intensified as the sun sank even lower in the sky. By the time John returned, it was just touching the horizon, its colour now closer to red than gold.
‘Thank you,’ she said when he placed a glass of chilled white wine on the table in front of her. ‘But I can’t drink it just yet. I don’t want to miss a moment of this.’ And she turned her attention back to the sunset.
It amazed her, just how quickly the sun set. One minute the edge of the circle was just touching the horizon, the next the sun was halfway gone then, poof, totally gone.
‘Oh…’ she said with a regretful sigh.
‘Darwin is famous for its sunsets,’ John said.
‘They’re pretty spectacular. Mum is going to want to come up here after seeing these photos. Which reminds me,’ she said as she put down her phone and picked up her glass of wine. ‘I have to ring her later. Don’t let me forget.’
‘Are you going to ring your mother every single night?’ he asked somewhat impatiently.
Scarlet took a deep swallow of wine and counted to ten before answering. She understood that John’s relationship with his family was way different from hers. But that didn’t give him the right to be critical of what she believed was a normal way to act.
‘Yes, John,’ she said at last, firmly but calmly. ‘I’m going to ring my mother every single night. I love Mum very much and I know she’ll be missing me. I’m sorry if you find that annoying but that’s just too bad.’
She waited for him to say something sarcastic back, but he didn’t. He just nodded. ‘I’ve always admired your spirit, Scarlet. And your honesty.’
Scarlet’s hand tightened around the stem of the wine glass. ‘I’m not always honest.’
John slanted her a surprised look. ‘Really? Do tell.’
Talking about her mother had made Scarlet think about all the lies she’d told her before coming here. And all the lies she’d have to keep telling her every single night of her stay in Darwin. After all, she could hardly tell her the truth. Still, this train of thought did pose the question of what she would eventually tell her mother if and when she did fall pregnant to John. How would she explain it?
It shocked her that she hadn’t worked out a plan concerning this problem earlier. Shocked her, too, that she’d almost forgotten about why she’d come up to Darwin in the first place. Her mind had been focused on nothing but sex for most of today. She’d gone to sleep this afternoon thinking about sex. Had woken thinking about sex. And had left off her underwear, thinking about sex.
It was worrying, this craving John had created in her to experience everything with him. Every sexual position. Every form of foreplay. Every erotic game. And, yes, even the kinky ones.
Suddenly, sitting there with no underwear on was no longer slightly embarrassing. It was seriously shameful yet at the same time so wickedly exciting that she could actually feel the heat between her thighs.
‘Scarlet?’ John prompted. ‘What haven’t you been honest about?’
‘I… um… I was thinking about the lies I’ve told Mum. It’s going to be awkward, explaining things later.’
‘You mean when you fall pregnant.’
‘
‘When. If. Whatever. It’s a little early to start inventing stories yet. We’ll worry about that when you’re actually pregnant.’
‘I’m sorry to be a worry-wart, John, but I need to have some story settled in my mind tonight. It’s really bothering me.’
‘Okay,’ he said, trying to be patient. ‘The way I see it, you have two possible stories to choose from. You can tell your mum the truth, or you can say you ran into me by accident whilst you were on holiday up here and we had a brief fling.’
Scarlet shook her head. ‘That last idea won’t fly. Mum won’t believe it. Neither will your parents. Even if they did, they’d wonder what you were doing in Darwin when you were supposed to be in Brazil.’
‘Then tell them the truth.’
‘Which is?’
‘That you told me you desperately wanted a baby the day of their party, and out of friendship I offered myself as the father, no strings attached. You can say we planned to meet in Darwin that night but kept our assignation a secret from everyone in case you didn’t fall pregnant.’
Scarlet frowned. ‘I suppose that seems reasonably plausible. Mum would believe it, since she knows about my failed artificial-insemination plan, but I’m not sure about your parents. After all, we’ve always come across as enemies, not friends.’
‘Rubbish. Mum never thought that and Dad doesn’t think at all. We’ll go with the truth, if and when the time comes. Okay?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Look, Scarlet,’ he said firmly. ‘I brought you up here early so that you could relax and have some fun. Forget about the future for the next few days and just think about enjoying yourself.’
‘That’s what I’ve been doing.’
‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘I’m not sure what we’ve been doing is fun, exactly.’
‘Then what is it?’
‘Dangerous.’
‘In what way dangerous?’
‘I might get to like it too much.’
‘Sex, you mean?’
‘Yes.’
‘I can’t see how that’s dangerous.’
‘You’re not a woman.’ Women had a long history of falling for men who were great lovers. Scarlet didn’t want to fall for John. That would not be a good idea at all.
The buzzer rang at that moment, announcing that their meals were ready. John shook his head at her as he picked up the buzzer and stood up.
The food was excellent, the fish cooked in beer batter and the chips crisp and hot. The smell of the food reminded Scarlet how hungry she was and she set about eating the meal with gusto. The time it took to eat the meal was a blessing as well, for it gave her the opportunity to calm down. Of course she wasn’t falling in love with John! She was just being silly and naive. Still, if she was going to keep on having sex with him-and she definitely was-then she had to adopt a more casual attitude to sex and get a grip on her emotions. Okay, so sex with him was earth-moving stuff-wasn’t she a lucky girl?
Such thoughts did little to dampen her escalating desires, however. By the time they left the club for the short drive home, Scarlet was near to bursting with frustration. She suspected that John was of a similar frame of mind. His eyes kept returning to her cleavage. Which meant he was sure to pounce the moment they were alone. That would have suited Scarlet fine, except for the little matter of being butt-naked under her dress. Her pride simply would not let John discover that she’d done what he wanted after all.
‘I’m going to ring my mother first,’ she said the second John closed the apartment door behind them.
‘Fine,’ he growled. ‘I’ve got a couple of calls I have to make, anyway.’ And he marched off in the direction of the kitchen.
Scarlet scuttled off to the guest bedroom where she quickly pulled a pair of white satin panties out from her case and put them on. Once that was done, she sat down on the side of the bed with her phone in hand and punched in her home number. It rang and rang, but her mother didn’t answer. When the phone clicked over to the answering machine, Scarlet thought about leaving a message but decided not to. She didn’t want her mother to call her later when she was otherwise engaged. Instead, she rang off then tried her mother’s mobile number, even though she knew it was probably turned off. Her mother was of that generation who only used their mobile phones for making emergency calls. She never thought to leave it turned on so that people could call her.
But, surprisingly, it was on, her mother answering after only a few rings.
‘Mum!’ Scarlet said with surprise in her voice. ‘You actually turned your mobile on.’
‘I thought I should. I knew you’d ring me tonight and I didn’t want to miss your call.’
‘Where on earth are you? It sounds rather noisy.’
