The Red Collection (36 page)

What she did smell set her trembling and grabbing for her wineglass again.

Flowers again, and predominantly lavender.

Lois looked at her bag, her scattered clothes. There were only a few toilet items in the shower room. She could be out of here, in her car and on the road before he had finished showering.

But, almost before she calculated her chances, the water stopped, and she knew she wouldn’t have gone anyway. Instead, she wriggled out of her jeans and fleece, then dived across to the mirror over the chest of drawers and frowned into it. The image disheartened her. Her tufted hair, her grungy old sleep shorts and top, and the make-up-free ordinariness of her staring wide-eyed face were less than alluring. She pushed at a few curls, pinched her cheeks to
give
them some colour and bit her lips, but it was already too late.

The shower room door swung open and Robin walked into the room. He was still nude and casually towelling at his hair.

Lois gasped, aware that this was becoming a habit in this strange man’s presence. His naked body was sublime, gleaming and fresh from the shower, and he had no qualms whatsoever about showing it to her. The only problem was that she was having trouble forming coherent thoughts, much less sophisticated adult conversation, with all that male comeliness on show.

‘Perhaps I could have that glass of wine now?’ Robin let his towel drop around his shoulders, but made no attempt to cover his mighty nether regions.

‘Yes. Yes, of course.’ Lois scooted for the wooden kitchen table, poured out a glass of red for Robin and surreptitiously topped up her own.

If I’m going to behave as if I’m too stupid to live, I might as well use the booze as my excuse
.

Turning, she discovered that Robin had settled into one of the easy chairs by the fire, and the towel lay abandoned on the floor. Lois smiled and felt strangely reassured. He might be her literal Dream Lover right out of her fantasies, but in term of household sloppiness he was a very normal man. She handed him his glass, swept up the towel and placed it over the little drying rack that stood against the wall.

‘Oops! Sorry.’ Robin’s grin said he wasn’t sorry at all, cheeky sod.

Lois let herself down carefully into the other seat, still tongue-tied and increasingly aware that her shorts and her little buttoned top weren’t a particularly substantial covering.
Of
course, if she’d been in her right mind, she would’ve put her robe back on, but she was in her entirely wrong mind. All she could do was sit, frozen in place, unable to do anything but gaze and goggle at the man sitting opposite her.

His long limbs were stretched out like those of a classical sculpture, and his superb body appeared entirely too big for the modest chair. He looked comfortable though, leaning back into the upholstery, his peculiar eyes closed as if he were dozing.

Great! Just come in, make yourself at home and flaunt your fabulous tackle at me … and then fall asleep
.

Robin’s eyes flicked open. ‘Does my nakedness bother you? Shall I put my clothes back on again?’

Yes, put them on and go, because I’m scared shitless of you!

No, stay and never wear a stitch again … because it’ll break my heart if you cover all that gorgeousness up!

‘No, not all. If you’re comfortable, that’s fine by me.’

Robin nodded and lifted his glass in salute. ‘To you, Lois, I’m glad I found you.’

Lois gulped at her own wine, alarmed. ‘What on earth does that mean?’ she demanded, a droplet of Merlot sneaking down her chin and requiring a swift swipe of the hand.

Lashes that were far too long and pretty for a man with such a large cock swept down, giving him an almost shamefaced look. ‘I’m afraid I’ve been watching you, Lois.’ He toyed with his glass, one moment watching the flames from the little stove through it, the next, looking at her. ‘You might say I’ve become enchanted by you. You’re very beautiful and I like beautiful things.’

Lois laughed out loud. Oh great, she’d got a stalker with a nice line in compliments now.

‘I think you need your eyes testing, Robin. I look like a
bag
lady tonight, and I haven’t been looking all that great since I got here. I’m on holiday, and as there’s no talent around – or there didn’t seem to be at first – I haven’t been making an effort.’

‘Talent?’

‘Men. Crumpet. Male totty … you know?’

She wasn’t sure at first whether he did know, but then he smiled and looked pleased with himself. Obviously he was supremely confident that
he
was totty.

And the way his penis was growing said the same too.

‘But you have a neighbour. What about him? Do you not like the look of him?’

