When Connie awoke the next morning, it took her a little while to remember where she was, but the heat and the sound of the sea soon told her. God, she didn't think she'd felt quite so lazily or languidly relaxed in a very long time. Ric was still sleeping beside her, his slow, deep breathing incredibly quiet. They had lain without so much as a cotton sheet covering them all night because of the heat and humidity, and Connie found herself leaning up on an elbow, her eyes running the length of Ric's attractive body. He had a soft, sleepy smile on his face, and one of his hands was slightly twitching in the midst of a dream. She smirked, however, when she caught sight of his early morning arousal, and thought that she couldn't think of a nicer way to wake him up.
Carefully sliding down the bed so as not to wake him prematurely, Connie began dropping delicate kisses along the entire length of his erection, tasting a vague hint of herself from the night before on his skin. When Ric felt her incredibly sensitive ministrations, he groaned luxuriously, his eyes lazily opening to glance down at her. God, that mouth of hers really is as sinful as it looks, he thought to himself as she tenderly guided the head between her lips. It had been far longer than he cared to remember since a woman had done this for him, never mind woken him up with it. But he had no intention of letting her take him all the way like that. Well, not this morning anyway. Gently detaching her from himself, he coaxed her back up to lie beside him, and kissed her long and hard. "I haven't been woken up like that in a long time," He said, feeling her soft curves nestling against him. "I thought you might like it," She said with a smile. "Mmm, too much," He said with a yawn, his hands beginning to trace every contour of her body. When he eventually encouraged her to move over him, she leant her hands on his shoulders and internally gripped him, making him briefly wonder if he'd died and gone to heaven. Their coupling didn't last as long as on the previous night, but they both found it an inordinately pleasant way to begin the morning. Afterwards, Connie grabbed herself a long, thankfully ice cold scrub under Ric's slightly temperamental shower, whilst he went round removing insect screens from the windows to let in as much air as possible, and to draw the blinds against the sun. When she emerged, she was wearing nothing but a pale blue bikini, and Ric took a moment to simply stare at her. "See something you like, Mr. Griffin," She teased him mockingly. "Yes," He said without hesitation, handing her a bottle of insect repellent. "As I suspect you will probably spend far too much of today soaking up the sun, you need to plaster yourself all over with this." "They'll have no chance, what with this and sun block," She said, taking the bottle from him and beginning to smother her forearms, as Ric went to take a shower before leaving for work.
Finding some orange juice in the fridge, she poured herself a glass and peeled a banana, smirking as it reminded her far too clearly of waking Ric up that morning. When she heard Ric emerge from the shower, she dug her cigarettes and lighter out of her handbag, and walked out onto the porch, where Ric had raised the insect screen out of the way should she wish to descend the steps. Connie had just lit a cigarette and taken a long and immensely satisfying drag, when she happened to glance down at something on the top step that had caught her eye. "Jesus Christ!" She exclaimed in shock, as the long head of the snake peeped over the edge of the porch, the rest of its coils draped over the lower steps. It was clearly sizing her up, its tongue flicking tentatively to and fro, as if tasting the air around her, sampling the pheromones that were surely coming off her in waves. Ric had heard her exclamation of sheer fright, and he suddenly appeared, still trying to do up his shirt, and wearing comfortable looking cotton trousers. When he saw what she was staring at in wide-eyed horror, he said, "Oh, I should have told you about her." "Told me what?" Connie asked, unable to take her eyes from the highly elegant and, she was forced to admit, strangely beautiful reptile. "She comes up here for fresh water," Ric said, going back into the house and emerging with a small bowl of water, stepping carefully passed the snake, and putting it down in the long grass beside the house wall. "Trust you to have a bloody pet snake," Connie said disgustedly, though relaxing slightly as she saw that its presence didn't bother Ric in the slightest. "She started turning up a couple of days after I moved here," he explained, watching the snake as it watched Connie. "I think she's trying to work out if you're a threat to her. She will smell your fear of her, which is far more likely to make her protective towards her habitat." "Is she dangerous?" Connie asked, feeling that this was a particularly stupid question. "Probably," Ric said extremely casually. "But having worked with Tom Campbell-Gore for two years, a poisonous snake is small fry." Connie smiled at this, some of her uncertainty gradually leaving her. Seeming to have made up her mind, the snake slithered back down the steps and moved over to the bowl of water Ric had put out for her, which Connie noticed from this angle was out of sight. "You don't seem remotely bothered by her," Connie said, taking a grateful drag of her cigarette. "I'm not," Ric said succinctly. "She won't hurt you, unless you frighten her. I came out here one morning, and found her sound asleep on there," He said, gesturing to the wicker seat they'd been sitting on last night. "She's definitely the tamest snake I've ever seen. If she comes back, just refill the bowl with cold tap water. But don't go walking about in the long grass with bare feet, because I'm pretty sure that her nest is somewhere round here." Slightly shuddering at the thought of treading on a snake's nest in her bare feet, Connie assured him that she wouldn't. Picking up his car keys, Ric prepared to leave, saying that he probably wouldn't be back much before six, telling her to definitely find herself some shade for the hours in the middle of the day, and telling her to be careful. "You don't need to worry about me, you know," She said, a soft smile turning up the corners of her mouth. "I know," He said, gently kissing her, and then walking round the house to his car.
