His Eyes Adored Her

Taking an early dip, he found it pleasing to be the only one swimming in the soothing blue water. It had been a while since he'd had a swim and he found his usual front crawl quickly tiring, so changed to a gentle breast stroke. Getting old was he? Old at thirty two, he'd better watch that.

Out, and lightly dried, he donned his sun glasses, lay back on his lounger, deciding whether it would be reading or adding to the book notes. Reading won, but he quickly slipped into a pleasant doze. The scraping of a lounger on the concrete roused him..

On the opposite side of the pool, and nearer the shallow end, a trim female figure in a black bikini was pulling a lounger into position. As she stood and half turned, Dan felt that, now almost familiar, lump in his throat. She was there, come to haunt him. That bikini confirmed all that Dan had thought lay under her summer dresses. Full, yet modest bosom, incredibly shapely hips and waist, a smooth flat belly.

Very surreptitiously he lowered his sunglasses to confirm that the skin that clad these charms was indeed golden brown, as he suspected.

He realised that, wearing sunglasses, there was no recognition of where or whether he was looking. So for a precious moment he just gazed at the sheer perfection of her, without raising his head, but trying to look asleep.

Once, her head turned to scan around the pool. Did it linger where he was lying? Then she sat on the edge of her lounger and began rubbing sun lotion on her body. Why did he want to torture himself by keep looking at her? But his thoughts lingered on the fact that he would give a thousand pounds to be designated with that task, especially when her hands moved along her upper and inner thighs. .

Finishing her applications, she put on her sunglasses and lay back on her towel, legs slightly parted. Dan sighed and tried to return his concentration to his book. But, that body, that sensuous, slender body, and what at the outset, had been a kind of fascination at her beauty, now, he had to admit, had been overtaken by something close to desire. It had been so long since he had felt this way.

Eventually, he was able to concentrate more on his book, while the black bikini, still in repose, took his occasional glance. A waiter came around the side of the pool taking orders for lunch. Dan asked for a ham and cheese Panini and a beer. Shortly after that there was a lapping of water into the drainage grate, a sign that someone was bathing.

It was her, and she was doing a quite powerful breast stroke down the pool in his direction. She had pinned her hair high on her head, obviously to keep it dry. Dan held his book in a deliberate position, from where he was able to view over the top. He found her leg movements quite erotic, and, as she turned to swim back, her eyes looked in his direction for more than a moment. Or was that just his hopeful imagination?

As she climbed the steps out of the pool, her bikini bottoms slipped just enough to give a tantalising glimpse of whiter skin, and the upper crack in her shapely buttocks. Once again, Dan's breath was erratic. Then she quickly rubbed the towel over her skin, collected her things together, and made her way through the trees back to the hotel.

From that point, for Dan, although the sun shone bright, the afternoon was suddenly duller. Telling himself he had to stop torturing himself, just didn't work. He consumed his lunch, and forced himself to concentrate on making notes for his proposed novel, in which a wife was intending to murder her husband. By sheer force of will he made some progress, took another swim, dozed until he was dry, before returning to his room.

She was the first person he saw as he entered the dining room that evening, and once again their eyes met briefly. Had that been a slight smile that played on her lips? Could she actually be enjoying teasing him? That was just wishful thinking. Dan, when faced with the elegant coolness of a woman looking absolutely stunning in an elegant pale green dress that bared her shoulders, you become, he told himself, totally immature.

As he enjoyed the exquisite mixed grill placed before him, he just had to force himself not to look in her direction. Yet all the time he was wondering how much of a rebuff would he get if he made some kind of approach, just one last hopeless attempt to get to know her.

As it happened, it was she who made that ice-breaking move.

Just starting on his dessert of profiteroles and cream, he became aware of her standing to leave her table. Dan kept his eyes lowered as she neared, and once again his breath was snagged in his throat when, in far lighter tones than their only other encounter, her voice above him said, "Excuse me, Mr Tiernan. Sorry for disturbing your meal, but could you spare me a moment in the lounge when you're done?"

