Wreckers Island (romantic suspense) (10 page)

‘Aah, the sea, the mighty ocean, ’tis the
land of the free,’ slurred Louise, ‘well it would be, if it was land. When you
put to sea, you leave the nanny state behind.’

It wasn’t the law that Dan was worried
about, but Louise’s physical ability to get them back, but Louise, who could
take her beer, seemed not to have lost her seafaring skills and they returned
without incident.

‘Come on,’ said John to her, as he guided her
up the tight spirals of the staircase. ‘Let’s get you to bed.’

Emma, aware that Dan felt awkward, sought to
reassure him. ‘It’s ok Dan, I’m happy to share with you. Come and curl up with
me and what happens, happens, ok?’

To John’s disappointment, no sooner had he laid his new
girlfriend out on the mattress than she promptly fell asleep and began to
snore. There was nothing that a gentleman could do but get in alongside her and
pull the duvet over them both.

He didn’t mind too much. He was content to
have her warm, supple body next to his. It was something he had often
contemplated and wished for. Plus, he was hardly on peak form himself. The pair
of them had well and truly had one too many.

Dan’s ardour for Emma was tempered with a persistent
nervousness. He hadn’t got much sexual experience although nor, he was fairly
sure, had she. But he dreaded appearing gauche and unsure what to do if she responded
to him.

Emma sensed his apprehension as they climbed
the stairs and it helped put herself at ease and make her feel more confident.
She guessed that finding somewhere more neutral in the lighthouse than the
girls’ bedroom might help.

‘Dan,’ she whispered, ‘did you notice the
moon in the sky as we came back and how bright it was? It must be bathing the
lamp room in the most magical light. Why don’t we take our bedding up there?’

Dan trembled as he hauled the duvet and
pillows up the metal staircase. Emma was right, lunar light flooded through the
large glass panes. It was a surreal experience to be at the top of an old, redundant
lighthouse as night fell and the sea turned from deep blue, to purple then to a
moon-bathed silver-grey.

Occasionally, the crest of a wave would
flicker ghostly white and sparkle as it journeyed forward. After a few hours of
calm, the sea was moving again beneath a steady breeze. The rocks around the
island, uncompromisingly black at this hour, gleamed and glistened in the pale
light.

The moon, the stars, the restless sea hypnotised
Dan and Emma as they stared through the glass. Emma did not wish to tear herself
away but sensed that someone needed to take the initiative.

As Dan maintained his dreamy reverie at the
window, she knelt in front of him and tugged his belt open. She struggled to
free the button of his trousers, then pulled them straight to his feet.

Dan hardly dared believe what happened next.
He felt her fingernails catch his thighs as they seized the waistband of his
briefs. He hoped he’d remembered to put a reasonable pair on that day. With one
swift yank, Emma pulled them free of the stiffening bulge inside and let them
fall to the floor.

Wrapping her arms around his waist, she
stroked his firm buttocks with her hands and traced her tongue hungrily between
his legs. She lowered him on top of her and he pulled her tight jumper, which
showed off her neat breasts so perfectly, up over her head. He fumbled with her
bra strap and she had to help him. Her breasts leapt free. He bit on them, roughly
at first, then more gently. Emma’s nipples swelled as his tongue flicked over
first one then the other.

He knelt in front of her and unhooked her
skirt which dropped to the floor. He gazed at her as if she were a goddess, entranced
by her pale, elf-like legs and white cotton knickers with frilled lace edges. Just
visible in the moonlight, the subtle shape of her most private, feminine place pressed
against the fabric.

Dan traced a single finger back and forth over
her pubic mound, enjoying its rise and fall.

‘Take my knickers off now Dan and make love
to me, please,’ pleaded Emma. ‘I want you inside me.’

She gasped as Dan entered her, deep and
swift and rough at times, as months of pent-up desire finally burst free.

When their lust was finally satisfied, they cuddled
beneath the duvet, resting in each other’s hot, sweaty arms, saying nothing and
listening only to the ebb and flow of the tide sluicing the rocks below.
Eventually, they fell asleep as the moon waxed higher before moving off, ahead
of an early-rising sun.

