shoulders and shoved him with such force that he lost his balance and
slid down the rock, grazing his elbow and ending in a heap at the
water's edge.
He scrambled angrily to his feet as Debra came up with a fluid explosive
movement, fastening her costume as she did so. A single bound of her
long brown legs carried her to the edge of the rocks and she dived
outwards, hitting the water flat and surfacing to call back at him.
I'll race you to the beach David would not accept the challenge and
followed her at his own dignified pace. When he emerged unsmilingly
from the low surf, she studied his face a moment and then grinned.
When you sulk you look about ten years old, she told him, which was no
great exercise of tact and David stalked back to his room.
He was still being extremely dignified and aloof that evening when they
discovered a discotheque named2ooi A. D. run by a couple of English
boys down on the sea-front. They crowded round a table at which there
were already two B. E. A. hostesses and a couple of raggedy-looking
beards. The music was loud enough and the rhythm hard enough to jar the
spine and loosen the bowels and when the two hostesses gazed at David
with almost religious awe Debra forsook her attitude of cool amusement
and suggested to David that they dance.
Mollified by this little feminine by-play, David dropped his
impersonation of the Ice King.
They moved well together, sharing the gut rhythms of the harsh music,
executing the primeval movements that reeked of Africa with a grace that
drew the attention of the other dancers.
When the music changed Debra came to him and lay her body against his.
David felt some force flowing from her that seemed to charge every nerve
of his body, and he knew that no relationship he had with this woman
would ever run calmly. It was too deeply felt for that, too volatile
and triggered for momentary explosion.
When the record ended they left Joe and Hannah huddled over a carafe of
red wine and they went out into the silent street and down to the beach.
There was a moon in the sky that lit the dark cliffs crowding in above
the beach, and reflected off the sea in multiple yellow images. The low
surf hissed and coughed on the pebble beach and they took off their
shoes and walked along it, letting the water wash around their ankles.
In an angle of the cliff, they found a hidden place amongst the rocks
and they stopped to kiss again, and David mistakenly took her new soft
mood as an invitation to continue from where he had left off that
afternoon.
Debra pulled away again, but this time with determination and said
angrily, Damn you! Don't you ever learn? I don't want to do that. Do
we have to go through this every time we are alone?
, 'What's the matter? David was immediately stung by her tone, and
furious with this fresh check. This is the twentieth century, darling.
The simpering virgin is out of style this season, hadn't you heard? ,
And spoilt little boys should grow up before they come out on their own,
she flashed back at him.
Thanks! he snarled. I don't have to stay around taking insults from
