Just A Little Sex...

“Oh, you’re hopeless. You never take anything seriously.”

“And you, Zoe Simons, take life much too seriously. Look, for what it’s worth, I agree with your boss for once. I think you should forgive Drake. Give him another chance. It’s not as though he kept on with the blonde after he came back from the conference, did he? And she must live in Sydney to show up at the Rockery.”

Zoe took a bite of her toast, munching it thoughtfully before swallowing. “No, I don’t think she comes from Sydney. Drake was far too shocked at seeing her. I think she might have just been here for a visit. That old chap she was with could have been her father.”

“Okay, dump him then. Whatever makes you happy.”

“But that won’t make me happy, will it? I’m going to be utterly wretched and lonely without him.”

“Rubbish! You’re one hot-looking babe. You’ll find another guy in no time, especially if you start coming places with me. You’ll have so many gorgeous men hitting on you, you won’t know which one to date first.”

“But I don’t want to date some other guy,” Zoe said frustratedly. “And I don’t care how gorgeous he is! I just want things the way they were. With Drake.”

Melinda sighed an exasperated sigh. “Okay, give him another chance, then. But if you’re going to do that, then what’s the point of going away all by yourself up to some remote beach for the weekend? You might as well stay here, tell Loverboy you forgive him when he shows up tonight, then spend all weekend in the sack making up.”

Zoe cringed at the thought. How could she possibly go to bed with Drake with the image of him and that blonde doing it in an elevator still so clear in her head? “I can’t do that,” she said, shuddering. “Not this soon. Besides, Drake doesn’t deserve to be forgiven that quickly. He deserves to suffer.”

Melinda frowned at her. “That doesn’t sound like you, Zoe. That sounds more like your boss. She’d be right into suffering. Bet she and her lawyer hubbie are into S & M in private. You know, bondage and black leather and stuff. But he’d be the one tied up and she’d have the whip. You could count on that.”

Zoe stared at her roommate, shocked. “Don’t be silly. Normal people don’t do things like that.”

“Don’t you believe it. Lots of normal-looking people are right into S & M. Or some form of it. Hasn’t Drake ever wanted to tie you up?”

“Of course not!” The very idea! She’d had enough trouble just getting naked with him. The prospect of being naked and tied up sent a shudder of revulsion all through her, especially the thought of Drake looking at places she couldn’t bear the thought of him looking at without her being able to move or cover herself up.

“Ron’s always wanting to tie me up,” Melinda confided blithely. “I might let him one day.”

“Are you crazy? What if he…you know…did things you didn’t want him to do?”

Melinda pulled a face. “Yeah, you’re right. You’d have to trust a guy a hell of a lot to let him tie you up. And I’m not sure I trust Ron enough for that yet. I think I’ll tie him up instead,” she said, grinning. “Now that would be almost as much fun.”

Zoe shook her head. “You’re mad.”

“Mad and bad,” Melinda joked. “You should take lessons. Now, if it was me going away for the weekend after my boyfriend screwed some other female, I wouldn’t be going to some lonely old beach shack. I’d be heading for some swinging resort and looking for a bit of action myself. Yep, I’d be giving ole Drakey boy a bit of his own medicine. That’s what I’d be doing.”

“But I’m not you, am I?” Zoe said, almost wishing that she was. It must be great not to feel things so deeply for once.

“Which is just as well,” Melinda countered, “or I wouldn’t like you as much as I do. Look, don’t take any notice of me, Zoe,” she went on, her smile fading abruptly. “I can be a vicious bitch sometimes. Why do you think I want to marry a man richer than my father? Because I want to show that old tightwad a thing or two. I’ll never forgive him for tossing me to the wolves like he did. If he’d wanted me to be a career girl from the word go, then why ever didn’t he say so when I was still at school? Then I could have made something of myself while I had the chance. I wouldn’t have to make a living being a clotheshorse and putting up with men’s preconceptions of me, simply because I’m an underwear model!”

Zoe stared at her friend, amazed by the wealth of very real feeling behind her outburst. She hadn’t realized Melinda’s father had hurt her so much over what he did.

“Sorry,” Melinda muttered. “You have enough problems of your own without my going off.”

“I…I didn’t realize you felt that way about your job. And I didn’t know men treated you badly because you were a model.”

Melinda shrugged. “Mostly they don’t. But I met this pathetic example of the opposite sex today when I was on a shoot and he ignored me. Treated me like I was a nobody. Yet I was standing in front of him in the sexiest black lace underwear you’ve ever seen.”

“Who was he?”

“Some self-made upstart of a millionaire who’s buying the fashion magazine I was doing the shoot for. Brother, did he think he was somebody. But my father could buy him ten times over!”

“Good-looking?”

“Yeah, I guess he was. He has the blackest of eyes and the longest eyelashes. And a great body for someone over thirty. But he was so arrogant.”

Zoe smiled. “You were attracted to him.”

“I was not!”

“Yes, you were. And your nose was put out of joint because he didn’t seem to want you.”

“Well…maybe a bit…”

“Will you be seeing him again?”

“I doubt it.”

“Will you be doing any more shoots for that magazine in the near future?”

“Next week. My agent rang me about it today. Some other girl was supposed to do it but she rang in sick and the magazine asked for me to replace her.”

“What a coincidence.”

Melinda frowned at Zoe’s tone. “You don’t think…”

“It’s possible, isn’t it?” Zoe said with a shrug. “Let’s face it, most men would at least look at you, Mel. Especially half-naked. The fact this chap ignored you says one of two things to me. He’s either gay, or he does secretly fancy you, but he doesn’t want to be obvious.”

“Good grief!” Melinda exclaimed. “Do you always think this deviously?”

“I didn’t once,” Zoe said dryly. “But my experience with men is beginning to make me think outside the envelope. Now I really must get going or I’ll hit the traffic. If and when Drake calls, tell him I’ve gone away for the weekend but you don’t know where.”

“He’s not going to be happy.”

“Too bad. I wasn’t happy today.”

“Oooh. Them’s fightin’ words.”

“I’m in a fightin’ mood. Which is why I’m going away. I need time to think. And time to calm down. Maybe by Monday, I’ll see things a little clearer.”

“Nothing in relationships with men is ever clear, Zoe,” Melinda said. “They’re a breed unto themselves. Impossible to really understand what makes their peculiar male minds tick. It’s a case of can’t live with them, can’t live without them.”

“Oh, I can live without them,” Zoe said. “I’ve done it before and I can do it again. I just have to work out if I want to.”

4

ZOE DIDN’T HAVE to consult Nigel’s map for the first part of her drive north. She knew the way to Port Stephens. When she’d first bought her much-loved car a year ago, she’d spent every weekend going for long drives and investigating all the seaside towns within a half-day distance of Sydney.

Zoe had a secret passion for trips to the beach, perhaps because she’d rarely gone to the seaside during her growing-up years. The children of dairy farmers learned young that you can never go far from home, or for long. Having to milk the cows morning and afternoon tied you to the place, good and proper.