“Wash,
and
wax.”
His voice broached no argument, so she picked up the bucket full of soapy water and the hard sponge and walked over to his car.
She wasn’t quite sure how it had come to this.
One moment she was quite happily reading under the shadiest tree in the large walled garden – the next she was interrupted by the throbbing growl of his 1969 E-type Jag coming up the driveway.
He had the top down and the sun has softened his dark hair and glinted off the frames of his sunglasses. Despite the heat, he had looked cool in his plain black polo shirt and jeans of the darkest blue as he stopped on the gravel just yards from where her sun-lounger was set.
Her book had fallen from her hands into her lap as she watched him unfold from the low sports car and ease the door shut.
He took long moments to stare at her and she felt self-conscious when she realised how she must look to him; reclined on a blue and white patterned sarong and wearing a matching bikini top which barely contained her breasts.
As she folded her arms defensively he raised just one eyebrow and gave her a half smile before deliberately letting his gaze meander over her slightly rounded belly to the edge of her cut-offs.
The denim was bleached nearly white and the frayed edges tickled against the inside of her thighs a lot higher than was probably decent.
Her blush intensified and she could not look at him a second longer, releasing one tight arm to move the book more carefully over her groin, as if the paperback pages could bring some armour from his piercing gaze.
He said nothing, and it was only the fall of his feet across the gravel drive that told her he had gone.
A bite of disappointment gnawed at her.
He could at least have said hello! Or sat on the grass beside me and let his fingers …
she let her mind wander into the thought of just what he could do to her on the grass and didn’t hear his return until he cleared his throat.
In front of him he had placed a bucket of steaming, soapy water. A sponge lay squashed and hard beside a soft chammis and a battered tin of wax, and behind him, near the edge of the driveway, the garden hose snaked across the grass like a dark green asp.
And he expected her to wash his car? She had laughed at him at first as he stood before her silently – not asking, just expecting. His eyes hardened at her laughter and his face tightened until the shadows under his cheekbones deepened.
That stopped her laughing, but still he couldn’t really be serious could he?
“Wash,
and
wax.”
And so she stood, as gracefully as she could from the lounger, placing her book aside while she wiggled her toes into her sandals and stood.
He was a head taller than her, and then some, and tilting her neck back to see his face she caught a glimpse of the vivid blue sky above and just knew her back was going to burn as she did what he said.
Then again, the way he was looking at her was causing enough of a burn inside that she didn’t suppose her skin had much to complain about.
She walked to the car and was aware of him standing behind her as she crouched down, knees together in the most ladylike way she could in those blasted shorts, to wet the sponge; the water so hot it made her fingers numb before a burst of pain came shattering back to them.
Her breath caught in her mouth as she felt the heat of the black hood sizzle with the first drips of water.
It was almost too hot to rest her other palm against the metal, but she felt desperately in need of support, and wasn’t about to show him any sign of weakness.
If he wanted his car cleaned, then she would do a damned good job and then go back to her book. He’d only get it dirty again the next time he bombed down the driveway.
She reached further up the hood with smooth circular strokes riding up the central undulation of the low, long front of the car. She turned back to the bucket to get more hot water, and dared not look at him in case the sight of him watching her work for him made her do something embarrassing.
The sponge was leaving thick strokes of foam across the car and she could feel it tickle her bare belly as she reached down towards the bumper. She concentrated on the tiny rainbows in the bubbles and the feel of heat radiating up from the car.
She didn’t realise how close behind her he was until she felt the tug of the string across her back and the heavy fall as her freed breasts found gravity and swung down along the slippery heated metal.
She gasped at the touch of burning steel against her nipples, which had been hard for him from the moment he had stepped out of the car.
The foam clung to her reddened nubs as she spun around to him in shock, the bikini top hanging limply from the string around her neck, offering scant cover to the tops of her breasts, and leaving the heavy rounds swinging free.
He licked his lip as he watched a tiny piece of white foam drip down one smooth orb to hang for a tantalising moment on the tip of her nipple before releasing its gentle grasp and falling.
He reached towards her other nipple and flicked off a cluster of bubbles, the edge of his fingernail hard and sharp on the sensitive flesh.
His hand moved slightly to tug at the bikini cloth, making the tie bite tightly like a rope at the back of her neck until she dropped her head in a deep bow to release the pressure, and it slid roughly across her nape and ruffled her hair as it pulled free.
It took her a moment to raise her eyes to him again; aware that almost nothing stood between him and the body he feasted on.
The corner of his mouth was raised in a sneer as he surveyed his work and she felt the flush creep down her neck as her nipples became even harder and her breasts began to ache for him to touch her properly.
He read her mind: “The car, remember,” he chastised in the voice he saved for idiots and fools who riled his temper. She turned back to her work, not realising her fingers had compulsively squeezed the sponge dry.
Another sponge of water brought even more soapy bubbles to the still scorching metal, the water acting as a conductor to the suns rays as if it was oil on bronze.
She ran her forearm across her forehead and shivered as drops of water fell from the sponge onto her naked breasts. For a moment she considered squeezing the water out and onto her, surely he wouldn’t begrudge her a little relief from her labours.
But he probably would object and quite forcefully … her fingers squeezed and she gasped as more water poured down on her breasts, tilting her head up to the blue sky and wishing he was in front of her, rather than behind, to see her washing herself clean.