Off The Cretan Track chapter 20

An accidental kiss

 

 After all the other men had finished playing football, most of them raided the beer supply and  joined Karen and Bob on the sand, where they made ruthless fun out of Bob and his ukulele. Sal took that opportunity to pull Nick to one side, with the intention of giving him some kind of explanation.

 

How embarrassing.

 

“Listen, Nick,” she began awkwardly, “sorry about that, I…”

 

Nick was still grinning. What did that mean? She was sure that someone like Nick would be mortified at the thought of getting engaged; he was so casual about everything. Oh no, even worse, maybe he thought that she liked him and was secretly wishing they could get married! No, that was ridiculous. Besides, surely he knew her well enough by now; she wasn’t some crazy stalker woman!

 

“So when’s the wedding then Sal?” he asked with amusement.

 

Sal’s eyes widened in panic. “No, it’s…I didn’t…it wasn’t like… you don’t understand,” she stuttered, hardly knowing where to start.

 

Nick delighted in seeing Sal getting so flustered. What was even cuter, was the way her cheeks were growing redder than poppies and, like a shy school girl, she could barely look at him. Why out of all things was this making her so embarrassed? She usually coped easily with way more embarrassing situations than this. Someone had clearly made a mistake and assumed they were engaged: an understandable error.

 

“It alright,” he shrugged, “It is a bit sudden though. Can we make it a long engagement?” he laughed.

 

Sal tutted and breathed a sigh of relief; Nick was making fun of her, so at least he knew she wasn’t serious about it.

 

“Shut up stupid,” she said, slapping him on the arm and then realising that people might be watching them. She took his arm and turned him away from the party to face the sea, whispering to him,

 

“It’s that Bob guy; he’s really weird. He wanted to go smoke something dodgy with me and, well, he kind of seemed to be coming onto me. I panicked,” she said by way of an explanation.

 

So, it was Sal who gave them that idea then. Maybe it was her subconscious talking. Who was he kidding?

 

Nick turned to Sal with a crestfallen look. “You mean you don’t really want to marry me?”

 

“Nick, come on, be serious. Do you think we can just get through tonight without blowing our cover so that the weird, stoned guy doesn’t try it on with me again?”

 

“Sure Sal, but you’d never make a good undercover spy,” he joked, “you need to lower your voice or they’ll hear you,” he whispered, his eyes flicking towards the group, in which the odd person’s head was turning with interest in their direction.

 

“Oh God, do you think they heard?” she replied in a hushed voice.

 

Nick leant his head toward hers to whisper into her ear. He placed a hand lightly on her waist, which she wasn’t even aware of until she felt a slight pressure on her as he inched her forward to him, so that he could whisper directly into her ear. Now, she may be paranoid at times, but she was certain that their hearing can’t have been that good.

 

“Play along Sal…” he urged. His whisper tickled her ear as his mouth hovered close to it, his warm breath teasing her senses, “…if we do this convincingly enough, he’ll have lost interest in you and be hitting on the next girl before you know it.”

 

It sounded reasonable enough.

 

“What exactly are we supposed to do?” she asked, turning her head to him.

 

She inched back slightly with surprise then, not realising that his face was so close. His eyes were sparkling blue amusement into hers. She’d never seen his face at such close quarters before, and for some reason, she became very aware of the small details of it: the tiny lines at the corners of his eyes as he smiled, the slight evidence of stubble that had grown on his face over the course of the day, the way his bottom lip curved gently…

 

It was odd, standing there like that with Nick, his arm around her, his face so close, the scent of him teasing her nostrils. She’d never really got to know him that well last season. Before that day, they had only really been casual friends. They had teased each other and competed for… she wasn’t actually sure what all the competition between them was about, but it was fun. If she’d have stopped to think about it though, she may, or may not, have admitted to herself that she was possibly a little intrigued by Nick. Nevertheless, what with all the banter between them, to admit that, even to herself, would be opening herself up merciless teasing from Nick.

 

At that moment though, she found herself thrown suddenly into such close quarters with him that she was forced to acknowledge experiencing a certain fascination, a fascination that made it suddenly impossible for her to move away. This was certainly new territory for her, and for them. She was intrigued to know what would happen next.

 

“Just stay close. Pretend we’re kissing,” he answered, slipping his hand further around her back so that she found herself suddenly realizing, by being pressed to him with just one hand, how well toned his body was. She put a hand out to steady herself as he pulled her close, and it came into contact with his free arm. The muscle under his flesh, flexed against her touch as her fingers clung onto him. His skin was taught there, but smooth and warm. Now she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about this much physical contact with Nick: nervous, uncertain, flustered?

