It was him.
‘Benny?’ She had to stop herself squealing. ‘Little Benny Davidson?’
He grunted a soft chortle of laughter. ‘Not so little nowadays.’ He nodded at the tip of the erection she had been licking.
She found herself laughing with him and then shook her head. Her laughter dissolved as she realised this was disastrous. Admittedly, in relative terms, Benny was a stranger to her. She couldn’t recall seeing him once in the past two decades and had no idea what he had been doing with his life or anything else of any importance. But she knew, if she added Benny to her tally of conquests for the evening, and if Will then discovered that Benny was her first kiss, he would rightly argue that the man could not be properly classed as a stranger and she would forfeit any victory that came from her actions.
Her shoulders slumped.
She suppressed the urge to groan with frustration.
She gave Benny an apologetic smile. ‘Carry on exercising,’ she told him. ‘You and I can catch up some other time.’ She shook her head as though contradicting herself and said, ‘No. You and I will catch up at some other time.’ She took a card from her purse, placed it in his hand, pressed her mouth to his and savoured a long and lingering kiss.
Benny had been her first kiss. In truth, she couldn’t remember much about the experience. But this kiss was a powerful experience and she suspected little Benny Davidson had been practising his skills since she last saw him. She needed to find out what other skills he had been practising.
Benny looked puzzled by her sudden rejection.
Rather than develop her explanation, Emma gave him a reassuring smile and walked away. She rushed upstairs to the hotel’s ground floor and hurried through the bar, trying not to notice that Will was sitting between two brunettes who were both laughing enthusiastically at some quip he’d clearly made.
He held his fingers slightly apart and their laughter grew louder.
Emma’s cheeks flushed.
She knew he was giving them the line about his penis being microscopically small. It was not the most sophisticated chat-up line in the world but she had seen him use it effectively more than a dozen times to powerful effect. He had even used it on several of his models.
Within the next couple of minutes one of the brunettes would sneak a hand to his groin to find out if he had been telling the truth. When she discovered the substantial girth he had down there, Emma knew it would only be a matter of moments before she was wanting to sample his talents and Will would be chalking up another victory for the evening.
He’s going to win again, Emma thought miserably. And that’s going to mean another holiday of snow, ice and freezing cold mountains.
The prospect was so bleak she struggled to hold back a tear.
It had been a while since she last smoked a cigarette but she felt so frustrated with the way the evening was developing, she thought it was time she reacquainted herself with the habit. She stepped outside into the cool night air, followed the signs to the smoking shelter, approached the only man who stood there and asked him if he had a spare cigarette.
His eyes softened with a sheepish apology.
‘I’m vaping,’ he explained, showing her the chunky electronic tube he was sucking. He offered it to her and added, ‘You can take a hit from this, if you want. But it’s not quite the same.’
She thanked him, placed her lips to the offered mouthpiece and sucked.
She could taste where his mouth had been. The thought was darkly exciting and, for the first time, she took a moment to properly appraise him. He didn’t appear troubled by the light chill of the night’s air. He was tall and dark and dressed stylishly in a floral print Duchamp shirt. He had a muscular chest and his grin was affable. From the way he was considering her she suspected he would be up for whatever she wanted from him.
Her nipples hardened inside her bra.
Under other circumstances she might have wondered if that response had come from the nicotine rush of the e-cigarette. But, seeing the glint of approval in his grin, she knew that would be undervaluing the effect he was clearly provoking.
Her body was responding to him.
He introduced himself as Caleb and, when she asked, confirmed that he was staying at the spa resort alone for the weekend. Emma moved closer to conduct the interrogation. She used the return of the e-cigarette as an excuse, and then stayed so close she could feel the warmth emanating from Caleb’s body whilst she inhaled the scent of his cologne. It was a manly fragrance with echoes of sandalwood and lime presenting a delightful contrast of the comfortable and the acerbic. She stopped herself sighing with a heightening need for him. She figured she was giving enough signs that he could tell that she was interested in him.
‘You remind me of someone,’ he told her.
Her spirits sank.
Surely he had to be a stranger. She didn’t want to believe that, this weekend, the spa resort was solely populated by men who knew her. Yet there didn’t seem to be any other explanation. The place seemed to be filled with clients, schoolfriends and colleagues.
‘Who do I remind you of?’
Her thoughts were working overtime as she tried to predict what he was about to say. Had they met before? When? Where? Who the hell was he? What relationship did they have that would stop them from being technically strangers?