‘Well, he’s all right, but he seems a bit solitary. He doesn’t seem to be interested in company.’

Robin looked serious for a moment, his face very pure and solemn. ‘Indeed, he is a very unhappy man. A pall of great sadness hangs over him.’

Lois narrowed her eyes. Had he been watching the neighbour too?

Robin shrugged. ‘But you said as much yourself.’

What? What the fuck? Can you read my mind?

Robin simply smiled and lounged even more languidly in his chair, one hand loosely cradling his wineglass, the other spread upon his thigh, close to his cock, almost as if he wanted to draw her attention to its gathering might as a diversion.

His beautiful lashes fluttered down again, and he appeared to be dozing.

What the hell was happening? Could he read her thoughts? Again and again the mantra circled in her head:
Who are you? Who are you?
What
are you?

But she got no answer from the silent relaxed man.

‘I dreamt about you last night.’

The words were out before she could stop herself, and Robin’s peculiar bi-coloured eyes snapped open again, instantly flashing their two brilliant hues.

‘Did you know that? I dreamt about you,’ she rushed on, panicking. ‘How can I have dreamt about you when I just met you not half an hour ago? It doesn’t make sense!’

Without warning, Robin set his glass aside and slid out of his chair and on to his knees. His cock bounced from side to side as he shuffled across the patchwork rug until he was kneeling in front of her, his great head tilted to one side a little, his gaze questioning and hypnotic.

Compulsively, Lois drank some wine, almost on autopilot, but the second she took the glass from her lips Robin reached for it, gently prised it from her fingers and set it aside. Still kneeling in front of her, he took her small warm hands in his much larger cooler ones.

‘The woods and the sea are magical places, Lois, and this cabin is right at the nexus of both their influences.’ He squeezed her fingers very lightly, as if they were crystal and he didn’t want to damage them. ‘It’s hardly surprising that unusual things happen here. What you dreamt last night might have been a part of the future seeping back into the present.’

‘That’s ridiculous!’

But she was shaking. Could she do that? Could she want that? It was all very well to imagine kinky things in fantasies, but for real? That was another story. Especially with a man she barely knew.

‘The world is strange, Lois,’ he murmured cryptically, his thumbs circling her palms in a light soothing caress that seemed to impact all over her body … especially between her
legs
. She suppressed an intense urge to squirm, experiencing his innocent touch deep in her sex. But then the look in his peculiar eyes said that he knew exactly what she was feeling.

‘Your dream … was it pleasant?’ With a slow smile, he lowered his head, looking up at her from beneath his sumptuous lashes, and then brought first one, then the other of her hands to his lips for a kiss.

‘I … er, yes, sort of. But it was strange … not something that could really happen.’

The touch of his lips was cool fire. She was shaking hard now, and she couldn’t tell whether it was fear, confusion or extreme lust. Or a combination of all three.

‘Are you sure?’

‘I don’t know! I don’t know!’ she almost cried.

He shuffled closer, reached for her, and this time brought her mouth to his in a delicate gentling kiss.

‘What happened in your dream?’ His words were like a whisper of perfumed air against her cheek and her ear.

Furious blood flushed her face as she remembered the game, and her body bound and open and vulnerable to him, hungering for him as it did now.

She tried to turn away from him, but he held her firm, his mouth against her hair.

‘I can’t! I can’t say …’

But
his
lips were moving, and she realised he was murmuring softly, describing the fantasy.

‘How do you know these things? How do you know? It’s impossible for you to know what I dreamt …’

‘Hush, my dearest.’ He kissed her jaw, and then her throat. ‘Just call it instinct, intuition … My dream, maybe, just as much as yours.’

‘But I’m scared! I don’t know if I want to do those things,’
she
protested, her heart fluttering in her chest like a wild bird, the strange gull maybe, in her chest. ‘I don’t know if I’d ever really want to do something like that.’

Taking her face between his large smooth hands, he forced her to look at him, straight into the disorientating beauty of his eyes.

‘Then we can do other things, Lois, anything you like. Just say the word.’

‘I d-don’t know what the word is.’

‘Why it’s “yes”, of course, isn’t it?’

And then he kissed the whispered answer right from her lips.

