That's Cuth Cooper!

Cuth stifled a big yelp as he suddenly received a heavy elbow jolt to the ribs.

"Rude jerk," Alexis hissed.

"What was that noise, mate?"

"Just the sound of the motor idling."

"Oh yeah, you imported that crated 395 HP Hemi 5.7 litre V8 engine from the States and had it stuffed into the engine bay to replace the smaller Holden V8 motor to burn rubber more easily. I still reckon you are daft choosing to live like a drifter and drive like one when a wealthy guy like you could be moving around in a limo like others wealthy cock-suckers and their husbands."

Alexis sucked in air hugely and Ian said, "There is goes again. It's a 'miss' that needs looking at by a tuning expert."

"Nah, mate. Big motors like this one tend starve when idling. Are you calling me with news?"

"The Assistant District Commissioner will be in Sydney on Monday and Tuesday. He says lunch on Monday at his hotel would suit him best, with you paying for lunch. Phone me to confirm that lunch in Sydney would suit you and Mrs Jessica Holmes, QC (Queen's Counsel)."

"Right, and thanks for being our go-between Ian."

"Thanks, and remember all this is off the record. Oh, will you agree to pay compensation?"

"I'll think about that once our meeting is confirmed. I suppose they are thinking ten thousand bucks?"

"Or three, four or even five times that amount. Bye mate, this is the first time I've know you to be on the wrong side of any deal."

Alexis leaned over and patted Cuth gently on the cheek a couple of times, cooing, "Oh, have you been a naughty boy and are now have to face the music?"

"I do hope it doesn't end up with you living behind bars where horny men go around in groups to initiate straight new inmates like you. However, I find it very informative to learn that you are available to comfort and to provide the relief that excessively horny females are desperate for."

"Um, do you know what you are saying, Alexis?"

"Is that comment really necessary. I had already indicated that my honey pot may be waiting for your inspection by the day's end."

"I thought that might be a tease."

"So, you think I'd let anyone who was a stranger, bang me without having given it very careful consideration?"

"In this instance, we are not strangers."

"Oh, and how do you come to that conclusion, Cuth?"

He looked at his smart watch and said, grandly, "Because dear young lady, we have known one another for seventeen minutes."

Alexis chuckled and said he was hopeless, a nitwit.

She looked around the interior of the Ute, one hand patting the velvet deep dark red of the upholstery and glanced at the replaced and heavily instrument-loaded dashboard obviously uncomprehendingly.

"Very up-market inside, with a dog of an exterior... and that leaves my thinking what's up Mac?"

"I've done 78,380 km of cruising faultlessly in this baby since purchasing it new not quite three years ago, and so why trade it in, especially when the makers of Holden had ended Australia-made production of Holdens. When I became wealthy on paper overnight, I spent money on giving my trusted mechanical steed an interior fit for a princess."

"Then this vehicle is considered to be female?"

"Of course, aren't they all? Her name is Yarra. Early morning, the day after I took delivery of her from a dealership in Melbourne, I was walking along the riverbank of the Yarra River that flows through the centre of the city to find a café for coffee."

"At one point I stopped, and looked almost breathlessly on the breeze-rippling river as the dawning sun rays flashed across those ripples. Later, when sipping coffee, I thought my Ute was hereby named Yarra."

"Omigod, you romantic guy."

"That's touching, and thanks Alexis. In contrast to that, I've been called a tough bastard, even by mates."

He added, "Actually, there is romantic link to that name. I've found that Yara (rather than Yarra) was a Brazilian goddess and linked historically to Aboriginal people who camped on the river banks running through Melbourne they called Yarro Yarro, meaning flowing water, prior to European settlement. Also, Yarra is considered a form of the Arabic and Iranian name, Yara, a small butterfly. Well enough of that, what would you like to do?"

"Take me somewhere you usually go for lunch when you eat out. A place where your friends gather."

"You mean where I can show you off?"

"No, where your friends are and the food is good. No one would notice me," Alexis said.

Cuth glancing at her noticed her pull back her hair and push her chest forward.

Sucking in his top lip a little, he thought, omigod.

"Do you think we could become close friends?"

He was almost shocked when she drawled, "And why would I'd want to do that?"

"Oh sorry, I just thought you appeared interested in me."