Dan, a spoon poised shakily in his hand, looked up into those eyes, at that wondrous face, and was amazed that he was able to find his voice to reply, "I'd be happy to. I'll just be a moment."

"Thank you," she said, and her smile, for Dan, was more warming than the sun, but much more gentle. "Please, don't rush. I've plenty of time." And she moved away.

Four profiteroles can never have disappeared so quickly, but even as he ate, Dan had time to wonder what she could want. Maybe she intended to lambast him again. Yet her tone promised something more than last time. Maybe she wanted to declare her undying love. That thought almost had him laughing out loud. So what could it be? There was only one way to find out.

Sitting for just a moment to let his stomach, and his nerves, settle, Dan straightened his shirt, patted his hair into place, and reminded himself that he was a mature male about to converse with a highly attractive lady who had already probed deeply into his peace of mind. He had to handle it with a measure of applied confidence.

In the lounge he found her seated in a white leather easy chair, with a cup of coffee on the table in front of her. Her smile, the second she had bestowed on him, was brighter than the first as she greeted him, "Mr Tiernan, good of you to join me." She gestured to the chair across the table from her.

"Please, call me Dan." That was the way, he told himself, be open. Already he was in a situation that only a few minutes ago had appeared unlikely. But what route was this conversation going to take?

"Then you must call me Mandy." Mandy, somehow that name suited the delicacy of her.

The waitress came over and Dan ordered a coffee Americano.

She was silent for just a moment, her blue eyes very firmly on Dan. "You must let me apologise for my rather unseemly outburst yesterday.."

"No problem," Dan told her."You were probably justified."

"I was just a little on edge, last night."

Dan nodded, and uncertain of how to take it from there he said, "Is that why you've--?"

"No, not directly," she said, as she put her cup down. Her lips were moist and she looked rather tense. "Oh, I knew I'd handle this badly."

"I've got all night," Dan told her, and took the risk of a compliment. "Sitting here, sipping coffee, and looking at you is no great trial."

She blushed . She actually blushed, and Dan had been surprised at his own openness. But he warned himself not to overdo it. No point in scaring her off with an overload of what he felt.

"That's very gallant of you," she said, and the redness faded from her neckline as she became more serious. "Before I go into details, may I just say that if the favour I am going to eventually get around to ask of you, sounds just too crazy, please feel free to walk away. No hard feelings. I'll quite understand. "

Dan was intrigued by the vagueness of her intentions, and he told her that.

She nodded her head, took a sip of coffee, and said, "I know it needs clarification, but I believe you can't have failed to notice the altercations between myself and Jake, my husband." She paused, took a deep breath before adding, "Or I should say, my ex-husband, for that is what he is to me now. I've already texted my solicitor."

Dan nodded, and wondered when it would be sensible to tell her of what he had already witnessed in Limone, but Mandy was going on with her story.

"We have been married just under three years, and within six months I was guessing he was not exactly a faithful husband. Late evenings--working--he's a financial advisor--trips abroad for two or three days, just stopped seeming innocent. Weekends away, fishing, he said. The only truth in that was the activity he was actually engaged in did begin with the letter 'f'."

With a weak smile at that, Mandy stopped, and the breath shuddered in her throat, as though the hurt of it all was getting to her. Dan, amazed at her frankness, leaned forward, "You don't need to go on if--"

She gave him another pained smile, "No, I want to. Oh, you're going to think me stupid in what I want to do. I just need -just want—" Mandy straightened up and want on determinedly," We were here last year for a short break, and I shouldn't have been surprised that he wanted to come back. There's a woman here. Has an apartment in the town centre. I'm fairly certain his overseas trips have been to visit her. I sensed it last year, but when he wanted to come back—Well, I just knew, but hoped it might be an attempt at closure."

Dan could not hold back, "He's the stupid one. Prepared to risk a wife like you for some black haired bimbo--"

Her eyes widened. Oh, those blue eyes, full of shock. "How do you know that?"

"I saw him—them," Dan told her, and went on to describe what he had seen in Limone, and how he'd taken pictures of the cafe.

"And they're on it?"

"Probably." Dan hadn't checked his camera, but had little doubt that the couple would show up.