Connie spent the morning sunbathing, until it became far too hot to be out in it any longer. It was incredibly soothing, she thought to herself, to quite literally have nothing to do but relax, sleep, and soak up the sun. No one was making demands on her time, and she could do precisely as she wished. It was really so rare that she was able to partake of such a luxury, that she found that she'd drifted away the morning with hardly a second thought. But around lunchtime, she went inside to find something to eat, and to pour herself a large glass of the bottled water that inhabited over half of Ric's fridge. He had warned her under no circumstances to drink the tap water, and even the ice cubes were made with the bottled variety. The rest of the fridge seemed to be filled with fruit, natural yoghurt and goat's milk cheese. Thinking that such a diet wouldn't do some of her heart patients any harm, she peeled and chopped a pineapple that was beginning to look extremely ripe, returned most of it to the fridge to be eaten later, and drizzled some natural yoghurt over what she intended to eat. As she ate the pineapple, she spared a thought to admit that it would be so easy just to stay here forever. She knew she had to go back home at some point, but that didn't mean she automatically wanted to go. But she was in limbo out here, she knew that, temporarily putting her life on hold, to give her the strength to deal with it again once she returned home. But did she want to deal with it? Jesus, she thought ruefully, that was a question and a half. She could see only too clearly why Ric had come here, because out here he didn't feel stretched to breaking point any more. She wished she knew what she was going to do about Michael. It wasn't just catching him in bed with Chrissie, because she knew that in time she could get over the humiliation of that little escapade. But she had absolutely no idea what she could possibly do about Michael's controlling influence. She couldn't go on like this, she was sure of that, but where did that leave her?
After eating the pineapple, Connie returned to the porch and relaxed into the long wicker seat, briefly thinking that she hadn't been quite so slothful for years. She was in the shade here, but she could still feel the air as if it bore the texture of a fur coat. She had just closed her eyes, wishing that she'd thought to bring some sunglasses with her, when she heard a faint hiss coming from somewhere near her feet. Sure enough, when she glanced down, there was the snake, lying with its head over the top step, as it had been this morning. Remembering what Ric had said about the snake smelling her fear, she tried her damnedest to suppress any feelings of apprehension or concern. The snake was looking at her, presumably wondering why this new person had come into her feeder's territory. If Connie hadn't known better, she would have sworn that the snake had a very disdainful look on its face, something akin to the way she usually looked at Zubin. It was a beautiful animal, nearly four feet in length and with very distinctive stripes along its back. "Are you thirsty?" Connie asked, not knowing where the verbal enquiry had come from, and privately thinking that she really must be losing her marbles. Going inside, she slipped on a pair of sandals, filled a jug with water, and went outside again to look for the bowl Ric had left out for the snake in the morning. She found it in the long grass by the house wall, and refilled it with water, stepping back to let the snake approach. Going inside and returning with a novel she'd thrown in her bag at the last minute, she sat down to read, but her attention was again distracted by the snake, who after drinking its fill from the bowl, had obviously decided to also take shelter from the sun's penetrating rays. She had crawled right up onto the porch, and was now settling down in a quiet corner, her coils slipping easily into place around her. She gave a long, drowsy hiss as she draped herself over the wooden floor, which could almost have been a sigh of contentment. "You're quite peaceful in a funny kind of way," Connie told her thoughtfully. "Michael would probably have me sectioned if he knew I was talking to a snake," She continued, the words seeming to flow out of her with such ease. "I bet Ric talked to you, didn't he. Ric always did have a penchant for living dangerously." The afternoon lazily drifted away as she read her book, and when the temperature dropped ever so slightly at around four thirty, though at first Connie didn't notice it, the snake left its shaded corner and moved out onto the scrubby grass in front of the steps, basking in the late afternoon heat, clearly lapping up every hint of the ultra-violet rays. Getting an idea, Connie went inside, removed her bikini, covered the entire front of her body with more sunscreen and insect repellent, wrapped herself in a towel and went back out side. Walking carefully passed the snake where she still lay on the grass, Connie walked down onto the sand, the scorching hot grains sliding between her toes. A little way down the beach, she found a discrete, half enclosed place where the overhanging rock would keep the sun off her face, leaving the rest of her body to bake. Hoping that this stretch of beach really was as private as it appeared to be, she slipped off her towel, spread it on the sand and lay down. Oh, god, that feeling of being positively bathed in the sun's rays. The blissfully intoxicating decadence of it immediately told her just why so many people were willing to risk skin cancer.
