Eduardo gazed at her through the throng of partygoers; at La Inglésa; the woman with a nervy, sparky energy; she who did not seem to age or did so gracefully; beautifully; she who took care of herself; she whom no one could accuse of being withdrawn; someone who did not mix with the locals and stayed within the confines of the resort.
She was often to be seen talking demonstratively, in deep earnest, with local traders, arguing over the price of some goods and doing that in Spanish; not giving them scope to fleece her like they tried it on with others, of any nationality, who stopped at their stalls, be they for perishable goods of fruit and vegetables or hand-crafted items of little value, but serving as a memento of their times here.
The days were tough, just as they were in the early years when she and her husband, Martin, had been one of the first couples to buy a plot and to decide on the style of their hacienda on the hill. It would overlook the soon to be completed golf course. The sea and a private foreshore lay beyond it. Early faith in the place had been amply rewarded, just as he and the family had been for the risks that they had all taken.
The troubles in the EU had not touched them as they had in his country.
He took delight in the svelte woman, to be seen again now, and remembered how earlier in the day he had caught sight of her in the small shopping mall. Then, this captivating woman had worn cropped crimson slacks, showing off her slender legs and calves, the mute colour of her nail varnish as she stepped lightly over the marbled floor in sandals, the straps neatly fastened at the ankle. He had liked her auburn hair, the bindings to pleat it loosely to just below slender shoulders. He had taken delight in her still shapely body, clothed in a halter necked blouse that flattered her. He saw how some men had paused and turned just to follow her progress.
He had been one of them and he did so again now.
The Muñeca Ball was a date in the diary that no one could pass by. The clubhouse was adorned by puppets local children had crudely fashioned to raise funds for charitable works, their families and their community. It was the season’s highlight in the sweltering days of August. She gave no sign of being bothered by that.
Until he drew close, and asked her to dance, she had been unaware of his continued interest in her. For this woman he would play it slow and draw no one’s attention to them, save to be seen enjoying the times that she might agree to dance with him. He had seen her to be free, her escort preoccupied by another and she unclaimed by other male guests. So, he had chosen to approach her.
Once the music had set the mood they had simply danced on, uninhibitedly, and with eyes only for each other.
‘Otra vez, señora?’
Eduardo asked it in smiling and teasing politeness, his questioning look upon her securing what he sought; to hold her and to see the freckles on her skin. He loved the dusting of colour upon her body that was open to his gaze and anyone else who might look at the woman he held; she who was clothed in an off-the-shoulder muted orange midi dress, the fabric adorned with an exotic floral print. She was a woman who captivated him so, like a besotted young man. He had been that, once, when they had first met and he had known it even then, that she was beyond his reach. But the twenty or so years, that had passed, changed them.
His desire for her, he knew as he danced with La Inglésa, had not. The soft lines on her cheeks, as she smiled so engagingly, her vitality, her evident poise and now, her soft laughter, did nothing to diminish that feeling in him.
‘Porque no?’ she replied on taking hold of the hand that he again held out to her. ‘We go well together, it seems.’
‘And no one else is asking to take you away,’ he whispered, as if they shared in a confidence, feeling heady from Linda’s scent, ‘and that is a surprise to me. I am a lucky man…Linda.’
It was an only too appropriate name for the attractive woman that he now held and sought to flatter. His embrace upon Linda tightened but he felt the gentlest of moves, to resist it.
‘Behave, Eduardo. Try to do that for me?’ she laughed engagingly, all the while meeting his admiring gaze upon her, knowing of the man’s reputation only too well.
She felt like the cat on a hot tin roof; felt an uncommon and nervy excitement now and to be held in his arms as he twirled and swayed her; as they stepped effortlessly across the dance floor and avoided any clumsiness or bumps into others. He danced assuredly or moved in a sensual rhythm, with her in his arms, just as the music demanded of him.
‘You make me think and feel of so much else, Linda.’
‘Then we’ll have to dance that all away,,won’t we?’ she smiled knowingly.
She caught Martin’s eye as he danced not so far from her. ‘Me next?’ he mouthed. Linda nodded her agreement, all the while feeling her dance partner’s attention upon her.
