Heartbeats in Moonlight

Chapter 92

Once again he collapsed on top of her.

"I like doing nothing with you." He muttered against her neck and felt her laughter as she lay beneath him. Slowly, he got off her, pulled the duvet up to cover their cooling, sweat covered bodies, and rolled onto his back.

Ella glanced at her arm and the watch on her wrist. "It's not even six yet." She accused.

"So?" She heard him ask.

"You said good morning. I thought it was at least nine." She grumbled with a smile, "You're insatiable." She heard him chuckle and she added. "I'm going back to sleep." She pummelled her pillow, burrowed deeper into the quilt and quickly found sleep.

David remained awake, watching her.

Obviously, clearly a few hours were not long enough to make up for the lost ten years. How he'd managed without her over the last two years was beyond his comprehension. He knew, the instant she appeared at his town, he knew just how much he wanted her. He couldn't shift her out of his every thought. The surf-club fire incident showed him, just how much he cared. But he made sure that he didn't resume their connection, given the fall-out from that incident and the fact that she gave him a wide berth from the time she arrived at his town. So they both kept a distance between them. They both became strategic at being at the same venue but nowhere near each other. There was one significant venue where they were together, but she didn't know. And it was at that venue that, despite all his efforts, despite everything he'd done to avoid being with her, it became obvious to him, that he hadn't never shifted her out of his heart and he knew how he felt was more than lust. Love.

He knew he watched her at various social events, as she mingled, remained slightly aloof and he sensed she was very much on her guard. Even when she was approached by many of the town's lotharios she avoided prolonged contact with them. In contrast, at the same events, beautiful women surrounded David but the one woman he really loved, the one woman he'd have given anything to be with, he opted for avoidance.

He was in love. But ignoring love when he had it within reach, for two years, proved he was an idiot, he thought. What a waste? He was definitely a fool.

Their avoidance strategy was wrong. It was so wrong.

They needed to talk. To be up front about their feelings. And today he had a chance to show her, his actions mirrored his feelings for her.

She awoke just after eight. Found herself alone in bed, and once again became anxious. Then she smelt coffee. She padded out of the bedroom and headed for a shower. She discovered he'd been there before her as the shower cubicle was still steamed.

After her shower, she dressed in a pair of shorts and a large t-shirt. Her wet hair down and her feet bare, she headed for the sitting room of the suite. He wasn't there. But the door was open, and she could see him sitting on the balcony. He must have heard her approach for he turned when she reached the door.

"Morning." He said with a hesitant smile.

"Morning." She replied and frowned. She was expecting to see him grinning, but he seemed to be anxious.

"I imagine we are both feeling a bit apprehensive." He said with a gentle smile as he tried to cover his nervousness.

"I am." She stepped onto the deck. Her mug of coffee in her hand, she stood for a second and looked out toward the receding tide. "The question is, why are you?" Giving in to an impulse, she brushed his cheek with her lips in a ghost of a kiss. "You stressed?"

He was tempted to touch the spot she had kissed, instead he smiled and replied "A bit. You?" He asked, patted the chair beside him, "Gaby, come and sit down." She did as he asked. She kept her eyes on him. David took a breath, "I was worried because you left me, you know, after we had sex the first time, you took off."

"Sorry." She squirmed. "I didn't mean to have sex with you." She bit her lower lip as she thought about her next statement. "I wasn't prepared that night." Licked her lips. "I wasn't expecting that opportunity, you know. I just expected to drop you off, and leave." She put her still half full mug down beside her. David flicked a look across at her and heard her saying, "And, I am not sure why I helped you to undress, it was silly, we barely talked for the last two years, then Ames and your brother fell in love, and they relationship forced us to talk, and then I was really stupid to offer you a lift, and compounded that by helping you to undress!" His lips twitched. And Ella smiled. "And I certainly wasn't expecting those fireworks!"

David relaxed.

Ella looked over at him, and said, "And I left you a post-it note. I would come back."

He nodded. "I know." Ran his hand over his jawbone and took a chance, "This is more than sex for me." He said quietly. "And I think, you know this is more than sex for you."

She nodded. "Yes. It is more that sex."

He closed his eyes, tipped his head up toward the morning sun, "I didn't think you'd wait years to have sex with someone."

"This wasn't just sex."

"I know, but, you didn't care to stay." He turned looked at her, "All the way up here, I wondered whether I was being stupid, following you like this."

"So why did you?"

There was silence. Seconds felt like hours, as he remind himself, he had promised to be up front, to use this opportunity to resume what they started ten years ago. David poked his tongue in his cheek and then blurted, "Something Amelia said." He looked across at her. "She said she'd gone to your place after Davina staged those photos."

Ella nodded. "She was cut up about it all. She gutted."

"Yes, she said Davina had practically told her that she'd dumped Jack. Amelia wondered if he'd want what he'd previous lost. Whether he'd go back to Davina."

"I know. I told her..."

"Exactly." David nodded. "Ames told me what you said to her. That if Jack had wanted Davina back he'd have gone after her." David smiled. "He went looking for Amelia when he thought he'd lost her because of Davina's stupid photos."

Ella smiled as she remembered that night. "He was worried, and devastated and furious. He kept swearing. When he phoned he tried so hard to keep it all together and you could hear it in his voice. I mean, I knew him barely, but he practically fell apart when he phoned me to ask if Ames was at my home. He said if Amelia thought she could hide from him she was seriously mistaken he would find her and drag her back. He was not going to let her go because they belonged together!"

"Exactly. I was not going to let you go, because we belonged together. We are meant to be." David sighed, took another breath, then said, "But I wondered whether I had just been expedient. You know, a drunk. I was convenient. You wanted someone to deal with your virginity and you hoped, with any luck a drunk wouldn't remember."

She closed her eyes at the pain she heard in his voice. "It wasn't that." She said softly. "I didn't plan it." She looked at him. "It just happened."

"Last night, this morning, didn't just happen." His fingers covered hers.

With his palm covering her hands, her nerves fried suddenly. A simple touch, that is all it took. She tried to rally her scrambled mind, "What do you want me to say David?"