Cat's surgery went well and she's back to terrorising the nurses, so thanks once again for all your well wishes.

So I'm sure she won't mind me borrowing this chapter of her story for a couple of special dedications. The first goes out to Ladyhawke1709, Skins FF's favourite Norwegian. There really aren't the words to describe what happened in her country last week, so I'll just say I love you and your beautiful Norway, Hawke, and you'll know which part of this is meant for you…

The second goes out to another friend, who is currently fighting for her life in Intensive care at the moment. She is a warm, beautiful and talented person who is still so young, so if you've got any energy to give please send your thoughts to SJ.

Thanks. And on with the show…

9. A Wave That Is Coming For Me

Naomi

Emily had sent me a text the next morning wishing me a good day at sea, and I sent a thank-you in reply. I hadn't really heard from her since then. I mean obviously we had been out on the boat with no signal for the rest of the day, but as soon as we got within range of the shore I started compulsively checking my phone. I was glad to be back, the sea had gotten progressively rougher throughout the day, and I was fearful of the Rosie Malone's capacity to survive a real storm. Once we got back to the cottage, I made some dinner for me and Thomas, trying to provide myself with tasks to distract from the stupidly powerful urge to phone Emily. Once again, I cursed the power she seemed to have over me. I have never been clingy. I'm not normally bothered if someone doesn't get in touch for a few days after a date. I've usually got much more important things to be doing anyway. I've never been that desperate to hear from someone before. But the long hours of waiting around on the boat had me replaying that wonderful date for most of the day. The thought of spending all day tomorrow pretending to analyse our non-existent data, when what I'd really like to be doing is analysing Emily's body in minute detail was driving me nuts.

But I had to at least try to be a little bit cool, didn't I? I didn't want her to think I was any more of a nerd than she already did. I was useless at this game. I usually just waited until the other girl rang me. But then normally, I didn't give that much of a fuck. But then again, I didn't normally get plied with champagne and taken dolphin watching on a first date. I'd looked at the labels on those bottles, and I know I don't know that much about fancy wine, but I knew they weren't the twenty quid stuff you get in Tesco's. So I told myself I would just have to wait until she called me. You do not spend that much time and effort and money on someone if you're not interested in coming back for more. And then there was the hunger. I had felt it coming from Emily every time we'd kissed, even the first time. She seems like such a sweet and lovely girl, and of course she is, but there's a wildness to her and I feel it every time her lips are on mine, like she wants to devour me. It's kind of scary, but not enough to stop me fucking throwing myself at her.

I would have let her take me on that boat. I was a little bit drunk and overwhelmed at what she had done for me. And that was all it took. When I kissed her for that last time, I was fucking ready to give her anything she wanted. Despite the fact that I had known her for less than a week. Christ, was that all it was? It seemed like she had been in my head my whole life. Like she was meant to be there. I was seriously losing the plot. If she hadn't gotten that phone call when she did I would have been fucked. Literally. Not that time and distance and sobriety had made any difference. I was horny as fuck. Not even the mundanity of doing the washing up could cool my ardour. I wanted to have sex with Emily. Let's face it, I wanted to have sex with her the first moment I saw her. And I've been wanting to have sex with her pretty much every moment since.

I managed to distract myself for the rest of the evening, drinking tea and playing backgammon with Thomas. He was excellent company as ever, and rather smartly managed to avoid bringing up the subject of my current obsession. I wasted a few hours in the easy comfort of our friendship, but eventually he went to bed and I was left to face the night alone. I tried to do the right thing, making myself a cup of hot chocolate and having an early night. Normally the sea air makes me sleepy, and is one of the few things that can help turn down the revs on my motorbrain. But not that night. As soon as my head hit the pillow the overthinking sprang into life. Should I sleep with Emily? What if she just wants a fuck? How will I know this? If that is all she wants, will it make it any better to string it out anyway? Would it be worth it to have her even if it was only for one night? Should I be looking at anything more than a fling anyway if I'm going to be out of here in eight weeks time? What if I start something I can't stop, and then can't make it work when I go back to Plymouth?

