Contract with Consequences

CHAPTER TWENTY

SCARLET was taken aback when she woke and saw that the sun was so low in the sky. She must have been asleep for a couple of hours at least!

It wasn’t like her to sleep during the day. Of course, it wasn’t like her to have so much sex during the day. Or any sex at all. She’d read somewhere that having a climax was the best sleeping pill in the world. No wonder she’d passed out. In fact, it was a wonder she’d woken up!

John was still out like a light, she noted as she rolled over.

All due to moi, Scarlet thought rather smugly.

‘Poor darling,’ she murmured, stroking his arm gently till he stirred. When he rolled onto his back and opened his eyes she sat up and smiled down at him.

‘Time to get up, sleepyhead. I don’t know about you but I’m starving. Is there a local restaurant you know which opens early?’ she asked as she swept her hair back from her face. ‘I don’t think I could wait too long before I eat something.’

The sight of her bare breasts was doing wicked things to John’s nicely rested body. But he checked the impulse to seduce her right then and there, reminding himself that the quicker and earlier they ate dinner, the longer the evening would be.

‘The sailing club serves dinner from five-thirty,’ he informed her. ‘It’s only a few minutes’ drive from here, dress is casual, the seating alfresco and the sunset’s worth taking your camera for.’

‘Sounds perfect. Meet you in the living room in fifteen minutes,’ she said. Jumping out of bed, she dashed for the door, no doubt heading for the main bathroom and guest bedroom where she’d left all her things.

‘Scarlet!’ he called out before she could make her escape. She turned in the doorway, no longer shy about showing him her body, he noted. That was a good sign.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘A dress please. And no underwear.’

She blinked, then flushed.

‘No buts,’ he ground out. ‘No arguments. No underwear.’

Her chin came up, her eyes defiant. ‘No,’ she threw back at him. ‘I’m not going to do that.’

‘Why not? You’ll like it.’

‘No, I won’t.’

‘How do you know you won’t?’

‘I just know.’

‘Like you know you won’t like camping? Or fishing? Yet you haven’t tried either. Give it a go, Scarlet. No one will know but me.’

‘That’s one person too many. I agreed to have sex with you, John. I didn’t agree to anything… kinky.’

His eyebrows arched. ‘I would hardly call that kinky.’

‘I would.’

‘Fine. I wouldn’t want you to do anything you weren’t comfortable with.’

‘I don’t intend to. Now, I’m going to go get dressed.’

It was a rather irritated John who rose and set about getting dressed himself, pulling on fresh underwear, a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt. Obviously he had a way to go before Scarlet’s mind was totally consumed by sex. He was the one who was plagued with that problem. His agitation was not improved when Scarlet made her appearance right on schedule, wearing a very pretty floral sundress with a flouncy skirt, tight waistline and a halter-necked bodice. Her blonde hair was bundled up rather haphazardly on top of her head, with lots of wispy strands kissing her face. She didn’t appear to be wearing make-up other than some lip gloss. Even so, her cheeks glowed and her blue eyes sparkled. She looked fresh and beautiful and so sexy, it was criminal.

‘You’re not wearing a bra,’ he said gruffly, spotting the outline of provocatively naked nipples.

She shrugged, the action bringing even more attention to her unfettered breasts. ‘Some dresses aren’t made for bras.’

‘Whatever,’ he said offhandedly, doing his best to get some perspective in the face of his escalating frustration. But it wasn’t easy. He hadn’t realised that his plan to seduce Scarlet into a state of permanent arousal would backfire on him so painfully. He wished now that he was wearing shorts and not hip hugging, hard-on-squashing jeans. But he could hardly change clothes at this late stage.

‘I suggest you bring a jacket or a cardigan,’ he advised her sharply as he headed for his front door. ‘It might get cool after the sun goes down.’

‘I’ll go get one.’

He made no comment, not wanting to delay their departure any longer. The sooner he got her out to the sailing club, the sooner they could eat and the sooner they would be back here, at which point she would do as she was told for once!

Scarlet didn’t say a word during the ride down in the lift, or the drive to the sailing club. In truth she was feeling guilty. And very uncomfortable. Because she had actually done what John had so arrogantly demanded she do, gone out without any underwear on.

Of course, no way was she about to admit it. She’d just wanted to have the experience. Wanted to see if he was right.

He wasn’t, she realised very quickly. She didn’t like it. The braless bit didn’t overly bother her. It wasn’t the first time she’d gone braless, though she didn’t make a habit of it. Having her bottom bare under her dress, however, made her feel terribly vulnerable. Fearful, even. What if a wind blew her skirt up and people saw that she had no panties on?

Every muscle she owned tightened just thinking about such a horrifying and humiliating event.

By the time they arrived at the sailing club she was extremely tense. Thankfully, there was no breeze blowing. The air was still and quite warm so she didn’t need her shawl, and didn’t have to worry too much about any unfortunate wind accidents.

It was a smallish establishment, Scarlet saw straight away, built on a select plot of land right on the harbour. Despite its prime location, there was no pretension about the single-storey clubhouse, or the outdoor eating areas. The tables and chairs were a mixture of wooden and plastic, several of them set up right at the water’s edge under the shade of tall palm trees. Because they were early, they were able to get one of the best tables where no one would be able to block out the view of the sunset. The sun was by then extremely low in the sky and beginning to turn a gorgeous golden colour. Its beauty distracted Scarlet temporarily from any concerns over her panti-less state.

‘How long before it sets?’ she asked John as she sat down.