 

Just when she didn’t think they could get any closer, and she couldn’t feel any more edgy, he lifted his free hand and cupped her face with his palm, brushing back the shiny, auburn hair that had fallen forward, and delving his fingers into the curtain of silken strands. Then edgy suddenly wasn’t a good word to describe how she felt; without warning, her heart began to race. Why was it doing that? The more she tried to calm down, and think of ordinary things, the more aware she was of Nick’s body and face so unbearably close. And even more disturbing was his arm, which had captured her in that intimate hold, his hand on her face, the fingers in her hair. She was overwhelmed by his presence.

 

She just had to stay calm for a few moments more though, and then they would stop. That was all very well, only every second they stood there together, she felt like a ticking time bomb; she wasn’t sure if she could hold out.

 

“Just stay here for a bit and look like you’re enjoying it,” he whispered incredibly softly. He nestled his face next to hers to show her how. He could feel the softness of her cheek and her eyelashes tickling his face as her eyes lowered.

 

God, it must be the fact that she was so uptight, but Sal felt suddenly strangely emotional.

 

Now the arm he had around her waist didn’t seem to be enough for him; he wanted to pull her into a full embrace. He yearned for it.

 

Then, at that moment, the emotion seemed to transmit itself from him to her, and from her to him. It was undeniably in the air: an invisible traitor, giving away more than either wanted to and pushing them headlong into something that neither of them had ever envisaged happening.

 

Something in Nick’s head clicked. It had started off as just an opportunity to tease her, to get a little closer to her too. Nick was an opportunist, it was instinctive for him, and so he had continued with the pretence of having to show the group that they were a couple, whilst not really thinking about what precisely he could achieve out of it. But quicker than he could have imagined, the pretence didn’t seem like a pretence any more. He was there, holding Sal, the girl he’d thought about every day since the time she’d strolled into Adam’s office, and Nick’s life, with sunburn and a bottle of lotion. Suddenly, he couldn’t hold back, even if he’d really wanted to. The opportunity was way too good to miss, and who knows, he may never get another opportunity like that again. Nick abruptly turned his head and caught her lips with his.

 

Sal was thrown into bewilderment. Was someone coming? What had prompted Nick to do that, but more importantly, how was she supposed to react? For a moment, she  just stood there, with Nick’s lips pressed to hers, not knowing what to do.

 

Nick was testing the water; he was almost prepared for a rejection from her, but she had just become motionless. Okay, so he could go further and see what happens then.

 

He already had one hand on her cheek, but this time he brought his other hand up and cupped her face with both hands in an incredibly warming and tender way. Unfortunately, this did little to help Sal control her already unstable emotional state, or the unnerving effect his closeness was having on her. He tilted his head then and lightened the pressure of his lips on hers so that he could move them against hers.

 

Oh my God, they were kissing each other! Her brain was struggling to believe it. His brain had stopped functioning a while ago. Now he was acting on pure, testosterone fuelled instinct. He wanted this woman. He wanted to pick her up and carry her to his cave and never allow her to leave. This was primeval stuff.

 

She guessed that this was necessary… to fool Bob, right? And anyway, his kiss was so gentle and soft, she couldn’t possibly be offended by it.

 

But then his hands moved from her face and slid down her body, moulding her curves  to him. Without wanting them to, her hands also moved, travelling up to his shoulders and around the back of his neck. Then suddenly both of them were utterly lost, as the kiss spiralled beyond anything they had ever experienced before. They were melting together. Her bones were disintegrating; she felt as if she could hardly support her own weight. The heat she was feeling immediately conveyed itself to Nick, and he matched it with an inferno of his own, only made more fierce by the realisation that she too was burning up.

 

Now her mind wasn’t functioning at all, and she was kissing him back. She had no way to stop herself. Her hands were in his hair, and running down his arms and over the muscles of his chest and back.

 

Damn it! He wanted to scream with the sensations she was creating. It took every ounce of will power, and more, to stop himself from shouting out with pleasure. But Sal wasn’t so strong, and a small moan escaped her lips. It was the most arousing sound Nick had ever heard.

 

“Hey! Get a room will you!” came an abrupt interruption.

 

The sudden sound was like a cold slap of reality to them both. Sal had to get her head together. She would speak to Nick, but not there, not then, when she was feeling so out of control. She pulled back from him and headed back towards the party before he had time to react.