Aces (51 page)

“Well, then, now that you mention it, I suppose I have missed you,” he said.

“Oh! You mean I had to remind you!” She laughed. “Now I am insulted!”

“Don’t be.” He came around the drafting table to give her an affectionate hug. “You know how it can be… Say you’re whiling
away an afternoon reading, and gradually the light fades, but then somebody comes into the room and switches on a lamp?”

“And you didn’t know how much you needed the light until it was there?”

Suze was smiling up at him, her arms warm and comforting around his waist. Greene could feel the rise and fall of her breasts
as she breathed. At times like this the age difference between them seemed needle-thin, but then Greene had to remind himself
that time had passed since they’d first met. Suze was almost nineteen.

He kissed her on the forehead, and then gently extricated himself from her embrace. He pretended not to see her subtle frown
as he stepped away.

“You look like you’re on your way to the shore,” he said. She was wearing a tan skirt and matching top, both of which buttoned
up the front, but he could discern the outline of her dark-colored swimsuit beneath the light cotton fabric.

“I am, and I’ve come to kidnap you for the afternoon,” she announced firmly.

“I can’t!” Greene sighed. “I’ve got so much work to do here! I was planning on working straight through the night.”

“Why worry about it? No matter what you do, you won’t be able to finish it before you leave tomorrow!” she said, her tone
artificially bright.

“Suze, we’re not going to get into the matter of my leaving again, are we?” Greene cautioned. “We’ve been all through it so
many times…”

“I know, I know!” Suze said cheerfully. “And I promised you I wouldn’t cry anymore, and I won’t. I keep my promises.”

“I know that you do,” Greene said fondly, gazing at her.

“But it’s a beautiful afternoon, just perfect for the beach,” she said. “Since it’s a weekday it won’t be crowded. I brought
you a pair of Steven’s swim trunks to wear, and I have a picnic lunch and a bottle of chilled wine in the trunk of my car.”

“It sounds wonderful,” he said longingly.

“Oh, please, come! It’ll be our farewell time together,” she said. “After, I’ll bring you back here and you can spend all
night working on your notes if you want… And then tomorrow, you can leave…”

Greene enjoyed watching Suze expertly weave the nimble Jaguar through the Hollywood traffic. Before he knew it she’d spirited
them to the sun-drenched coast road, and they were motoring past Los Tunas. The breeze rolling off the Pacific smelled of
seaweed. The light sparkling on the white sand and blue water dazzled, and pleasured, the eye.

Greene took the opportunity to study Suze’s profile as she concentrated on her driving. She was wearing red-framed sunglasses.
Her skin was tanned, and her blond hair was whipping behind her in the slipstream. She looked absolutely lovely, and he thought
that it was a damned good thing he was leaving, because at some point during the year and a half he had been in California
he had fallen in love with her. Friendships were one of life’s great pleasures, but the entanglements of love were so messy…

She abruptly glanced his way, and smiled. Greene imagined that she’d sensed his eyes upon him, or perhaps she’d even sensed
his thoughts. That had happened between them on occasion, when they’d been deeply, passionately engaged in conversation about
music or books, and one had managed to finish the other’s thought…

“This is wonderful!” Greene shouted above the wind’s warm whistling, and the Jag’s buzz. “Thank you for kidnapping me!”

Suze blew him a kiss, almost shyly, and then quickly turned her attention back to the road. Greene, settling back against
the burnished leather of the bucket seat, was supremely happy. He felt quite free to love Suze with all his heart, considering
it was the eve of his departure…

They’d reached a deserted stretch of shore, with no other cars in sight, when Suze turned off the road and parked. Greene
took the blanket and towels and picnic basket out of the Jag’s boot, kicked off his shoes, and followed Suze across the hot,
squeaky sand. They spread their blanket in a secluded spot that was close to the water, but sheltered between high dunes.

The white wine had warmed during its stay in the Jag’s boot, so Greene took the bottle down to the water line and buried it
up to its neck in the cool mud to regain its chill. He went behind a sand dune to change into the swim trunks that Suze had
brought him, and then they went swimming, laughing, and playing in the waves together like children. Greene adored watching
Suze at play. She was a big girl, but she was strong and supple, and her body was as tight as it was blessed with abundant
curves. God had clearly intended Suze to be larger than life, and she had fulfilled that promise.

