Blood Sport (49 page)

I didn’t take to her at all. She seemed very self-absorbed and spoke more about how the whole incident had affected her than she did talking about her poor daughter. Then in between indiscreetly ogling Jake, she mentioned approaching one of the country’s nightly current affairs shows to sell Kylie’s story. Appalled at that, I told her bluntly I thought that was a terrible idea, reminding her that her daughter had suffered an intensely traumatic experience and should be given space, time and privacy to recover from it. She cooled on me instantly after that, but Kylie smiled at me in gratitude.

As we were leaving, Kylie grabbed my good hand and asked me timidly if I’d mind if she kept in contact with me. Of course I agreed, touched that she thought so highly of me. We left her looking after us wistfully, ignoring whatever it was her mother was saying to her.

Back in the car again, we sped to the hotel, impatiently checked in and hurried to our room. Five minutes after we shut the door behind us, we were naked on the bed kissing, engrossed in each other’s bodies and our own pleasure. When I was with Jake I never thought about anyone else. He was like the sun to me – his dazzling light made everyone and everything dim to darkness in comparison. After a long time, finally satiated, we laid back on the king-sized bed, holding hands, legs entwined, catching our breath.

“That was a great present, babe,” he smiled, playing with my hair, twisting it around his fingers and brushing the ends of the strands across my breasts teasingly.

“That wasn’t your present, you silly boy,” I scolded, leaning over to kiss him on the tip of his nose. I climbed out of bed and padded naked over to my bag, bringing a small square gift-wrapped box back with me and handing it to him. “Happy birthday, honey-boy.”

He sat up excitedly, unwrapped the paper and opened the box, gasping with delight when he saw the gold watch inside.

“Baby doll, it’s so beautiful! I love it.” He slid it around his wrist and laid back down, holding his arm up above him to study it. “You spent way too much money, you wonderful girl.”

“You’re . . . worth . . . every . . . single . . . cent,” I said, puncturing each word with a kiss. I leaned on his chest and kissed him again, staring into his eyes. “I love you, Jakey.”

“I love you too, Tessie. Come here,” he demanded, pulling me down next to him and crushing me against his body. His lips were hungry as they sought out mine, then kissed a burning trail down my body, until he was kissing my thighs. I held my breath in anticipation. His eyes were fixed on mine as his lips moved up my thighs, closer and closer. I stopped breathing altogether when he reached the centre. He caressed my thighs and looked up at me, smiling wickedly, flicking out his tongue. I gasped. “I’m going to use this lovely new watch to time just how long it takes me to make you the happiest woman in Big Town.” And he lowered his head, his tongue busy.