Needless to say there was copious amounts of stressing, and fretting, and tossing as well as turning, and I had one of the shittest nights sleep ever. It seemed like I'd only been properly asleep for a matter of minutes before I was woken up by a loud banging on the front door. I blinked my eyes, and blearily made the decision to ignore it. I heard Thomas's door open and his footsteps going down the creaky stairs. Thank fuck, I sighed and turned over to the wall, Thomas will sort it. Good Thomas. My eyes closed and I was drifting off again, when a shaft of electrical light from the hallway punctured the comforting darkness of my room.

"What is it Thommo?" I asked, my voice still husky with sleep.

There was no reply and so I struggled to turn over yet again, only to find myself facing the silhouette of a woman in the doorway.

"Emily?" I said as I groped around for the switch of my bedside light.

Again there was no reply, and it wasn't until the light came on that I discovered it was not Emily at all, but her strange friend Effy.

"What the fuck?" I said. "Is Emily alright?"

I could think of no other reason for Effy to be in my bedroom.

"Sweet," Effy smirked back. "She's fine. But you need to come with me."

I looked at the clock by the bed and almost did a comedy doubletake.

"Effy, it's six o'clock in the fucking morning," I said.

"It's the early bird that catches the worm," she said. "Trust me, you're going to want to see this. Wrap up warm."

She went downstairs to wait, and I actually found myself getting up and putting on clothes instead of telling her to fuck off and leave me alone. What is it with these women here having complete control over me? Is there something in the water?

"Where the fuck are you taking me?" I demanded, once I had managed to stagger into the kitchen.

"It's a surprise," replied Effy.

I would have pressed it but something told me that no one got any information out of this woman that she wasn't ready to give them.

"Oh you have got to be fucking joking," I said, when I opened the door and saw the weather. Dark clouds filled the sky, the wind was howling and it was pissing down.

"If you don't come, you'll regret it," she said, opening a large umbrella. "Take the plunge."

It was her echoing of Thomas's advice that pretty much dared me to do it. To follow this stranger out into a storm at this stupidly ungodly hour of the morning. When she drove us to the beach I wasn't surprised, a lot of these people's lives seemed to centre around the bay. The sea was huge, enormous waves pounding down repeatedly onto the sand, but it wasn't until we were half way down the path that I spotted the small group of boys with boards clustered by the edge of the water.

"Oh my God, are they seriously going to go into the water like this?" I said.

"They live for days like this," said Effy. "This is Wales, not Hawaii. Waves like this don't come very often."

"Those boys are fucking mental," I said, shaking my head.

"We're not here for the boys," smirked Effy.

My jaw fell and I stared at Effy open-mouthed as the bomb that she had just dropped exploded in my brain.

"Emily?" I stuttered. It seemed to be my default 'go to' word this morning.

"Told you, you would want to see it," smiled Effy.

"I don't want to see it, I want to stop it," I said. "Those waves are going to smash her to pieces."

"She's small, Naomi," said Effy. "Not fragile. And she has the most profound understanding of the water I have ever seen in anyone. It's fucking beautiful to watch. And if you do want to be with her the last thing you must ever do is try and get between her and the water. It's part of her."

She led me the rest of the way down to the beach, and grabbed my hand as we walked across the sand. Half of me was desperate to get to the water's edge, and half of me was dreading it. The closer we got, the bigger the waves looked.

"Ems here yet?" asked Effy when we reached the guys who were still on the beach.

"Yeah," replied one of them. "She's out back waiting for her girl."

"Her WHAT?" I said involuntarily.

"Relax," said Effy. "Her girl is her wave. The only real girl she's got her eye on is you."

I blushed slightly, and saw the guy we'd been talking to stop checking me out with a disappointed look on his face. It seemed like everybody on this bloody peninsula was going to know about me and Emily before the week was out. But at the same time I couldn't help feeling a warm glow in my stomach at Effy's words. I was the only girl that Emily was interested in, and I had that straight from her best friend.

He rain had started to dwindle, and Effy closed up her umbrella and reached into the bag she'd brought with her, fishing out a pair of binoculars and handing them to me. Next out were a picnic blanket and a flask of tea, swiftly followed by some sandwiches.

"You've done this before," I said.

"I love this," stated Effy simply. "Emily has a magic to her when she rides. It's like watching the sunrise out at sea. It never ever stops being beautiful."

"There's Emily now," said the guy. "Suit with the red flashes on."

