Passionately Taken by Surprise

'It's all stuff that I learned helping my father...'

'He taught you well,' she chose to admit and speaking to him as an equal.

They sat on the terrace for a moment to talk through how their time together, and Ellis on his own, had been spent. Sophie had become engaged with him and was dismayed by what he had listed as items to attend to, even if it was over time.

'You can make the rest of your day your own,' he had gone on to say. 'We could go on the beach with Jasper...perhaps, or I could do that if you needed to do your paperwork?' he had asked, pushing his luck.

'No, you've done enough for me for one day. So, go and enjoy the rest of it. My grandparents who once owned this place, would turn in their graves on seeing the list you've written out. Now, just go, and thanks. Take that walk or swim...'

'On my own...'

Sophie looked at him in startled amazement, at his forwardness, but said nothing in reply.

She would have liked nothing more than to be taken out of it all for a while, risky as it was to be seen with him. But, she had sought to maintain some standards for cleanliness and homeliness in the place and ensured that it was so. She could so easily take an hour or so off and do as he had asked of her. The place was always locked up, but residents had the necessary coded outer door key on the same fob as that of their room.

She felt herself tied to the place out of a sense of duty and looked on 'Westerlies' as an investment and a pension top-up for when that day came. Tony looked at the place as a means for short-term gain. In that, too, lay a source of difficulties between them, and having Ellis drawing off some money, if he was taken on, was another contributing factor.

'Well,' Ellis said on looking at his watch and with the conversation stilled. 'I'll push off then. Call me if you have a change of mind and we can meet on the beach, as before?'

She pouted a smile on hearing it said, shielded her eyes from the sun with one hand as she gazed up at him. 'Forward, aren't you?'

'Not usually, Sophie...but, yes I am now.'

She watched him go. The young man had certainly been of help in dealing with property matters. In everything else, crazily, he had aroused a riot of conflicting emotions in the woman she thought herself to be. She was trying to get her bearings and her life's compass had been disconcertingly thrown off balance by Ellis' ways and certainty in helping her.

He wasn't put out by their obvious age difference; he didn't look old enough to have even started learning of the complexities of relationships between people; he made his interest in her only too obvious. Ellis had taken in how Tony was with her and, yet, he had been only too mature in his reactions when Tony had told him to push off with his hopes for helping out, for however long he was to stay in Newlyn.

She had looked on him being around as a break, as a relief from the strains of doing it all on her own, almost. Today, and his uncomplaining help, had changed all that. Tony was not to know of it, or her life would again be taken to the edge.

♥

Ellis felt the warmth on his skin.

He rested against the sea wall and watched the tourists stroll by, many clad in the most garish, even outlandish, beach wear. Stays by the seaside wouldn't be the same without that parade of taste and styles, the sights of the fleshy and the lean, or not hearing the noise and observing the quietly restrained.

He was still in his chino shorts and lay against his polo shirt as a thin buffer against the prick of the stones that made up the promenade's wall. Voices of those passing by above him drifted down. Some even stood at the rail above his place, but he took no real notice of them. A bottle of fruit cordial was sipped at, absentmindedly.

He thought of her, of Sophie. You could tell she was lonely, or obsessed by her work, appearing to hang about the place even as all the most pressing tasks had been completed. He guessed all business owners get wrapped up in their endeavours so that it left few opportunities for 'down time'.

His iPhone trembled and he fumbled to take it from the patch pocket of his shorts. 'Hi...what's up?'

'You know it's me, then?'

'I've auto-saved your number, Sophie...so yes, I know that it's you. I don't know the reason for the call.'

'Yes, of course. There's no hiding unless you make it so.'

'What's up?' he repeated.

'Nothing's up! I just called to say thanks for this morning. It looks only too good, the bedroom and no one would know what happened earlier.'

'So, at least I was of use to you,' he chose to point out. 'And the place is a lot safer too.'

Ellis wondered if she would take a different meaning from what had been said. He had few accomplishments to boast of when it came to girls let alone a woman of her age, but she had aroused undeniable feelings of longing in him. He had also taken in the woman's distracted looks that were often cast his way when they had talked of something that touched her life.

'Yes, it is safer now.'

'So, what now? There's still time to take Jasper on the beach if you want to.'