It really didn’t take very long at all.

~~~~~~

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend together, including a romantic dinner on Saturday night during which we played footsies under the table, our eyes locked together. The Prime Minister, the Pope and the Queen could have come into the restaurant to eat together and neither of us would have noticed. That entire night was spectacular and we slept heavily after an excess of good loving. Reluctantly, after a tasty buffet breakfast, we checked out of the hotel late Sunday morning to head back to Little Town. I smiled all the way there, not having felt so relaxed for ages.

Jake didn’t have to be back at work until Monday lunchtime and planned to stay with me on Sunday night as well. Dad and I were finally able to return to our house and Jake and I spent some time on Sunday afternoon settling Dad comfortably back home. As if in approval, the rain clouds parted and the sun shone for the first time in over a week.

The only negative for me in the whole weekend was the four figure bill for the windows that Freddie had left for me on the kitchen table. I suppressed a shocked intake of breath when I saw the amount and promptly hid the bill from Dad.
God help me if that was half-price
, I thought, immediately shuffling funds around in my mind. I wasn’t able to see any way that I could possibly manage all my responsibilities with my current bank balance. I determinedly pushed such troublesome thoughts from my mind, telling myself that I’d worry about it on Monday. For now though, I wanted to solely concentrate on Jake, giving him every skerrick of my attention.

Sunday afternoon, leaving Dad cheerfully watching football on a borrowed TV, Jake and I drove out to Lake Big. We watched the sun glistening over the water, turning every raindrop suspended on a leaf into a diamond. A dazzling double rainbow sprouted from behind Mount Big and I took it as a portent that life would become more joyful in the future. As the only vehicle in the carpark, Jake persuaded me, with much laughing, to climb into the back seat of his ute where we made out like teenagers. But one thing led to another and we were soon at an uninterruptable part of proceedings, doing something that could have us arrested. We simultaneously reached a happy ending just as another vehicle crunched across the gravel to pull up near us.

Quietly laughing, we laid on the back seat, bodies throbbing with pleasure, messy body fluids everywhere, trying to slide our jeans back over our hips without making any movement that would attract attention. Luckily Jake’s ute had tinted windows, but if the newcomers were nosy and came closer, they would surely see us in the back. I hoped the newcomers weren’t anyone who recognised his gold ute and individual licence plate. It would be embarrassing, to say the least, for one of the town’s cops to be caught pants down in public.

Fortunately for my modesty and my career, we both managed to dress ourselves respectably before sitting up, clutching hands. But it took a long time for me to stop giggling afterwards. Three men and a woman stepped out of a hired car. Being the brilliant cop that I am, I deduced that they were the Hungarian tourists who were staying at Abe’s pub. They were obviously taking advantage of the first decent weather they’d had since they arrived to do some local exploring.

We waited patiently while they faffed about, organising themselves before finally moving off. They spent an inordinate amount of time perusing the national park’s information board, finally to take the track that led around the lake back to the carpark. It was a lovely long easy walk, but it had been raining a lot and they’d find the path muddy and slippery. I hoped they had plenty of clean clothes to change into when they returned to the pub.

When they’d disappeared from view, Jake and I climbed back into the front seats and drove off laughing about our narrow escape. I made him drive down Beach Road so I could see the remnants of the bikie retreat. Where the large sprawling house had once sat was now only a blackened heap of jagged ruins. When I’d seen enough he sped up again and drove to the beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the sand chasing each other and trying to push each other into the freezing surf. The few brave souls out for exercise in the weather-break who walked past us smiled at our high-jinks with amused indulgence.

“Let’s make out in the sand dunes like we all did when we were kids,” he suggested, drawing me close and kissing me. I looked up at him with a sad face, pushing out my bottom lip in misery, which only made him laugh. “Well, everyone except St Teresa the Pure, of course.”

I poked my tongue out at him. “Don’t be so mean. Anyway, you couldn’t possibly do it again.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” I laughed.

“That’s what you reckon, is it?”

“Yeah, it is. You’re an old man now. You’re twenty-nine.” I backed away from him as he walked towards me, smiling with intent. I spun around and started running again, giggling. He chased me up and down the beach, making me squeal in delighted fright. When he caught me, he picked me up fireman-style over his shoulder and purposely strode towards the sand dunes, smacking my butt. I screamed and laughed and kicked my feet and pounded his back.

