The Queen of the Night

Steph sat through this with a horrified look on her face. "The bastard, that's it he's dead meat."

"What's this all about?" I was really worried now.

"A couple of years ago this guy was pestering me for a date, ringing me at work, sending me text messages proclaiming his undying love for me, and I didn't even know him. I was contemplating going to the police when he cornered me as I left work and created such a fuss that I promised to go out with him once if he promised to leave me alone. I kept my part of the deal but he obviously had no intention of keeping his. After the date he kept pestering me and I kept ignoring him, so he created this Facebook page in which he pretended to be his wife and accusing me of seducing him and breaking up his marriage. All this came out in court when I successfully applied for and got an AVO . Now he's at it again, I don't think that I can handle it again."

"We have to go to the police with this, and now." The police were very helpful, they located the original AVO application and got his name and address and promised that they would call on him first thing in the morning. We went home and spent a miserable night, Steph kept on telling me to 'go away and leave me alone' in her sleep and when I woke her she cried until sleep overtook her again, only to go through it all later.

As it turned out the police' first thing wasn't early enough. There was a banging on the door and when Steph answered it she was confronted by another media scrum. "A man was found dead this morning and his apartment was plastered with pictures of you, what can you tell us about it?"

"I know nothing about this. Now will you leave me alone!"

One of them caught sight of me in the background and pounced, shoving past Steph and thrusting a microphone in my face. "Do you know anything about this?"

Before I had a chance to answer this question another was hurled at me; "You and Miss Benson were seen at the police station last night, did this have anything to do with the death of the man this morning?"

I was as angry as I've ever been and I decided that I was going to let them have it. "Which of you vultures followed up on that Facebook story and went to see this man last night after the story broke?" There was no reply but one of the reporters from the channel that broke the story had a guilty look. "That person and not us is responsible for this man's death. We were prepared to allow the police to follow up on our complaint, but oh no, one of you saw a big story here and hang the consequences. Well whoever you are," I looked directly at the woman with the guilty expression, at least she had the decency to lower her gaze, "You have blood on your hands and I hope that, when you come to realise that there are consequences to your actions, you will be able to crawl out of the journalistic gutter you currently infest and get your life back on track."

"So you accept no responsibility for this?"

"Okay, that's enough! We know nothing about the death of this man, and we've told you that. I suggest that you take this matter up with the police. We have nothing more to say to you about this or anything else. I'm asking you bottom feeders to leave us alone and leave now." I started to usher them towards the door. A couple of them tried to ask one more question but I held up my hand to forestall them.

Steph came into my arms in tears. "Oh God, I'm so sorry that you've become involved in this." I held her to me and when I thought the time to be right I lifted her face to mine and kissed her, not the kind of kiss that was involved two nights ago, not a lustful, I want to fuck you so bad kiss, just a kiss that told her that I understood what was happening and was there to help her.

"Right, pack some clothes, we are going off for a holiday."

"What, where?"

"You and I are going right away from here, and we are going off on our own to get some peace and quiet. Get packing while I set about getting some more appropriate wheels." I went down to the car park and drove the Merc out into the sunlight, she had got to go, I didn't want to be constantly reminded of the fool that I'd been in the past. She was traded for a second hand Range Rover that had some wear and tear about it but went well. I bought some clothes for both of us from one of those outdoor shops along with back packs and hiking boots. I dropped the suggestion that I was headed for the desert and a trip down the Birdsville Track.

Steph looked somewhat aghast at my choice of wheels but had to admit that it drove better than the old Merc and was quite comfortable. I stopped by home and made a phone call to arrange accommodation through a contact I'd made when I was on my previous trip. We spent the night at Pt Macquarie before heading for our final destination, a cabin in the hinterland behind Brunswick Heads not far from Mt Warning. It was quiet except for the noise of water in the stream that ran past the cabin and that would be the source of water for the duration of the stay.

"This is nice and quiet and remote, no-one will find us here." Steph was looking around the cabin while I was lighting the slow combustion stove on which we would cook our meals and which would provide heat and hot water. I took a container down to the creek to get some water and returned with dinner, two large fresh water crayfish that were in the shallows and couldn't get away quickly enough. They tasted great with a salad and some wine. We climbed tiredly into bed not long after the sun had gone down. I held her to me expecting her to go to sleep straight away, she had other ideas.

Her mouth found mine with the same passion that she'd shown that first night, I was glad that I hadn't worn clothes to bed because they wouldn't have lasted more than a minute. In between the telling me she loved me and the apologising for the misunderstanding those years ago she kissed me and her hands grabbed me in an iron grip and she fed me into her waiting, desperate body, and all I could do was to go along with the urgency until I found myself caught up in the same frenzied passion. This was love making at its most basic, no subtlety, no finesse just the sheer unadulterated passion of two people who were once in love and had lost that love only to find it again, two people who would never make the same mistake again.

The next afternoon, as we sat on the veranda watching a couple of brightly coloured parrots going through a courting ritual in the tree tops, and a wallaby come out of the bush and hop, unafraid, right up to us to graze on the grass not two metres away, I reached for Steph's hand, "This is the life, isn't it?"

"Yes it is, I could get used to this." She looked at me, I had a grin on my face. "What? What are you planning?"

"I had a text message from the brass wanting to know when I would be travelling to Canberra to take up my new posting. I told them to stick it up their collective arses and that my resignation would follow."

"You what?"

"I told them to stick it. I'm retiring and I want to live a quiet life in a place like this in the country with you. What do you think?"

"This is sudden. I'd love to."

"Great! In that case, Stephanie, Darling, welcome to your new home."

"What, how?" I kissed her to keep her quiet, lifted her out of the chair and carried her inside to our bed that was still unmade from last night's passion. I stripped the top sheet off and lay her onto the bed before stripping my clothes off and joining her. She helped me to take her clothes off and when she was naked she opened her arms to me and I entered her embrace. This time it didn't have the same violent passion of the previous times that we had made love, this time we enjoyed the slow languorous passion of two people who were attuned to each other. He entered her and moved in and out of her pussy, savouring every moment and making sure that her pleasure was not forgotten. Whereas in our previous lovemaking the orgasm approached with the speed of an express train, this time it crept towards the crescendo, but when that was reached, it exploded with the same force as before.

"I've dreamed about this moment for years and now it has arrived I'm in no way disappointed. I love you so much."

I would have replied immediately but found it difficult to talk with her mouth covering mine. It was several minutes before I looked her in the eyes. "I have never stopped loving you."