While waiting for a response, Cuth wondered if she was thinking of abandoning him, which was unusual thinking for him, or perhaps thinking of head-butting him under the chin.

"I don't believe from our short association, that you have an over-inflated ego. Therefore, it does suggest that your interest in me resides at a higher level than a desire to bang me simply because I have two legs, two shapely tits and a pretty face below my natural long blonde hair."

"I think I'm genuine," he said firmly and just as Alexis fluffed the left-hand side of her hair outwards, presumably to fall back naturally into place, he gunned the long-idling motor and the car shot forward, the violent acceleration smoking the rear tyres, pinning the occupants back into their bucket seats.

"Holy fuck," she screeched, as if she'd just climaxed.

He slowed the vehicle and checked the rear vision mirror knowing he should have done that before shooting out from the kerb. The road behind him was clear.

"I just avoided wetting my thong. Our take-off was as if this Ute has a jet-engine."

He smiled hugely, "The larger replaced engine is designed for heavier full-size pick-ups or heavy larger cars which means dazzling performance for any rugged but lighter vehicle like this one. Also, the engine was souped up by experts before being mounted in my Ute."

"You show-off."

"Nah, I had motor-bikes before got my first car and so grew up with the feeling being at one with powerful vehicles."

"That seems plausible. Just before I became terrified, I was about to respond by your strange comment that I might become interested in you."

"Okay, sorry for the interruption. Say it."

"I had been about to say you should ask me that question again in a week's time if I've had much of that time with you to get to know you better, how compatible we may be and what we both wish to do with our lives in some time ahead."

"Fair enough."

"Is that all you have to say."

"Yeah, it's been said. An outcome will occur if we both want it to happen."

"Cuth, are you really devoid of ambition?"

"I don't think so. It's just that since becoming enriched in monetary terms, I've given myself two years to drift about in life to settle my thoughts about what I want to do, do I wish to be with anyone in particular, and to decide whether to continue to drift for short term or for the long term."

"And you have dreams?"

"Yes, Alexis. I have half a head full of them. And they require sorting with some discarding. I probably need to go to a remote beach for a month to do that. Perhaps with you."

"Ooh."

"Yeah, a neat possibility, eh?"

"Well, back to the present: I'm hungry."

"Me too, baby. Don't we appear to be compatible."

Alexis giggled.

Chapter 2

At almost 12.30, Cuth and Alexis entered a modern designed café and continued through to an open-air seating area under huge sail-cloth canopies for protection against the fierce Australian summer sun, and headed to a group of about 16 people in their late twenties through to the early forties.

It was Saturday.

Alexis's impression she was looking at a sea of sun-tanned faced and happy faces where the hair was predominately blonde or variants and the clothing was minimal. Two females had a small baby in their lap and a woman in her late thirties was heavily pregnant.

"Hi - hello - welcome arsehole" were variations of greetings for Cuth but most eyes were on his companion.

An incredibly bronze-face great-looking 30-year-old female said, "You picked well when you found him, you beautiful stranger."

There was completed silence, and Alexis glanced at Cuth who pointed to his mouth and swept a hand out towards the crowd, indicated she should introduce herself.

Christ, had asshole forgotten her name!

"Hi everyone," Alexis said, curbing the strength of her Sydney accent. "I'm Alexis Carter."

"You're American, I believe," called another female who'd probably lived there to attend university.

"Yes, I live an hour's drive into the hills and I work as a university lecturer."

"Do you surf?"

"Yeah, I do but I lied and told Cuth that I didn't to avoid being pulled off to a beach and being asked to demonstrate my prowess, if any."

"Well the confession will appease the guys," called a woman. "But we females want to know where is your bikini or are you usually dressed in an academic gown?"

"I have a bikini in here," Alexis said holding up her handbag. "I have about 10 bikinis as I swim every day. My family home has a long pool."

"Do you hold swim and/or surfing titles?" asked the most beautiful woman that Alexis had seen so far in the small community.

"I'd rather not say."

A guy said, "You better answer Sandra Armstrong, she's a roving countryside reporter for three women's magazines and will keep the pressure on you until you crack."

"Well mate, I don't crack easily, and I'm not wanting to project myself but I am wanting to fit in an enjoy my month's stay here and not to be called boastful by revealing my sporting and academic successes."