To watch dawn break across the sea at 4am as
it did in early June would have been magical, but Dan and Emma’s eyes remained
firmly shut. Nor did they hear the seabirds’ dawn chorus, the maritime
equivalent of blackbirds, robins and chaffinches at home.

Relaxed and content they snoozed on and on,
as did John and Louise. After all, they were on holiday, there were no lectures
to get up promptly for; no alarm clocks needed setting and they’d had a late
night.

‘Why do people like you and me get named after characters
from the Bible, when we both turn out to be such scumbags,’ snarled Jacob to
Zachariah, putting his lump hammer down for a rest.

‘You speak for yourself you gap-toothed
idiot,’ snarled back Zak, as he was usually known, to his near-toothless
accomplice. ‘You might be a scumbag but I’m not. I don’t move in the highest circles,
but I like to keep my hand in a few pies.’

‘Oh you do that all right. I can’t believe
we’ve been trying to smash our way through breeze block since 6 o’clock in the
morning on a fool’s errand like this!’ moaned unfit 44-year-old Jake, short for
Jacob, sweat pouring from his brow.

‘Oh grit your teeth – or in your case
pretend to – and get on with it,’ advised Zak, who at one year older still had
a reasonably full set, a couple of gold fillings and a scar across his cheek
that he was proud of. ‘We haven’t got all day, we’ve already been at it two
hours. Once those stupid students haul themselves out of bed, they will be
straight down that tunnel to get that treasure.’

‘That’s assuming there is any treasure,’
pointed out Jake. ‘I ain’t heard of a soul finding so much as a gold sovereign
in a century or more. There’s more gold in your gnashers than down ‘ere. All the
caves and tunnels ’ave been cleaned out and you know that as well as I do. What’s
more, this one ’as been blocked up for most o’ that time.’

‘Yes you prize oaf, that’s why there might still
be some loot to be had, if you knew where to look for it and those posh kids
clearly do,’ said Zak. ‘It’s ’idden for sure and they ’ave found a way down to
it somehow from that island and they’re going back for it today.

‘We ’eard ’em say as much in the pub,
several times over. Now I’ve known this coastline round ’ere since I were that
high,’ he said, pointing to his ankles. ‘The tunnel from that there island
leads all the way to this shore and comes out into this rock face. If it
weren’t blocked up, we’d see a great big ’ole. All we ’ave to do is unblock it this
end, walk up and find the loot before they return. ’Ence why we’re making an
early start.’

‘All we’ve got to go on is the say-so of
that drunken madam with the dark hair and wild green eyes, with more lager in
’er than was good for ’er,’ replied Jake. ‘I tell you this, I’m gonna shag her
bloomin’ tits off if all that were a wind-up.’

‘Hey,’ replied Zak with a glint in his eye, ‘assumin’
they be tellin’ the truth and we come upon them in the tunnel we may bag
ourselves more than a sackful of treasure, know what I’m saying?’

‘Ah, now you’re talkin’,’ said Jake, his
round, unshaven face and pudgy nose contorting into another leering smile of
the kind he had inflicted on Louise the previous night. ‘I’ve already grabbed a
handful of arse, I could do with a bit more besides. It’s a while since I’ve sunk
me teeth into a real woman.’

