Passionate Choice

Chapter 2.3

   Keith hadn't taken long to thread his way through the crowd of talking, laughing party-goers. For a few moments she had been standing alone, Sheryl and her husband having been in conversation with another couple. Then, suddenly, Keith had been standing before her, his vivid eyes blazing down at her, his teeth glinting in his slanted smile.

   "I'll introduce myself since no one else will," he had said holding out a big tanned hand. "I'm Keith Walker. You are?"

   "Selena Mason." She had put her hand in his, had felt its warmth and strength.

   "From England, I would guess."

   "Yes."

   "On holiday here?"

   "Staying with a friend of mine. Sheryl Manton. She and George, her husband, brought me to this party. Are you...do you...? Words had failed her because he had still been gazing at her and holding her hand tightly as if he would never let go. She had felt a strange excitement throbbing through her and the rest of the people in the room had ceased to exist. She had been blind and deaf to everyone except the tall, golden man who had held her hand. "This house belongs to someone called Walker," she had whispered rather lamely.

   "Let's just say I'm a close relative of his," he had replied softly. "Shall we take a walk along the beach?"

   Still holding her hand, he had led her from the room through a french window on to a veranda, down some steps and on to a small private beach, a crescent of yellow sand. In the dark sky a thin silver sickle of a moon had shone, much like the moon that was shining tonight.

   There had been no strain between them during that first walk along a beach, no awkwardness. They had talked to each other easily and naturally, no longer strangers, behaving as if they had known each other all their lives, but it was not until she had told him that there was only a week left of her holiday and that she couldn't afford any more diving lessons that he told her that he had been diving professionally for some years and offered to take her down to the islands of the Exumas on his yacht to give her more instruction.

   "Have you visited Exumas?" he had asked.

   "No."

   "You should. There is no better diving anywhere. I'll be sailing across to Highbourne Cay day after tomorrow on the start of my 'goofing off' vacation. Why not come with me?"

   "Goofing off?" she had exclaimed, a little confused by his casual invitation to join him. "What do you mean?"

   "Going off and leaving all responsibilities behind, doing what I want to do when I want to do it, pleasing myself for a few months, or a year, or maybe even longer. Haven't you ever wanted to do that? To escape from work, from commitment?"

   "No. I can't say I have. I've always had to work so hard to get what I want, studying to win scholarships to pay my way through university and keep up the standard of my marks to get my degree. I've never been able to afford to 'goof off' as you call it."

   He had stopped walking then and had swung her around to face him. "But you can afford to come to the Exumas with me. You have all next week free. I'll show you how to dive, Selena. Every day we'll anchor in a different place. Come with me," he had whispered.

   "Just you and me," she had said, whispering also, tempted by his suggestion but also fearful of it.

   "Just you and me."

   "But... I have to fly home to England next Friday from here. The university term begins on January 15th and I must be there. A new professor is taking over the department and I'd like to be there to meet him."

   "You're much too serious," he had murmured, bending towards her. "Time you learned to loosen up a little, to take life as it comes instead of always planning ahead. Time you 'goofed off' and had some fun, Selena-with-stars-in-your-eyes. Time that someone like me cane into your life and made love to you..."

   His lips had found hers and she hadn't resisted. Brief yet devastating that first kiss of his had been. It had gone straight to the very heart of her, suggestively inviting her to respond before he had withdrawn. In a breathless silence, they had stood looking at each other and then with a gruff laugh he had swept her into his arms and his lips had plundered hers again.

   And she had responded, oh, how she had responded. Groaning a little as she relived those magic moments on another beach Selena seemed to feel again the pressure of his lips, the urgent message of his hands caressing her.