'I thought that I might do that.'

'Good. I'll stow my things in the car and I'll wait for you.'

'Who said anything about me meeting you?' she answered with a teasing laugh, 'but now that you mention it...I could watch the two of you get wet and sandy.'

He would play it out just as she had done.

'My car's stowed in a place by Marine Terrace and I'm on the beach...at the wall where Bolitho Gardens starts. The pebbles have been something else to sit on, but I'll stay here for a spell and play the beach bum for a while longer.'

'Then, I'll have no trouble finding you.'

She was gone before he had the chance to reply to that, but Sophie found him soon enough and teasingly dropped a few small pebbles onto his stomach as she leaned over the railing above the place where he lounged. She saw his eyes drift over her as she leaned forward, the neckline of her dress opening and the sight of her cleavage deliberately provocative.

'Be here with me,' he pouted even as Sophie straightened up.

'Don't overdo it...the sun I mean,' she smiled, then moved away to take the steps down onto the shingle beach and walked to join him. Jasper strained on the leash and jumped up to greet him. Sophie saw that he had put on a sleeveless orange T that fell over his shorts. This young man, it seemed, would tan very quickly. She met his gaze when Ellis pushed his sunglasses up over his head once more and loosening the stretch binding as he did so.

Ellis' attention was again focussed only on her.

Sophie had dressed for the beach, a sleeveless short-hemmed dress flattering her figure.; He thought that he could make out a bikini under the thin fabric and formed an enticing image of her. The businesswoman now wore bangles on each wrist and a loose colourful beaded necklace at her throat. He had seen it dangle between her breasts as she leaned forward, moments ago, and now he also noticed how her hair was mussed by the breeze.

He felt that she was letting go for as long as it was possible, and wanted to do so again and in his company; just as he had seen her do, but in evident restraint, when they had first met.

'You shouldn't look at me like that, you know?' Sophie said, somewhat nervily, disconcerted that he should look at her in the way that Ellis did and that she had provoked, on a whim, when she had seen him lazing against the sea wall. He was young, attractive, and seemingly into her, and his behaviour so at odds with what she so often endured with Tony.

'Easy to say, not so easy to do. You look gorgeous,' he confessed and holding out a hand that she shied away from. 'Let me hold Jasper for you...'

'Oh, okay...yes, thanks.' Sophie pointed in the direction they should take. 'I've got about an hour but will have to make it less just to be sure I get back in time.'

'Okay, I understand.' He saw again how she balanced to take off one sandal then another, clutched them as she had done the first evening. 'Your dress...the colour suits you.'

'Walk, and let's have less of your flattery.'

Sophie blushed all the same on hearing it from him. This meeting was no prank on her part. She wanted to be away again from 'Westerlies' and felt a reason to justify that, if only to herself. It occurred to her that she could say that Tony would soon arrive home and that supper would have to be prepared.

They watched Jasper capering about in the surf and Ellis found a stick that was thrown in the dog's direction.

'I'll amuse him,' he said on leaving her side and splashing into the surf so that it was up to his calves. Jasper cavorted and plunged about, barking out of excitement, and he soon splashed Ellis's T-shirt and shorts. He seemed not to care about that and, instead, strode towards her once more.

'You're lucky to live here,' he told her, smiling at Sophie and unashamedly taking in the look of her once more. 'It will be difficult not to visit and attend to tasks for you...'

Before she could silence him and these admissions of his interest in her, she felt his touch on her arm, then the clasp of his hand to maintain his balance. Jasper had leaped up at him to grab the stick he continued to hold.

'Don't...don't do that!' she murmured, yet she felt the surge of longing for the young man beside her. She felt wanted, desired, and lusted after even and on such a short acquaintance.

Yes, her heart had seemed to stop for a moment before she had felt a rush of wanton longing that his touch had aroused. It felt so wonderfully distracting; so utterly destructive of an ordered life that she sought to pursue and that Ellis had intruded upon by simply being on this beach at the same time as she had been but a day or so ago. Coincidences had a magic all of their own.

'No, of course, I should stop, Sophie. How could I mean anything by it and so soon?'

