Through An Artist's Eyes

She looked up at the sky above and closed her eyes. What was there to be gained from it all, but to satisfy a hungering need and to be with someone she might, would never, be with again after the holiday was over and they returned to their bounded worlds once more? She curated paintings and objets d'art for an auction house. She had money put by and could survive on little in her small terraced home in a leafy London suburb. She had wanted so much more, a family.

Jamie reached out, across the narrow space that separated them, and discreetly touched her thigh. Becky had been seen to glance down at a group of boisterous youngsters that passed them. He had seen the set of her lips soften, then open in a soft smile as if in recognition of an experience that had eluded her.

'That is what you miss, Becky. I see it in your eyes and how you are now.'

'Don't go there, not yet!' she sighed and gripped his hand fiercely.

What was the point in denying what was at work in each of them, or what could be gained, after such a short acquaintance? Back home, she wouldn't have thought twice about keeping details of her private life to herself; but with Jamie, it felt that they were running on parallel tracks that would bring them to where they wanted to be, but for different reasons.

'Can we deal with this?' he asked, his hand now brushing her cheek to sweep away her hair, mussed by the sea breeze that wafted over the jagged face of the redundant caldera that was the island.

She simply nodded her agreement.

'Be with me in my place, it's closer...walk there with me,' she had time to say before meeting a kiss that had seemed so unlikely, moments ago, but was delicious for the sense of frivolity that the young man had aroused in her.

Stories of holiday sex, the apparent meaninglessness of it, would either be confounded or made achingly real.

3

They said nothing during the walk to her villa, only touched when the throng of sightseers made them step aside on the winding path as it fell away, the flights of wide steps making the descent easier. He had put an arm around her waist as Becky leaned back for an instant and succumbed to a caress that went unseen. She responded by reaching for him, each soon lost in thoughts of what was to follow.

And when the door to her villa closed and she locked it, she was hindered by his embrace and hands that were soon on her, his lips pressed to her throat as she, awkwardly, tugged away her hat and succumbed to his kisses and claims upon her body.

'I hope you're not like this with everyone you meet!' she groaned, squirming away from him and watching Jamie tug away his T-shirt. 'You've got me believing in this Jamie, so be different.'

'It will be, I promise.'

'I'll hold you to that.'

'Hold and touch me first! Now, show me your bedroom!' he mumbled through their fiery kisses, the woman seeming to hunger for his lips, his tongue, the lingering touches of his lips to her shoulders as he eased aside the straps of her stylish sun top.

'Undress me...do that here!' she demanded, leaving him no time to answer, for her hands were on him, gripping the hard bulge in his shorts. They then tugged at his belt as she fumbled awkwardly to find him. He joined her in being undressed. 'Don't stop, not for a second!'

She squirmed to make it easier for him to pull away her cotton top, soon leaning forward to let him unhook her thin bra before she felt his body crush her breasts to him. The touch of his fingers to her belly induced soft spams of longing as his hands slid down her hips and pushed down her shorts and panties.

'My hopes have become real,' she heard him say as he buried his face between her legs and used his fingers to part her pussy's lips before his tongue poked and swirled.

'Jamie! Can this be happening so soon? It's crazy!' she gasped but knowing that the walls of her restraint had crumbled away. The suddenness, the impetuousness, the rage of longing that was being aroused in her defied all reason. She was giving of herself to a stranger, but his kisses and caresses to her body, to her breasts, and then her mouth as she tasted herself on his lips, and tongue, drove her on.

She had no qualms about what was happening, the suddenness of it, or how easy he would have found it to be in seducing her. She needed this, his attention upon her body, fleshy as it was; but she had been reactive to his attentions upon her. Now she would share and the long months of loneliness, and barren sex life would be put to an end. It would not be like a shower, but a tempest after the drought.

They stumbled back onto her bed, the covers smooth and cool.

'Let me find you, do something for you!'

'In a moment,' he growled before his mouth and fingers resumed their claims upon her, Becky lifting her legs and gripping her ankles; everything he wanted to be exposed to his gaze and touch. She felt wanton and bucked her hips to give back all that he pursued in her.