She nodded, "So you know how it is with us. Anyway, the evening you saw him stride out of the dining room, all self righteous, he'd had the nerve to tell me that he had been with her. I could have, should have poured my wine over him, but I just told him to get out of my life. He called me a cold bitch. Said I'd be sorry, and when I got back to our room, he had packed and gone." Her eyes on Dan were slightly moistened as she added, "And you know, I wasn't at all sorry."

Dan had listened sympathetically, genuinely finding it difficult to fathom the mind of a man who would walk away from a woman like the one in front of him. She was looking more and more attractive the longer he looked at her. But he was wondering just how he could come into this. Maybe he should advise her that he didn't do assassinations. But, he asked her.

Momentarily Mandy bit her lip, "You're going to think me neurotic. But I told you I wasn't at all sorry, and I'm not. I just need to prove that to him. To let him see, clearly, that I don't need him. Right?"

Dan noted the worried look on her face, as she looked for his response, and he said gently, "Okay, but I still don't see where I can help."

She nodded, "I'm going around the houses here, because I'm a little nervous about how you'll take it. But, have you noticed that you and I are now the only unaccompanied guests in the hotel?" Then she added more anxiously, "I'm assuming that you're not married."

The familiar tug came before he replied, "Not any more."

"Divorced"

"My wife was killed two years ago in a car accident." He was surprised that he could even tell her that much.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Once more she hesitated, before saying, "I was wanting you to be a kind of escort for me. For us to walk together through the town centre in the evenings especially, so that he might see us. I know the places he tends to hang out. Does this sound rather petty?"

It did, in a way, but Dan found the prospect of spending any time with this lady well worth his time, and he said, "Not if it pleases you."

"And you wouldn't mind doing that?"

"I wouldn't mind," he said, and that had to be the understatement of the year.

"We might eat out sometimes, at the places he might frequent. I'll pay, of course."

Dan shrugged, "We can see about that."

"Just a couple of provisos," she said, and her face was almost apologetic as she went on. "There are to be no strings on either of us. You can cry off whenever you feel you've had enough of this charade, and I certainly have no wish to get involved with anyone. At the end we part, and that's it. Agreed?"

Dan smiled at her, while, for the second time, he thought, we can see about that, but he said, "Sounds fair."

"Good," she said, returned his smile and added, "we'll start tomorrow evening. About eight, all right?"

"Fine," Dan agreed, then added, "what about socialising around the hotel."

She laughed, a lovely sound and it lit up her face."Well, we know each other now, so I guess we can converse more easily if we meet."

"What about meal times—separate tables?"

Her brow furrowed briefly, "I think we should keep the present situation. Like I said, I've no wish for further involvement."

Dan could have given her an argument on that one, but he just nodded, and, hoping his voice disguised his disappointment, he said, "As you wish."

A few more minutes and she finished her coffee, stood up and said, "Now, fully relaxed at settling that, I'm just going to sit on my balcony and read my book." Dan rose as she moved away, but she turned back to say, "Thank you for being so understanding."

"My pleasure," he told her, and for the briefest of moments he wondered what was behind the way her eyes held his, and then she was gone.

He ordered himself a beer and sat pondering on the situation, and what opportunities might evolve from it. She had seemed fairly positive about the kind of commitment it would be, but ladies sometimes changed their minds. Maybe he could work towards that premise.

The following day, after an exchange of smiles and a nod across the dining hall at breakfast, Dan saw nothing of her until the evening. Filling in the day looked like being a trial, as the time threatened to pass slowly. However he took what he had been told was a popular walk along a footpath by the lake to the next town. Invigorated on the outward walk, he found the heat of the full sun on the return drawing him to the pool. After a dip, he slept in the shade of the palms.

At one minute to eight, showered, shaved, dowsed in manly deodorant and dressed in best shirt and pants he was waiting in the lounge when Mandy arrived. Dressed in a loose, flared light green skirt with a dark green top that was off one shoulder and showed more cleavage than when she wore that black bikini, once again, she had managed to stop his breath.

