“Looks like the plane’s early,” Vanessa said, annoyed, as the sound of the aircraft engine came closer. “Oh well, I guess I’m ready.” She picked up one bag and I grabbed the other before she could reach for it. She smiled at me. “Let’s head out to the airstrip, then.”
It was a long walk down the coral shingle track, but today of all days, when I wanted to draw it out, it seemed to take no time at all.
The six-seater plane was down by the time we reached it, already loading up. Some of the passengers were seated inside, looking at us through the windows. They didn’t look like anyone I’d met – maybe they were fishers from North Island or the Wallabis.
“You’re early,” Vanessa called to the pilot. “I didn’t think you were going to be here before four.”
“Oh, this isn’t your flight,” the pilot replied. “This is a tourist flight, but we’re just picking up some gear the Fisheries guys needed to take urgently back to the mainland.” He lifted up a foam esky and loaded it onto the plane. “Your plane is due to take off in about ten minutes. We’ll probably cross in the air.”
“Oh,” she huffed, dropping her bag on the gravel. Her shoulders slumped.
It was roughly a half-hour flight out here and it took at least fifteen minutes to walk the track back to camp. “Let’s go wait in the departure lounge,” I suggested.
Vanessa looked where I was pointing. “You mean the shelter shed? Sure, let’s go sit down and wait.”
We crossed the airstrip and crunched back to the shed. Three walls and a roof in cream-painted steel, with a couple of aluminium benches. I’d heard from some of the old-timers that it was luxury compared to the old rusted rainwater tank that used to be here, but it was still pretty basic.
I lifted her bags onto one aluminium bench and sat beside her on the other.
“It’s funny, but I never thought I’d be sad to leave this place,” she said quietly.
It was my turn to laugh. “You’ll miss the rocks, the wind, the wailing birds and the endless sound of the waves?”
“Yeah, some of that. Probably not the sound of the waves, though.” She shook herself. “It probably doesn’t help that I don’t like flying.”
I look at her, incredulous. “You don’t like flying? Why didn’t you go back in the Siren yesterday with your crew, then?”
“I get seasick, remember.” She took a breath and let it out slowly. “And I wanted one more night here.”
I struggled not to think about what we’d done in that one more night. Instead, I tried to summon the courage to ask her the one thing I hadn’t been able to figure out. We both watched the tourist plane take off to the south, before I opened my mouth.
“Why did you pick me? Of all the people out here, out of everyone you know, why did you choose to spend so much time with me?” I stumbled over the words. Even now, there were some I just couldn’t say.
She looked at me and smiled. “You have a good sense of humour. You’re brave when someone needs your assistance, even if it puts your own safety at risk.” I was willing to bet she was remembering the night with the hammer. “You enjoy life and you’re seldom sad for long. You are sweet, honest, polite, kind and helpful. You are a genius with all things electrical, and with my dodgy house, it’s always a good idea to have tradesmen nearby. You are thoughtful, careful to think before you do something, so you won’t hurt someone.” Her smile turned mischievous. “And you have a damn fine arse, which I noticed the first time I saw you.”
I knew the right answer to this was to go into paeans of praise about her, but I could do that till her plane arrived and I’d still have more to say. And she still hadn’t really answered my question. I tried again.
“But why did you choose to...sleep with me?” I stammered out.
She bit her lip. “Well, after we’d had such vigorous sex, I was too exhausted to sleep anywhere else, and it was convenient to have you nearby when I woke up so we could do it again...” Her smile was wicked now.
I opened my mouth to try to articulate what I really wanted to know. It was hard to find the words and I knew I only had a short time left to do it. The pressure didn’t make it any easier.
I realised she’d been teasing me when she continued, a little more seriously. “I think it was the way you adored me with your eyes, with such passion and intensity, but you were too polite to say anything about it.”
She’s forgotten about the time I told her I wanted to bend her over a bench and fuck her from behind...
Her cheeks reddened. “I was curious to find out what that passion and intensity would feel like if you used the rest of your body.” She closed her eyes and bit her lip again.
I jumped to my feet, disappointed and angry and not entirely sure why. “You slept with me to satisfy your curiosity?” It sounded so clinical, so cold, when the reality had been anything but.
She stood up, too, and met my eyes. “The first time, yes. After that, I was more interested in satisfying a number of other desires.” She smiled ruefully. “Including the desire to see your fine arse in the flesh and get my hands on it...”
She pressed up against me and kissed me, pushing me up against the shed wall. I kissed her back and held her close. There was nothing cold about this. I seriously considered laying her down on one of the benches, so we could do it one last time...in broad daylight, in public, with a plane coming at any moment...and I realised I didn’t care, I wanted her that much.
It was like she could read my mind when she pulled away from me, sinking down so I thought she was moving toward the bench. I froze in panic.
“That looks uncomfortable. Let me help you with that,” she murmured. I realised she was on her knees in front of me, unzipping my jeans so I stuck out in a poor imitation of the windsock behind her. Her hands were on the back of my jeans...and then I was inside her mouth. I didn’t care what I looked like anymore, it felt so good.
My knees went weak and I tangled my fingers in her hair, unable to think as she sucked the whole length of me in and out of her mouth. She didn’t stop until she’d sucked me dry. My head was spinning as she zipped my jeans up again, before she stood up, wiping a hand across her mouth. The buzzing in my head resolved into the loud engine of a plane, as it sped by, landing on the runway.
Vanessa had a bag in each hand, now. She kissed my cheek and pulled away. “Goodbye,” she called as she ran out of the shed, across the airstrip to her plane. I was too stunned to move while she was still within reach, and by the time I reached my arms out to hold her one last time, she was under the wing of the plane, loading up her bags.
She turned and waved, blowing me a kiss as she climbed into the seat beside the pilot of the two-seater plane, hidden from my sight. The pilot checked her plane, then got in and started back down the runway, taking Vanessa away from me.