Jamie gave her a wondering look as he came up for air, and kissed the soft flesh of her silken thighs before he moved off her. 'You wanted to do something for me, I think, but being here with you is a wonderful start.'

'I'll show you!'

She settled between his thighs and grabbed his penis, sliding her moist tongue over its trembling length before it swirled around, and over, its domed tip.

'Leave us something to do later!' he laughed in dismay at her brazen mouthing of him.

'No, we do it all! We deserve this,' she answered, her brazen hands and mouth arousing the gnawing cramps of desire in him, the urge to let go, in her mouth, if Jamie wanted to.

'And I'll hold on,' he groaned, the effort to tighten his groin muscles unbearably pleasurable. What the women did for him defied everything that had gone before. 'You need this with me, just as I need it from you!'

Rebecca moved off him, trailed kisses over his taut stomach, and looked into his eyes, offering mesmerizing sweeps of her breasts to his skin. He held and crushed them in his hands, caressed his chest with her nipples; the small buds, that he had seen pressing the fabric of her vest, were now made large and hard. He felt her silky tongue in his mouth as they kissed, Rebecca savagely sucking on his tongue and having him know what she wanted to share with him.

'Will you love me now?' was all that she asked of him. The world outside was scarce to be heard, and her focus was entirely on him.

'I've...I've got to put something on,' he began, but Rebecca detained him, coaxed Jamie to kneel between her thighs and caressed her skin, brushed his fingers over her glistening pink folds, her sex open and awaiting his entry.

'Let me worry about that. You are a darling,' she whispered, her hands sliding over his chest and drawing Jamie into a kiss. 'We love and we go from there. We help each other through.'

'What can I say?' he sighed, dismayed at her request.

The pent-up emotions of the past months would be eased away by a captivating and giving woman who lay on the bed and reached out to pull him down on top of her, one hand finding his arcing prick before she pushed the tip into her body, brushed it over the coarse hair on her mound before he thrust into her.

'Yes, go on! I'm wet and ready for you!' she gasped, squirming her hips and lifting them to ensure his deep penetration of her. 'I need this from you ...I need to come!'

'So, no more foreplay?' he kissed through a soft laugh. Rebecca's hands gripped his buttocks as he began to swirl and thrust into her.

'We'll find the time for it all,' she replied, her breaths hitching as the tempo of his taking of her increased and as she encouraged, her legs caressing his body and her arms around his neck as she shared in his breaths. 'Right now I just want to be loved!'

The bed creaked in response to their shifting movements upon it. 'You want to fuck...'

'Yes, that too!'

His movements within her no longer met any resistance and he languished in the warmth and wet glory of her as it engulfed him. The woman he had met confounded him in her ways, tugged and clamped on his questing cock as he pursued a rhythm of slow thrusts that ended in a longer and deeper one.

'I need and want this from you, believe me!' he called out to her as the bed slipped on the rough tiles of the floor. Their breathless calls to each other seemed to fill the room. He rested on his elbows and bore his weight on them and his feet, eager to be joined to her by his penis alone for as long as the delights that Rebecca brought could be endured. His pals had their preferences. He had rediscovered his and now gloried in the sight of the woman beneath him, her head rolling from side to side as they claimed each other. They could not prolong their kisses.

Rebecca pulled him down onto her and gasped as he seemed to find her so deep. 'Fuck me, Jamie! Fuck me hard! You'll understand that I need to have an orgasm and it's going to be a whopper...like no other!'

The grip of her hands on his body, on his bucking hips, had him know that tender loving was not what she wanted, or needed, from him. It was quite enough that he pounded her like there was to be no repeat performance. It had been some time since he had been with Samantha, or Sam as she wanted to be called, and he felt that Rebecca's wrenching demands on him would bring on the painful eruptions that would be the first release of his frustration and gratitude for Rebecca's concession to him.

'Are you close?' she gasped.

'Yes, but I wish I wasn't. You feel so good!'

She was milking and wrenching on him, her pussy walls warm and slick as he drove his aching penis into her. Her denial of a man had brought her to this, so it seemed. And so it was, because of her, that he could feel the cramps in his balls and penis that an impending orgasm would bring. He ached for release but kept on wanting to share the physical demands that they made upon each other.