When Ric returned at nearly six-thirty, he wasn't surprised to find Connie's note, saying that she was sunbathing a little way down the beach. Gratefully peeling off his clothes, he emerged wearing nothing but a pair of swimming shorts. Picking up his camera, he walked down onto the sand, and found Connie pretty quickly. She was lying on her back, her rich, honey-coloured skin turning a beautiful rosy gold. Her eyes were shut, and he thought she might be asleep. There was a book on the sand beside her, and she looked more relaxed than he'd ever seen her. But as he stood looking down at her, she lazily opened one sleepy eye. "Voyeurism is a hanging offence in this country, didn't you know?" Which was said in that delightfully husky drawl that always aroused him. "It would definitely be worth it," He said, unable to take his eyes away from her incredible body, displayed in all its glory. As she made a move to get up, he said, "Don't move, I'd like a picture of you." "Something to drool over when I've gone, I suppose," Connie said knowingly. "More like something to remember you by," He quietly corrected her, not remotely bothered by the jibe. After he'd taken a couple of snaps of her, she finally got to her feet, wrapping the towel around her again. "I'm going for a swim," He told her. "Care to join me?" "Mmm, definitely," She said with a yawn. "How far out do you go?" "You see that rock?" He said, pointing to an enormous out-crop of rock, sticking up out of the water. "How far is it?" "About a mile." "I don't se why not," She said, unwilling to admit that it was some considerable time since she'd swum so far. "Just let me put my bikini back on," She said as they walked towards the house. "I wouldn't bother," Ric told her. "It's a bit late for false modesty." "Yes, I suppose so," She said, thinking of all the deliciously naughty things he'd done to her last night.
As they entered the water, it really did feel like a warm bath, the sun having heated it for the entire day. The water felt incredible, flowing over her naked body, the waves gently lifting her just like the embrace of a strong man. Jesus, she was getting soppy if she was having thoughts like that. She couldn't help but be impressed at Ric's powerful, flashy crawl, showing that he obviously came out here and did this every single day. The water became slightly cooler the further out they went, but it still felt like being in a lukewarm bath. Ric reached the rock before she did, and once out of the water, leant down to help her up, her naked, slippery body eventually lying against his chest. "God, I do feel decadent," She said contentedly, tasting the salt on Ric's skin as she dropped a kiss on his chest. "You certainly look it," He replied with a smile, his hand brushing some wet hair out of her face. "How was your day?" She asked, feeling almost unbearably sexy lying here with him like this. "Oh, you know how it is," He said mildly. "You win some, you lose some. A swim after a bad day, always seems to put everything back in perspective, and apart from the obvious, it's the best exercise there is." "I prefer the obvious any day," Connie said with a smirk, moving slightly further up the rock so she could kiss him. Their exploration was long and slow, both remembering their enjoyment of last night and this morning. "What did you do today?" He asked, when they eventually came up for air. "Absolutely nothing," She said with a smile. "And it felt wonderful. All I seemed capable of doing was sleep or read." "The heat gets you like that the first few days, if you're not used to it." "I even found myself talking to that blessed snake of yours around lunchtime." "She's a good listener," Ric said with a smile. "She doesn't continually ask me for money, she doesn't argue, and she doesn't try to offer me unwanted advice. You could say she's the perfect woman in many respects." "Oh, very funny," She said drolly, knowing that he was only teasing her. He began kissing her again, obviously in an attempt to make up for his remark. Breaking away from him a little while later, Connie said, "How can just being kissed, feel quite so erotic?" Ric laughed softly. "It's the setting more than anything else," He assured her, but began to allow his hands to wander, thinking that she might just enjoy an orgasm in the open air. As his hand slid over her breasts, gently teasing at her steadily hardening nipples, she stretched cat-like and groaned. "Mmm," She said luxuriously. "You really are most disgracefully bad." "And I always thought that was what you liked," He replied mockingly, as one of her legs curled itself round his, as she obviously sought the friction she needed. Trailing his hand down, he discovered just how aroused she was, her moistened flesh as hot and humid as the air around them. Connie couldn't believe she was lying here, on a rock with Ric, right out in the middle of the sea, being brought to orgasm just by his wonderfully skilful hand. She kissed him long and hard as she came, briefly imprisoning his hand between her thighs, as if unwilling to let it go.
