A Place Beyond The Horizon

11. GAME FACE

"Let me go," she murmurs.

"Why?" Aidan responds.

"Just, let me go."

Aidan releases her wrists, and she slips her arms out of his grasp. Bending forwards again, her hands cup the growing bulge in his shorts. He can feel her thumbs playing along the ridge of his rapidly-firming shaft; the view of Mara's bare body next to his legs is enticing. He shifts in his seat.

"Is this why you're walking around naked?" Aidan murmurs.

"I just wanted you to see your good work."

She bends down to plant a kiss between his legs. He wriggles, feeling himself swell in reaction to her.

"You ready for your grand entrance scene now?" Aidan asks, but he's not concentrating on her answer.

"Yeah, that and more."

She shifts her body until she's between his legs, looking up at him.

"Like what you see?" she asks, playfully.

His eyes drift from her beautiful face, the wide blue eyes and the soft lips, down her back to the firm curves of her bottom and then down her long, trim legs. She can feel that he's fully erect now in his shorts, her hands crossed lightly over the mound between his legs. He knows that this is what she does, delighting in his attention, in the response she's able to engender in him.

"Yeah," Aidan breathes.

She looks up at him as she kisses his crotch again. There is a soft, innocent expression on her face, a rare honesty. That she's a decade older than him, that there are fine lines at the corners of her eyes, that her body is firm and sculpted rather than full and blossoming: none of this matters. There is something about Mara, something she was born with. It shines out on the screen, and now Aidan is seeing it in front of him, a private viewing of the intangible, alluring nature of this extraordinary woman.

She pulls back abruptly, rolling back onto her knees. She's grinning at him now, pleased with herself.

"Well, we need to maybe take another look at that later on."

"Uh, what?"

"We got lunch."

She gets up, scooping up her discarded towel from the ground. Mara isn't body-conscious. She doesn't cover herself up with it, she just folds it over an arm. Aidan struggles to sit upright, his manhood now rigid in his shorts. She glances down at his crotch.

"Save it for later. We gotta get going."

"Uh, where? Who?"

Mara is already in motion, but she looks back over her shoulder.

"Lunch with Andrew, at his place."

Aidan gets up hurriedly, feeling awkward as he stands there.

"Andrew?" he repeats, "You want to take me to meet him?"

"Sure. It's just lunch."

"But...."

"You'll be fine, Aidan," Mara calls over her shoulder as she enters the house, "It's just lunch."

She leaves him in the little courtyard area, alone. Andrew: she hasn't been clear on whether he was a lover or just an old friend. Then he recalled another snatch of conversation: fucking, Mara had said, not making love.

Why's she inviting him to lunch with Andrew?

---

They take Mara's car. It's an Audi convertible and she puts the top down, tucking her hair under a baseball cap as they drive. She's wearing shades, a t-shirt and jeans, but there's something about how she's wearing the outfit, the car, the casual way she drapes an arm over the steering wheel at the lights, that makes heads turn. She is in her native environment; she looks like a movie star.