Leigh, I found this when I was reading through last year's journals - a fantasy I started writing the first night you 'phoned me. I'm hoping if I send it now it'll reach you before I do. (My flight leaves Edinburgh, Friday evening at 6.45.)
Baby, we really need to get this whole internet thing sorted out, although I think I'd miss your perfumed letters. I love seeing your handwriting. Knowing the paper's been in your hands.
Anyway. My Fantasy.
***
It's night-time and there's a fire burning out by an American lake. The dark blue sky is decorated with strange vibrant colours that seem to bubble and flash through the atmosphere like slow-motion fireworks. Aurora Borealis - we must be somewhere up North. A startling blue-eyed blonde dances before me to music playing in her head. The only sounds I'm aware of are the water lapping slowly in and out, the crackling of the flames and the clicking of distant crickets.
As she dances for me, the girl begins to strip off her clothes - writhing and teasing, running her hands over her body, flicking her long hair out around her head. The orange firelight flickers over her skin. Her eyes sparkle like the stars over our heads.
A gentle breeze blows through the grass. I can smell the fragrant burning of the firewood, feel the heat against my skin.
When every item of clothing has been discarded, the woman stands naked before me, a pretty smile glinting in the semi-dark, her nipples pointing thick and hard from her pale breasts. She stares deep into my eyes and pulls at these swollen buds, playing with them, getting them all big and red. Her hips move from side to side and she twists her body, rippling her stomach like a belly-dancer.
"You're so beautiful," I tell her and I can see a flush rise in her cheeks.
"Sssssh," she says as her hands move slowly down over her belly, tickling round her waist and her hips so the skin goosepimples. She smooths them down the sides of her legs, allowing her pale thighs to part.
I feel a tingling in my stomach.
The woman's mouth opens and the tip of her tongue flicks out to moisten her bottom lip, which glistens seductively in the dim light. Slowly, slowly one hand moves up between her thighs and I watch as two fingers touch softly to her...
***
Sorry, babe, that's all I wrote. I can't wait to finally see you in person and find out what happens next. =o)~
your flying scotsman xxxx
***
"Stop looking so scared," says Leigh O' Bannassa, a smile as big as Kansas spread across her face. "I have done this before, you know."
I glance down at the great North American mountains and lakes below and feel my stomach lurching. "Yeah, this is great. It looks so beautiful."
"So, why are your knuckles turning white? This is supposed to be fun, you know? You've just gotta chill, babe."
I take a slow deep breath in through my nostrils and relax back into the seat, admiring the way Leigh effortlessly handles Molly, her small, one-engine plane.
She looks so happy and free up here, not a trace of the tears that streamed down her cheeks earlier this morning as she told me the story of her troubled life.
I study her face - the way the golden light colours her skin, shining in her soft blonde hair, sparkling in her dark blue eyes.
"You're staring at me," she says. "I didn't bring you up here to stare at me, Morray Lennox." She gestures out the window at the world slowly moving beneath us. "I want you to appreciate all of this."
"You're a very beautiful woman, Miss O' Bannassa," I say.
She grins and shakes her head. "I know what's going on. You've been programmed by my shrink to say that every half-hour, haven't you?"
"Didn't know you had a shrink."
"I don't, honey, but if I did it's just the kinda sneaky-assed move she'd try to pull on me."
I laugh loudly at this and shake my head. "You're funny and beautiful, Leigh." I brush the back of my hand over her cheek, and sing softly, "Her eyes are a blue million miles."
"Oh, now you've really stolen my heart," she giggles. "Quoting Captain Beefheart lyrics at me, like that. I'm just glad it wasn't 'Big Eyed Beans from Venus'."
Grinning stupidly, I gaze down at our shadow as it glides over the great pine trees, its shape ever-changing like a big dark jellyfish floating on the Sea.
I sit back and listen to the reassuring hum of Molly's engine, allowing a leud fantasy to drift into my mind.
