Straight to You Page 0,40

shut up quickly as I realised that my meaningless words were helping no-one. Sam opened the car door and turned around on the seat so that her feet dangled outside. She breathed the warm night air in deeply and I watched her as she stood up and walked away. It was obvious that she was frightened and that she was trying to hide her fear from me. In reality I was equally scared and could offer frustratingly little comfort.

I climbed out of the car and followed Samantha as she walked towards the brittle, dying hedgerow which separated the road from the fields beyond. I put my arm gently around her and held her close to me. Despite the raging heat that suffocated everything around us, the warmth of her body next to mine was soothing and almost cooling. I turned her around so that she was looking towards me and looked deep into her troubled face. A single tear fell from her eye and trickled slowly down her perfect skin before she lifted her hand and wiped it away, ashamed at herself for having let her emotions show so readily.

'Come on,' I said. 'Don't cry. We're going to be all right.'

My words sounded hollow and they echoed through the strange stillness of the silent countryside. Samantha forced herself to smile.

'I'm okay,' she said, sniffing back more tears. 'It's just that I know things are going to get worse before they get any better, and I don't think I'll be able to get through them without you.'

'I'm not going anywhere,' I said, foolishly.

'No, but I am. Christ, Steve, I'm scared to death.'

'If it hadn't been for you, I'd have lost control a long time ago,' I whispered. 'You're the reason that I've managed to get through the last few days and if you think I'm ever going to let you go then you've got another think coming.'

'Will you come with us tomorrow?' she asked, hopefully. I knew that there was no way I could travel up to the coast with Sam and her family and, besides, there were things that I would need to sort out at home before I could leave.

'I can't,' I said, sadly. 'I won't be able to leave in time in the morning.'

Perhaps I was just fooling myself. If I was brutally honest, there was nothing I needed to do at home or at the office which couldn't wait. I desperately wanted to travel with Samantha, but I could not face the prospect of intruding on the privacy of her family at such an uncertain time. I knew that it was weak of me, and it was shallow, but there was nothing I could do that would change the way I felt.

'As soon as you can then?' she said and I nodded.

'First chance I get and I'll be coming straight to you.'

She smiled again, and I felt a little better.

'Anyway,' I continued, 'let's forget about tomorrow until it arrives. Let's make the most of what we've got left tonight now that it's here.'

I held Sam a little way away from me and looked deep into her mesmerising eyes, glinting with moisture in the low light of evening. Slowly, and with a strange trepidation, I moved my head towards hers and lightly kissed her soft lips.

Samantha took my hand and led me towards the hedge in front of us. We walked along the harsh and spiky border until we found a place where it thinned enough to allow us to clamber through into the field beyond. The parched grass was so dry that it crunched under my feet and the noise of our footsteps was the only sound that could be heard.

We walked a few yards into the field before Samantha stopped and turned around to face me once more. With a trembling hand she undid the top button of her dress before reaching out for me again. Again we kissed, more passionately than before and then, with excitement mounting, I began to undo the rest of her dress. Slowly at first, and then with desire accelerating us, we tore the clothes from each other's bodies until we stood naked in the evening silence. I took her shoulders in my hands and pulled her gently to the ground. Samantha writhed with pleasure as I entered her and as the brittle, coarse grass tickled and played on her naked, exposed skin. Slowly, and with a passion the like of which neither of us had dared imagine before, we made