‘Judging from your empty gob, I’d say you
must have left them in her!’ guffawed Zak. ‘Anyway, you keep thinking, arse ‘n’
treasure, arse ‘n’ treasure – that should spur you on, now swing that lump
’ammer ’ard then I’ll take over. Couple o’ hours we be countin’ our gold and
bangin’ them lasses – with their fellas tied up in the corner!’

~~~~~

At 8 o’clock in the lighthouse, it took a particularly
spine-chilling shriek from a cormorant to wake Dan and that was only because it
was perched on the circular balcony directly outside the lamp room. He was
roused from a strange and erotic dream in which he discovered long-lost
treasure beneath a pyramid, had wild, passionate sex with a girl he adored on
the top of a skyscraper then had some noisy eagle spoil it by waking him with a
loud squawk.

‘Where am I?’ he grunted as he sat up half
on his elbows, rubbing his eyes. The offending cormorant was still on the
balcony, preening its black feathers with its long beak. Several other seabirds
mewed mournfully.

There, next to him, was a slim shape under
the duvet and a shock of blonde hair lying messily across her face. As Dan
staggered to his feet, he realised that the dream hadn’t been far out. Here he
was in the lamp room of a lighthouse with his woman and yesterday they had
indeed found treasure.

So why did he feel odd and woozy, as if
everything wasn’t quite real? Of course, he’d got a hangover! The four of them
had gone ashore in triumphant mood to enjoy a few celebratory pints. Now it was
payback time. His head throbbed intermittently; his throat felt thick. He
hadn’t drunk as much as John and Louise, but Guinness could easily affect him
after three or four pints.

Right, thought Dan, time to get moving and regain
a sense of focus. They had an important task to recover that treasure to a
place of safety. Admittedly, it had lain there undiscovered for over two
centuries but it needed bringing to the lighthouse where they could see it
properly and make a list of all they had found. Furthermore, mused Dan, uneasily,
was there a chance that their loud and indiscreet conversation had been
overheard the previous night? He could have kicked Louise for her bragging. Of
course, she had been happy and on a high about not only treasure but her
blossoming relationship with John and too much lager had loosened her tongue.

The spiral staircase made Dan unpleasantly
dizzy as he slowly descended. From John and Louise’s room he could hear heavy
breathing and the occasional snore. There was no hope of getting them up just
yet.

He made a pot of tea and buttered toast
which he carried carefully on a tray. Emma was starting to come round. She
blinked in the bright daylight flooding into the lamp room which did not, of
course, have any curtains.

‘Where am I?’ she said, before remembering. She
grinned at Dan as he came in.

‘Mmm, breakfast in bed. Now this is a nice
surprise!’

‘It’s only tea and toast I’m afraid,’
replied Dan.

‘That’s perfect,’ said Emma. ‘Tea, toast and
you, my lovely Dan. Did we really do what I think we did last night, or did I
dream it?’

‘I was wondering that too,’ said Dan,
pouring the tea, ‘I think we did. We can always do it again to make sure!’

‘Yes, definitely,’ said Emma. ‘This holiday
is proving to be quite an education to me, in so many ways. I’m even learning
how to get about in a boat and go potholing.’

‘Talking of which,’ said Dan, as he crawled
under the duvet, ‘I don’t want to leave it too long before we return for the
treasure. I’m worried about the way we all went on about it last night,
particularly Louise, I have to say.’

Emma nodded. ‘Yes, especially in a place
like that which we know was once a haunt of smugglers and wreckers. Some of the
regulars in there, like that gap-toothed fellow who grabbed Louise’s bum, look
like they would be that sort of type, given half the chance. The question is,
what time will John and Louise finally surface?’

‘Crack of noon, probably,’ said Dan wryly.
‘Mind you, it is lovely and cosy under this duvet with you alongside me. He entwined
his legs with Emma’s and she felt his erection pushing hard against her.

‘I suppose,’ she said, ‘we better help you
get rid of that before we do anything. You can’t go around like that, you’ll
knock something over.’

Meanwhile, one floor below, were signs of
life.

‘Oh, my head hurts,’ moaned John. He looked
about him and noticed that daylight was seeping in below the curtains. He
glanced across the room to where he assumed Dan was asleep. ‘Oi mate, you don’t
fancy going downstairs and getting us a cup of tea do you, and maybe a headache
pill or something? I think there’s some in the cupboard.’

An absent Dan didn’t reply. The room was
spinning slowly and John wasn’t even attempting to actually locate him. Then he
became aware of something warm and human curled up under his own duvet.

‘Dan, what are you doing in bed with me?’ he
muttered, throwing the covers back. It was Louise of course. That was a
pleasant surprise. John scratched his head seeking to work out how that had
happened.

Eventually, the memories of the previous
night’s celebration flooded back and his wonderful, romantic chat with Louise
as they went to buy the drinks and how, fuelled by joy at their amazing find,
they knew they wanted to be together.

Had they done anything in bed together, or just
fallen asleep? John couldn’t remember but Louise was still fully clothed, as
was he, so it didn’t look like it.

He glanced at his watch – 8.45am. It wasn’t
exactly late and they were on holiday after all. That treasure had waited for
them for more than 230 years, it could stay put another hour or two.

Louise began to stir. ‘Oh my head,’ she
said.

John grinned at her. ‘That’s how I feel.’

She looked around the unfamiliar bedroom.
‘Where’s Emma, why am I in bed with you?’ She smiled as it all came back to
her. ‘John, look at the pair of us still in our clothes. That will teach us to
drink so much. I’ve got a terrible hangover.’

‘Me too,’ said John. ‘The funny thing is,
hangovers can make me feel incredibly horny. How about we make up for last
night? I would love to see that gorgeous Amazonian body of yours.’

‘Amazonian, I think the Amazons might
disagree,’ said Louise as John began to peel her layers off her.

The kettle was barely warm by the time John
staggered to the kitchen. He boiled the water and scrabbled about for some
headache pills. The sex had been great, but had not in fact, put paid to either
of their hangovers. As theories went however, it had been well worth a try.

He met Dan on the stairs upon his return.
‘I’ve left the hangover pills out if you’ve got a bad head.’

‘No,’ said Dan, ‘I’m feeling ok now. John,
between you and me, I don’t want us to delay for too long getting back below
ground.’

‘Oh come on old chap, it’s been there for .
. .’ began John, forgetting exactly how long it had been there for.

‘230 years, yes I know,’ said Dan,
impatiently. ‘If it’s been there for that long, another few hours won’t make
much difference. It
would
be a valid point if it weren’t for the fact
that after 230 years, four loud-mouthed idiots went and talked about it inside
the local smuggler’s pub. I’m worried we were overheard. We must get down as
soon as poss and bring the treasure back where it will be safe.’

John yawned. He had that tiredness and
lassitude one always gets the morning after a drinking session.

‘In any case, Dan,’ he mumbled, we are the
proud owners of the tunnel entrance, which can only be reached through the outbuilding
and that’s safely locked up.’

‘Look, drink your tea,’ said Dan, a touch
brusquely, ‘and get Louise down into the lounge by 10am. Then we really must
get going.’

