He thought about pinching himself, because being asleep was the only possible explanation for all of this, that it was simply some elaborate and highly tactile lucid dream, but he didn't want to move his hands out of her hair, his fingers curled firmly in her tresses, still slightly damp and chlorine scented.
Her mouth was hot against him as she rose off his cock to mouth along the root, glancing up at him and quirking her mouth up to a sly half smile as he huffed into a breathless chuckle.
-----
She'd smiled the same way at him when he'd found her at the side of the road, leaning against her car, half pushed into the long grassed verge at the side, flanked with dry looking ash trees that only became sparser as the roads climbed higher into the mountains.
"Are you alright?" He asked, pulling up and sticking his head out the window, worried that she might have had an accident, he wasn't about to drive past and ignore the situation. The least he could do, he supposed, was to offer her his cell or give her a lift back into town.
He'd found himself thinking a little more charitably since he'd got out here. Perhaps it was the slightly slower, more laid back feel of Almeria, one of his many stops in Spain on his way up to Northern Europe, but it felt good to be less suspicious of everyone, like he'd left all his paranoia at home.
"Something broke." She laughed, her accent heavy, suiting the stifling air around them.
Pushing off the car and moving over to his open window. "I call the garage but... He'll be out... When he can! when he can!" She raised her arms away from her sides and let them fall, pulling a face that made him think of every older Spanish business man he'd met over the last few weeks, giving off their air of It'll be done when it's done.
"And my phone is also dead... So now I must wait."
"I can give you a ride somewhere? Or you can use my phone if you'd rather wait." He suggested, and in that moment, he was genuine, his only concern was to be the kind of good person he kept trying to be but always falling short of hitting the mark.
She thought on it a moment then nodded, turning back to her car and leaning in to grab her purse and shoulder bag, then locked it up, hiding the keys under the wheel arch for the mechanic before moving to get in the passenger side of his rental.
"I'm staying at a hotel in Mojacar, is that alright?
"Just fine." He smiled.
"You're not a murderer are you." She said seriously, a twitch at the corner of her mouth the only thing giving her away.
"Uh... no?" He laughed.
"Good, neither am I."
She stuck out her hand and he shook it warmly.
"I'm Patrick..."
"Antonella." She smiled at him, then chuckled softly as he pulled away from her car and started up the road towards the coast.
It was on the lazy winding drive to the small coastal town that he actually started to notice her.
It had been a steady 80 degrees all week, but today it crept up a little, making everything look dry and brittle, a tinder box waiting for a spark. Even the birds were too hot to sing in the trees except for just before daybreak when the bastards liked to shriek outside his window at 4am.
She was beautiful in that way that was hard to grasp.
Certainly she had pretty eyes, her complexion lightly tanned, someone who enjoyed the sun but took precautions.
Sensible.
Her hair was long and dark, pulled back in a careless ponytail that now lay heavy across one shoulder.
She wore a white sleeveless blouse, matching shorts, and she had the kind of softness about her figure that made you want to touch. Whoever it was who decided thigh gaps were sexy needed a serious talking to.
"What is it in English... When something happens, and it happens so much that everyone expects it?" She asked, cutting through the silence with the harsh T on the tip of her tongue.
"You mean like a cliche?" He frowned, glancing at her quickly before looking back at the road.
"Oh! Cliche... So funny that the English word and the Spanish are both the same." She laughed a little.
"May I borrow your phone?" She asked at last, and once he'd handed it to her, he concentrated on the road, giving her the illusion of privacy.
He didn't catch what language she was speaking into it, but it certainly wasn't Spanish, so he tuned out her short conversation, taking in a little more of the scenery, smiling as he glimpsed the flash of blue that signaled the sea wasn't so far now.
"You must come to the hotel with me, as my guest." she smiled over at him as she handed him back the phone.
"I have a guest pass and the pool is beautiful, especially on such a hot day... I insist... My husband won't be joining me tonight and it would be a shame to be alone for the whole day." She pouted softly, breaking into a laugh when he chuckled, flushing a little.
A husband. Figures. So much for that fantasy.
But a pool sounded like heaven right now, when all he had to drive to after was a hostel and a shared room.
"That sounds amazing actually... If you're sure..."
"Of course! The pass would only go to waste, and it's a very expensive hotel." She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "You've been a knight in shining armour, the least you deserve is a swim."
--------
"So what does your husband do?"
Patrick had his arms up on the pool side, his body still in the water, Antonella was sat next to him, her legs dangling in the pool, her body rapidly drying in the sun only minutes after pulling herself out of the water.
"Oskar is an investment banker... Very rich... Very busy... And so, we came here for a holiday. Ah! I thought... Some time alone with my darling husband! Only no... No that's not the way it is... Because he wants to stop and look at vineyards on the way up. Now... I like drinking wine... But I am not interested in looking at grapes." She laughed, lifting one foot out the water and letting it fall back again.
"So I thought I would be clever... that I would come ahead and spend a day or two relaxing here, in the spa... the restaurants..." she waved one hand in the air in disgust. "But then I break down on the road and nearly have to walk... Thank heavens for you." She smiled down at him.
He returned it, squinting a little in the sun.
"What part of Spain are you guys from then?" He asked, wondering where the financial heart of the country was.
"Oh we don't live here anymore... My husband is from Denmark, we live in Copenhagen..."
The second language he hadn't quite caught made sense now.
"And you?" She asked, tilting her head a little as though to regard him all the keener. "You are certainly not Spanish..."
"No... No,, I'm from Fresno... California, so... I finished college and I guess I did the dropout thing. Saved some money and came out here."
"To find yourself?"
"I don't know." He admitted.
In all honesty he'd pretty much stuck a pin in a map and booked a flight. All he knew was he wanted to see more of the world than he had, and he was crippled with the idea of falling into some crappy job and getting married and having kids and never leaving the damn state.
"You found me instead." She laughed tapping her foot against his shoulder.
"Someone else found you first though."
His mouth was running on automatic, and as soon as he finished his sentence he realized how that sounded.
She simply watched him with a steady gaze and amused smile though.
"Ah... You wish I wasn't married hm? You wish I was single and could offer to show you my gratitude with more than a pool pass..."
"I'm sorry... That was... ridiculously forwards and thoughtless and... I'm sorry..." He stammered, pulling himself up out of the pool, intent on heading back to his crappy rental and bug infested hostel in the not so nice part of the city.
"Don't be sorry." she laughed, and as he grabbed a towel and turned towards her again, she smiled a little softer.
"I am grateful... And if it makes you feel better... Oskar and I have a very open relationship. I'm sure he's getting ready to fuck some vinery girl this evening... So..." She stood, pulling her hair back over one shoulder as she did and smiling a little wider.
"My suites ready... It has a fully stocked bar... And he's paying for the lot..."