Greene retreived the wine and they drank some with the lunch that Suze had packed for them. They went swimming again, and
then came back to their blanket, to bask in the sun and finish the last of the wine.

Greene was lying on his back, quite close to Suze, almost touching. He was feeling sleepy in his damp suit, staring into the
ruddy crimson that was the sun against his closed eyelids, feeling the gentle breeze eddying feather-light against his salty
skin.

His breath quickened as he felt Suze’s thigh pressing against his. Her toes began tickling the sand from his own foot.

He felt her breath, wine-scented, on his face, and opened his eyes. She was up on one elbow, gazing down at him. Her sea-damp
hair, limply hanging in curls and tendrils, formed a tawny curtain around her face. She had a slight blush of pink sunburn
across the bridge of her nose. Her long eyelashes were encrusted with salt. Keeping her sable eyes locked with his, she took
his hand and pressed his fingers against her breast. He could feel her nipple, raised and hard, beneath the moist, taut fabric
of her swimsuit. Her front teeth seemed startlingly white; they glistened, pearl-like, as her lips parted and she lowered
her mouth to his.

The taste of her overwhelmed him. He thought, oddly, that he’d known all along what her taste would be, and yet, that was
quite impossible. They had never before kissed. Not like this. Thinking about it in retrospect, Greene would realize that
it was after this first kiss that he was lost…

Suze drew away. Her eyes again searched his. He said nothing as she studied him, but from the merry glint in her bewitching,
dark eyes, he guessed that she’d learned whatever it was she needed to know.

She kissed him again. Then, slowly, watching him all the while, she slid the straps of her suit off her shoulders, peeling
down the bodice to expose her breasts. Feeling as if he were in a dream, Greene reached for her. He pressed his face into
her deep cleavage. She shivered and moaned, as goose bumps puckered the large, tan aureoles of her lush breasts. He licked
and sucked the salty ocean from her pink, swollen nipples. Gradually she relaxed, becoming warm and fluid in his arms.

Her hands glided over his bare chest, and then skated down the hard, flat planes of his belly. Her fingers deftly unplucked
the knot in the drawstring of his swim trunks, and then her hands were everywhere, and he was the one doing the moaning. He
peeled her swimsuit down past her flaring hips, kissing her everywhere: her soft belly, her navel, and the briny, blond fur
curling up from below; the silken mounds of her high, sassy bottom, so startlingly white where the sun had never touched.
They nestled, facing each other, on the blanket. Suze’s spreading thighs were cool and damp. Her center drew him like a magnet.
She was warm and syrupy when he penetrated her. They fit together perfectly, and rocked and kissed, limbs entwined for a long,
sweet time, and stayed locked together afterward, until the sound of voices coming up the beach startled them out of their
blissful laziness. They pulled apart and hurriedly dressed.

Only then did the spell that had been cast on Greene vanish. It seemed to disappear the way the glistening, early-morning
dew lifts from a spider’s web.

“Look at me,” Suze said softly. There was lightness in her tone, but also a tinge of panic. “Look at me and tell me what’s
wrong?”

He didn’t know where to start. The guilt and depression were so cold and hard in the pit of his stomach, and inexorably swelling.
“I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you…” he said hoarsely.

“Are you joking?” Suze asked, sounding astounded. “I seduced you! You’re just confused because I was the virgin and you’re
experienced.”

He glanced at her. “Well, no… I’m not really so awfully experienced, actually…” He sighed. “Actually, I’ve never really done
this before.”

“You… You’ve never?…” Suze abruptly grinned; but just as quickly, her smile vanished. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“No, I’m not kidding you, if you must know… I mean, I suppose that in the past I
have
been presented with what one might refer to as
opportunities
, but somehow the idea just never seemed…” he paused, pursing his lips, “…
apropos
…”

Suze was laughing.

“Well, what I mean to say is that this sexual business is not really the sort of thing one can easily picture oneself doing,”
Greene quickly added.

The girl was laughing so damnably hard she was in tears.

