Nate slowed his jog, getting ready to warm down as he returned to where he started by the boat shed. School holidays made for hectic days at the lake with visitor numbers higher than usual. Today was one of them. As he exited the shadow of the forest and made his way towards the cottage, blaring music assaulted his ears. Unlike the first time this happened, Nate shook his head and couldn’t help but smile.
He stopped short of entering the cottage, doing some stretches instead on the front porch to ease and release his muscles while memories of the previous night bombarded his thoughts.
Adrenaline had powered his run around the lake, drunk on Roberta. An entire week of being drunk on her. Night after night. He wanted to keep sipping from that glass and refill it forever. Had it been like this with Crystal? He thought it had, but now he wasn’t so sure.
Before entering the cottage, he lifted his shirt to mop the sheen of sweat coating his face. He didn’t recognise the music. Roberta’s playlist consisted of music going back years, way before they were born.
She turned the moment he entered, motioning for him to come towards her as a new song began. It was a slower number. She swayed with the music, holding him captive with the emotion in her voice and the action of her hands as they slid down her curves. Mesmerised by her hands, they followed her body from the sides of her breasts down to her hips. She beckoned him closer, still with words about swaying rooms as the music started. Something about strangers making the most of the dark. How two by two, their bodies could become one.
He wasn’t a great one for dancing. Didn’t believe he had any natural rhythm. Roberta took hold of one reluctant hand, placing it on her waist. The other she entwined with her own, urging him to follow her moves. Music filled the room as her words blazed around his head, the heat between them turning up a notch.
His dancing wasn’t exceptional, just small, simple moves in any direction. It was how Roberta moulded her hands over his body that turned him on tenfold. He’d have to remember to breathe at some stage because the words she now sang expressed that she was crazy for him. If he touched her once, he’d know it was true. That she never wanted anyone like this and could he feel it in her kiss.
Nate gulped as Roberta tantalised his arms with her fingertips. She heightened every sense in his body, her emotion-filled words reminding him she was trying her hardest to control her heart. But eye to eye, they needed no words at all.
She encouraged him to keep moving so that with every breath, she was deeper into him until they were standing still in time.
While Roberta continued to sing, the volume of the music seeped into his bones, both his hands now resting on the top of her butt as they moved as one.
He kissed along her neck. Up her cheek. Across her brow. No way was he touching her mouth while words were coming out in song. Her voice vibrated along his skin, inflaming the tingle taunting him at every move. He wanted her now. Again. When the song finally ended, he could wait no longer. He found her mouth, his arms tightening as he pulled her against his chest, throbbing between them. There was no way she could miss what she was doing to him.
While his tongue lashed against hers and his heart pumped harder, he recognised the next song on her playlist. The Goo Goo Doll’s famous song ‘Iris’. Its slower verses calmed him. Enough to slow down on the rough kissing and begin kneading her waist as he held her tighter.
In between a two-second spell in the music, he thought he heard knocking on the door. The loud music moved on, and he ignored it.
Roberta pulled back. “Someone’s knocking.”
Nate remained frozen, unable to drag his gaze away from her swollen lips. As though he hadn’t heard a word, he moved to claim them again.
Roberta stepped back and went to her phone on the table, tapping the screen. The music stopped. “Someone is at the door.”
He heard it again and scrubbed a hand over his face, making a herculean effort to calm down.
“Are you right for me to open the door?” Roberta whispered, eyeing his crotch. She turned away before he could mobilise himself. “God, what a waste,” she mumbled, the sound of the doorknob turning finally enough to break him out of the stupor.
Roberta pulled the door open. “Officer Molloy, how nice to see you again.”
Officer Molloy looked anywhere but at either of them. Was it written all over their faces? “Er … did I disturb something?”
Roberta chuckled with a wry smile. “Not at all. We were just getting ready to prepare dinner.”
When Roberta looked back at Nate, they both knew where they would’ve ended up if Office Molloy hadn’t knocked.
Nate grimaced, ploughing a hand roughly through his sweaty hair. “Is there something we can help you with?” Getting his fill of Roberta would have to wait. How fast could they deal with what Officer Molloy wanted and get him out? Roberta was addictive, and he was desperate to fill up on her drug again and again.
“Ah … I have some disturbing news to explain.”
A jolt of fear shimmied over his skin. “Is everyone okay?”
Officer Molloy took a couple of steps into the small cottage, dwarfing it with the full regalia of the uniform he wore. “Yes, there’s nothing wrong with any of your family. My reason for being here has to do with the white sapphire.”
“Huh?” Roberta said, a confused frown beginning to show on her brow.