I followed the direction of his arm, and saw her, her hair and her suit contrasting with the uniform colour of the wave she was speeding down the front of. I raised the binoculars to my eyes and followed her progress, as she twisted and turned and teased the wave always staying just in front of the white water that threatening to engulf her. Even though I was far away I could tell that she was smiling. Her whole fucking body was smiling. The wave curled right over her and my heart started pounding, terrified it would smash right down on her. But only a few seconds later she emerged from the tube it had created and danced along the surface of the wave once more. It was a classic image, the kind of thing you see in all the movies and stuff, but instead of clear sunny skies and crystal blue water, we were surrounded by angry grey. In some ways it made it all the more wonderful, because it was real. These people weren't playing on the big stage. They were living out their passion in a tiny corner of rainy Wales.

Eventually Emily threw herself backwards into the water, to a few cheers from the lads on the beach.

"She rocks it every time," laughed the guy who'd been stood with us.

Fired up with enthusiasm, he grabbed his board and ran towards the water. I put the binoculars back up to my eyes and scanned the water for any sign of Emily. Finally I caught sight of her paddling back out to sea, diving through those enormous waves as if they were nothing to her. Watching this it was plain to see where she got those magnificent shoulders, and my whole body shuddered when I thought about kissing them. And then I remembered the tattoo.

The next wave Emily caught, she was even more daring, and I forgot to be scared for her, as I marvelled at her skill and her courage. And the end of the ride. I turned round to Effy with the face of a kid at Christmas, visibly unable to contain my excitement. The cool brunette merely smiled back at me with a knowing look on her face.

"Thank you," I said.

"She likes you," shrugged Effy. "I wanted you to see who she was."

"She's beautiful," I whispered, knowing that Effy would somehow understand that I meant more than just appearance.

"I know," she replied.

I must have watched Emily for the best part of an hour, gratefully accepting Effy's tea and sandwiches in between. The clouds began to break up, and streaks of sunshine started to glance the water. Emily crouched down and reached out her arm, her hand touching the surface of the wave she was riding. In all the bluster and fury and the roar of the breakers and the shouts of the boys, it was a beautifully intimate moment, as if she was saying thank you to the ocean for giving her this pleasure. I loved the ocean. I loved it for it's richness and its diversity, and for it's massive importance to the global ecosystem. I was always moved by its beauty, but in truth I mostly understood it in my head. But there were other people who understood it in their bodies, as if they had some kind of primal memory that had never forgotten where we all came from. That somewhere back in the dawn of time, each one of us had risen from the sea. Watching Emily that morning, I knew she was one of those people, and I fell even more deeply because of it.

Finally I got to watch her emerge from the water again, just as I had on the first day, and the fact that she was covered with a wetsuit took nothing away from the experience. Emily was a wave that was coming for me, even more dangerous than the ones that were beating down on the shore around her. If I wasn't careful, she would knock me off my feet and I would drown in her. Even the sight of her walking towards us in a state of almost trance-like ecstasy started a riot of sensation in my poor defenceless body. It wasn't until she was nearly upon us that she shook herself from her sea blindness and noticed me.

"Naomi?" she questioned.

"Effy brought me," I blurted out, suddenly scared she would think I was stalking her.

Emily looked at her friend and broke into a cheeky grin.

"Sweet," she said. Just the way Effy said it. Effy reached into her bag and pulled out more sandwiches that she obviously reserved for Emily, and I struggled not to be jealous of their easy intimacy and the way they knew each other so well. Emily wolfed down the sandwiches, before she made any further attempt at communication.

"I'm sorry about that," she said, wiping the last of the crumbs from her mouth. "I just get really hungry after a session like that."

"I'm not surprised," I said. She must have used up a ton of energy.

"So what did you think?" said Emily, nodding back out in the direction of the sea.

"It was good," I replied.

It was good? Fuck Naomi, you dork. Is that the best you can come up with? But how was I supposed to answer that question for real? That I was now so fucking hopelessly in love with her that I would walk across burning coals just to stroke the neoprene of her wetsuit? That watching her on the wave was one of the most profoundly beautiful things I had ever seen in my life, and she should feel free to make me her sex slave any time she liked? I could never reveal the truth, because the truth would be my undoing.

