Miranda Lee - Contract with Consequences

The food was excellent, the fish cooked in beer batter and the chips crisp and hot. The smell of the food reminded Scarlet how hungry she was and she set about eating the meal with gusto. The time it took to eat the meal was a blessing as well, for it gave her the opportunity to calm down. Of course she wasn’t falling in love with John! She was just being silly and naive. Still, if she was going to keep on having sex with him-and she definitely was-then she had to adopt a more casual attitude to sex and get a grip on her emotions. Okay, so sex with him was earth-moving stuff-wasn’t she a lucky girl?

Such thoughts did little to dampen her escalating desires, however. By the time they left the club for the short drive home, Scarlet was near to bursting with frustration. She suspected that John was of a similar frame of mind. His eyes kept returning to her cleavage. Which meant he was sure to pounce the moment they were alone. That would have suited Scarlet fine, except for the little matter of being butt-naked under her dress. Her pride simply would not let John discover that she’d done what he wanted after all.

‘I’m going to ring my mother first,’ she said the second John closed the apartment door behind them.

‘Fine,’ he growled. ‘I’ve got a couple of calls I have to make, anyway.’ And he marched off in the direction of the kitchen.

Scarlet scuttled off to the guest bedroom where she quickly pulled a pair of white satin panties out from her case and put them on. Once that was done, she sat down on the side of the bed with her phone in hand and punched in her home number. It rang and rang, but her mother didn’t answer. When the phone clicked over to the answering machine, Scarlet thought about leaving a message but decided not to. She didn’t want her mother to call her later when she was otherwise engaged. Instead, she rang off then tried her mother’s mobile number, even though she knew it was probably turned off. Her mother was of that generation who only used their mobile phones for making emergency calls. She never thought to leave it turned on so that people could call her.

But, surprisingly, it was on, her mother answering after only a few rings.

‘Mum!’ Scarlet said with surprise in her voice. ‘You actually turned your mobile on.’

‘I thought I should. I knew you’d ring me tonight and I didn’t want to miss your call.’

‘Where on earth are you? It sounds rather noisy.’

‘I’m at Erina Fair, doing some food shopping. What you can hear is the rain on the roof. It hasn’t stopped bucketing down since you left.’

‘No rain up here. It was about twenty-five degrees today, with just a gentle breeze blowing off the sea.’

‘You’re having a good time, by the sound of you.’

Good…

Now that wasn’t a word which sprang to mind about today, Scarlet thought guiltily.

‘I haven’t been doing all that much,’ she said. ‘Went for a long walk around the city and down to the new waterfront area which was pretty amazing. I’m just back from dinner at the sailing club.’

‘The sailing club, no less! That sounds swish.’

‘Actually, no, it’s nothing like that at all. The club’s on the small side and very casual. Where you eat is right on the water and has a great view of the sunset. I took lots of photos. Which reminds me, have you looked at the photos of the apartment I sent you?’

‘I sure did. It looks lovely and the view is fantastic.’

‘I’ve taken heaps more photos today. I’ll email them to you as soon as I get off the phone.’

‘Oh, don’t worry about doing that, love. I’d much rather you showed me the rest of your photos when you get home. That way you can tell me all about them at the same time. So what are you going to do tomorrow?’

‘I’m not sure. I haven’t booked anything as yet. I might just potter around Darwin again, or sit on the balcony and read a book.’

Or I might spend all day in bed, fulfilling every single sexual fantasy I’ve ever had .

‘You do whatever you want to do, darling. And don’t worry about calling me every day. You’re up there to have a complete break. And it’s not like I’m lonely. I’m with the girls at the salon all day, then I’m going to my quilting meeting tomorrow night. And Carolyn has kindly asked me over to her place for dinner on Saturday. I dare say she thinks I’m missing you, and of course I am. But not in a sad way. I love it that you’re having a holiday. I tell you what-leave off calling me till Sunday night. By then you’ll have lots of news to tell me.’

‘Okay. I’ll ring you on Sunday night around seven. Bye, Mum. Look after yourself.’

‘You too, darling. Love you. Bye.’

Scarlet sighed as she hung up. Her mother was missing her but trying desperately not to show it. Perhaps it was a good thing for her mother to learn to cope by herself for a while.

It was just as well, however, that she didn’t know what her daughter was up to during her ‘holiday’. She would be seriously shocked.

Scarlet could no longer pretend to be shocked. The lust which was consuming her was also obliterating both shock and shame. She could not wait to be with John again. Her heart beat quickened as she hurriedly made her way back out into the kitchen where the object of her desires was just saying goodbye to whoever he was talking to.

He placed his phone down on the kitchen counter and looked over at her.

‘I expected you to talk for a lot longer than that.’

‘The line wasn’t good,’ Scarlet informed him, amazed at how calm she sounded. ‘It was raining so hard I could hardly hear her. Who were you talking to?’ she asked, still managing to keep up her cool facade. Underneath, however, she was all liquid heat.

‘That was a mate of mine. Owns a helicopter. His name’s Jim. Before that I rang another mate, Brad. He owns a boat-charter business. I’ve been lining up our activities for the next three days. Tomorrow, we’re going on that harbour cruise, the one where you learn to fish. Saturday, we’re going to visit Kakadu and a few other tourist spots by air, then late in the afternoon Jim is going to set us down in a very special place where I’m going to show you that camping can be fun too. Sunday morning, Jim’ll come back to collect us, then we’re going to do a spot of heli-fishing before coming back here and cooking our catch. How does that sound?’

‘Wonderful.’ In truth, she didn’t give a damn what they did tomorrow. Or Saturday. Or Sunday. All she could think about was here and now.

‘John?’ she said, her voice turning throaty as desire trickled like shards of hot ice down her spine, radiating out into her breasts and her belly and every other turnedon area of her body.

‘Yes?’

‘Could you please stop talking now?’ she choked out. ‘I really need you to make love to me.’

John stared at her, his gaze so hungry and hot Scarlet thought she would combust on the spot.

‘In that case, I really need you to take that dress off,’ he said in a low, gravelly voice. ‘If you recall, I did say that no clothes were allowed when we were alone together.’

Scarlet gulped. Thank God she’d put her panties back on. As wickedly charged as she felt, she still didn’t want John to know that she’d sat through dinner without any underwear on. Now that would be shaming. Her heart missed several beats as she reached up her back to find the zipper which anchored her dress in place. Seconds later the dress was on the floor and her pulse rate went off the Richter scale.

‘Now the rest of it,’ he ordered.

Her hands trembled as she took her panties off, but not through nerves. It was sheer excitement that was making her shake. Tossing the panties away, she straightened her shoulders and stood before him, totally nude, except for her shoes.