Chapter 4

It was a couple of days before Bradley called. Rebecca had spent them taking the odd walk in the park and alternating between being bored and doing a little work. She was glad of the distraction and agreed to lunch.

"When are you going to show me this palace of yours?" he asked, after they'd fished around self consciously for a while.

"No, no!" she shook her head. "I know what you have in mind."

"You do? Tell me?"

"I think the only room in my apartment you have any interest in is my bedroom."

"So?"

"I told you Bradley," she lowered her voice. "I'm not going to do any more of that with you."

"Fine!" he shrugged. "That's understood. I'd still like to see where you live, though."

"How about a walk in the park instead?" she countered.

"If you like," he agreed.

They walked together to the park mostly in silence. Once by the lake he held out his hand and she reluctantly took it. She had to admit, it felt good.

Bradley was wearing a T-shirt and stylish jacket. He wore faded Levis with a patent leather belt. She liked the way he dressed, she concluded - kind of hot.

For the occasion, she'd also gone casual with a knee length floral dress that fitted her hips well. She'd dusted herself with the perfume she knew he liked. Rebecca wasn't quite sure why she'd done that. She wasn't consciously trying to turn him on.

Around the lake at some point his arm circled her waist. He'd made the move so subtly she scarcely noticed. All she remembered afterward was that suddenly she found herself leaning into him with his cheek pressed to her hair.

This was just too damned intimate, she decided, and they needed ground rules. She asked him to sit by the lake's edge awhile, and he agreed.

"We need to talk about this situation..."

"Do we?"

" ... without the smartarse 'Bradleyisms'," she told him.

"Ah, yeah, go on?"

"Look, you're not a bad guy..." She waited for some smart interjection. There was none, so she continued. "It's just I don't think we'd be able to make it in the long term." Again, she waited for a response. Bradley was silent and it irritated her. "Well? What do you have to say?"

"You tell me to shut up and then command me to say something when I keep my mouth shut. What the hell is it going to be?"

"Bradley, see? I piss you off. I push people around. That's my nature and I don't think it would be fair on you to..."

"So, you're trying to protect my feelings, is that it?"

"Partly."

"And the other part?"

"Like I told you that night when we ... When I came up to your flat."

"And we made love?"

"If you like to put it that way. I told you I can't handle a man in my life at the moment. I don't think you've accepted that."

"I don't remember asking you to marry me. Correct me if I'm wrong?"

"I never said..."

"You're talking as if I'm proposing to embark on some long term thing. Aren't you jumping a bit far ahead?"

"I, I ... Well, what did you have in mind?"

"Why do you want to make a big drama out of it? We hang out a little, date a little? Take it slow? Take the jumps when we come to them?"

"For what end, Bradley? You suggesting we do the boyfriend, girlfriend thing for a while and see what happens?"

"Yeah! Why not?"

"Um, I don't know," she faltered. It'd seemed so simple when she rehearsed the speech a while ago. Now he was adding a new dimension, simplicity.

"My instincts tell me..."

"Fuck your instincts," he retorted. "What have your instincts ever done for you?"

"You're fucking with me again, Bradley. Knock it off or I'll leave."

"Then leave!"

"I..." she bristled, then relaxed. "Oh, hell! This isn't going the way I wanted. I don't want to fight with you, Bradley. I see a lot of that happening if we hang together."

"Maybe the pair of us are just a little too defensive around each other?" Bradley suggested. "Perhaps things will settle down more when we start to feel more comfortable?"

"I don't know. I'm a class A bitch some of the time."

"Some?" he laughed. "I'd say more like 'most'."

"And you? You're a shit!"

"Hmm, yes, I guess. You bring out the worst in me, probably."

"There's probably a lot of truth in that!"

"Which goes to prove there's a lot going on between us that we can't ignore. There's 'connection'."

Rebecca looked into his face sensing a double entendre - detecting none, she replied, "I don't doubt there's a physical thing. You have your sweet moments. It's just..."

He silenced her when he leaned over and kissed her on the mouth. Despite all her misgivings, she responded, and held his face to hers. "I'm not going to make out on the grass..." she managed between mouthfuls..."in full view of the world ... Bradley, are you listening?"

He wasn't, and held her in a clinch for a long time. When he deigned to let her up, she agreed to take him home.

Some time later she watched him languidly from her bed as he stood by the glass. He was nude, as she was, and she admired his buns. Bradley had just fixed them both a drink and was looking out to sea from her big, bay window.

She was sticky from his come and her own juices, but she was feeling too sweet to get up to shower. If it was always like this, she thought, then there wouldn't be a problem.