"I mean it was really good," I stammered. "I mean, um.. beautiful. Like really amazing and stuff."

Emily laughed at my babbling, but her eyes were full of kindness. She stretched out her hand towards me.

"Walk me up?" she said. 'You coming, Eff?"

"I'll catch you in a bit," said Effy, taking the binoculars from my hand.

I felt myself go into my own state of trance-like ecstasy at the feeling of Emily's fingers closing around mine, but seconds later she huffed in frustration.

"Actually, I need both arms to carry this," she shrugged sheepishly, starting to withdraw her hand.

"I'll carry it for you," I said, the thought of losing Emily's touch being more than I could bear.

"You don't have to," she smiled.

"No, it's fine," I assured her. "You've been doing all the work. I've just been sitting around."

I only made it about a third of the way up the path. The arm I had tucked the board under was burning, and I was struggling to control the damn thing in the wind.

"Thank you," said Emily, generously. "I think I can take it from here."

Epic fail Naomi. Can't even carry your girlfriend's surfboard up a hill. I cringed as I realised my mistake. Jumping the gun a bit aren't you, Blonde for Brains?

"Are you ok, Naoms?" she asked me.

"Yeah," I said, frantically digging for excuses for my weird behaviour. "I just not used to getting up this early."

"I know, it's a bitch isn't it?" she laughed. "But when the wave comes, so do we?"

"You do realise that sounded really dirty?" I snorted.

"Somehow everything seems to sounds dirty when I'm around you," she said. "Guess I must have sex on the brain."

She has to know the effect she's having on me, cause she left me floored like that and took off up the path. After a few deep breaths and a few moments of rampant ass perving, I managed to push myself off the wall and follow her. By the time I caught her up, she was nearly at the Fitchwater van, and the sun was fully streaming through a big break in the clouds. There were only a couple of other vehicles in the park obviously belonging to the other surfers, and Cook wasn't even at his post yet. Emily plonked her board down at the back of the van, and reached up behind her neck to undo her wetsuit. Almost immediately she groaned and dropped her arms to her sides again.

"What's up Ems?" I asked her, noticing how she smiled at the familiarity.

"Nothing," she said. "My arms are just really tired. I was kinda pushing it out there today. When you're in the water you feel superhuman. It's not till you get out that it hits you."

"Here, let me," I said, relishing the tiny glimpse of humanity in my heroine.

She turned and put her arms against the van, showing her back to me, and it wasn't until I heard the rip of the Velcro as I opened the flap that revealed the top of the zip that I realised what I was about to let myself in for. There had been a good deal of unzipping in my Emily related fantasies, but they had usually involved some kind of dress. Unzipping her out of her wetsuit? That was just too James Bond to be true. My hands were practically shaking as I reached up and pulled at the toggle of the zip. As I dragged it down the first couple of inches, and the nape of her neck was exposed to me, I knew I couldn't let this moment pass. I leaned and kissed her neck gently, hearing her breathing accelerate as I did so. I dragged the zip a few inches further, and pulled the material apart so I could see a bit more of her spine and the top of her shoulder blades. Again I kissed the flesh I could see, taking my time to savour every tiny nuance of it's topography.

"Oh God," whispered Emily.

The evidence of her desire was enough to temporarily banish shy, dorky Naomi. Something else had taken me over now. I felt Emily's muscles tense in anticipation as I slid the zip to halfway down her back. I turned my attention back to the top of her neck, pushing her wet hair out of my way and lavishing more kisses on her in between nipping gently at the muscles of her neck. I was kind of nervous to leave that part of her, knowing what was now revealed for my gaze further down, and not quite knowing how I would cope when I caught sight of it. Eventually curiosity got the better of me, and I kissed my way down her spine, vertebrae by vertebrae until I reached the first evidence of her ink.

I pulled back slightly so I could focus on the picture. Fish. A shoal of thin striped fishes, reminiscent of cleaner wrasses, each of them about two and a half inches long, curling and flowing around each other between her shoulder blades. It was beautiful, the picture seemed to teem with energy and life. I reached my hand up to touch it, almost in awe. Emily shivered in delight at my touch, and I was struck by a sudden powerful bolt of lust. I yanked the zip down the rest of the way, and pushed the top of her suit down to her biceps, exposing her beautiful, powerful sea goddess shoulders. Emily gasped as I took hold of them, squeezing the muscle and peppering the top of her back with fervent kisses. I released my grip with one hand, and trailed five fingers down from her neck until I was touching her tattoo again.

