Passionate Choice

Chapter 7.1

   Something touched Selena's leg; something that nudged her gently yet imperatively, urging her to wake up out of the delicious lethargy induced by sexual satisfaction. She opened her eyes and looked up, saw a long, bare, bronzer leg covered with gold-glistening hairs. Higher up, seemingly remote, a pair of blue eyes glinted down at her. She pushed herself to a sitting position.

   "I must have fallen asleep," she said, sweeping her hair back and realizing at once that she was naked. As if in answer to an unspoken query as to the whereabouts of her swimsuit, the blue and white striped garment dropped from above on to her legs.

   "Better put it on," ordered Keith coolly. "The dive-ship has come back and Gary is coming ashore for us in the Mystic. I'll go down to meet him and put the gear into the dinghy," he added. "Join us when you're ready."

   Still sitting in a strangely stunned state of mind, she watched him go from the shade of the trees and out into the blinding afternoon sun, his shadow marching beside him on the sand. Then she looked down at herself, at her bare skin so smooth, so delicately ivory tinted.

   Had it really happened? Had she really submitted to his love-making? Or had she dreamed the exquisite pain and delight, the stolen delight they had shared in the culmination of passion, stolen because they were not entitled to it: she, because she had promised to marry Ben, Keith, because... Her thoughts stumbled and she searched for a reason as to why Keith had not been entitled to the pleasure they had experienced and found only the same one. He was not entitled to make love to her, to titillate her and coax her to soar with him to the heights of passion, because she had promised to marry Ben.

   Hearing Gary's voice so near as he talked to Keith while beaching the Mystic, she stood up hurriedly, backer further into the shadows, swimsuit in hand, and felt something slide down her arm. It was the bracelet Keith had placed there and on her finger was the ring he had given her in remembrance, he said, remembrance of their meeting again and if being cast up on a deserted beach for a few hours.

   Quickly, she pulled on her swimsuit. Oh, it hadn't been a dream. He and she had really come together there under the dappling shadows of the sea-grapes. But it had been a dream spiced with bitterness, Keith's bitterness. There had been nothing gentle in his embrace or kisses. He had taken her in contempt at her behavior and his own. She had felt his contempt in every move he had made and most of all in the way he had walked off and left her when the deed had been done. He had treated her as the cheat he still believed her to be.

   And which she was, which she was, she groaned to herself. She had promised to marry one man yet she had made love with another because she loved him. She loved Keith not Ben. But she still wasn't sure of Keith's feelings for her. She never had been sure even when she had lived with him. He was an enigma to her, a man who walked alone, who cared nothing for emotional commitment to a woman, who had mocked her not so long ago when he had slid the wedding ring he had found on to her third finger.

   Giving another flick to her hair, hoping she didn't appear to be confused or emotionally disturbed in any way, she walked out of the trees and over the burning-hot sand to the dinghy into which Keith was loading wit diving tanks and harnesses.