temple. He closed his eyes and stood there and suddenly his flesh trembled, feeling Jessica's soft touch against his back as she entered the stall. Drenched, he turned to face her, but his fantasy evaporated in the mist of hot spray when he opened his eyes to find himself quite alone.

He toweled off and found Jessica's Nuprin bottle, popped three of them and returned to the living area, where he dropped the robe over a chair and quickly nestled below the cotton blanket she'd given him, his head alighting on the pillow. His every nerve screaming for sleep in the absence of sex, he was immediately met with slumber.

Parry was shaken by a soft, moaning noise reverberating in his head until it turned into a panicked cry, having suddenly intensified even as he gathered his senses to realize where in hell he was: outside Jessica Coran's bedroom, in deep slumber only moments before.

Then the cry from her room became insistent. He tore himself from the covers, grabbed his gun from its holster over a chair and rushed to Jessica's side, fearing the worst.

A moment later, he stood over her bed and watched her troubled sleep. She called out the name Otto, and next she called out the single word Father, mantra of the frightened child, he thought. Somewhere below her calm exterior, below the veneer of the doctor, there was a scared little girl after all. “Just like me,” he whispered aloud. “Like all of us, I suppose.”

He felt uncomfortable seeing her like this, and so he gently sat alongside her and slowly shook Jessica into consciousness, softly and firmly repeating her name. She felt good beneath his warm, gentle touch; he smelled good, too, natural and balmy like the sea air that parted the drapes at the window. She found his eyes burning a path over her reposing form, and as she struggled for complete consciousness, she heard him tenderly say, “God, you're beautiful.”

She came fully awake, her nightmare vanquished as if he'd taken a rapier to it. shredding it apart to reveal a safe reality on this side of sleep.

She gasped for air and gripped his bare arms for support. He gently wrapped her in himself and rocked slowly, telling her that everything was all right.

“ I'm here, Jess… I'm here,” came his litany of assurances. She sobbed against his firm, wide chest, feeling foolish, caught off guard, appearing so damnably vulnerable.

“ You okay?” he asked, his voice banishing the shadows and demons that'd come so near.

“ No… yeah, I mean… yeah, for the moment. Bad dreams is all.” She knew her voice sounded a bit desperate and rocky.

“ About Matisak?” he asked, referring to her nightmare.

“ No… about Linda Kahala… about the way she died. Lau and I've measured the wounds the killer inflicted just to the one limb. He taunted her for hours if I'm any judge of the nature of the wounds, some striated in layers, as if he'd dug out goddamned…”-she searched for the word-”petroglyphs against her flesh like she was stone.” She'd mentioned the patterned nature of some of the cuts to him before, but she hadn't told him how it had affected her. “The… the bastard… likely placed such cuts all over her body before she mercifully gave into hemorrhagic shock, coma and death.” The slow death was filled with suffering, and the nightmare felt so real.

She shivered involuntarily.

He held her more firmly. “Nothing can harm you here with me,” he quietly promised, kissing her atop her head.

She tipped her head slightly upward, her mouth at his chin, and he moistened his lips and brought his mouth to hers. Their embrace was long, warm, honeyed and mellifluous; their bodies becoming fluid, each seemed to easily and wearily melt into the other, and now, for a time, they simply held firm to one another, Jim lying alongside her there on the bed. afraid to let go, a man who has reached too far, fearing a false move.

For a long time they remained quiet, but stroking his hair, she found herself exploring him, and in a moment each was exploring the other with renewed energy and needful hearts. Fingers and hands made swirls about her being, and each lover was now enraptured and wrapped in one another's longing. Each in great and passionate throes, each seeking comfort in the other… and suddenly there was no darkness or shadow living here, neither in the room nor inside her.

She reached around him and dug her nails into his back and wrapped her legs abouf him all in one flowing motion. He responded with ever more passion, his mouth cascading with a waterfall of warmth and saliva. Exploring her firm breasts, his fiery tongue stroked her like a welcomed hot poker. She raised and lowered with his rhythmic movement, their combined gasps and deep breathing their only music, enchanting and melodic.

This is what you came to Hawaii for, she thought.

“ Jess, Jess, Jess,” he chanted as a refrain, his unrestrained body bathing her in the oils of passion and play.