***
I'm sitting there where Leigh is just now. We are naked and she is straddling me, her warm smooth back pressed into my stomach. As she navigates the 'plane through the clear blue Northern skyline, I press my nose into her hair and breathe in her womanly fragrance. My lips press into the nape of her neck and she shivers as I kiss her there, licking softly with my tongue.
I love the taste of Leigh's skin.
My arms move around her body, crossing over so I can cup her naked breasts in my hands, feeling the nipples hardening up between my fingers as she slowly slides down onto me.
***
Leigh strokes her hand over my knee and I am drawn from my debauched daydream.
Something in my expression causes her to glance down at my lap and she kind of laughs or gasps, theatrically raising her left eyebrow. "And here I was thinking you weren't enjoying yourself, Morray Lennox."
I feel my face redden as I follow her gaze down between my legs. My arousal is clearly visible in my black jeans. I shrug my shoulders. "Must be something to do with the change in air pressure."
Leigh chuckles. "I knew you were trouble the minute I laid eyes on you." She nudges me and points away into the blue distance. 'Canada.'
I blink into the Sun's warm glare. 'Can we see it from here?'
'Somewhere just over the horizon. There's a lot of your people up in Canada.'
'Aye, I ken,' I say, hamming up my accent. 'This actually looks a bit like Scotland. It's got very similar colours.'
'We even get Scottish snow. 32 inches in two days we had last year.'
"Ah well, you'll be able to handle that, Miss O' Bannassa - all that good thick Celtic blood flowing through your veins."
She steers gently to the right. "Go on, then, say it."
"What?"
"Your thing that you say." The 'plane turns. She is heading us back to the tiny airport where Molly's hangar stands.
"Oh." I feel a little self-conscious somehow in the sober light of day but my terrible Irish accent amuses Leigh: "You're my grand little banshee-girl from Dublin town".
She laughs. "You know, my Grandparents didn't sound a bit like that. Anyway, they weren't from Dublin. They were from the North - Derry."
'Can't do an Ulster accent.' I stroke my hand over her smooth bare leg, tickling my fingers provocatively up the inside of her thigh.
She glances across at me, staring into my eyes. 'Wish you didn't have to go back home so soon, Morray.'
"Baby, you know I'd love to just pack it all in and shack up with you out here. Or smuggle you back home in my suitcase."
"I can't believe you'd just abandon me after all the hospitality I've shown you." She is smiling but there is a real sadness there in her eyes.
I tickle a finger over her soft lips. 'Do you think Molly'd make it across the Atlantic in one piece, babe? We could sneak you in the back door.'
***
In the afternoon we hike up Mount Le Herisson, with the sun blazing down on us and a soft breeze blowing through our hair.
Leigh leads me by the hand, pointing at objects of interest: "spring beauties... dutchman breeches... lady slippers... wild leeks.... morel mushrooms... indian paintbrushes... queen anne lace..."
"You love the countryside, don't you?"
"It's in my blood, Morray. If I spend too long in the city I yearn to be back here. I've got to be near water or... or I just wither and die."
"Like a fish?"
She laughs aloud and punches my arm. "So, you think I'm a fish, do you?"
Stopping, I draw her in towards me, brushing her hair away from her cheeks. "I think you're a mermaid, a pretty mermaid."
I kiss her softly, tasting her lips and tongue, breathing in her musky perfume.
Leigh's pupils grow large in those dark blue eyes. Drawing away, she smiles and rests her head against my shoulder.
"How far to Lake Morpheus?" I ask, twirling my fingers in her hair.
"Not far, now. Oh, Morray - you're gonna love it out there."
***
We stand looking out over the still clear blue waters of Leigh's favourite Lake. A gentle breeze whispers through her hair, blowing a few strands over her cheek.
We are alone together out here - just us and Mother Nature. Water rippling. Insects lazily buzzing. Birds communicating in chirps and high-pitched melodies.
Leigh giggles. She is staring down into the water where our reflections wobble and mutate in tiny waves.