'Jamie...oh Jamie!' she yelled and crushed him to her body, sensing him tense before Jamie shuddered and she felt the expulsion of his semen in searing rushes. 'Fill me with it...don't hold back!'

He stopped moving, but he was not finished letting go of his lust for her and the body that he had claimed. He tensed his muscles and controlled what he still had left to give her. They could move in a slower rhythm when they were satisfied and could come down from their shared heights of pleasure.

'Keep fucking!' Rebecca hissed, the clamp of her hands on his buttocks provoking him to resume tamping her, the soft squelching sound a spur to sharing these last moments.

Rebecca drew him back in, deeply, and he slid in and out of her slicked heat with ease, the grip of her hands on his buttocks and soft kisses of encouragement provoking him to tamp pleasurably, to smack his groin down onto her as she coaxed him to love through what he felt until she was ready.

'Rebecca...Becky! Do I go on?' She was wasting him.

'Keep fucking me, Jamie!'

The reserved and suspicious woman now shared in the guttural groans of pleasure aroused by each of his hard thrusts. He knew it wouldn't be long before a second orgasm overwhelmed them.

'Yes...yes...yes!' she called out, her words son becoming a long moan as she shuddered, felt more bolts of his semen sear into her. 'You've found me!'

Her voice filled the room as on halting breaths she gave voice to a high-pitched scream and started shaking, her pussy clamping around him as her clammy heat leaked out between them and slicked her thighs. The tugs and clamps on his penis slowly ebbed away and she fell back on the bed and met the wondering look in his eyes before they kissed.

'I got lost in you, hope it didn't hurt?' His spent dick sure felt as if the torment had been unlike anything he had shared in before.

Rebecca shivered as he withdrew from her body and she looked down, saw the rosy glow on her belly and thighs, and felt a palpable ache where he had been. The pleasure he had brought to her was all the more special because she had agreed that he should not slip a condom over that wonderful length of flesh that she now reached for.

'Give me a moment to recover, won't you?' he smiled on looking down into her face as Rebecca nestled against him, her breasts against his side and one leg draped over his. He looked at his watch but she soon stopped him from checking the time.

'It's not so late but early afternoon, but there are others who will get to talking if we don't appear.'

She felt as if she was adrift on a soft cloud of pleasure as she brushed her fingers lightly over his chest, felt the ripples in his stomach muscles as Jamie tensed. She had learned soon enough of his strength and vitality, his raging enthusiasm to love with her. 'You don't have to go...'

'No, I don't. Nor do I want to, but I don't want you to be embarrassed by someone seeing me leave.'

'That's for me to decide too, isn't it?' she answered, yet unable to keep him from leaving the bed. 'Don't go, or not yet, please? Have a drink and something to eat...talk again with me. I want to learn so much more about you...'

He felt Rebecca press against him and took delight in the sensations that the brush of her breasts against his skin again aroused. So much had already been shared with the woman who had taken a hold of his mind, much to the teasing dismay of his friends who 'cut him some slack' after all that he had been through with Sam, his ex; she who had ditched him and the news coming out of nowhere, and never a hint that she had been taken by another man and that she was two-timing him.

He had thought to find some comfort by taking this fleshy, voluptuous, and undoubtedly passionate woman to bed, but deeper emotions had taken hold in him, and much to his surprise.

'Okay, I'll stay a while longer and we can talk about where we go from here. You're too much of a woman for me to let go of her.'

He was so sure of everything and she felt as if she was on the edge of a dizzying fall into a relationship that would be more than a holiday fling. She ran to be in his arms and could not keep from kissing his skin, breathing in his heat and the aroma of the sex that had been shared.

'I could love the one I'm with,' she kissed, shivering once more on feeling his touches and how he palmed her buttocks, caressed between them, and pricked the base of her spine.

'I feel that way too. It's funny how things happen when you're on the rebound.'

She grabbed for a thin, short hemmed, dressing gown as Jamie checked that he had everything. He was seen taking his iPhone from his haversack. 'Don't worry, I won't take a picture of lovely you, tempting as it is...'

'You want my number, I suppose?' She stood close to him once more and watched as his nimble fingers entered the numbers that she spoke out to him. 'I'll ring it, then you'll have mine...'