“That’s how you treat a woman, Jake! You show her,” called out Rafat Singh, laughing as he strolled past, earning himself a thump on the arm from his wife Gwen, who ran the local craft shop.

“Put me down Jacob Bycraft or I’ll arrest you!” I shrieked.

He let me slide down the front of his body until I was on my feet again, slipping his arms around me. “Arrest me for what?” he asked, kissing me lingeringly.

I swallowed. “For being dangerously sexy. You’re a terrible threat to my health and safety.”

“You better handcuff me then, Officer, and I don’t mind if you’re a little . . . rough.” He grabbed my hand, then frowned, playfulness melting away. “Tessie, you’re icy cold. Time to go home.”

I didn’t argue. Clouds obscured the sun again and a cool breeze sprang up. It started sprinkling and we ran to the carpark holding hands as it turned into a downpour.

“Oh goodie, more rain,” I said sarcastically as we sped home. “And my roof hasn’t been fixed yet.”

“Yes it has, baby doll.”

“Jakey! Thank you so much.”

“No worries. You know I’d do anything for my girl.”

“I know and I’m the luckiest girl in the world.”

We took turns in the shower when we returned home and passed a wonderfully quiet evening. I cooked Dad and Jake dinner, enjoying being back in my own kitchen. After dinner, while Dad read, Jake suggested that I resume my guitar practice. He’d been trying to teach me the guitar for months and I’d recently graduated to “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes on his bass guitar. But I was an unworthy student for such a patient and talented tutor, barely progressing in all that time.

Inside I groaned loudly at his suggestion, but forced myself to appear disappointed, reminding him of my injured arm. Genuinely disappointed himself, he tried to console me with a promise to continue practice in earnest once I’d fully recovered. I suddenly was no longer in such a hurry to mend.

I followed him into the house’s formal dining room that I’d converted into a music room. The room had never been used for dining as we ate all of our meals in the huge kitchen. It now contained Dad’s old upright piano and a couple of Jake’s guitars. He took his favourite off its stand, slipping the strap around his neck.

“I’ve written a song about you. Do you want to hear it?”

“Of course I do!” I sat on the piano stool and listened expectantly.

He strummed the guitar, producing a lovely tune and started singing. He had a very pleasing voice.

Tess, Tess, the girl I love to undress.

Tess, Tess, your boobs I want to caress.

Tess, Tess, your butt was made to impress.

Tess, Tess, the girl who always says yes.

Tess, Tess, you make me hard, I confess.

Tess, Tess, it always ends with a mess.

I was laughing helplessly by the end.

“You like my song?” he asked, grinning.

“No! It’s the worst song I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” I giggled. “You’ll have to start again. And try to be more romantic next time.”

“I thought that was very romantic,” he mock-pouted, leaning over to kiss me. “I worked for hours on those lyrics. They sum up all my feelings perfectly. Let me show you what I mean.”

He placed his guitar back on its stand and dragged me to my bedroom where we retired early, yawning after all our exercise in bed and at the beach. We managed to make love one more time, both of us falling asleep immediately afterwards in each other’s arms, and neither of us stirred until morning.

Chapter 30

I woke up groggily, thinking I should go for a jog, but hoping that it was still raining so I had an excuse not to. I padded over to the window and lifted the blind to look straight into the face of Denny Bycraft. I didn’t scream – he’d popped up out of nowhere in my life a million times already so I was kind of over the surprise factor of seeing him. I did become angry though, as I did every time. It was never right to be blase about stalking, no matter how long it had being going on, nor how harmless the stalker.

“Piss off, Denny Bycraft!” I shouted, covering my breasts with my arms and waking Jake up with the commotion. He stormed to the window and flung it upwards, shouting abuse at the fast retreating back of his younger brother.

“He’s a bloody nuisance, that boy,” Jake commented, as if Denny was fourteen not twenty-seven. He slammed the window shut.

“I haven’t missed him during all that rain,” I said, flopping onto the bed. “It was nice knowing he wasn’t spying on me for once.”

“He can’t help himself, Tessie. He’s crazy about you.” Jake always made excuses for Denny’s obsessive behaviour.

“He’s crazy, full stop,” I muttered to myself. However, as my eyes slid up and down Jake’s body, I lost interest in Denny. Jake’s morning glory was impressive. I leaned back on the bed, showing my assets off to advantage and smiled, beckoning him to me with a crooked index finger. “Come here, big boy. Let’s see if
you
can help yourself around me.”

“Geez, Tessie! And you reckon
I’m
the one who’s dangerously sexy,” he growled, desire flaring in his face immediately. He climbed onto the bed and we didn’t speak again until we separated a while later, sighing, happily fulfilled. He gazed into my eyes, stroking my cheek. “You should be classified as a drug. No matter how much I have of you, I keep wanting more and more.”