“Now, what have I done with my cigarettes?” he muttered, blushing, trying to hide his confusion by patting the blanket, shaking
out the towels, and searching beneath the picnic basket.

“S-stop!” she begged, gasping and holding her belly. “Don’t make me laugh anymore! I c-can’t catch my breath!”

“You know, I really fail to see the bloody humor…” he began, feeling quite stung.

She quickly put her hand over his mouth, and then, still chuckling, cuddled against him. “Well, for your first time out, I
think you were just wonderful,” she told him. “But then, that’s the sort of performance I’d expect from a test pilot.”

“Ah, yes, I do see that.” He smiled, hugging her.

She looked up at him, her dark gaze intent and purposeful. “And, of course, I’m biased because I love you, and you do love
me, right?” When he didn’t immediately reply, she pinched him. “Right?”

Greene laughed, but then his smile turned sad. “Of course you’re right,” he sighed. “I do love you. But what happens next,
Suze? I’m leaving, remember?”

“You’ll come back,” she declared bravely. “I’ll wait.”

“Who says that I’ll be coming back?” he asked sharply. “I’m going to be a fighter pilot, love. Do you have any inkling of
the life expectancy for fighter pilots?”

“Don’t talk like that!”

“And there’s something else,” he muttered. “I gave my word to your father—and to myself—that I wouldn’t take advantage of
you.”

“But
I
was the one that seduced
you
, remember?”

He shook his head, frowning. “But I acquiesced, you see. No, it was an unforgivable breach of conduct on my part.”

“Well…” Suze began, for once in her life seeming at a loss for words. “We don’t have to tell anyone,” she suggested hopefully.

“My dear girl, I can lie to everyone, but I can’t delude myself. My honor meant everything to me, Suze. It was the only thing
I could truly call my own, but now it’s gone.”

“Now you
are
making me angry,” Suze warned. “You’re just a person, Blaize. You’re not some knight from King Arthur’s court.”

He realized that for what was probably the first time since they’d met, she had absolutely no idea what he was trying to tell
her. “You can laugh at me if you like,” he said, getting to his feet, “but I think one’s honor is like one’s virginity. You
can lose it only once, and then it is gone forever.” He began to walk away, toward the water.

“Where are you going?” she called after him.

“For a stroll… By myself,” he added, as she rose to follow. “I—I need to think… Suze… I need to come to terms with what’s
happened.”

Suzy found Blaize withdrawn and distant after he’d returned from his walk. The conversation was painfully polite as they got
dressed, packed up their belongings, and trudged back to the car.

The drive back to Burbank passed in awkward silence. Suzy felt trickling wetness between her legs, and a bother-some throbbing.
She wasn’t in any pain, so she guessed that what she was feeling was normal. She glanced at Blaize. He was slumped down, cupping
a cigarette to protect it from the wind. His mouth was twisted into a scowl, and his gleaming black hair was in his eyes,
which were half-closed, like hooded bits of dull jade.

He looked as if he’d just killed someone, not gotten laid, Suze thought. Oh! She couldn’t bear to look at him, she was so
angry!

She had no regrets about seducing him. She knew all along that she was going to have to be the one to make the first move;
that Blaize was just too caught up in his fairy tale moral code. At times like these she felt that the things he worried about
were outdated and silly, but she’d fallen in love with him a long time ago. When she learned that he was leaving to go to
war, she’d decided that she wanted him to be her first lover. She wasn’t the romantic that Blaize was. She was pragmatic enough
to know that someday she would fall in love with someone else, get married, and have a family, but she also knew that she
was always going to be at least a little in love with Blaize. She looked forward to that. It was going to be nice to have
his sensitive, brooding presence now and again haunting her dreams down through the years…

It would be nicer still if some miracle occurred to keep him right here in California with her, but Suzy knew that wasn’t
going to happen. She certainly wouldn’t do any more weeping over his leaving. She’d promised him she wouldn’t, and, anyway,
if she wept now, who knew how he’d take it? Poor Blaize thought he was so sophisticated and mature, but in reality he perceived
things with a child’s emotional literalness. If she let him see her tears now he’d probably assume that they were due to her
remorse over becoming a fallen woman, and probably throw himself off a cliff…