Ellis moved away and resumed his play with Jasper but looked in Sophie's direction whenever the dog ran off to reclaim his toy. Ellis slicked his hands over the wet skin of his arms; the game with Jasper soon soaking his clothes. His T-shirt stuck to his body and he met Sophie's appraising glances his way. He had to engage with the woman, somehow, even if it was clear that Sophie toiled with the knowledge that she had begun something that could so easily spin out of control.

'Perhaps we should turn back and give you time to get home and make ready for Tony's return?'

'Tony is a good guy,' she confided, touching his arm and doing so to slow their progress. 'He just spends long hours driving to and from work and all that it brings. It's left to me to sort out the property and the business...what you did today is work that he could well have done or organized, but he's not here. He has to make his way in what he does and, so, I do the same...and it's not always easy as today has shown me and you.'

He was mildly surprised that Sophie should confide in him, so soon. 'You have the weekends together, though, don't you?'

He saw her shake her head in disavowal of that. He heard the soft rustle of her beaded necklace and watched it sway over the curve of her breasts. Ellis looked away as thoughts of touching her maddened him. He wanted the woman before him and felt enslaved by the mix of her vulnerability and Sophie's sense of purpose to do the best in her business.

'The weekends aren't much better...we spend some time together, down here on the beach or with friends at dinner somewhere...but it's never enough, for either of us.' She walked closer to him now, closer, and seemed not to care how it looked or that she was sharing secrets with him; she the older woman engaged in conversation with a young guy. 'You don't have these problems yet, I suppose?'

He gave an audible sigh and felt Jasper nuzzle his hand and the scrape of the stick against his bare leg. He threw it once more and they watched the dog run off; his energy seemingly inexhaustible.

'I...I don't have a girlfriend, in case you're wondering, and if I'm to be honest with you, now, being here with you like this is something of a fantasy come true.'

'And a destructive one for both of us.'

'Yeah,' he sighed, 'and unreal.' He quickened their pace after they had fallen into a slower step as if in time with their thoughts. 'The truth is,' he began but she sought to still his confession, but Ellis pulled away from her touch to his lips. 'The truth is...I've never really been with any woman let alone a married one. It's not something you go talking about.'

Ellis increased the distance between them and chose to put on his deck shoes after wiping the sand from his feet as best as he could. Sophie closed the space between them once more as Jasper looked up at her expectantly but she ignored the animal.

'Call in again at eleven tomorrow, please? Tony, I know, will be gone long before then, and one room is set for a refurb. Help me with that if you can, or if you want to?'

Sophie knew what his answer would be and that she wanted to hear. Ellis nodded as she stood close and he felt her breath on his face. He was suddenly consumed by the rush of raw desire for the woman, what the sight of her cleavage as she had leaned over the railing had aroused in him, and now her touch, Sophie's softened gaze. All of them had aroused an uncommon rush of desire, the cramp in his belly, for her.

'I'll help you with that and so much more.'

He blurted it all out slipped out of her hold on his arm and left Sophie without a backward glance. These ways of it between two people had to be learned of sometimes and he ached for it to be soon, very soon.

♥

Ellis stifled a groan.

The woman, that he saw come to greet him, was like a drug that he had no wish to give up. Sophie wore cropped, white, denim jeans that revealed the soft tone of her calves, white moccasin shoes on her slender feet, along with a blue shirt with a white check, like a lumberjack's summer shirt, She filled it nicely, the neckline revealing a silver pendant necklace that drew his eye to the mute freckles on her breastbone and her cleavage. She had pulled up her sleeves and Sophie had completed the look by tying back her hair into a single ponytail, fastened with a diamante clasp or some such thing.

They had so little in common and yet he wanted to be with her, and attending to the work that she set him was the way to achieve that and to see where it took them. That she now wanted his company, under controlled circumstances, he had no doubt.

'I feel scruffy, compared to you!' he laughed out and gazed at her approvingly. 'You'll have to excuse what passes for my work gear as I hadn't planned for any of this. But I'm glad we're here now...'

'Come? I'll show you what there is to do,' she smiled and turned to lead the way.

He followed her dutifully. His admiring looks, as she led him upstairs and along a picture-lined corridor, must have registered, for she turned once, maybe twice, to glance his way.

'I've had my residents to deal with so I couldn't wear scruffy work clothes,' she confessed as if to excuse how she looked. 'I'll call in from time to time to see how you're getting on.'

