The Education of Sebastian & the Education of Caroline (24 page)

I was vaguely aware that Sebastian had stopped moving and that we were both lying on the floor, gasping.

It was desperately uncomfortable on the hard surface but I felt too weak to move. A giggle escaped me—I was, quite literally, well fucked. That expression would never again have the same resonance for me now I’d actually experienced it.

I started laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

But I couldn’t reply, I was laughing so hard. I pushed up onto my hands and knees, vaguely aware that there was blood on the floor.

“What are you laughing at?” said Sebastian, sounding aggrieved.

I crawled into the shower, slightly hysterical.

“What?!” he said, starting to laugh despite himself.

“I. Am. So. Thoroughly. Well. Fucked!” I finally managed to spit out.

Sebastian was laughing, too, as he came and joined me in the shower.

We sat in the shower tray and I leaned back between his legs, letting the hot water soothe and restore us.

Eventually I managed to stop laughing but I felt too weak to stand.

“That was amazing,” Sebastian whispered into my hair.

He sounded slightly awestruck.

“It certainly was. But I can’t stand—you’ll have to help me up!”

Sebastian laughed and stood up easily, pulling me up by my hands.

I managed to turn off the shower as I staggered out. I grabbed a clean towel and tossed one to him. I made a few quick passes with the towel and, still half-soaked, collapsed face down on the bed.

“Hey,” said Sebastian, following me to the bedroom. “You’re all wet.”

Gently, lovingly, he dried me with the towel, doing his best to get the moisture out of my hair as well.

“I’m so tired. I can hardly keep my eyes open,” I mumbled.

“Go to sleep, baby,” he said softly.

I rolled onto my side and felt Sebastian’s warm, slightly damp body curl up behind me. He wrapped his arm around my waist and I was asleep in seconds.

CHAPTER 11

At some point, not long after dawn, I woke.

Sebastian’s arm was still draped over my waist but I must have turned in the night because now I was facing him. His lips were slightly parted and he was breathing softly. I thought he must be dreaming because his eyelids fluttered and he frowned.

A pale gold stubble covered his cheeks, upper lip and chin. It was soft, nothing like five o’clock shadow and he looked so young and very beautiful.

His tan was deep over his arms, back and chest, then vanished completely, leaving his buttocks and hips a creamy white that changed again to gold on his legs.

The low angle of the sun cast long shadows that highlighted the definition of his muscular chest and stomach and I reveled in the thought that for a few more hours—and for another whole night—he was mine.

I hardly dared to imagine how it might feel to wake up like this every morning, feeling such peaceful joy. And I refused to think about what would happen when our weekend was over.

I spent another minute drinking in his beauty before I tore myself away to use the bathroom.

“Where are you going?” he said sleepily, blinking up at me.

“To pee,” I whispered. “Go back to sleep.”

But when I returned to the room, the bed was empty. For a heart-stopping moment, I thought he’d left. Then I saw his sneakers, t-shirt and briefs, all still strewn on the floor. Only his jeans were missing.

I stared with some distaste at the blood on the sheets. At least I didn’t get really heavy periods and they didn’t last long. Even so…

I heard soft footfalls behind me and turned to look. Sebastian was carrying two glasses of orange juice and wearing, well, half-wearing his jeans.

He’d pulled them over his hips but only bothered to fasten half of the fly buttons. He was beyond sexy; I felt my face getting hot—and then I remembered I was standing there naked—and blushed everywhere.

I scooted back into the bed and under the sheet.

Sebastian looked at me like I was a little crazy.

“I wanted to make you breakfast,” he said, shrugging slightly, “but I can’t cook. I can, however, pour a mean glass of juice.”

He passed me a tumbler and I took a long drink.

“Why, Mr. Hunter, you can indeed pour an amazing orange juice.”

He smirked, then tipped the rest of his drink down his throat in one swift gulp.
How the hell did men do that?
It was a complete mystery to me.

“Well, let me make you some breakfast: what would you like? Eggs, pancakes, bacon, omelet?”

“I already told you yesterday,” he said.

I frowned.

“You. I want you for breakfast.”