"You are so fucking sexy," I murmured into her back, as my lips sought out the coloured flesh, wanting to meet each one of those fish individually. Her skin still smelt of the neoprene of her suit, and it instantly became my new favourite scent, knowing it would always remind me of her. Emily's back started undulating as I kissed her, and she became the sea, an ever-restless ocean for her fishes to swim within. I kissed and stroked her, fascinated by the way her muscles moved to make her marine life dance. I followed the shoal down her spine to the centre of her back, where the fish began to thin out and curl around her bones rather than each other. The strength of her mesmerised me. She may be small, but as Effy said, she was most definitely not fragile.

She had a bikini top on under the suit, but it definitely had to go. There needed to be absolutely nothing between me and this paradise of a back. I undid the clasp and pushed the straps from her shoulders, pushing the sleeves of her suit further down her arms as I did so. Her hands were tangled in the neoprene, and she started moaning as I began to kiss her again, snaking my hands inside the suit to reach for her hips and pull her towards me. Once again I pulled back, I couldn't resist the siren call of her tattoo. I started kissing the shoal between her shoulder blades again, my fingers tracing the contours of the muscle and bone beside them.

"Fucking hell," groaned Emily, and she struggled to free her hands from her sleeves, causing yet more exquisite motion in her electrifyingly athletic frame. I was lost in her, dropping down to grace kisses on the fish that swam down towards her ass. Once she was free, and completely topless, I fell to my knees and pulled down her suit till it sat on her hips, discovering the final fish as it swam cheekily down the crack between her buttocks. I followed it with my tongue, and heard Emily's hand slamming against the side of the van.

Much as I was enraptured by my own pleasures, it hadn't escaped my notice that I was driving Emily crazy. My brain that span daily with a thousand questions, stopped thinking at all, and recovered its primitive state, issuing me with simple directives. Fuck Emily. Make Emily happy. Make Emily come. I climbed up her body again, kiss upon kiss, wrapping my arms around her as I went, pulling her close to me and listening to the screaming demands of my own body that it should be semi naked too, so it could feel the delicious ecstasy of her flesh. My fingers snaked across her stomach as I was kissing her shoulders again, knowing that her breasts were bare and just waiting for me to…

Emily span in my arms and gently pushed me away to arms length, staring at me breathlessly her eyes as black as night. My eyes scoped downwards to seek out her tits, how could they not? Oh fuck they were perfect, pushing out from her defined pectoral muscles, her nipples hard with lust. Again my primal brain took over and my right hand was rising of its own accord, before Emily grabbed my wrist to stop me. I frowned in a semi-dazed confusion. No I had to feel her breast. It was what was meant to happen. It was written in the fabric of the universe. It was a fundamental need.

"We have to stop," said Emily reluctantly, as if it was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Why?" I protested. I knew stopping was not on my agenda.

Emily shook her head.

"If you get anywhere near my boobs, I'm just gonna let you fuck me in the back of this van," she said, with a half incredulous smile.

I stared at her like that was the best idea I'd heard in my life, and her eyes flashed at me when she realised I was thinking about doing just that.

"I have to go to work," she apologised.

"What?" I moaned, the injustice of it seemed terrible.

Surely the world could stop so that I could be with Emily?

It was touch and go. We glared at each other in a sexual Mexican stand off, and Emily looked like she was on the point of crumbling, when we were interrupted by the sound of a car pulling into the car park.

"Morning Ladies," came Cook's unmistakable foghorn of a voice, killing the moment.

"Hey Cook," replied Emily, casually waving back at him.

I looked at her in alarm.

"What?" she said, and my eyes flicked down to her torso, to the uncaged beauties that were paying havoc with my libido. Fuck knows what they were doing to Cook.

"Ah," waved Emily dismissively. "He's seen my tits before, haven't you Cook?"

"Yes ma'am," grinned Cook, giving her a salute.

My eyes must have registered my horror, because Emily immediately qualified her statement.