‘Not long. Time to start taking some photos. I’ll go order the food. What would you like? You can have steak and salad, fish and chips, a roast or Chinese.’

‘Fish and chips sounds good.’

‘Fish and chips it is, then.’

Scarlet got her phone out and started clicking away whilst he was gone, amazed at how the gold colour intensified as the sun sank even lower in the sky. By the time John returned, it was just touching the horizon, its colour now closer to red than gold.

‘Thank you,’ she said when he placed a glass of chilled white wine on the table in front of her. ‘But I can’t drink it just yet. I don’t want to miss a moment of this.’ And she turned her attention back to the sunset.

It amazed her, just how quickly the sun set. One minute the edge of the circle was just touching the horizon, the next the sun was halfway gone then, poof, totally gone.

‘Oh…’ she said with a regretful sigh.

‘Darwin is famous for its sunsets,’ John said.

‘They’re pretty spectacular. Mum is going to want to come up here after seeing these photos. Which reminds me,’ she said as she put down her phone and picked up her glass of wine. ‘I have to ring her later. Don’t let me forget.’

‘Are you going to ring your mother every single night?’ he asked somewhat impatiently.

Scarlet took a deep swallow of wine and counted to ten before answering. She understood that John’s relationship with his family was way different from hers. But that didn’t give him the right to be critical of what she believed was a normal way to act.

‘Yes, John,’ she said at last, firmly but calmly. ‘I’m going to ring my mother every single night. I love Mum very much and I know she’ll be missing me. I’m sorry if you find that annoying but that’s just too bad.’

She waited for him to say something sarcastic back, but he didn’t. He just nodded. ‘I’ve always admired your spirit, Scarlet. And your honesty.’

Scarlet’s hand tightened around the stem of the wine glass. ‘I’m not always honest.’

John slanted her a surprised look. ‘Really? Do tell.’

Talking about her mother had made Scarlet think about all the lies she’d told her before coming here. And all the lies she’d have to keep telling her every single night of her stay in Darwin. After all, she could hardly tell her the truth. Still, this train of thought did pose the question of what she would eventually tell her mother if and when she did fall pregnant to John. How would she explain it?

It shocked her that she hadn’t worked out a plan concerning this problem earlier. Shocked her, too, that she’d almost forgotten about why she’d come up to Darwin in the first place. Her mind had been focused on nothing but sex for most of today. She’d gone to sleep this afternoon thinking about sex. Had woken thinking about sex. And had left off her underwear, thinking about sex.

It was worrying, this craving John had created in her to experience everything with him. Every sexual position. Every form of foreplay. Every erotic game. And, yes, even the kinky ones.

Suddenly, sitting there with no underwear on was no longer slightly embarrassing. It was seriously shameful yet at the same time so wickedly exciting that she could actually feel the heat between her thighs.

‘Scarlet?’ John prompted. ‘What haven’t you been honest about?’

‘I… um… I was thinking about the lies I’ve told Mum. It’s going to be awkward, explaining things later.’

‘You mean when you fall pregnant.’

‘If I fall pregnant,’ she corrected.

‘When. If. Whatever. It’s a little early to start inventing stories yet. We’ll worry about that when you’re actually pregnant.’

‘I’m sorry to be a worry-wart, John, but I need to have some story settled in my mind tonight. It’s really bothering me.’

‘Okay,’ he said, trying to be patient. ‘The way I see it, you have two possible stories to choose from. You can tell your mum the truth, or you can say you ran into me by accident whilst you were on holiday up here and we had a brief fling.’

Scarlet shook her head. ‘That last idea won’t fly. Mum won’t believe it. Neither will your parents. Even if they did, they’d wonder what you were doing in Darwin when you were supposed to be in Brazil.’

‘Then tell them the truth.’

‘Which is?’

‘That you told me you desperately wanted a baby the day of their party, and out of friendship I offered myself as the father, no strings attached. You can say we planned to meet in Darwin that night but kept our assignation a secret from everyone in case you didn’t fall pregnant.’

Scarlet frowned. ‘I suppose that seems reasonably plausible. Mum would believe it, since she knows about my failed artificial-insemination plan, but I’m not sure about your parents. After all, we’ve always come across as enemies, not friends.’

‘Rubbish. Mum never thought that and Dad doesn’t think at all. We’ll go with the truth, if and when the time comes. Okay?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Look, Scarlet,’ he said firmly. ‘I brought you up here early so that you could relax and have some fun. Forget about the future for the next few days and just think about enjoying yourself.’

‘That’s what I’ve been doing.’

‘What’s wrong with that?’

‘I’m not sure what we’ve been doing is fun, exactly.’

‘Then what is it?’

‘Dangerous.’

‘In what way dangerous?’

‘I might get to like it too much.’ And to like you too much, came the sudden thought.

‘Sex, you mean?’

‘Yes.’

‘I can’t see how that’s dangerous.’

‘You’re not a woman.’ Women had a long history of falling for men who were great lovers. Scarlet didn’t want to fall for John. That would not be a good idea at all.

The buzzer rang at that moment, announcing that their meals were ready. John shook his head at her as he picked up the buzzer and stood up.

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.

‘Scarlet King,’ he said as his heavy lidded gaze raked over her. ‘You are one wickedly beautiful woman.’

I’m one very wicked woman, Scarlet thought, her belly tightening when he began to walk around the benchtop towards her.

Even before he pulled her into his arms, she knew that she would do anything John asked of her tonight. Anything at all.