4

His mouth was tender and flexible, and his cool tongue naughty and daring as it delicately pressed for entrance. Her face was cradled in his long elegant hands and there was no way to escape the kiss even if she’d wanted to.

And oh, his taste was so sweet! She’d read of kisses being described as delicious, but Robin’s really were. The flavour of wildflower honey seemed to fill her mouth along with his tongue, the taste and scent of it as intoxicating as the sensuous exploration. Her hands fluttered wildly, and then she threw her arms around his large muscular body, embracing his magnificent back as she surrendered to his kiss.

Dimly, a far way back in her mind, she recognised that she could probably be accused of being wilfully stupid, encouraging this strangest of strangers to kiss her, touch her and much, much more. But she was too ensorcelled to do anything but silence the voice of dissent and hold on to him.

The kiss went on a long, long time, their tongues flickering
around
one another, teasing, challenging and tasting. Other delightful sensations impinged on her consciousness too.

The warmth of the fire on her skin was a counterpoint to the strange living chill of Robin’s body. The contrast was thrilling. He seemed to be able to sear her with skin and flesh that had the silky hardness of polished marble, and her hands couldn’t seem to explore it fast enough. Her fingertips roved feverishly over his shoulders, his back and his torso.

Eventually, he freed her mouth and sat back on his heels, just looking at her. His odd eyes glittered with hunger, with devilment, and the flickering light from the fire danced like magic dust over his fast-drying gold-tipped hair.

‘You are beautiful,’ he said, stealing the exact words she’d been going to utter away from her.

Rapt as she was, Lois found herself compelled to laugh. ‘And you’re crazy! Have you really looked at me? I’m a mess. I look like a complete fright. My hair’s all over the place, my skin is all pale and pasty, and these are probably the nastiest old clothes in my possession.’

He smiled at her and shrugged his big shoulders and silently mimed the word ‘Nonsense’.

‘Well, I think you ought to get those weird eyes of yours tested then!’

‘You’re beautiful,’ he repeated, a small mild smile playing around his sensual lips. ‘You’re beautiful and I want to give you pleasure.’

Oh, God, I want you to give it me too!

But she could no longer speak because he came forwards again, and began kissing her neck, then the crook of her shoulder, then her collarbone and chest where her granddad T-shirt was unbuttoned. His hands rested on her thighs as his lips nibbled and travelled.

She looked down at his magical hair, and the smooth planes of his back. Tentatively she touched his satiny skin. The delicate way he was mouthing her almost made her want to swoon, especially when he touched her with the tip of his tongue.

Immediately, her sex surged, as if imagining the sensation of that determined little serpent flickering against the sensitive bud of her clitoris. Unable to prevent herself, the very thought made her groan.

Robin’s gilded head shot up and he grinned at her.

Oh, dear Lord, he
can
read my mind!

Big hands reached for her top, deftly opening it to reveal her breasts. Lois gasped. Her nipples were already puckered and tight. The air wasn’t cold, but the contrast between concealment and exposure was a little shock.

Robin swooped in with hands and mouth, his lips settling on one breast, while he cradled his fingers around her curves, flexing them lightly to hold her.

His cool tongue moved as it had in her mouth, darting, swirling, tickle-tasting. Lois kicked with pleasure, her bare feet sliding against his thighs, his shins. Her hips started to weave. She was out of control, grabbing on to the arms of the chair for stability.

He gave her breast a long hard suck and she wailed, shooting almost to the point of orgasm. He’d done that in the dream, she remembered hazily, fondled her breast and brought her to pleasure when it shouldn’t have been possible.

But suddenly she wanted more, more. She wanted what she’d had in her dream. His cock inside her as he thrust, his strong hips swinging to get in deeper than deep.

She tried to tell him. She tried to rise. But he quelled her, and kept her in her seat. His fingers plucked at the elastic of
her
shorts, his eyes locking on hers, as if asking permission to remove them.

Oh yes! Go on! Yes!

Efficiently he pulled off her shorts and flung them away, baring her crotch to his gaze in the firelight. A moment later, his spread fingers settled on her belly, pressing gently, thumb stroking. Making a frame for her navel, he dipped his pointed tongue into it.