At times the music silenced them, prevented conversation of any kind and so they communicated in the dance; through their steps and their holds; their closeness and then their separations. And then, she would feel his arm about her waist as she was again drawn close to him. It was then that she felt an uncommon urge to respond, to forget that she was a respectable married woman, and yet someone who could succumb to his charms and undisguised attraction to her. Why Eduardo continued in his pursuit of her she did not fully understand.
‘You are a good partner, Linda…you respond as I want you to. Tienes ritmo y belleza…’
‘Calma te,’ she said, giving his hand a fierce squeeze. ‘Stop your flirting and flattery, or I’ll stop dancing with you…I really will.’
‘Perhaps you really will,’ he smiled. ‘I admit it…you are a wonder to me, Linda. Even your name says it all…beautiful.’
She took to wondering, as they danced, from whom and how many he had seduced favours or who had finally succumbed to his charms, to the raw physicality of the man. Being feckless was not a part of her nature, but to be dismissive of his charms she could not be so easily persuaded of, even if she was a little tipsy and relied on him to keep her steady as they moved over the dance floor. He led her so well, and engaged her so truthfully, that she wondered why she should let go of his hand whenever the music stopped.
It did now.
‘Gracias,’ she smiled and eased out of his hold upon her.
‘Let me be with you?’ he asked. ‘Me encantas, Linda,’ Eduardo murmured as they still stood close, his look upon her only too admiring and purposeful. ‘You charm me…you have done that for so long.’
Linda felt his breath upon her as Eduardo’s touch moved slowly and his fingers lightly traced the line of her backbone in a slow caress to enervated skin.
‘I know,’ she told him, again in Spanish. ‘But no…we have danced together, and I’ve loved every moment of it. Let that be enough.’
Linda left his side with only a soft smile on her lips and a word of thanks to reward him for being so attentive in his dancing with her. She knew it was scant recompense for her rejection of him, the denial of something more from her.
The man wouldn’t have known that Martin had been called away early, on business matters that were of some concern to both of them and that she was to be alone for two or three days after he had gone. It would be time enough for him to pursue his suit if she had given Eduardo the slightest encouragement in the replies that she had given. It would have been all too easy to respond to his touches upon her through the dress she had chosen to wear and that flattered her; she, a woman of fifty or so.
Their place in the sun energised them and made her feel so alive. It transformed her husband. Being here eased away the cares of a city trader’s job that claimed all of Martin’s time and kept him from her side when she wished him to be there, in the noisy mayhem of a desirable London suburb. It was then that she wondered about the uncertainties of their lives.
Now, as she glanced about the dance floor for Martin, she was unsettled that the feeling had been there all evening; that Eduardo’s attention upon her offered a blesséd relief from these debilitating thoughts and concerns that known ways of living out her life might be brought crashing down, both here and at home.
♥
‘I don’t need this, not now,’ Linda grumbled.
She had heard the car draw up outside and rose from the sun-lounger by the pool and went into the house. She soon walked nimbly, in her bare feet, across the cool floor of the living room, with no great hopes that it was of any importance for a visitor to be there.
She gasped in surprise; felt suddenly uncertain of her feelings.
Eduardo was seen to stride towards the house, dodging the lazy spray of the sprinklers fed from the water tanks that held captured rainwater off the roof. He walked in that lazy way of his that had her staring at him for longer than it was perhaps wise. The darkly handsome man, in his lightweight suit and sky blue, open-necked shirt, was agile yet strongly built for one so tall. He carried a brown leather-covered notebook, checking his phone for messages and thrusting it away on seeing that there were none.
What was he doing here, unannounced?
‘Hola…Linda?’ she heard Eduardo call out in that engaging way of his that weakened her resolve; dispelled the words from her mind that she might use to dismiss him.
She heard his voice through the small side window set into the roughly plastered, dazzlingly white wall by the front door. It had been left open to catch what little breeze there was off the sea.
‘Si?’ she laughed, glancing at him.
The closeness of the weather had made it impossible for her to be outside for long, or to stay out of the pool. Yet the man exuded calm assurance; an unperturbed sense of style that she could not share. She tanned slowly for a fair-skinned woman, with few opportunities to indulge herself, naturally, when at home.