“A couple of days ago, we received a report that the grandson of a landowner on a cattle property west of Mount Garnet discovered that the sizeable white sapphire he should’ve inherited with his grandfather’s collection was missing.”
“But no one knows I’ve found it,” Roberta insisted, “and I didn’t steal it.”
Nate went to stand behind Roberta, gently massaging her shoulders. “Shh, let him finish.”
“No, you didn’t,” Officer Molloy carefully continued, “but someone did about thirty years ago. While the grandfather was alive, the family didn’t keep the collection locked up, but after his passing, the family stored it securely away, hoping to get back to it one day and catalogue everything. Recently they did this, only to realise the giant white sapphire was missing all this time.”
“How do you know it’s the same one?” Roberta asked, her shoulders tensing under his hands.
“We don’t, but we know Billy did a stint of work on this property at about the same time the stone could’ve gone missing, or taken, without anyone being aware of it.”
“Are you suggesting my father stole it?”
“I’m not suggesting anything, Roberta, just stating facts. I’m here to collect it for verification.”
Roberta shrugged Nate’s hands off, taking a step away. “That stone belongs to my mother. As much as I begrudged having to come up here and find it, she was given that stone, and she has every right to keep it. I’m sorry, but I’m not giving you anything. You need better proof than that.”
Roberta’s voice had risen a notch, and Nate was worried the slight flush to her skin meant she was getting riled up. It was time he stepped in to pacify her.
“Roberta,” Nate began carefully, “how about I go fetch it for Officer Molloy? Give them a chance to check it isn’t the same stone.” Nate reached closer to take her arm, but she waved his hand off and took another step away as though his touch might singe her skin.
“My mother told me this morning she might come up for a few days. You’re not getting anything until she sees it,” Roberta stated. “Prove it first. This is bullshit. Word has gotten out, and not from me, and now every scammer has come out from under every rock with plenty of good stories to try and take it off us. I’m not fooled that easily.” She crossed her arms, not prepared to budge an inch.
Now she was showing all the signs of being peeved. “Roberta, you’re going about this the wrong way.” Nate tried to make his voice sound calm and reassuring.
She spun away from Officer Molloy and glared at him. “Are you that stupid you can’t see what is happening here?”
That stung. So much for trying to cool the conversation.
“And don’t do anything without me agreeing to it,” she threw at him.
“Roberta,” Office Molloy tried to placate, “it’s only until we can verify facts.”
“Facts my arse. It’ll end up in your coffers until God knows when. That stone belongs to my mother. Hell will freeze over first before I give it to anyone else.”
“Roberta”—Officer Molloy pulled out an envelope and attempted to give it to her—“this is a signed warrant for it. You’ve given me no other option.”
Roberta ignored it, her arms remaining firmly crossed, so Nate took it. Opening the envelope would inflame Roberta further, but the law was the law.
Taking a moment, he scanned the warrant. “I’ll go get it out of the safe.”
“Don’t, Nate,” she persisted.
“You don’t have a choice. Can’t you see that?” He waved the piece of paper in front of her. “This is a court issued warrant. It’s legit, and you need to hand it over. Here, take a look.”
She faced him again, ignoring the letter and scowling with her arms crossed. “I can’t see anything other than a planned scam here by someone who’s reporting an alleged stolen rock that might’ve happened thirty years ago and decides only now to report it. Are you all so stupid you can’t see this, too?”
“I’m going to get it now, Roberta. Try and calm down.”
“Calm down?” she hissed, fisting her hands by her side.
Christ, she wasn’t getting off her high horse any time soon, but Nate had to be the responsible one. Do the right thing. Being a hothead wasn’t going to help anyone. “The stone is on my property, Roberta. I’m sorry but I don’t have a choice.”
“Don’t have a choice? Are you kidding me?” Complete and utter fury was directed at him. “This is my father we’re talking about. We’re accusing a dead man of being a thief!”
Nate tried to pacify her by taking her in his arms, but she pummelled his chest, pushing him away.
Officer Molloy approached, and suddenly, he was beside them, swiftly securing her wrists in handcuffs from the front.
“What the hell! Get these off me.” Roberta twisted and turned, trying to release her hands.
Fuck! She would never forgive him for this.
Now she pushed into his chest with manacled hands, the metal bolts digging into his skin through his shirt. Nate fisted her hands in his to try and stop her.
“Roberta, what is going on?”
Nate looked up at the open front door as a woman and Bob stood on the threshold.
Roberta stopped thrashing, her arms dropping to her front, her chest heaving with spent energy. “Mum!”