I moved around the bed and unbuckled and kicked off my jeans, stood in only my undershorts once again. 'You all right if I stay like this?' I said.
'Of course.'
'I can put on my shirt if you're going to be embar-'
She cut me off with a roll off her eyes. 'Look, you've got on more than I have. Just please get in this bed before I get mad.' She propped herself up on one elbow and smiled at me, the skin of one shoulder peeking out from beneath the covers.
I got in. The unused side of the bed was cold and the crisp sheet enveloped me like a shroud of ice. I pulled the cover up to my neck and wrapped my arms around me, clamped my teeth together so they didn't chatter. But the cold was good. It kept my mind off the fact that Natalie was warm and naked just a couple of feet away from me
We both lay quietly for a few minutes, listening to the sound of the rain and adjusting to being in the same intimate space together. I reached out and turned the dimmer switch on the lamp until the room was filled with nothing more than a candle light glow. The desert night still lashed the frail motel, and the wind spoke harshly against the window, rattling the frame like the sound of a jailer shaking his keys. Just as I had thought that the thunder had ceased, a long rumble sounded, but it was distant and without the menace of earlier. I turned my head to Natalie; she was blinking up at the cracked plaster ceiling, her green eyes dark hollows in the low light. There was another bark of thunder, and I felt her shiver, then look at me.
'Okay?' I said.
She nodded. 'Better now I'm here. You don't know how scared I was next door, on my own.'
'I'm really sorry I wasn't awake before.'
I felt movement, and a second later her hand found mine, small fingers wrapped themselves around my own. 'You don't have to apologise for anything. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably be a bumbling wreck wandering around the desert like something from a spaghetti western.'
I smiled. 'You'd have been alright.'
Right on cue, another burst of thunder. Nat jumped again and squeezed my hand hard. 'Oh sure,' she said in a slightly shaky voice. 'I'm a real heroine.'
We both fell silent again, although she continued to hold my hand. I responded to her touch by running my fingers lightly over her palm, and after a couple of minutes she yawned softly. The yawn was infectious, and I did the same. My watch on the bedside table was approaching Three.
'C'mon,' I said. 'We'd better get some sleep. There's a lot to do in the morning.'
'Will Keith be annoyed you've got his truck?'
I sighed. 'Probably, but that's tough. We couldn't help it. Anyway, I'm not going to think about that until the morning. Do you want me to turn off the light?'
Natalie turned to me, and although there was still a distance between us, I could feel the heat from her body. Her face was pressed gently into the pillow and her eyes were soft with sleep and shadows. A wave of dark hair spread around her, ink black against the contrasting pale of her skin. When she spoke I see the faintest glimpse of teeth, and her breath was sweet like a summer rain.
'Can you leave it on, if it doesn't disturb you?' I nodded my agreement, and then she said, 'Where did you get that scar? I've never noticed it before.' She uncurled her hand from mine and ran a finger carefully along the inch-long scar that runs along my jawline. My skin crackled as she touched my stubble.
'It was a few years ago,' I replied. 'A barracuda had a shot at me when I was scuba-diving in India.'
'Jesus. Really?'
'No. I fell onto a barbed-wire fence when I was a kid.'
She grinned. 'Fool,' she said, and flicked her finger onto my ear, striking the lobe.
'Ouch.' I muttered, not meaning it.
Natalie never spoke, just moved her hand onto my neck and pulled herself closer towards me. Raising her head, she lowered her lips to my earlobe and kissed it gently, her hair falling onto my face as she did so. Her skin smelt of fresh water.
'Better?' She whispered, looking into my eyes, no more than a couple of inches away.
I nodded, at that point incapable of speech.
She lowered her face and pressed her lips to mine, a soft pressure that lasted for only a moment but to which I responded, pressing against her and feeling the faint trace of moistness as we parted.
We both said goodnight and Natalie turned her back to me, and although she moved away from me it was only a few inches. I could have moved my hand to the right and touched her, and you had better believe that every part of me was imagining her naked body curled up next to me. When she had kissed me I thought I'd felt her breast touch my shoulder. I kept thinking of that as I lay on my back replaying that sweet kiss again and again in my mind, and my erection was a hard ache in my shorts. I knew that I had to get rid of it, and as there was no way that I would be able to risk relieving myself then I knew that I had to concentrate on something entirely unerotic. I started to listen to the rain again and tried to formulate a plan for the morning. Breakfast, if I could rustle something up, then get on the phone if it was back in service and arrange for a tow-truck. Two trucks. I'd forgotten about Nat's vehicle. Jesus, what a mess we'd managed to get ourselves into.