Miles glanced at her, a twisted smirk on his mouth. ‘Maybe it’s not in your manual.’
‘What manual?’ She flinched.
Miles laughed. ‘The Complete Guide to Sexual Ecstasy, I believe it’s called,’ he said, enjoying her discomfort. ‘I found it in your case.’
Despite the cool water Sasha felt her cheeks flush. ‘What have you been doing rooting around in my case?’
‘I could say the same about you,’ he said with a flash of anger. ‘I came back to the room and all my coke had gone.’
Sasha searched for something to say, but found herself at a loss. She took a deep breath, reminding herself that getting angry would get her nowhere. It wasn’t too late to rescue the situation, especially as she was naked.
She pushed her erect nipples against her boyfriend and stroked his chest. ‘What’s wrong with you tonight?’ she asked softly.
‘Nothing,’ he said flatly.
‘There is. I only want to help.’
He turned away from her. ‘Don’t get all needy on me, Sasha.’
‘I’m not needy,’ she said petulantly.
‘Yes you are, you’ve been pawing at me all night. All holiday in fact. You’re suffocating me.’
/>
Sasha just blinked at him. Her mouth opened, but no words came out.
Miles glanced up at her, then looked away again. ‘Look, I think when we get back to England it’s best if we spend a bit of time apart,’ he said quietly.
What? No! Her mind cried. This isn’t what’s supposed to happen. He couldn’t do this to her! She was naked, in the Caribbean Sea, for God’s sake! How could he resist her?
‘Are you finishing with me?’ she said, fighting to keep her voice even.
Miles didn’t look at her.
‘You shit,’ she hissed. ‘You are finishing with me.’
She felt a tear tremble on her eyelash and blinked it fiercely away.
‘Well, fuck you, Miles,’ she spat. ‘I can do better than you and I will.’
She stormed up the beach, grabbing her underwear, tears running down her cheeks, as she heard Alex and Grace whoop and giggle in the surf.
9
Alex got out of the water shivering. He’d had fun splashing about with Grace, but he wasn’t entirely convinced that there were no Great Whites lurking in the water. Just that afternoon in Freetown he’d seen blackboards by the marina advertising ‘Shark Dives: Sightings Guaranteed!’ More importantly, after what had happened with Miles, it just felt a bit too weird being naked in the water with him and that was why he’d kept his boxer shorts on to go skinny-dipping. Was that also why he had nearly kissed Grace back near the rocks? Certainly, holding hands with her had felt nice, so natural and right. But perhaps it had been more than that, he thought as he dried his damp body with his T-shirt; maybe he had been driven by a desire to get back on the heterosexual straight and narrow after his kiss with Miles.
Did I really kiss my best friend? he thought, unable to grasp it. What a night. He watched discreetly as Grace ran out of the sea and disappeared behind a low bush. She returned wearing her dress, her wet underwear rolled up in her hand. Sasha was already out and dressed, sitting hugging her knees up by the path, while Miles stood a little way off smoking a cigarette.
‘Do you think anyone will still be down by the bonfire?’ asked Grace as she walked over to them.
‘Doubt it,’ said Sasha gloomily, getting to her feet. Her earlier buoyant mood seemed to have vanished. She turned and stalked off, her expression stony.
‘For fuck’s sake,’ said Miles under his breath, walking after her. Alex wasn’t sure what had been said in the water but it appeared she and Miles were no longer speaking.
They walked for ten minutes in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts, an awkward, fractious atmosphere between all of them.
It was almost 5 a.m. Sunrise was not for another hour but thin light was seeping through the blackness, casting the beach in a cool monochrome shadow. The western side of the island was less lush and there were no palm or mango trees along the beach-front, just sand that led up to scrubby dunes. In front of them, about a hundred feet away, Alex could see a long black object on the path at the base of the sandy bank that ran up to the jungle; a piece of driftwood, perhaps? The sea was always coughing up things that littered the beach. Sasha was several paces ahead of him and she stopped suddenly, letting out a little scream.