She said it on opening the door to an echoing room, the dust sheets covering a large bed and the curtains stowed in long covers that were cinched tight, close to the gleaming metal rail.

'You've got things organized, Sophie,' he said admiringly. He saw her move to a small trestle table used for wallpapering.

'I have to be that... organized, as I told you yesterday. These pots are the emulsion for the walls and you'll do them all in this one colour. The rollers and extension rods are over there in the corner...' She pointed at the ceiling and its cornice. 'I've done that and finished it on my own whenever I had the chance. Getting it finished now will give us more earning power while the season lasts.'

'I understand where you're coming from,' he assured her despite feeling disappointed by how business-like she had become.

'Good so you'd better get on while you can and...and Tony's not around. He doesn't suspect anything and thinks I'm doing things on my own, as I have done until now.'

Her tone had softened as she said that but Sophie now stopped on hearing a knock on the door and went to speak to whoever it was. Ellis took no notice. He looked, instead, out of the window and only turned away to gaze at her when Sophie came to stand by his side.

'I'm almost through with handovers and checkouts. My helper will soon be on her way and then I can be back here and with you...'

'Okay...I'd like that.'

'I know...but there's work to be done.'

She didn't need to say any more and Ellis felt his spirits falter. Sophie was only too business-like in her dealings with him now. He moved to pick up a screwdriver from the table before levering a lid off the paint pot to be used. 'I'll give this a good stir and get on.'

'Do that.' Sophie drew near once more on seeing his changed mood, and; how engrossed he had become in the task facing him. Impetuously, she took a handful of his T-shirt as she stood close. 'I'll be back to help, and I'll bring you a coffee. I don't suppose you live very well on that campsite you stay at?'

He met her soft smile upon him and let his eyes drift, for an instant, to take in her captivating appearance once more. Thoughts of this woman, and what he ached to do with her, had kept him awake during the night.

♥

'Look at you!' Sophie shrieked in laughter, the tray she carried shaking in her hands as she caught sight of him. Ellis had fashioned a cape from a dustbin liner as a way to keep the paint splashes off his clothes. 'Inventive and you're quick!'

He saw Sophie glance around the room. 'Is it as you expected?'

'You've done wonders and been so quick. I didn't think you'd get so far with the work before I came to help you.'

'It's been a couple of hours since I saw you,' he lamented, making a joke of it.

'And I've done all that's been needed. Here, drink this, you deserve it.' She handed him a coffee mug. 'I wish I'd met you earlier in the season. I'd have had the place ready and up the Tourist Board's rankings a whole lot sooner.'

'And I wish you were my age,' he blurted out, shuddering at simply stating the obvious, as he saw it. The woman just captivated him, and thoughts of being in her company and sharing in uncommon intimacy, in his case, again impossible to close out.

She wound his clock and he was besotted with her. He wanted to kiss her mouth, to feel her lips on him. He wanted to hold and to touch. He ached to learn of it with the woman before him. The slightest touch of her hands to his skin, to his arm, inflamed his senses and aroused a riot of emotions; the thoughts of what was to be found clothed in that shirt and cropped jeans, beguiling him.

He felt his breath catch in his throat as Sophie brushed fingers over his arm. They seemed to linger, as he tugged away at the bin liner. It had served its purpose.

'I wish, now, I had travelled down here a whole lot sooner.'

'So, do I. We could well have had a lot of fun together, Ellis, if you'd done that...' she said in a low voice. Sophie glanced at him as she licked the rim of her coffee mug, then brushed a fingertip over her parted lips.

'Don't,' he groaned, audibly, averting his gaze from her for a moment. He had fantasized about the woman and what she would bring to him. The ache in his belly made him tense his muscles as if that would be of any help. He knew that there could be only one remedy for how he felt and that she seemed to seek of him, by what she had said and done moments ago.

'It's okay...those feelings...that I read in your eyes when you look at me. They're okay and I've wanted them, Ellis.'

He eased out of her gentle hold on his arm and broke his gaze into her eyes. Instead, he looked at the light tan of her skin, at the gleam of the jewelled pendant that hung down from Sophie's throat and into her cleavage, just to be seen where her shirt was unbuttoned. Ellis wondered how it would feel to touch her there and press his lips to her skin.