She was dismayed at feeling possessive about him, all of a sudden. 'When will I see you again?'

He reached out to her, put his hands on her neck, and tilted her head up to meet his parting kiss. 'Tonight...later on tonight, if I may call in?'

Rebecca nodded and clung to him. 'It's been a crazy few hours, with and without you.'

'I've already given you my answer on that.'

Rebecca saw him smile as Jamie peered around the edge of her villa's front door before it was closed behind him. How was she to explain it if they met when the others in her art group were around? She had lost her head over him. It was the only explanation for her impetuous behavior and all that had been so ardently pursued with him.

4

The art gallery taverna was approached over winding paths, its unremarkable frontage marked by a battered and fading wooden door that had been tied back to the white, roughly rendered, wall. The last of the evening sun lit the sky to the west in an orange glow, the first signs of stars seen in the darkening heavens above. She had stepped over the paths in her sandalled feet, passed under a ring of bells fixed in a stepped arch that towered over all who passed underneath it. Small lights illuminated the way. It felt magical, romantic and so evocative of the island she was visiting.

She wished to be here with her lover, not the welcoming art group that she was a member of. Susan had called her, moments after Jamie had closed the door of her villa. She had chosen not to go out onto her small balcony, with its plunge pool, and follow his progress. He had told her that he and his friends had a larger villa near the center of the hillside town, so he was not so far away. It mattered to her.

There were messages on her iPhone, she had noted, and when she had rung Susan she had been met with the single question, 'are you okay?'

'Yes', she had answered quickly enough and had then listened as the venue for the group's evening together was made known. An idea had soon come to mind. 'You saw me talking to a young man. He's an artist, a graphics artist in advertising, and he wondered if he could join us, if only for a while. He has his friends to think of too.'

'And he would be the company for you, Becky, seeing as the rest of us are couples.'

It had been said only too directly but she had not reacted in the way that may have been expected. 'I'll ask Jamie...his name is James Pettyfer.'

'Very grand...'

'Yes, perhaps. He is also good at his drawing. I soon saw that when we sat in the square near one of the galleries, earlier in the afternoon, and he sketched out the scene so quickly that I was simply amazed.'

Susan had been heard to laugh. 'You've convinced me! Bring that Jamie fellow along.'

And now, here she was, a text message having been sent to him and she was still waiting for Jamie's reply. Perhaps he was having to explain his absence to his friends and they had prevailed upon him to let the matter rest. 'You've scored, move on, mate.'

Only she couldn't.

♥

The meal was over and they sat at their table, set under the arching roof of the cavern, and slowly drained what was left of their drinks. Rebecca fretted, and she had tried not to let it show, as her iPhone remained resolutely silent.

The scrape of chairs behind her, a word of apology to those who had shifted to make way for him, announced Jamie's presence.

'I'm sorry to be so late...'

'We'd almost given up on you,' Susan opined. She took, unbidden, the artist's drawing pad that Jamie held out to her. 'Rebecca's told us something about you.'

He was seen to be holding a small glass of beer and Rebecca looked up at him, marvelling at his poise and easy manner. She met his approving look upon her and was immediately engaged with him once more. Jamie had shaved and she took in his appearance in a quick appraising glance; noted his khaki chinos and a collarless sky-blue shirt, the short sleeves revealing his strong arms. He had paid attention to his appearance, and she took to wondering if that was on account of having met her. Another explanation was that he sought to dispel the notion, that others may have formed, that she had taken up with a much too young man. She would offer no explanations, now that he was intent on sitting beside her; the raging sense of attraction, she had felt earlier in the day, suddenly has become so much more.

'I had to stay with the others,' he whispered, leaning in to do so, 'but they're now going clubbing, and I had other ideas.' He gazed around the table and nodded a greeting to all who sought to catch his eye. His sketch pad was being passed from hand to hand, this way and that across the table, some taking more interest in its contents than others. 'The friends I am with don't take the same interest in where we are...'

Rebecca nudged his leg with her knee to draw his attention back to her. 'I'd almost given up on you...'

'Why think that? You look even more wonderful than this afternoon...elegant. I love how you've plaited your hair.'