Kiss the Tiger (10 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Our bodies pressed together as we
drove up the coastal road. I clung to Josh with my arms wrapped around his body
and my head laid against his shoulder. A possessive hand reached behind and
held my thigh as we coasted along. It still felt like a dream to be with him. The
past eighteen months of longing were now a faded memory. My mind went blank of
everything except the need to be naked in his arms, and I could think of no
better location for our first time than his special place. If he didn’t make a
move on me, I fully intended to reverse the roles. I had to make him completely
mine.

Before long, I was tottering over
the ruins in my high heels.

“Ah, fuck,” I cursed, misjudging
a rocky section of earth. “Hang on, I’ll just…” I bent to remove my stupid
shoes, and Josh helped me up.

“Not exactly twinkle toes, are
we?”

“I seem to have misplaced my
hiking boots.”

He chuckled. “Want me to carry
you?”

I smacked his arm playfully as I carried
on walking. “I’m not that helpless.”

Our destination was worth almost
twisting my ankle. When I reached the cliff edge, Josh came up behind me and
enfolded me in his arms. The buttons of his shirt pressed into to skin left
exposed by my backless dress.

He rested his head on my
shoulder. “Is it all you hoped for?” he asked, as we looked out over the bay.

In the distance, the full moon shimmied
off the water and cast a soft glow on the town. Lights emitting from the
buildings blazed yellow and spread their reflections across the water. Laser
beams lit up small sections of the sky, like rainbows.

“The view, yes. The rest, I’ll
let you know.”

His nose nuzzled into my neck.
“Sounds like a challenge.”

I reached up to loop my fingers
into his hair and closed my eyes, wanting nothing to distract me from the
sensations stirring inside me. I let out a long sigh. “I’ve waited long
enough.”

“Tell me what you want.”

“I want you.”

“You’ve got me. What do you want
to do with me?” Fingers splayed over my stomach, locking the contours of my
figure into his. His other hand smoothed across my hip and down my thigh. The
fresh night breeze did nothing to cool the heat building between my legs.

“Everything.”

His tongue flicked against my
earlobe, before taking it into his mouth and sucking softly. “Gonna need
specifics.”

“I want what you offered this
afternoon, and I won’t be begging you to stop.” I rocked against him, grinding
my buttocks into his groin.

A low, feral noise rumbled in the
back of his throat. “Do you realise how sexy that sounds?” His hand slid back
up my leg, taking my dress with it, and stroked over the lace nestling at the
top of my thighs. My heart raced and my stomach quivered in anticipation. I
yearned for his fingers to slip underneath and relive the ecstasy of the
afternoon, but despite teasing the edges, they remained frustratingly outside.
His other hand moved up to cup my breast and began kneading, pinching through
the flimsy material to rub my hardened nipple between his thumb and the side of
his forefinger. I turned my head to search for his kiss. He wouldn’t oblige. “You
know, I’m unusually tired. After our little excursion this afternoon, I worked
off my frustration with a run. I’m not sure I have the energy.”

“Liar.”

He laughed softly. “Busted.”

“So, I frustrate you, huh?”

“From the moment I laid eyes on you.”

It wasn’t as if I’d been immune
to frustrations about him, but I’d worked hard on trying to banish them from my
life. Finding Josh again had filled me up with a whole new bunch, and I
desperately needed them sating.

“You drive me crazy. You know
that?” He eased down the strap of my dress and kissed my shoulder. The other
strap dropped just as easily, and I allowed my dress to fall to the ground,
before swivelling in his hold. He eased me out to arm’s length. Admiration
filled his eyes as they travelled over my curves. Although self-conscious under
his scrutiny, it was strangely sensual. The way he looked at me made me feel
alive. “You have an amazing body,” he said with an undertone of hunger. “I’m
hard already.”

My ass already knew that.