He put his glass on the bedside cabinet and slowly walked toward me, his eyes never leaving my face. His expression made me breathless.

“Sex rather than food today?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I looked at the alarm clock. It was 6.45
am
.

“We’ve got about three hours before I have to drop you off. Do you think that’s enough time?”

He shook his head.

“Not really.”

Then he leapt on the bed, making me shriek with surprise. I spilled orange juice down my chest and onto the sheets.

“Sebastian!”

He ignored me and started lapping the juice from my bare skin. I nearly melted from the heat of his touch, but just about managed to place my somewhat emptier glass on the bedside table.

I scrabbled to pull off his jeans but he was too intent on working his way down my body. It was neck and neck who was going to have their way first.

Sometime later, some
considerable
time later, the alarm went off.

We were both lying on our backs breathless. Again. I felt like I’d just gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson: every muscle ached and I was bathed in sweat. Sebastian had been tossing me around the bedroom for nearly two hours. He lay with his eyes closed and a blissful expression on his face.

The alarm clock had inconveniently been knocked out of reach. I struggled to sit up, crawling the length of the bed and fumbling on the floor to find the obnoxious electronic box.

Sebastian tried to bite my ass, which didn’t really help my coordination.

“We need to get up!” I moaned.

He didn’t reply.

“Up!”

“I am up,” he mumbled against my skin.

Again? Oh, my God!

“Time for a shower. Go! Now!”

He grumbled a bit more but eventually rolled off the bed, allowing me to get up and pull on my robe. I glanced around to see him stumble into the bathroom. It was true: he was up.

Smiling to myself, I headed down to the kitchen and rummaged around in the refrigerator. As he hadn’t managed to express a preference, I decided to make a cheese omelet with bacon on the side.

I was still grilling the bacon when I heard him running down the stairs. There was a huge thud and I guessed he’d jumped the last three or four steps. His exuberance made me smile.
And where the hell did he get all that energy?

He wrapped his arms around my waist without hesitation and nuzzled my neck. I nearly dropped the spatula.

“What can I do?” he said.

I was surprised. No man had ever said that to me in my kitchen before. I turned and smirked at him.

“Just sit there and look decorative.”

He threw me an amused look and stretched his long legs under the kitchen table, rocking the chair back on two legs, just like he had last night.

To have him sitting at my breakfast table felt wonderfully new and wonderfully natural, all at the same time.

When I served up the food, I put most of the omelet on his plate and four out of five of the pieces of bacon. He didn’t even seem to notice the uneven distribution; he was so intent on getting the food into his stomach in the shortest time possible.

I was still chewing when he pushed his plate away. He glanced around to see if there was anything else to eat. Really, his appetites were enormous in all sorts of ways. The last ten hours had been a revelation.

“Toast?”

“Please!” he said happily.

I cut four slices off a new loaf and shoved them all in the toaster. “Do you want jelly?”

He pulled a face. “Nah, just butter, please.”

“Don’t you have a sweet tooth?”

“Only for you.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Where do you stand on chocolate? I’m serious! It’s an important question!”

“You like chocolate, Caro? What sort?”

I could see what he was thinking: sometimes he was so easy to read.

“I don’t want you to buy me any, Sebastian.”

“Why not?”

He pouted and I wanted to laugh.

“Because we’re saving our money for more important things.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Mind you,” I said, slyly, “I wouldn’t mind licking some melted chocolate off you—I bet that would taste really good.”

For a moment he looked a little shocked, then a huge grin spread across his face.

“Yeah! That sounds
hot!
”

“I’ll see what I can do for tonight.”

He groaned.

“What?”

“I’ll have that image in my head all day now! I’ll be a walking hard-on!”

“It’s one way of increasing tips at work,” I said, laughing at him.

He shook his head and looked embarrassed. He was so easy to tease. I really wasn’t being very fair.

I glanced at my watch. It was nearly ten o’clock.

“Time to go,” I said, trying not to sound too bereft.

He scowled.

“I’ll call in sick.”

“You can’t do that,” I said patiently. “For a start, Ches will be knocking on your door in about 20 minutes; and secondly, word is sure to get back to your mom—do you
really
want her asking awkward questions about where you’ve been?”