"And good for you love," Sandra called as several women stopped clapping Alexis on her strong rebuttal. "Come and sit with me, Alexis. Mark, grab a chair for her and you guys shuffle around the tables a bit. Mark's my partner and actually it a gentleman Alexis. Here, allow me to kiss you and no, I'm not gay."

That long introduction pleased Cuth, who sat beside two females, both of whom kissed him slowly, eyeing the unconcerned visitor.

A mass of pizzas arrived with drinks and Alexis was handed a low-calorie non-alcohol beer, compliments of Cuth, who blew her a kiss across the six tables pushed together.

Sandra asked Alexis could she sing and the visitors said yes, and she would sing if requested.

"Guys, do you wish to hear our famous visitor sing. I've just asked her could she sing and she replied to the affirmative," said Sandra.

The chorus was "Yes!"

Sandra said, "I've just checked the web and find our gorgeous visitor is famous."

"Famous," called someone.

"Yes, our Miss Carter represented California in swimming backstroke over two distances and won a national title in one event, according to what I've pulled up on my phone. In her first two years at the University of California, which currently has 273,000 students over several campuses, Alexis won three ACU championship events for women in surfing."

There were murmurs of approval.

Sandra called, "Max, do you have your guitar in your car."

"Yep."

"Must I ask you to get it please?"

"Nope," Max said, moving off quickly to Sandra's glare.

Max returned with his guitar and conferred with Alexis and he nodded when she asked him if he knew the tune of the song she wished to sing.

They went around the tables to a tiny stage and Max came back from inside the café after asking for the sound system to be turned on. He told Alexis he often was a member of a three-person band that played there at private functions.

She said, "How long have you been playing the guitar, Max?"

"I advanced two years after I began playing the ukulele when I was six."

"Christ," she said and Max grinned hugely.

Alexis announced, "I'm only singing the one song thanks, one of the first songs that I learned coming out of childhood. My mother since her younger days has been obsessed with the singing of Linda Ronstadt and she really cracked the whip making me learn to sing the difficult 'Blue Bayou' that for at least a decade was my favourite song. So here we go, thanks to Max Wells on guitar."

She sang in beautiful, and patrons and staff inside the café came to the open folding doors to watch and listen to the singer.

The applause at the end was huge and there were calls for more.

"Okay, but just the one repeat of Blue Bayou,' I invite all of you to join in on this very happy occasion for me. It is making me love Australia."

By the time that encore ended, with many of the patrons of the café joining in, everyone admired Alexis Carter.

Alexis kissed Max and complimented him on his playing, saying without it she would not have performed so well.

"Why are you not signing professionally?"

"Oh, come on Max, you know the big stage is filled and overflowing because good signers abound. I get my kicks and feeling of professionalism from the students I teach at university, helping them to make their way hopefully up the ladder in this world of ours."

"That's beautifully expressed Alexis," Sandra said. "Will you allow me to interview you later this afternoon and have photos taken? We all will head for the beach."

"Yes, and that will please Cuth because he'll be breaking his neck to get me on a board to see if I can manage the break. You know what males are like."

Sandra giggled.

"You are so adorable, Alexis," Sandra whispered. "I suggest that you don't bother with Cuth if you can't connect to him to your satisfaction. He's a real tight-arse with his emotions and I speak with authority. I was his closest girlfriend for some six months some years ago."

"Is he good... you know?"

"Wonderfully at that level, darling. But we women want more than that."

* * *

The group from the restaurant lunch arrived at the beach and enlarged a group of about forty friends and acquaintances already sunning themselves, playing beach cricket or were out in the surf.

The only public facilities. were the toilets and Alexis had to change into beachwear in the female section.

She emerged in a black bikini that contrasted magnificently against her light golden tan. Most conversation stopped as she walked to her group.

"Great body," Sandra smiled. "Come over to the rocks at the end of the sand where there is shade and with no one to interrupt the interview. My contract photographer is 40 minutes away and I want you looking dry and at your best for the first part of the shoot."

"What, you require more than one photo?"

"Yes, as I always work as if I'm producing the cover pic and cover story."

"Well, in this case you'll be disappointed."

"I think the opposite, darling. You're not a humble and untalented person."