“You haven’t seen my moves yet.”
I raised my hands to begin unbuttoning his shirt. One by one, they popped open,
and he shrugged the blackness away. I drank him in, loving the sight of him,
wanting more. His already snug pants strained under the pressure of what lay inside,
and I couldn’t wait to set him free. I placed my hands on his chest. His heart
was pounding as fast as my own. With his hands on my hips, he closed the space
between us. His tongue traced my lower lip and he sucked it. I responded,
sealing my lips to his and kissing him hard. Taking hold of his waistband, I
flipped the button undone, and eased down the zip. He groaned as I hooked my
fingers into the top of the material and pushed it over his legs, peppering
kisses down the groove of his chest and his beautifully taut stomach as I
worked. Finally seeing him naked, I gasped. The overwhelming need to taste him
consumed me, and despite it being new territory for me, I ran the tip of my
tongue up the length of his silken skin and circled the tip. He tasted like the
caviar I’d eaten at my cousin’s wedding.

“Stop. Amy, stop.” He grasped the
sides of my head.

“What’s the matter? Am I doing it
wrong?”

“Hell, no. But if you carry on,
I’m going to explode.”

“Isn’t that the idea?”

“I want to savour every moment
with you. Make it last,” he said, pulling me up and freeing his feet with
urgency at the same time. He kicked his trousers over to the spot where we’d
sat the day before. Our skin pressed together, as his hands smoothed up my
waist and caressed my back. Hungry lips sought my mouth and devoured it. Stepping
up the urgency, each movement of his tongue shot an electric charge right down
to my toes. My legs jellified, but Josh caught me before my knees had time to
buckle, and lifted me onto his hips. I locked my ankles behind his waist. Then,
almost tripping over a rock as he stepped backwards, he swung me against the
column.

His head dipped and he kissed the
hollow of my neck, taking his time, his tongue tracing the contours before
travelling down over the mound of my breast. As he took my nipple into his
mouth, sucking and flicking the tip of his tongue expertly over the hard peak,
his fingers crept into the underside of my panties and began stroking.

“Jesus, Amy, I love that you’re
wet for me.”

“You’re not being fair.” I
panted, caught between not wanting him to stop and the need to hold on to the
moment. “I want it to last too.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll get a second
chance.”

The contact persisted and
pressure built until I couldn’t contain it anymore. I stared up at the stars
and shot out every ounce of breath with shuddering delight, and my legs fell
limp at Josh’s side.

An accomplished smile split his
face. “I hardly touched you.”

I was too breathless to speak. My
heart was beating wildly in my throat, threatening to burst free.

Josh eased me to the ground and
wrapped a leg over mine. My lips found his skin and brushed up to the stubble
edging his jaw. He inhaled deeply through his nose and pulled back, eyes
drifting to my lips before he asked, “Ready?”

I nodded, reaching around his
back to pull him closer.

“Wait.” He stretched over and
pulled a packet from his trouser pocket. “You wanna put this on, or me.”

Blood heated my cheeks. “Erm,
you.”

His brow furrowed as he tore open
the foil. I bit my lip and concentrated on the moon, not about to let on that
I’d never had that particular pleasure before.

I was a nervous wreck. I wanted
him inside me, our bodies locked together, confirming he belonged to me alone.
The wait was agony.

His weight crept over me, his
legs enticing mine open to let him in. The look in his eyes, as he nudged into
position, melted my insides. His head dipped to kiss my neck, and I responded
by stroking my hands up and down his back as he slid effortlessly into me.
Slowly, he circled his hips, and I mirrored the movements, writhing against
him, needing him to pick up the pace. It worked. My nails dug into his hips,
hungrily, and before long, an animalistic growl escaped his lips, and he
grabbed for my hands, pinning them over my head. Inside me, Josh twitched and
pulsated. He was close. He pushed harder, faster, his breath hot and heavy as
he worked, and my desire ignited again, building so intensely I couldn’t
prevent the toe curling inevitable. As I shouted his name, he grunted one last
thrust and fell onto my chest.

It was everything I’d dreamed it
would be, and more. When he rolled off to lie at my side, my skin still burned
where he had touched me. He put his arms around my neck and pulled my head into
his shoulder, kissing the top of it. I snuggled into his warmth.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

Time slipped away as we lay
wrapped in each other’s arms, silent and contented. I wanted to hold on to the moment
and make it last forever, and I was so relaxed I drifted off to sleep.

When I opened my eyes, Josh was
pulling up his trousers and tucking in his shirt. He scooped my dress from the
floor, squatted next to me, and held it out.

“Morning, beautiful.”

Accepting the dirty, scrunched up
material, I sat up and pulled it over my head. “Hi.” I smiled.

The sun was peeping over the
horizon in hues of orange and pink. I’d been out all night.
Crap!