~~~~~

‘Bloomin’ ’eck Zak,’ huffed Jake. ‘I’m
losing the will to go on with this. Four solid hours and we’ve managed to make
a hole the size of a grapefruit. At this rate, we’ll be here all week.’

‘We don’t need to drive a bus through it you
oaf, just make it big enough to crawl through. If you ’adn’t got such a big
beer belly, it would be a sight easier,’ retorted Zak. ‘Here, give me the
’ammer, let’s ’ave another bash. We’ve got to keep worrying at that hole,
chipping away at the sides, and we’ll be through.’

‘My belly,’ countered Jake, offended, ‘ain’t
no bigger than yours. Maximum capacity one gallon, I think you might say.’

‘Then piddle it all up the wall,’ chuckled
Zak. ‘I tell you this, the amount of money we get through, what with my boozin’
and all what me missus wastes down the ’igh street, I could do with a good few
gold and silver coins like those twerps were parading around last night. That’s
why it’s worth a bit of elbow grease this morning. We’ve got to hope we’re in
time. Hey now take a look at that, is it my imagination, or has that ’ole just
got a good deal bigger? Shine your torch in Jake, what can you see?’

‘Hmmm, we’re definitely winning Zak, if we weren’t
so cuddly we’d be crawlin’ through already,’ said Jake.

‘We’re as God made us,’ said Zak, pointing
upwards with the lump hammer. ‘Him in the sky far above and the alehouse down
the road, you might say. Point is, we ain’t got time to diet our way into that
hole, we’ll have to keep smashin’ and bashin’ till it’s wide enough and I don’t
wanna get stuck ’alf way.’