Linda wavered, wondering if she should open the door to him and all that the gesture might mean; how the man would interpret it, or chose to believe whatever she might say.
Linda grabbed at a lightweight golf-jacket to cover what she was wearing; nothing more than bikini briefs and a wispy see-through top over her bikini bra. Only the faintest of their outlines were still to be seen upon her skin.
She decided on it. The door was now opened to him.
‘I…I wanted to see you…have these papers for you to…’ he began but faltered on seeing them. Two suitcases had been placed against the wall and the house seemed uncommonly tidy. It smelt fresh and attended to. Looking about him, Eduardo understood only too quickly. ‘When…when do you go?’
‘Tonight; at eight o’clock. The taxi collects me two hours before…’
‘No! So soon…I wish I had known,’ he said drawing closer still.
Eduardo had seen Linda brush away stray strands of her hair and how this simple, yet graceful, act had revealed the swell of the woman’s delightful breasts through the thin veil of her blouse.
Linda nodded, heard from his tone what her news really meant for him…perhaps for them.
She heard him sigh.
‘I know. It’s all come as a shock to me…what Martin had to tell me over these past few days, before he went back. There’s so much to deal with…and to worry about…especially keeping hold of this place.’
‘Whatever it is, we’ll fix it…come to an arrangement,’ Eduardo said, seeking to reassure her. ‘Your presence, you staying here in the resort matters to me, Linda, more than ever.’
‘Don’t…don’t start that all over again!’ she flared, even as her heart beats furiously on hearing him speak out his feelings for her once more. To look at this man, and to know of his seducing ways, made her uncertain of everything…everything that passed for self-control. ‘You’d better go,’ she said intent on going to the door and getting him to understand what was to happen; that he should leave. ‘Arrangements will have to be made for this place…to sell it. You’re good at that, or so I hear.’
He seemed not to take in what he had been told.
Instead, Eduardo put his notepad on a chair set against the wall, under an ornate mirror that decorated the hallway. He stepped lightly towards her.
‘Sell this place, your home here?’ he now said in evident dismay. ‘No. I’ll never do that! We will help you…I will help you with this problem. We…the company…we shall continue renting it out for you, just as before!’
Hesitantly, Linda made to move away from him…but where could she go?
Only…only she stopped…when…when…she felt Eduardo’s restraining touch to her hip, the lightest touch of his fingers as he brushed skin exposed to his sight as she moved. Then Linda felt his arms about her waist and, impulsively, she clenched them…held them to her…her sighed response encouraging his continuing, wondering, touches under the flimsiest of coverings and onto the gentle swell of her bikini briefs. He pinched her there, lightly; Eduardo then pushed his fingers under the fabric to caress all that lay beneath it; his touches were slow but only too deliberate.
‘You cannot leave this place…you know that you can’t.’
‘Don’t…don’t, Eduardo…this is crazy,’ she groaned. All the while his fingers touched and caressed.
‘We’ll work something out…Linda. We can…we will…just the two of us…won’t we? It is up to us to find a way through the problems…and we find it together.’
‘Oh…oh don’t…don’t…this will lead us nowhere,’ Linda whispered, yet deeply in thrall on feeling his breath and lips to her skin; the soft kisses to her throat and the continued questing, beguiling touch of his fingers. They were easing away any remaining resolve to deny to him what Eduardo so purposefully sought of her now.
‘I want you…like no one else before, Linda,’ he murmured. ‘How could you go away and not tell me the reasons why?’
Linda shuddered. His touches had suddenly been lost.
She felt him shrug off his jacket, heard him kick off his shoes and felt the touch of his feet against hers, skin on skin, as they stood so very close; warm breaths on their lips…the absence of a touch…thoughts alone possessing them…a preamble to all that would follow.
‘You want scrawny old me?’ she laughed, in dismissal of what he had confessed to her, unprompted. ‘I’m not like the others…’
‘What are they to me when I am here with you?’
‘And you’ll soon think the same of me…’
‘I’ll never do that…no!’ Eduardo grabbed her arm as she sought to break free of him.
