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Beside her, Jason chuckled. “I bet you’re not doubting my confidence in my spanking ability now, huh?”
Catherine slapped his arm playfully. “Go away. You’re mean.” Then she grinned to herself. It was true, she wasn’t. Her bottom still ached; he was fully entitled to have confidence in his spanking ability. But he didn’t need to know that.
“I am not mean, and you know it.” Jason slapped her bottom sharply, under her dressing gown, and she yelped.
“Yes, you are!” she insisted, her voice far too shrill in the early morning air. “That was totally unnecessary, which makes you very mean!”
Jason pulled her in close, sealing his lips over hers. Claiming her. Stealing her breath as his kiss deepened with every second that passed. He tasted salty, sweet, and bitter all at once.
“Still mean?” he murmured, still pressing his lips to hers, his hand cupping the back of her head, his fingers tangling in her hair.
She shook her head, grinding her pelvis against him, teasing his mouth with her tongue, willing him to kiss her more. He obliged, just briefly, his lips hungry against hers, crushing, then he stepped back.
“Let’s go back to bed, shall we?” he whispered in her ear.
Catherine held back a sigh. She wanted to go back to bed with Jason, she really did. But at the same time, the dream had been so real. The man who threw himself over the cliff was the same man she’d seen in her dreams, before, she was sure of it. He was the same man who’d called her name so hauntingly so many times before. And the cliff she’d just seen him throw himself off in her dream was the exact same one they were standing in front of, right now. She was certain of that, too. What was going on? More than anything else, she needed to know.
“Okay.” She breathed the word, disappointment flooding her. Maybe the man in her dream, the hut, and the reason for it all was destined to forever remain a mystery.
Just as they turned, arm in arm, Jason supporting most of her weight, to go back to the hut, she saw it. The tree. A big, sprawling macrocarpa, a silhouette in the moonlight, standing tall and proud behind the hut. Was it the same one? It had to be.
“The tree.” She pointed. “Right there. Behind the hut. See it?”
Jason looked where she pointed, and nodded.
“He buried something under there. In my dream.”
Jason looked sceptical. “Can it wait until morning? I really want to get you back to bed, little girl. I have plans for this body.” He leaned in and kissed her neck, his lips brushing her throat, his teeth nipping just below her ear. “Besides, it’s dark. Let’s go and check it out at first light, yeah?”
Catherine hesitated.
“Come on, baby girl, it’s cold. We’ll go and have a look as soon as the sun is up, I promise.”
Catherine took one more longing look toward the tree. The pull was strong: the clue to the mystery was there, she knew it. So she shook her head.
“No. I want to go now. Please.” Her dreams were the reason they were here, after all.
Jason frowned, but then he nodded. “Okay.”
The dim light of the torch illuminated their path as Catherine hobbled toward the tree, most of her weight supported by Jason. Her knee ached and she knew being in bed was probably the wisest place for her to be, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t let Jason take her there. She had to know what was going on, what the dream was about. The ground was rough and she stumbled, wincing as she put too much weight on her sore knee and sparks of pain zinged up her leg. The sparks reminded her of finding the watch earlier. Did that have anything to do with this? With her dreams? With the man who fell to his death, and what he had buried?
Just like the grass between the hut and the cliff edge, the blades weren’t squashed. It hadn’t been walked on. But she didn’t care; she only knew that she needed to get to the tree, to see if whatever the man in her dream had buried was still there.
As they got closer, Jason waved the torch around, scanning the ground. Nothing had been buried recently; no earth had been disturbed. Old, broken sticks littered the ground beneath the tree. Directly around the trunk, the roots poked up through the dirt. No grass grew; the bare earth was hard and compacted. Catherine circled the tree and racked her brain, trying to remember. Where had he dug, exactly? How far out from the trunk? Which direction? Nothing on the ground gave them any clues. All she had to go on was her unreliable memory of the dream.
“I don’t know where to dig,” she whispered, sadness evident in her voice. “The dream was so clear, but now…” She let her voice trail off. “I don’t know where it was. It could be anywhere here.”
“And you don’t have a spade.” Jason pointed out the obvious. “Look, babe, let’s get back to bed and we’ll revisit this in the morning, in the daylight. Okay? We’re not going to find anything in the dark.”
Tears pricked behind Catherine’s eyes, blurring her vision. She didn’t want to give up, not when she was so close. But she also knew that, realistically, she didn’t have a choice. Jason was right: it was too dark to see. They couldn’t do anything now.
“We’re not giving up,” Jason said, as if reading her mind. “I’ll help you, I promise. It will be easier in a couple of hours, when the sun is up.”
Catherine sighed dejectedly. She was so close! This was so frustrating!
“Okay,” she agreed. “But first light, we’re back out here. Agreed?”
Jason nodded. “First light.”
