Page 56 of Play Me

“Um, can I help you with something?” she peeks through the curtain and looks down at the cackling woman on the floor of the cabin,

“Um, just some more tonic, thank you.” I say calmly and smile at her as she glances once more at Cadence before leaving to get my drink.

“Hey! Crazy!” I get up and stand over her, one foot on each side of her hips.

She stops laughing for a moment and lies back on her back and looks up at me. Her eyes look lit up like Christmas lights and her cheeks are flushed from her laughing fit. Her neck glistens a little from a light sweat and I just want to bury my face in the carpet of soft curls framing her face.

She reached a hand towards me and I take it, letting her pull me down onto the floor with her. I lay down and she curls up against me, her leg draping over mine and her head on my chest.

“Can we stay up here forever?” she whispers against my neck, and her breath makes the hair stand up on my spine, so sweet, so sexy.

“We might have to, I don’t know where we’re going.” I run my fingers through her hair and she rests her chin on my chest, looking up at me.

“You’ll see.”

“I can wait, I’m in no hurry to be anywhere but right here with you.”

She sighs a long deep sigh. “That’s much better. See? You CAN be romantic.”

“I sure can. Now show me your boobs!” I say and reach over and squeeze her gently on the chest.

“Um,” a third voice suddenly speaks up, “I’ll just put your drink here, sir.”

And it’s ten minutes before Cadence finally stops laughing again.

CADENCE

If I were to be abducted by aliens, probed and then brainwashed by their technology and finally returned to earth after a hundred years, I would still remember the look on Sebastian’s face when he looked out the window as we flew over Uluru.

“Oh my god.” He’d sighed, and I’d had to agree with the sentiment.

“It’s nothing like I imagined it would be.” He’d finally uttered after staring out the window in awe for the minutes the pilot circled the great red rock.

I’d only nodded. The experience of Uluru is a personal and unique one, and I didn’t want to influence his in any way.

“Thank you.” He turned to me as the pilot finally flew towards the Ayers Rock airport.

I hadn’t said anything, because if anyone owed anyone a thank you, it would be me to him.

We’d just stared out our respective windows and watched the red sky sink into the red earth.

***

“The car will be ready in a minute,” Sebastian comes back after talking to the car hire guy at the booth.

“Ok, and the hotel room’s ready any time we get there. It’s about fifteen minutes from here.”

He nods and pulls me in against him, his hand resting against the small of my back. Since leaving Sydney, it seems he can’t stop touching me, wanting to be close to me. And there’s no reason for me to complain. I’ve left all my worries and concerns back in the classroom.

“You tired?” He says gently, caressing my cheek.

“No, I’m good. Happy.” I give him a smile to reassure him.

“Regret your choice?”

“No, I love it here.”

“I didn’t mean about the location. I meant...about the choice of company.”