After swimming back to the beach, Ric went to take a shower, while Connie found them something for dinner. They had slipped into that happy, relaxed and contented way of being together, that neither of them could have expected before her appearance in Ghana. They both knew that it was only for a few days, so they both strove to make the most of it. Connie achieved an almost frightening depth to her suntan, caught up on an enormous amount of sleep, and allowed her brain to completely regroup. They went swimming every day when Ric returned from work, and made love when they went to bed at night, as well as at any other welcome opportunity. Connie felt entirely rejuvenated by her few days in the sun, and Ric felt an unwelcome longing to ask her to stay. But this was impossible, and they both knew it. Connie was very depressed on her last night, knowing that this was the last time she would sleep in his bed, be held in his arms, and be able to relax, entirely at ease with her self and her surroundings.
"All good things must come to an end, Connie," He told her gently, as they sat on the porch on that last evening. "I know," She said regretfully, blowing a smoke ring up at the stars. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it." "Promise me something?" He said, knowing that he was treading on very thin ice with this one. "I don't do promises, Ric," Connie told him bleakly. "Because I am particularly bad at keeping them." "You can this one," He assured her. "Though it will take some effort to achieve it. When you go back, when you find yourself once again becoming involved in everything you've put on hold, try not to become bitter again, because you're far nicer without that outer shell." She was silent for a moment, his words having made her temperamentally speechless. "I'll try not to," She said eventually. "But I don't know how much I'll really succeed." There was an almost furious quality in their lovemaking that night, as though Connie was determined to imprint the memory of his touch on her soul. She desperately wanted him to consume her through and through, so that she might feel the branding of his passion on her for days afterwards. The weather seemed to sense her mood, the rain suddenly pouring down in a torrent, accompanied by thunder and lightning that seemed to rock the house, combined with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. Ric could feel her need, her raging desire for every inch of her to know his touch, for him to somehow leave his mark on her. He'd have granted her almost anything that it was in his power to give that night, and when she asked him to be rough with her, he willingly obliged, seeing this as the only way she was prepared to express her real feelings. It was hard, it was rough, and it was furious, and when they at last lay exhausted, Connie's body was wracked with sobs. The almost primeval intensity of their lovemaking had given her the release she craved, and which she seemed to have been unable to achieve before now. In truth, Ric had been quietly waiting for this type of outburst from her, and he could now breathe a little easier that she had let herself go. She had badly needed to do this, to let out all the anger, all the feelings of helplessness that had sent her to him in the first place. Gently he held her, not saying anything, but softly stroking her hair, and running his hands tenderly over the shoulders he had gripped so tightly only moments before. Eventually, Connie cried herself to sleep, truly exhausted from both the sexual and the emotional release she had achieved.
She was fairly quiet in the morning as they gathered her few possessions together, making no mention of her outburst of the night before. Connie didn't attempt to try to make small talk as they drove to the airport, because she knew it would only be a cover up for how she really felt. Ric seemed to sense her tension, and briefly took her hand in his as they waited at the traffic lights. But perhaps the worst moment for Connie, the ultimately heart-wrenching moment of pure anguish, came when she had to say goodbye to him. They stood with his hands on her shoulders, neither of them knowing what to say. "You might not want to hear this," Ric told her, eventually breaking the unbearably tense silence. "But I wish you weren't going." "So do I," She said, her voice slightly breaking with the tears that had risen to her eyes. Pulling her suddenly closer, he buried his face in her hair, taking in the combination of perfume and cigarette smoke that had become so familiar to him over the last few days. Her arms went up around his neck, and they stood there like that until the second announcement came for Connie's flight to board. "Promise me to take care of yourself," he told her, kissing her lingeringly just once more. "You too," She said, reaching down to pick up her bag. "Just so that you don't miss me too much," she said, trying rather unsuccessfully to lighten the situation. "I've left you something under your pillow." "Connie, write to me," He called after her, as she walked through the barrier and away from him. Sending him one of her winning smiles over her shoulder, she gave him a wave, more said in that small gesture than in a thousand words.
Returning to the house with a heavy heart, Ric went to see what she had left him. Wrapped in a small note from her, was a tiny bottle of her perfume. Unstoppering the bottle, Ric breathed in that dry, sexy, incredibly erotic scent that was pure, one hundred percent proof Connie. Unfolding the note, he read the following words:
"If ever you're miserable, take a hit of this instead of your dope, and remember those few days that you made me truly happy."