Roughly, he drew her to him and silenced Linda with the urgent press of his mouth to her lips, forcing his tongue between them until she gasped. She drew away from him only to be drawn into Eduardo’s embrace once more, all the while knowing that her resolve was slowly ebbing away.
‘What can I mean to you?’
‘Everything…you mean everything to me!’ His hands gently pressed her belly, stroked her again there in the lightest of touches even as she met his look. ‘Now…let me show you? You enchant me…but…but I think you have known that for some time.’
‘Yes…I’ve gathered that,’ she laughed teasing him.
And yet, Linda flung her arms about his neck and responded wildly, noisily, lustily to his continuing caresses upon her, every soft moan of concession silenced by his kisses; the flicker of his tongue met by sucks upon it, every slip and slide of her lips upon it drawing him deeper.
‘How I have longed to know this of you…Linda…mi Linda.’
She knew it too.
She would forget everything for tumultuous moments to be spent in the man’s arms; look upon them as a pleasurable diversion. She would park her guilt until she could confront it, but away from this place; keep their exchanges brief and her words only too simple yet purposeful.
‘Where…where do we go…take me there?’
Linda pulled on his hands.
‘It’s unmade…but the bed.’ Turning away, she heard the soft rustle of clothes as Eduardo undressed and she did the same.
‘In a moment,’ Eduardo murmured, keeping Linda from turning to face him once more. ‘Know this…now this…and this.’
His fingers had touched and pushed, entered and moved slowly. Lingering for only a moment, they were crooked as they were withdrawn in a slow tantalising slip from within her, only…only for these wondering touches to be repeated.
Linda shuddered, clamped her hands on his arms to slow his movements. ‘Don’t, Eduardo…oh, don’t…or you’ll…you’ll…’
Her gasps became the moans of a drawn-out climax, silenced only by his deepening kisses that asserted his authority over her now. He renewed his embrace upon her; she leant against him and was encouraged to wrap her fingers with his, before a slow caress over her skin continued, their joint touches soon lingering at the moist edges of her clammy warmth where only he had been.
Linda trembled with the rush of continued longing. She sought to turn to him but Eduardo held her and maintained his touches upon her. Naked, and as if in a dance once more, they brushed and swayed against each other.
‘You are so desirable…I ache for you…know that of me, Linda. Como te quiero. How I want you.’
She had no need to hear any of the words being said.
Linda had loosened her hold on one hand and reached behind her. She felt the gorged swell of his penis and gasped. She realised the true meaning of the jokey words spoken out, by some of the women in the golf club, and used to describe the man and his supposed attributes; the words of women who, she could only suppose, had not known of him as she was to do now.
‘The pole’.
Linda touched it again before clamping her hand to him, only to lessen her grip before it was repeated. She heard Eduardo’s sharp intakes of breath as she performed this simple act upon him.
‘Do it for me?’
Linda turned to meet his hooded look; saw the wonder in his eyes as Eduardo took in her naked beauty. She met his touches and guided the man’s sucking kisses upon the languid skin of her breasts before Eduardo took her hands to him once more. He asked that she kiss and seek delight in what she looked down at.
Linda did so. She performed an act upon him, with her lips and tip of her tongue that she had thought never to indulge in with the man, and that Martin rarely sought of her. But, for Eduardo, she succumbed and soon did so wantonly and purposefully, only to hear him soon whisper that she should stop.
‘It is not for you…to do that,’ he soon told her. ‘I know that now.’ He led her to the bed and Linda held out her arms to him as she lay back. ‘No, Linda…not yet…not like that yet,’ he kissed before his fingers, that she had sucked upon, followed a slow path from her mouth down to the very place where she longed for him to be.
‘I’ve…I’ve found you at last…mi Linda,’ he smiled slowly on seeing her respond to his caresses.
‘Come to me!’ she called out, but he would not be distracted from his purpose.
Instead, bending down between her legs, Eduardo now kissed her flesh; moved his lips and mouth over her, up and down, side to side from hip to hip, offered slow sucking kisses over every part of her body, down over her thighs and calves; before fingers brushed to part her flesh; to enter and then linger…to move again in questing touches….to enter and linger once more in a slow and palpitating rhythm.
