The adventures of a character in 'Bleary Eyed and Restless'
No, Eleanor thought, I'm not imagining it. A good-looking man, lazing on a sun-lounger not so far away and his toned body already possessing a healthy tan that made his white hair so stark and remarkable, was paying her attention and seemingly intent on catching her eye. He did so whenever she sensed that her son and daughter, Leo and Zoe, were not involving her in conversation or pointing out what was happening all around them.
Leo called over to her and she looked away for a moment and dropped her glasses down from her forehead, where they had perched and kept her hair from falling down and obscuring her slender face.
"Yes, Leo, what is it now, darlin'...?" She was mildly irritated by his intrusion as wayward thoughts of the man had begun to play out in her receptive mind.
"Zoe and I are heading off to the beach. We may meet up with Dad there...that's if we ever find him."
"I hope that you do. Take your valuables with you, because I may take a walk around or go for a swim." She had been tempted to also say, "Take your time. I want to live things out a little differently while I'm here."
Her mock wrap swimming costume made it appear like a second skin, the soft swell of her tummy shaped by the synthetic fabric and the halter neck body, with its plunging neckline, shaping her breasts and parting them to reveal her breastbone. She loved to feel the sun on her skin and now, it seemed, the attention of a man that she did not know but who made it clear wanted to know her.
She waited until her kids were out of sight and would not see that she had stood up and used a floaty wrap to cover herself, her slender feet soon shoved into fashionable white beach sandals. She grabbed her beach bag, pushed her sunglasses into it, and strolled towards the pool bar, weaving through the mass of sun loungers and people lazing on them. The man would see her, up close, and she would take time to check him out.
She already sensed what she could be getting into and had decided, just from the look of him, that a pleasant diversion from an only too routine way of life might yet be discovered. She sure needed that, just as a wild animal would rush to get to a waterhole and slake its thirst.
"I thought I'd wander over and say hello," she said, smiling at him. "My name's Eleanor Collins...from Boston."
"I know it, Eleanor...it's a fine city."
"If you do then it's a small world." She felt that his eyes were on her as she ordered a cocktail, long and fizzy. She searched in her beach bag for her purse.
"No, let me..."
"Oh, okay, thanks." She made her reply sound breathy as if she was surprised by his gesture." I've taken a moment to speak to you, seeing as my kids, and a husband, have all deserted me...or so it seems."
"It is a mystery to me that I have seen you spend so much time alone here, Eleanor. My name's Alain...Alain Mercier."
"It's a mystery to me that I should be talking to you at all, Alain, a man who has decided to talk to me as if we already know each other," she answered, smiling, and with a pout of her lips.
He sensed her hesitation. "You are still here with me and you are no longer the woman I have seen sitting alone. I...I was wondering if I could help you with that."
"You? You could help me, really?" she laughed softly, yet dismayed to have fallen into remaining close at his side, at the small bar, and talking to this captivating stranger who made no secret of being drawn to her, by her attractiveness and perhaps, now, her teasing and flirtatious ways. "Where did you say you came from, uhm...?"
"Alain, and I've told you that once before."
"So, you're French, and it's kind of hard to believe you're staying here...alone."
"It is true, Eleanor. I am here on business and leave again tomorrow...and not just to another hotel. I changed it yesterday, and now I am staying here and at the bar talking to you. Perhaps we can be company for each other...if...if we both think we could get along. No pressure...but I would like that very much."
"I am glad about that...no pressure." She took her cocktail glass from the bar and stepped away. "It's been interesting, talking to you, and thanks for the drink."
Alain closed the space between them. He too had a drink in hand and, as he sipped on it, he looked at her with unblinking eyes. "I meant what I said, we could be company for a while if that helped you...Eleanor. You are an attractive woman who should not be alone all the time."
"Who said I was alone, all the time, except you?"
"I have eyes, Eleanor, and I see a woman who should not be alone...or who feels that she is in a part of her life."
"I'm going!" she snapped and made to step away but his admiring look upon her was impossible to resist or to ignore.
Alain was persistent in his coaxing ways.
"I will give a sign to you, and...you can follow me if you have any desire for that. I see a woman that I want to be with." He saw her flinch and, for the first time, Eleanor felt his touch on her arm, so fleeting, yet it registered just as his look across the space between them had done and that was filled with holidaymakers, lounging and chattering.
That look of his, then the movement of his hand had prompted her to go to the bar. It had also taken a tilt of his head, his wondering smile, and the shock of his grey hair and neatly clipped beard that made Alain look so distinguished and attractive to persuade her to concede to what he so clearly wanted her to do.
She was being seduced by the man.
The fluttery feelings and nagging gnaw of aberrant longing, in her belly, was something she had not felt for such a long time, with Jack, and, when she did, it often went unrequited. Now, Alain had aroused waves of both longing and doubt. He was asking her to come to his room and they would make out with no questions asked. There would be the pursuit of sudden and uncomplicated pleasure as the only reason for her, a married woman, to be with him; the raging urgency being the pursuit of sex and for them, hopefully, to enjoy.
"Before you go, you are a goddess to me, and," he said smiling so wonderfully, to her ways of seeing it, his neatly clipped greying beard creasing, "I want to pay homage to you while there is some time to do that."
She sighed and averted her gaze from his wondering gaze and provocative smile. She would do as he asked of her and live out some holiday moments so differently from all that had gone before while she had been in the resort.
Alain had sure touched a nerve.
"I'll wait for you to give me a sign, Alain."
He touched her arm, discreetly and whispered. "I already have given you a sign, but we make the next one even more special."
♥
She met him at the entrance to the block where Alain said his room was, on the third floor. Discreetly, and worrying about the possibility that Zoe, Leo, and even Jack would appear and wreck her plans, she did her best not to draw attention to herself, or him.
His suite was luxurious and room service had valeted it to the highest standard, but she scarcely had time to take it all in before Alain stood behind her and drew her into an embrace. She leaned back against him and felt the rushes of longing for a relative stranger, purposeful in his intentions but somehow able to read her mind or to have the experience with women to see that she had troubles of her own, or acted in ways, that gave the story away.
"You can't keep what you have from me and that you want from me, can you?" She felt his undoubted state of arousal as Alain embraced her and she shuddered. It had been so long since she had felt this way. And, to have encouraged this behaviour so quickly also came as a surprise. She welcomed it.
"No, and I know that I wanted to go with you. To make love to the woman I saw, the moment you came into view as I sat down in the sun." He had a mastery of the English language, but still, it sounded wooden.
Her floaty wrap already lay at their feet and now, with his lips pressed to her back, between her shoulders, he eased away the straps of her swimsuit. Just the slide of the fabric over her skin aroused new sensations.
She raised her head as he pressed his lips to her throat and cupped her wonderful breasts that had been shaped so enticingly by her swimming costume. They were now caressed in wonder, her erect nipples soon claimed.
"You have so much for me," he said softly, his kisses to her skin slow and lingering. Eleanor cupped her breasts in trembling hands as the first man to claim her body since she had married, and who was not her husband, trailed caresses down and over her tummy as he sought her warmth, her moist heat. "You are ready for me, wonderful woman...Eleanor."