The female photographer arrived and when the interview and that part of the shoot were completed, Alexis chose one of the boards from the dozen or so that was on offer and the guy handing it to her said, "You'll have to be good to manage this board to its potential, baby."

"Alexis is good, Ivan and she wishes to impress her new boyfriend who has several championship titles to his name."

"Who, Cuth?"

"Who else? Alexis is probably in love with his hot Holden."

Ivan sighed and said some guys were naturally lucky.

Cleo the photographer waded out in a bikini waist high after Alexis had caught three waves in and Cleo waved that she was ready.

Alexis waited to catch the so-called 7th wave and rode in athletically straight at Cleo and just short of her turned sharply right and raising her right hand high, turned and the acceleration of riding in 0ff-square to the breaking wave and leaning backwards almost made the board and rider become completely air-born and many people on the beach applauding with some looking on in disbelief.

Cleo hurriedly back-pedalled and checking the image in her view-finder waved excitedly in the direction of Sandra and yelled, "Front cover Outdoor Women mag."

The photographer then spoke to Alexis who went out a bit and came in kneeling on her board, hands on hips, riding ashore nonchalantly on the dying broken white water of the wave.

Cleo then called, "That's a wrap" after viewing the image.

The delighted Sandra returned to town after kissing Alexis and telling him Alexis was a winner.

"Thanks, but not many people will see your effort," Alexis said. "What's the circulation of Outdoor Woman magazine?"

"Number of ultimate readers, I'm not sure. But sales last month were about average, 87,000., mostly in New South Wales."

"Fuck," Alexis gasped.

Cuth, in his usual word-economy when speaking to a female said to Alexis, "Nice ride" but she appreciated the huge hug, remembering the saying that actions speak louder than words. He capped his actions by eyeing her proudly.

During the return to Riverside, Cuth said, "About tonight."

Alexis yawned and said, "Yes, you can have sex."

"What about you?"

"What? Oh, apologies. I meant you with me," she laughed.

Cuth said, amazingly, sounding almost shyly, "Um, I had been about to say that I wish to delay that eventuality."

He glanced at Alexis who looked disappointed.

Her shoulders and chest slumped and she said, "I'm sorry for appearing flirtatious when being congratulated for my display on the board with that incredible finished that surprised even me. I was left so excited in receiving that attention from numerous guys and gals wanting to kiss me that I must have appeared highly sluttish to you."

"No, that was fine," Cuth retorted quickly. "You were entitled to fully enjoy the moment and your reaction would have made you highly popular with my friends, at least for this day. You were wonderful."

Alexis' jaw dropped when he added, "I'm falling for you. I wish to wait for sex with you when the moment is perfect, should we allow that occasion to arrive.

"Omigod," Alexis said, sounding pole-axed.

And then she almost croaked, "But why me? I watched those females in that large group that we were amid on the beach and my guess is at least half of them believe the sun shines out of your butt. You could have almost any appropriate female that you desire."

Cuth grinned softly.

"Today I have awakened to reality, that life means far more than sex and that the compatibility between us is enormous and that we pose rather as rivals than simply as a good fit in compatibility."

"Omigod," Alexis said, leaning against his shoulder. "Keep your attention on driving safely. I'm torn being feeling I'm floating on pink clouds or being partly terrified."

"That's what I mean, we have perfect compatibility. My clouds would never be pink, but I too have my dreams and I felt partly terrified at the thought of expressing my deep feelings because it's something I rarely do."

"Oh Cuth, that was an astonishing confession from a male. Um, what if you were to find I was horrible at participating in sex?"

The vehicle swerved off line slightly before being corrected quickly and he chuckled when saying that he's have masturbation as a useful backup.

He enjoyed Alexis in unrestrained hee-haw laughter.

Cuth drove on happily, marvelling that he'd delayed the opportunity of having sex. He must really like her, he thought, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Are you dribbling?"

"Nah," he lied, in reply to the voice below the mass of sun-bleached blonde hair resting against his shoulder.

A few miles on, Alexis took a call from her Aunt Erica.

After the call she said, "Mrs Holmes has invited my aunt and me to dinner with you and her tonight. I almost declined when she said you would cook . I asked could you cook she alleged you were chef-class."