Laughing as she caught the direction of Dan's eyes, she said, " I want him to see what he's missing. You look very cool."

Looking at her, he was anything but cool, as they walked out of the hotel and strolled by the lake shore towards the town centre. They did not touch and Dan noted that, in fact, Mandy kept at least a foot of space between them. There were many walkers at this time of the evening, many lovers clinging close, and it was pleasant just being in her company.

As they walked they talked about how they'd each spent their day, the weather, about the food they liked, about films they had seen. Dan even had a laugh with her about her liking Tom Cruise. "That's a bit old hat now, isn't it?" he teased.

"I've always preferred darkly handsome men," she said, looking across the square they were passing. Dan wondered how far his dark hair moved him into that category.

In the town centre, Mandy said they should hold hands now, "Make it look serious."

As his hand enclosed her cool fingers, Dan wondered whether the electric charge that moved up his arm was pure imagination at this, their very first touch. But now her concentration was away from him, as she perused, every bar, every cafe, every restaurant, and watched every approaching couple. At about ten they sat outside a bar and Dan had a beer while Mandy sipped a rum spritzer.

"No sighting," Mandy said quietly. "I'm sorry to have wasted your time, Dan."

Dan shook his head, "If you think you've been wasting m y time you haven't been concentrating."

She frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Being near you is never going to be a waste of time," Dan said openly, and watched her reaction to that.

Her head had turned away so that she was gazing across the lake, when she turned back her face was serious, "Please, Dan, I appreciate what you said, but I have no wish to complicate this." A little half smile crossed her lips as she added, "Besides, men are pretty low on my wish list at the moment."

Dan nodded and said, "Whatever you say." But deep inside there was the urge to keep trying, and, in the loneliness of his hotel room, he had to admit to himself that no woman had affected him like this since Carol. Yet he had never been a chat up type, and had been surprised that he had been able to furnish two compliments for Mandy already. Time would have to be the guide.

Up to the end of that first week they had three more evening sessions, without any sightings of Jake Bodecker and his mistress. If Mandy was disappointed that her attempt at a kind of vengeance was producing nothing, she did not show it.

For Dan, there was some distinct pleasure in meeting up with her accidentally around and about the hotel, when they would stop and talk about what they had been doing with their time, before moving on. What struck him was how much more satisfactory it would be if they spent more daytime in each other's company. But since Mandy had made no move in that direction, Dan felt it best to bide his time.

What did become gradually more and more pleasing over those blank evenings was the range of their conversations, and how much more often they laughed together. Dan learned that Mandy was a successful fashion designer, and had a string of three shops under the banner of, 'Simple Styling'. What was even more surprising, and highly promising from Dan's point of view, was that she actually lived in a town less that thirty minutes drive from where he lived. For the first time Dan started thinking of a future. But feared he might be dreaming.

Their fourth evening together turned out to be full of incident. As always she had taken his hand as they entered the town centre, as they walked and talked she began asking about his writing. He told her of the struggle it had been at first, of the joy of his first acceptance, and he even found he could mention how Carol's encouragement had helped with that first book.

Earlier than normal, they sat in a bar with their usual drinks, and, because Carol's name had already come into the conversation Mandy asked about the accident.

A momentary lump in his throat, then Dan found himself spilling out the whole trauma of that night when Carol had been late driving home from a friend's home. Police arriving at the door was his first indication of the dreaded news. It turned out that there had been a head on collision. Eventually, Dan was to find out that the elderly driver of the other car had a heart attack and his car had swerved into the path of the car Carol had been driving.

"Oh, Dan, that's so awful," Mandy said, and her eyes told him how genuine her sympathy was, while her hand instinctively reached out to touch his across the table.

"My God," Dan's voice was barely a croak.

"What is it?"

"Mandy, you're the first person I've been able to talk to about that."

"Then I feel privileged."

Dan decided it was safe to be even more open, "Truth is, you are the first lady I've even kept real company with since that time."

"In two years?"

"Oh, a couple of attempts, but leading to nothing."

"How did you deal with the pain?"

"I wrote my second book. It helped keep my mind clear."

"Was the main female character based on Carol?"