"Lick me?" she asked in a kittenish fashion.

"Where?" he turned.

"Right here," she grinned and pointed between her legs.

"Liberal as I am," he smiled back at her, "I don't think licking my own semen off you would be my turn on."

"So? Go get a washcloth if you want to be all sissy about it?"

"You want a sponge bath?" he grinned.

"Sure!" she squirmed her body at him. "Show me how much you like me?"

For Rebecca, this was all way out of character. Bradley had brought this out of her, she was sure. She couldn't remember ever behaving so sluttishly at any time in her life.

He complied and returned from the bathroom, washcloth in hand. He then began to wash her down, from her neck to her toes. Rebecca thought she could die from the pleasure.

Where the washcloth moved on, it was replaced with Bradley's tongue. Rebecca cooed and sighed, squirming and twisting under his ministrations.

He reached her left nipple and the sensation jolted her. His tongue descended and he took it into his mouth.

"Oh, shit!" she gasped.

"You okay?" he asked her, concerned. In response, she grabbed his head and brought him down to her mouth. She kissed him hard before letting him up.

"Don't be too long."

"For what?"

"I want you to lick me."

"I was getting there!" he teased.

"I know," she moaned. "Just don't take all day getting there!"

"Here?" he touched her.

"Oh, God! You're not up to a fuck, by any chance?"

"Mind's willing, but..."

"Twice within half an hour a but much?" she giggled.

"Optimistic, unfortunately."

"Then your tongue, if you don't mind?"

"You're insatiable!"

"Long time between lovers. Please?"

Bradley obliged and got down to business straight away. Soon Rebecca was thrusting urgently at him, moaning and crying out. In very little time she was coming, hard, and squeezing his head between her thighs.

His face was red when he emerged - demonstrating how hard was the effort to please her. He complained she'd practically smothered him and she told him she was sorry.

"Don't have to go yet?" she said, holding out her arms.

"Not at the moment," he replied, and rolled in for a cuddle. In a short time she was sleeping soundly, as Bradley lightly stroked her hair.

The next morning, Rebecca fluttered about the apartment fixing some breakfast for them wearing just a thin wrap. Bradley was sleeping soundly and she sniggered to herself she'd tired the poor guy out.

She felt strangely alive and full of energy. She found some bacon to fry up, eggs, and toast. It was a far bigger breakfast than she was used to but she was powerfully hungry.

When she'd finished cooking she brought the whole lot to bed with two mugs of freshly brewed coffee. The rich aroma must have triggered Bradley's wake up call because he was sitting up, rubbing his eyes.

"What time?" he whispered, sleepily.

"'Bout nine," she told him.

"Got a meeting..."

"When?"

"'Bout nine."

"I guess you need to call?"

Bradley was already dialing his mobile. He explained he was feeling sick and wouldn't be in today. He tried, unsuccessfully, to ignore Rebecca's teasing expression. "You told a lie!" she grinned at him when he'd hung up.

Rebecca placed the tray on the bed and slipped in beside him. She tucked in whole heartedly.

"Didn't figure you for the 'full English'?" he grinned.

"Muesli's my style, usually," she replied. "But, I felt like the full works this morning."

"Yeah!" he agreed. "This is nice. Just what I needed."

"Been a strange week!" she said, idly.

"Say that again," he laughed. "Who'd of thought..."

"Yes. I guess the bloody astral alignment..."

"The what?"

"Y'know? The planets ... Must be the right time in my star chart to..."

"What the fuck are you on about?"

"I don't know," she laughed. "I don't know what I'm saying."

"That's all right. Waffle away!"

"I didn't plan any of this to happen."

"Sure, you didn't."

"It's true! You took me by surprise. Now I'm going to be the butt of everyone's jokes. Oh, shit! I have to go back to work next week and suffer all those smirks and smartarse comments."

"So, who's going to tell them? I'm certainly not."

"You've actually tried to keep a secret in that place? It'll be all over the minute I get back to the office."

"So why don't we be upfront? Tell 'em straight, 'hey! We're an item! Now go fuck yourselves'!"

"We an item?"

"Oh, don't start again!" Bradley rolled his eyes. "'Bradley and I are fucking each other'. Call it whatever you like."

"No, it's, I'm sorry. It's just that it sounds so strange. I've laid so many judgements on some of those directors - about their little 'intrigues.' The young, trim, little bimbos they like to pick up..."

"And now you've snagged a 'young bimbo' for yourself?"

"More a 'young hunk' I think."

"A diversion?"

"A bit on the side?"

"A bonk?"

"Bonk?" she grinned. "That's crude. You're my 'bonk?' I don't like the sound of that."