Taken (Dark Desires 1)

Having expected to find nothing of interest in the evening, here was a fascination that Kurt wanted to learn more about. Was the Furse’s suddenly hot daughter completely uncharted by man? Or was her outward show of pureness hiding the trail of some adventurous souls who had already embarked? If so did that make her damaged goods, or did it mean that treasures had been left behind for others to enjoy?

Kurt had no way of knowing what interpretation to favor without setting out to find out for himself, but that was the way he liked it. A question that was less tantalizing, however, was whether or not she was taboo.

The Furse family had structured their lives so as to keep their daughter away from loose living and bad influences. They were hardly likely to welcome a rogue like him coming along and sweeping her off her feet. The respect between the two families probably meant there was a presumption that he would restrict his fast living to other localities.

Unless he could get Darlene out of his head then that social harmony risked being tested – and that was easier said than done when she was sitting barely a reach away.

‘So tell me, Darlene,’ he asked, when there was a lull in conversation, ‘now you’ve lived on both do you prefer the West Coast or the East Coast?’

Though in conflict over the possible consequences, Kurt c

ould not resist seeing how she responded to him again. The more she blushed and appeared self-conscious, the more perilous his course of action was likely to become.

‘Oh, this is my home, I guess,’ Darlene replied, looking a little uncomfortable that everyone was looking at her. ‘The East Coast is busy and exciting for sure, but I guess I’m an Oregon girl.’

‘You can’t beat coming home, huh?’ said Kurt, with a raise of his glass. Darlene smiled back at him. Strangely, he then noticed, what had originally been her best feature was the only one that was now less vibrant: her smile. It used to be carefree but now it had a melancholic quality. Something had changed her since she had been away but, being hidden from the opposite sex as she had been, Kurt was at a loss to guess what it was.

‘Kurt would know all about that. Tell her about some of the places in Europe you’ve been on your travels,’ his father then put in, inadvertently encouraging him to brag and impress her. ‘Which were the most impressive?’

‘The most impressive?’ Kurt considered. ‘Cologne, Vienna, or Prague perhaps, but I think Darlene would love Florence or Paris the most. Girls prefer the romantic places, so I believe.’

‘Whereas you prefer the places with the best beer is what you’re saying?’ his father added correctly.

‘But I’m an Oregon man too, after all,’ Kurt continued. ‘And our clients prefer cocktails, so I’d better get used to finer living.’

Mentioning clients inevitably directed Clive back to business talk, but Kurt was satisfied he had impressed Darlene. There was some kind of chemistry across the table he was sure of it, though he was underestimating just how much his curiosity was about to soar.

After the first course, he excused himself to go to the bathroom and, before heading back downstairs, found that he was enticed by being in close proximity to her bedroom. The Furse’s had a fairly large house but it was obvious from a nightgown hanging from the end of a single bed, whose this bedroom was.

The upstairs had thick carpet and, because there were no squeaky floorboards, Kurt found himself daring to step inside.

How he would love to be in that room alone with Darlene when her family were absent. The idea was so dangerous that it caused intense nerves in the pit of his stomach, only they were good nerves and the kind he desired more of.

Whether such a liaison could ever happen was fraught with complications and, knowing the chance might not come, Kurt was desperate to discover something new about her before leaving the room. Did she have a diary he could read an excerpt from maybe? If so it was hidden away and the room was fairly tidy except for the one suitcase in the middle of the room. Darlene had not been back long and so had probably been rummaging for clothes or makeup in there and had failed to zip it back up.

Seeing that there was easy access, Kurt decided to lift the lid to find out what he might see. Some fancy underwear might have sent his pulse racing even more, though all he saw at first were two neat piles of jeans and t-shirts. That was un-amazing until he saw that something was lodged between them. Moving the jeans to one side, Kurt then couldn’t believe his eyes.

Were, they handcuff?

Yes, they were and something else too. Perhaps he was the naïve one or else that was a pair of black nipple tassels.

An evening that was already rated nine out of ten on his intrigue meter was suddenly off the charts. For Kurt, there could be no holding back anyone, regardless of familial concerns. He simply had to find out what this Darlene had become since leaving. Was she really a man-shy religious nut who would make the Virgin Mary proud, or else a closet nymphomaniac with a ravenous sexual appetite?

Someone would find out first hand eventually and he wanted that man to be him.

Back at the dinner table, his eyes lit up opportunistically on seeing that their dessert was cherry-pie with stripped pastry. As Clive continued to yap away about brochures, Kurt surreptitiously manipulated the pastry in order to spell out ‘DATE?’, before turning his plate in Darlene’s direction and gently tapping the table cloth.

Darlene paused halfway through a mouthful upon seeing the question, then looked up into his eyes to see if he was being serious. In response, he gave the slightest of cheeky smirks and a shrug of the shoulders, then was thrilled to see she had to look away for fear of smiling too much in front of everyone.

It took him a few minutes to get his answer, because she was a bit more paranoid than him about how to arrange the pastry. When she had finished, however, it read a big ‘YES’.

Despite the positive reply, Darlene seemed to grow shyer of him after having accepted. There was a look on her face that suggested she did not quite know what she was doing, but that only proved all the more enticing to Kurt.

Darlene was both a fascination and a puzzle to him. On the one hand, she was up for a date and had nipple tassels in her bedroom; on the other she looked to be as timid as a mouse and had a history that suggested very little experience of men – if any. A voyage of discovery was ahead, as long as he could figure out the logistics of setting sail. Darlene might have accepted the idea, but no means of discussing where and when presented itself at the time. Plus, the more Kurt thought about it, the more complicated a date seemed. Especially as it seemed safe to presume that she did not want to give her parents a single clue that she had anything of the kind planned. Certainly, they would not be revealing to their families that they were having any kind of liaison, but it was also likely that the returning goody-two-shoes hardly went out and met men at all. Hopefully she would prove resourceful enough to come up with an excuse for getting out of the house one evening, but before that Kurt had still to figure out how to go about contacting her. Calling up the family home and asking to speak with her was just not the way to go; the Furses were far too Victorian and would be onto him like a finely-cast reel.

After heading back home with his parents, while nursing a state of unclear anticipation, Kurt decided that tomorrow would be a good day for finding a solution. He was back at work and there is nothing like a good sea air for clearing the mind and offering some clarity.

Aqua Yachts boasted some fine vessels and he had dedicated the whole day to the maintenance of his favorite; a 50-foot, one-million-dollar fly-bridge called Arial, requiring only one or two crew members depending on conditions. The company had larger and more expensive vessels, but this was the kind he could often take out for personal use also and, so long as you knew what you were doing, it suited him completely. Its three cabins meant he could invite his best friends to join him on the ocean – or not – and he had complete control over what was on the itinerary.