"Not like that," she laughed. "It's just, we're surfers. We're always getting changed out of the back of cars and stuff. After a while you stop being precious about your body. I've seen most of the local lads cocks on more than one occasion."

"And she's still as gay as a window, aren't you luv?" laughed Cook.

"Yes ma'am," grinned Emily, returning his salute.

"I'll go put the kettle on, eh?" he said.

Once we were alone I felt myself consumed by her once more. I couldn't believe how confident she was about her body, but then again, if I had a body like that, maybe I would be too, instead of being painfully shy about exposing myself to anyone.

"Nai, you're going to have to stop looking at me like that," said Emily.

"Like what?"

"Like you're gonna have some kind of heart attack if you don't fuck me in the next five minutes."

My eyes shot to the ground as I felt the blush spreading over my features.

"Hey, don't get me wrong," she said, reaching out to touch my cheek. "I like it, but I got a whole bunch of other women waiting for me, and I can't let them down."

"Surely you're not going to take them out in this?" I said in horror.

"Not here," she replied. "But there's a little bay on the south side that's a lot more sheltered. Should be able to give them a proper thrill for their last day."

"Ok," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"You're going to have to go away," she smiled. "I'm gonna have to take the rest of this suit off, and I don't think either of us are going to survive that. Why don't you go and see Cook for a few minutes?"

"Ok," I said again, and reluctantly turned away and left her to it.

"Ey up, lovebird," said Cook, as I poked my head round the corner of the shed. "Welcome to my palace. Cup of tea?"

I nodded my assent and peered into the tiny room. The back wall was covered with pictures of scantily clad women. Mostly blonde, fake breasted women posing for the camera with patently false desire.

"How d'ya like my hotties?" grinned Cook, before seeming to think about it. "Nah, probably not your type. That's Emily's wall over there."

I followed the direction of his arm to see another cluster of girls. These ones for the most part more suitably attired, and completely different from Cook's glittering array of bimbos. Emily's girls were all kick ass bitches – Eliza Dushku, Michelle Rodriguez, Katee Sackhoff, Pink, Summer Glau, Kate Beckinsale in her Underworld gear, or they were real life sports heroines – Hope Solo, Yelena Isinbayeva, Serena Williams, Amy Williams, Lindsey Vonn, as well a number of other extreme sportswomen with mountain bikes and skateboards and the like. All of them fit, active and badass. And none of them anything like me. How was I supposed to compete with this fantasy? I'd be terrified Emily was going to cop off with every fit surf chick she came across.

"And that's Effy's wall there," laughed Cook. "She's a little more picky than us two."

I looked over to the opposite wall to get a glimpse inside the mind of the mysterious Stonem girl, but instead of a bevy of beauties there hung a single blown up picture of Katie Fitch laughing. I had to admit that without a scowl on her face, she was beautiful.

"Ain't love grand?" said Cook, handing me a cup of tea.

"I'll have to let you know," I told him.

Outside I heard the roar of an engine starting up, and I ran out to see the Fitchwater van driving towards us. Emily stopped at the gate and jumped out to meet me.

"Mission accomplished," she said. "I am now fully clothed and safe to engage."

"I'd call that a mission fail," I whispered.

"Do you want a ride?" she flashed her eyes at me shamelessly. I couldn't take it anymore. I held up my recently acquired cup of tea as a defence shield.

"Nah, I'm gonna hang on for Effy," I said.

"Ok, cool," said Emily, kissing me on the cheek, trying to be all business.

"When am I going to see you again?" I blurted as she turned to leave, and her mask slipped.

She ran back and kissed me breathlessly, our tongues instantly and urgently finding each other. When she pulled away, it looked like it was physically hurting her to do so. She kept our foreheads touching and stared deep into my eyes.

"Tonight," she promised me.

She kept her eyes fixed on me as she backed away towards the van.

"And Naomi," she said with that irresistible husk of hers. "Tonight, yeah?"

Now that was a fucking promise.

.

.

.

So, I know I've been writing this like a demon cause I want to keep Cat entertained, but I've also been on holiday. I'm now off to work at Edinburgh festival for a month so updates might get a little sketchier from here on in. I'll do my best, but unlike Emily, I'm not promising anything.

Cheers, Hypes x