The man was paying homage to her…to her!
Linda gushed.
‘Come to me…take me!’ she cried out once more, clutching fiercely at Eduardo’s skin, all the while looking down at his trembling length…flesh that would plumb her…flesh that frightened her for all that it would bring to her…would do within her and that she now craved to know of.
‘Mi encanta…mi encanta…mi querida,’ Eduardo murmured on claiming her.
Linda yelped out of fear and abject longing for all that his taking of her aroused.
He had entered slowly…lingeringly…sensed that she sought to adjust to this taking of her, what he brought, and all that would surely follow.
The man showed her every consideration in his exquisite ways of it.
‘I don’t want this…to wait! Love me…do it for me!’ she yelled, fevered hands clutching at him, as a slow but purposeful, and deepening rhythm within her began, his breaths hot on her skin and the rocking, scrapping, movements of the bed beneath them unnerving. ‘Find me…please…find me…find me…Eduardo! Do it for me!’
‘Like this…then? Like this?’ he asked, his breaths hot on her lips as she bucked her hips to meet each thrust within her. She clawed at his skin, her thighs caressing his hips and legs as best as Eduardo movements allowed.
‘Yes…yes!’
Despite her cries she felt that she was being loved and shown every consideration. And yet, she had expected something else, what the man’s reputation had led her to believe of him. The man used you…took what he alone wanted from the women he seduced…then paid them discreet attention afterwards.
Linda clung to him. She writhed to meet the man’s vigorous movements, the like of which she had not known of before. She now knew only of their intensity and felt an abject longing to know of the man’s undoubted virility; to meet every claim upon her…and yet, she continued to sense his choice consideration for her.
For her!
‘Ai…ai…mi Linda! Mi Linda!’ Eduardo called out as she sought to please him and to exercise some control over what was to ensue. ‘Don’t stop!’
Her fingernails, their neatly filed tips, had touched and scratched the base of his spine. They had pricked him there purposefully. She felt Eduardo jerk in response to every gentle tantalising scratch. She felt him plumb ever deeper as a pounding and unrelenting union of their bodies continued and that she sought to prolong.
‘Mas Eduardo…mas…mas. Ven…ven!’ she encouraged breathlessly.
With her arms and legs feverishly clamped about him they rocked; they fucked; she took it all; lost all fear of what the man’s flesh within her would do until she screamed out in her rapture. She arched her back and yelled on feeling the searing discharge of his lust and passion, as his claims upon her were finally satisfied in harsh spurting rushes.
And still, the man would not relent. He prolonged their union, hoping to bring her on again.
‘What have you done for me?’ she asked, later, in a wondering, languorous voice, yet knowing all the while that she had sought moments of sublime distraction from all that truly preoccupied her.
‘We’ve been together. Juntos…juntos,’ he soon whispered appreciatively, on warming breaths to her skin and between snatched, wondering kisses to her face, her throat, and lingeringly slow on the indolent sag of her aching breasts, to their very tips.
‘You’ve known of it with me, now,’ she answered, far too simply, perhaps, to his ways of hearing it said. But where could she possibly go with this now, after all that had passed between them?
The man’s ambition had finally been realised and against all the odds, as he would have thought of them after that night on the dancefloor and her gentle words of dismissal as he paid suit to her…to her, a respectable married woman.
‘Yes. And I will see to it that we will meet again. This place does not feel complete…or real, without you here, Linda. You made it all happen for me.’
Linda looked across at the man as he now lay beside her. She felt the gentle touch of Eduardo’s fingers to her skin; enjoyed again the slowest of enervating tugs on the fine hair where he had been; all of them acts that served to keep her engaged with all that he had brought to her. Had it all been but a part of his business dealings with her, after all the fine words and expert ways he had brought in achieving his purpose…of bedding her?
If it was only to be that, well now…
She grabbed at his wrist, urgently, and looked at Eduardo’s watch.
‘The taxi’s not due for another hour or so…’
And, on a slow smile, Linda told him. ‘You owe me, Eduardo and I’ll take payment in kind.’
♥