He sighed. “I guess not.”

“Come on. Go be a lifeguard.”

I cursed the day I’d left those empty packing crates in the garage. Instead of being able to drive my car inside it, so Sebastian could make a discrete exit from the house, I had to reverse the car right up to the front door so he could sneak in the passenger side with the least chance of being seen. By now it was broad daylight and I was anxious. I tried to come up with some excuses just in case—some reason as to why Sebastian was in my house at this time in the morning. Nothing sounded convincing. I just crossed my fingers. How very mature.

Luckily, very luckily, we got to the park without incident.

“Text me later?”

“Okay,” he promised. “See you tonight. Love you!”

He slammed the door and waved goodbye. I watched him jog across the park and with a last glance, I made an illegal U-turn and headed off to the store. I wanted to make him something special for our last night together. And to buy some chocolate.

I’d just parked outside the store when my phone beeped. Sebastian hadn’t wasted any time before texting me. But when I checked the message it was from David.

* Flight lands 2115. I need dress uniform

dry-cleaned for formal on Monday. *

And hello to you, too.

The message put me in a bad mood, reminding me that by tomorrow evening I would have to be
that
person again—loyal wife, spineless factotum. I didn’t know how the hell I was going to do that.

“Hello, Caroline. How are you? You look a little tired.”

Donna stood behind me with a piled up cart and a kind smile on her face. She patted my arm as my brain attempted to click into gear.

“I know, dear,” she said. “I never sleep well when Johan’s away either. I think I miss his snoring!”

I tried to smile and her face creased with concern.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, thank you, Donna. I just got a message from David—he wants his dress uniform dry-cleaned for Monday. Now I’ll have to go back to the house to get it.”

“Oh my. Did you forget to look at the schedule again?” she teased me.

I couldn’t help laughing.

“Yes! You’d think I’d have learned by now.”

“Well, I’m glad I caught you. I was wondering if I could ask you to bring something for the picnic tomorrow. Maybe some of your delicious cold pasta? Just for our group.”

“Oh, of course! I was going to bring some sandwiches, too, if you like?”

“How wonderful! Yes, please. I think it’s going to be a fun day, and it looks like we’ll be blessed with the weather. Would you like me to pick you up? There isn’t a huge amount of parking, and the organizing committee has asked us to carpool. Besides, you haven’t met my boys yet. They’re back from college now.”

“Oh, yes, that would be lovely,” I stuttered, feeling under pressure. “Thank you!”

“I’ll pick you up at 11
am
then. And do try and get some sleep tonight, dear. You’re far too young to look so tired. You don’t want to end up with bags under your eyes like mine. Well, I have suitcases rather than bags.”

Truthfully, I wasn’t planning on getting much sleep during the night, but maybe I could take a nap later. I wondered briefly if I should let Sebastian get some more sleep—he’d probably only had about four hours last night and he was working all day. But then again, he was young—and I couldn’t imagine him agreeing to sleep when I was fairly certain he would have other things on his mind. The thought made me smile.

Damn it! I’d forgotten to ask Donna how many people were part of the ‘group’ that she’d mentioned.

Moving slowly up and down the aisles, I filled the cart with focaccia rolls, cold cuts and some fresh pasta. I felt a bit guilty buying store-made pasta but figured no one but me would be any the wiser. I also bought some lamb chops, potatoes and salad for Sebastian. And a jar of chocolate sauce. Although that was more for me.

As an afterthought, I picked up a few of David’s favorite foods, too. He was always more amenable on a full stomach.

It was getting harder to buy 35mm film, especially in black and white, but I managed to find a few rolls. I wondered if I’d be able to buy a digital camera when we moved to New York. I had no
idea how much they cost. I’d be sorry to stop using my dad’s SLR, but the price of buying and developing film was an additional cost I could well do without. A cost
we
could well do without.

As I was happily daydreaming about a new life in a new city, my cell phone rang.

“Hi, Carolina! Carl Winters, here. How are you?”

“Well, thank you, Carl. And you?”

“Good, good. Look, I heard that the folk at the Base are having a family fun day on the beach tomorrow. Are you going?”

“Yes, I am.”