Stonemouth

‘Could be quite a long while,’ she said, almost dreamily. Then she lay down on her side, one arm beneath her head. Her long fair hair was dry now, and spilled around her head and over the shadowed golden skin of her arm. She stretched, yawned: catlike, completely unselfconscious. Her eyes were half open.

‘Do you want me to …?’ I nodded to one side.

‘Do I want you to what?’ she asked quietly.

‘Go,’ I said. ‘Do you want me to go?’

Her eyes opened a little further, and I was regarded, studied. ‘Why,’ she murmured, ‘do you have somewhere else you have to be?’

I laughed quietly. ‘Not as such.’

‘Do you want to go?’

I shook my head. ‘No.’

‘Then don’t.’ Her eyes closed and she nestled down under her towel and blanket. ‘Keep me company,’ she said sleepily.

I opened my mouth to speak, then her eyes were open again and she said, ‘It’s all right; not trying to seduce you.’

‘Oh,’ I said, sighing heavily but still smiling. ‘That’s a pity.’

She tutted, shook her head a fraction. ‘You guys,’ she said, laughing lightly, closing her eyes. ‘Just stop it. Here,’ she said, lifting one corner of the blanket, her eyelids flickering as though trying and failing to open again. ‘Come and keep me warm. I’ll spoon against you.’

‘What if Josh—?’

‘Ha!’ she said, quietly dismissive. ‘Wouldn’t worry about Josh.’ She sounded sleepy again. She flapped the blanket edge. ‘Come on; getting cold.’

It was probably as well her eyes were closed. My grin must have been splitting my face. I did as I’d been told and cuddled into her, under the blanket, my back against her front.

‘S’better,’ she said, on a sleepy sigh. Seconds later she was asleep, breathing rhythmically against me, her breasts a gentle pressure against my back, her arm over my waist. I had a raging erection, of course I did, which it would have been great to do something with, but, fuck it; no matter where this was going from this point on, this — right now, right here — would most assuredly do.

We woke up to a cool grey morning, and to what were probably meant to be knowing smiles, plus various yawns and stretches and a few hung-over groans.

The fire was a dead black circular scar on the empty expanse of sand, but the smell of frying bacon and the sound of sputtering eggs came from a smaller fire somebody had started near by. I’d rolled over. Ellie smiled at me.

‘Sleep okay?’ she asked, blowing some hair away from her eyes.

‘Never better,’ I lied. Now, my cock was about the only bit of me that wasn’t stiff.

‘Same here,’ she said, then sat up, flexing her arms and upper body. God, you could fall in lust with this girl’s shoulders, even before you lowered your sights a little. She glanced round at everybody else, then down at me. ‘People will talk, you know,’ she said, arching one eyebrow.

‘I should be so lucky,’ I told her. This made her laugh.

‘Thank you, Kylie.’ She moved one hand through the tawny mass of her hair, scratching idly. She raised her head, sniffing. She looked down at me again. ‘Hungry?’

‘You wouldn’t believe,’ I told her, after the tiniest of pauses, holding her gaze.

She closed one eye, regarding me suspiciously, then laughed. ‘Mm-hmm,’ she said, then unfolded herself upwards, standing. ‘Well …’ She pulled the towel around her like a skirt.

She held out one hand to me, to help me up.

Oh, you beauty, I thought.

‘I’m a fucking idiot,’ I breathed to myself when I saw Ferg and Josh coming back along the beach together. They weren’t quite holding hands, but something about the way they strolled along, either too casually or not quite casual enough, made it obvious. I’d only started to suspect when I noticed they weren’t there by the side of the fire when Ellie and I woke up.

I looked at Ellie, standing talking and laughing with one of her girlfriends by the only other four-wheel drive still left on the beach. Round her shoulders, she wore the blanket we’d slept in; there was cloud, and a chill wind off the grey sea.

I finished my eggs and bacon, wiped the plate and thanked Logan, who’d provided the breakfast. I went up to Ellie just as her pal moved off. ‘That’s the boys back,’ I told her.

She looked round, nodded. ‘So it is,’ she agreed. She held my gaze, smiled.

‘About you and Josh,’ I said, after a few moments.

‘What about me and Josh?’ she said.

‘There’s a party at Maddy Ferrie’s place tomorrow night.’

‘I know.’

‘You were … going?’

‘Yes.’

‘With Josh?’

‘He was going to pick me up.’ She looked over at him again. ‘That was the plan.’

‘Well, I wondered if I could take you? Could I pick you up? Instead?’

She nodded thoughtfully. ‘I suppose you could.’

‘D’you think that would be all right with Josh?’

She looked at Josh and Ferg as they approached. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I think that would be fine with Josh.’

‘And would that be all right with you?’ I asked, starting to become unsure whether this laid-back approach of hers was studied coolness, druggy comedown or sheer indifference.