“Wanna grab some breakfast?” Josh
asked.

I pushed to my feet and brushed
my dress into place. I wanted to stay with him, but I had to get back to the
hotel before anyone missed me. Back home, Mum might be used to my last minute
decisions to kip at Cindy’s, but if she woke up in a foreign country and found
my bed empty, she’d go ballistic.

“I’d like that, but I can’t.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’d better take
you back.”

The receptionist glanced up from
tapping on her keyboard, as the scooter stopped in front of the doors. I could
feel her eyes on me as I unstuck my bum from the leather and waited for Josh.

He removed his helmet and placed
it on the seat. His arms enfolded me, but his expression was serious. “When
we’re apart, I can’t stop thinking about you.”

I knew how he felt. “Me too.”

“I need to be alone with you
again.” Why did he look so downhearted about it? “I have to work today, but can
you meet me at the bar tonight, about seven-thirty? I have a room there. We can
order in, and maybe you can stay the night?”

“Sounds good.”

He pulled me in for a long,
languid kiss, before nodding goodbye. As I watched the scooter blowing dust
clouds down the track, I already missed him.

Chapter Nineteen

Opening the hotel room door as
carefully as I could, I slipped inside, silently undressed, and slid under the
sheets. I needed a shower, badly, and I had sand in places that grated when I
walked, but I needed the pretence more.

An hour or so later, Nessie
awoke. She got out of bed, wordlessly dressed, and left the room. Her only
acknowledgement of my presence was a glower. After a welcome wash and a clean
set of clothes, I followed suit, arriving at the restaurant sporting an unusual
hunger. Piling enough food to feed a small child for a week onto my plate, I
joined the others at the table.

“Is all that really necessary,
Amy? You haven’t exactly chosen the healthy option there. Where’s the fruit?”

“It’s coming, when I’ve finished
this lot.”

“I think you have the right idea,”
Diane said, eyeing my breakfast. “I doubt there’ll be any decent food at the
airport, and that so called meal on the plane is never big enough for me. I
swear they downsize the portions to get you to spend more money on snacks.” Her
chair scraped over the tiled floor as she rose to her feet. “I’m going for a
second helping.”

All of her words after
plane
drifted over me. That particular one had hit me like a knife to my stomach, and
I almost choked on my sausage. Surely it wasn’t Friday already.
What the
Hell?
I did a quick calculation.
Fuck!
It was. We were flying home
today!

“Are you okay, Amy? You’ve gone
white as a sheet,” Mum said.

“I…er…”

“Something wrong with the food?”
she asked. “Apart from the amount, that is?”

“Or is it something you forgot to
do, Amy?” Nessie added callously, clearly taking pleasure in my distress.

Mum tutted. “Are you not packed?
We’re being picked up at eleven.”

I couldn’t breathe. Stuff the
packing. That was the least of my worries. By the time I was supposed to meet
Josh, I’d be back on British soil.
Oh God!
I couldn’t leave without
seeing him again. He’d think I’d jilted him. I had to find him. We had to sort
something out. One night stands and holiday romances were all well and good, but
what if you wanted more? How did that work? We’d spent so long talking about
the past, and living in the present, that we hadn’t got around to talking about
the future. Now we might never get the chance.

I abandoned my plate. “I’ll see
you later.”

“You’re not joining us for some
last minute rays by the pool, then?” I heard Diane shout, as I ran from the
room.

***

I didn’t stop running until I reached
Jacko’s bar, sweaty and breathless. It was closed. With tears streaming down my
cheeks, I banged my fists against the door. “Hey!” I shouted, “Is anyone in
there? Open up…please!” I pounded harder. No piece of wood would be the cause
of me losing Josh. “Please. I need to get in. Please.”

I heard a click and the door
opened, just a little, but enough for Reta’s face to fill the crack.

“What do you want?” She eyed me
apprehensively.

“Is Josh here? I need to speak to
him.”

“Who is it?” Jacko shouted from
the back of the room.

“One of those English girls,” she
answered.

“My name is Amy. Tell him I’m
here to see his brother.”

“You’re out of luck,” he said,
his head appearing above Reta’s. He nodded for her to let me in. She shrugged
and turned away as the door opened fully, and I stepped inside.

“Where’s Josh? I have to talk to
him.”

Jacko looked down his nose at me.
“I told you, you’re out of luck.”

I wiped the wetness from my face
and narrowed my eyes. “Don’t be a dick and let me see him.”

“He’s working. What’s your
problem?”

“My problem is I need to see
Josh, and you’re in my face. I’m sure you can spare him a few minutes. Josh,” I
called, walking further into the room.

“He’s not here. He went to get
supplies.”

“Is this another one of your
brotherly battles? Are you purposely keeping us apart? Josh!”

“Why would I bother to do that?
He’s perfectly capable of dropping a girl all on his own.”

I swung around. “He hasn’t
dropped me.” My voice faltered slightly, as I stared at the face I’d tried to
wipe from my memory, thankful for Reta’s presence, and angry that Jacko still
had control over me, that I was reliant on him for information. “When will he
be back?”

“Not for hours.”

“Then I’ll go to him,” I said
with a firm breath. “Where is he?” The island wasn’t that big. I could get a
taxi and be back in plenty of time for the bus.

Jacko glanced at his watch.
“Right about now, I’d guess half-way to the Mainland.”

My stomach dropped. “What did you
say?”

“The Mainland. On the ferry. I
told you, he’s getting supplies.”

“What the fuck does he have to
get from there?” I felt faint. I wobbled towards the nearest booth, sat down,
cradled my head in my hands, and let the tears flow again. There had to be
another way to see him. This couldn’t be the end.

“Stuff that can’t be got here. Hey.
Do you mind not leaking all over the table? Reta has enough to clean before the
lunchtime shift.”

“I’m going back to England,
today,” I blubbered.

“So?”

“He doesn’t know.”

He slid onto the opposite seating
and pulled my hands from my face. “I’ll tell him you stopped by to say
goodbye,” he said, with a note of satisfaction.

I flinched at his touch and drew
back, feeling contaminated. “You don’t understand.”

“Oh, I think I do. You thought
you were going to play happy families with him. Well, let me tell you, not
gonna happen. J.J. is a love ‘em and leave ‘em kinda guy. You’re no different.”

“He loves me.”

Jacko tossed his head back in
amusement. “Is that what you think? You had a fling, that’s all. He doesn’t
love you.” He cocked his head and squinted at me. “Did you put out?”

“That’s none of your business.”

His sinister laugh shuddered
through me, reminding me of that night. “You did then. Well that seals it. He
was just trying to get one over on me by getting his leg over you. Can’t you
see it’s a game? But what he hasn’t learnt yet is that I always win.”

I refused to believe it. Jacko
was the liar. Jacko was the user. Not Josh. It wouldn’t even have entered my
brain to think that of him. It couldn’t have all been a lie. Could it? “This is
different.”

“Look, if you don’t believe me, give
the bar a ring, when you get home? Maybe he’ll talk to you, maybe not.” He got
up and walked over to the counter.

Ring, yes, that’s it. I’ll ring
him. Surely he’d find a way back, if he knew I was leaving. “Do you have his
mobile number?”

“He hasn’t got one. Not much call
out here.”

What the fuck? Who doesn’t
have a mobile phone?
“Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.”

I supposed it was possible. After
all, I’d left my own phone at home, hadn’t I? But then again, I was only here
for a few days; Josh was here for the summer. Jacko was probably lying, but
why?
Think, Amy, think. Stop howling and use your brain
. “When is he
going back to England?”

“The sooner the better as far as
I’m concerned. I never asked him to come in the first place.”

“He said something about a job.”

“News to me.”

“You don’t know where it is
then?”

“No idea.” Jacko returned,
holding a piece of paper. “Well, it’s been a very interesting experience seeing
you again, but we open in an hour, and I’ve got a keg to change, so if you
don’t mind…”

I got up and made my way to the
door, my mind confused and numb with grief. How could life be so cruel as to
offer me a chance of happiness and then snatch it right from under my nose?

“Wait. You forgot this.” Jacko
handed me the piece of folded paper. I unfurled it. It was a flyer for the bar,
with a phone number across the bottom. I left, staring at the only scrap of
hope I had.

My journey back to the hotel was
a daze. I walked in a bubble of sorrow, penetrated only by the occasional angry
car horn. Let them run me over. What did I care? I’d lost Josh again, and it
was all my fault…again.