Breaker's Passion (10 page)

Colby’s lips were as soft and warm as she remembered. Almost tentative, Colby kissed her and she sensed driving passion barely restrained. Colby’s desire for her thrilled her. She hadn’t felt this way in a long, long time, and, by God, this was just a simple kiss. Who was she fooling? Nothing was simple about it.

She wanted the moment to last forever and go further than it had that night. Her body was alive, pulsing with need, and she was swept away in the moment. She would make a complete fool of herself right here on the sidewalk if she didn’t stop right now.

Summoning her strength she pulled away, her lips lingering for an instant. She was breathing hard, but if the rapid rise and fall of Colby’s breasts was any indication, so was she.

“How about tomorrow afternoon?”

Colby had no idea what Elizabeth was talking about. The moment she kissed her she completely lost track of time and space and would have stayed in that universe forever. Her body surged as she immediately remembered what it felt like to have Elizabeth’s lips on hers, her bare flesh under her exploring hands. She wanted this woman like she hadn’t wanted in a long, long time. She was sensuous, beautiful, witty, engaging, and brilliant. She had had women who were sensuous and beautiful, but she hadn’t spent any time with them to find out if they were the rest. She hadn’t wanted to.

She didn’t know which shook her more—the kiss or the knowledge that she wanted to learn everything possible about Elizabeth Collins, PhD. She hadn’t been interested in any women since Gretchen, and certainly hadn’t cared to learn about anything more revealing than their tan lines. When her mind cleared Elizabeth was staring at her. “What?”

“Your invitation. To teach me how to surf?”

Elizabeth was looking at her as if she had lost her mind. Maybe she had, at least a small part of it on the woman standing in front of her on a busy sidewalk on the fifth day of June in Maui.

“Colby?” Elizabeth calling her name broke the trance.

“Yes, uh, uh, definitely,” she stuttered. “Tomorrow’s perfect.”

She drove back to Elizabeth’s hotel simply enjoying the company of her sitting beside her. They finalized the details for their afternoon, and all too quickly, she was dropping Elizabeth at her hotel lobby. She wanted to say something, anything to prolong their time together, but Elizabeth had jumped out of the truck when it stopped, almost like she couldn’t get away from her fast enough.

Since meeting Elizabeth she had wanted to run away as well. Then why did she keep running toward her instead of the other way?

Colby thought her heart would stop. Her last class was wrapping up when Elizabeth stepped out onto the sand in a pair of boy shorts and a bikini top, her bare stomach an invitation. Her hair was up. If she didn’t look so hot she’d be cute. Colby swallowed a gulp of salt water. Coughing, she ended the class a few minutes early, sending eight new surfers off on their own.

“Ready?” she asked, still gazing up and down Elizabeth’s body. She was being rude but her eyes were invisible behind the opaque lenses of her sunglasses. Elizabeth had runner’s legs, the muscles in her calves and thighs well defined. A long pale scar ran along the outside of her right leg and disappeared into the hem of her swim shorts. The pair of perfectly formed breasts that fit nicely into Colby’s hands a few days ago were hiding modestly behind the blue material, but nothing could conceal the hard nipples underneath. Her mouth began to water.

“I can’t make it.”

“You can’t?” Colby repeated Elizabeth’s statement as her heart sank.

“No, something’s come up at school. I have to take a call in half an hour and it’ll probably last at least an hour, maybe longer. I’m sorry, Colby, I really wanted to do this.”

She saw the disappointment in Elizabeth’s eyes and heard it in her voice, though it was nowhere near the level of hers. “Hey, no problem. Another time.” She acted more nonchalant than she felt. This is why she didn’t get involved, didn’t let herself. It hurt and she had hurt enough. “I’m around most every afternoon.” She was intentionally noncommittal.

A flash of something crossed Elizabeth’s face before she covered it with her own false indifference. “Yeah, another time.” It looked to Colby like she wanted to say more, but she didn’t. Instead she simply said, “See you later,” and walked away.

You are going to hell, Elizabeth Grace Collins, she said to herself. Nothing was going on at school that necessitated a phone call, at least not that she knew of. She was a coward, plain and simple. Afraid of spending more time with Colby.

Being with Colby turned her mind to mush and her body on fire. From the moment she saw her in the water a connection, a hum had started inside her.

She knew hundreds of women of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, educational levels, and professions. She appreciated the beauty of all women, but the especially stunningly hot ones like Colby definitely caught her attention. Unlike some of her friends, she had never been attracted to any woman who wasn’t a lesbian. She seemed to have a definite on 
 off switch, not one with a dimmer.p>

Her interest in Colby was very different, and she had spent the better part of the morning thinking about it. Actually, she had spent most of the night as well. And it troubled her. She’d thought she was in love a few times, and in lust a few more than that. But she couldn’t put her mind around why Colby so intrigued, allured, and captivated her. Colby was stunning, her hair as black as night, every move graceful, her skin kissed by the sun. But those eyes, the color of coal, told a different story. A very different story.

She detected sadness in them. Colby rarely let it show, hiding behind flirtatious banter and teasing innuendos. But she had seen it once or twice and it had touched her deeply. She imagined a myriad of possible causes. The scenarios were endless, as were the players. But the last thing she needed was to get involved with anyone, especially a local. She was here to relax, research, and write, not get dragged into someone else’s drama.

She had more than her share of problems, dilemmas, and serious issues. The board was crawling all over her about the budget, the tenure committee was kicking her ass about the discipline she had doled out to a professor regarding a Saturday-night drunk, and if her friends didn’t stop nagging her to get laid she’d tell them to get fucked themselves.

As the sun was lifting itself over the horizon she had made a decision and spent all morning convincing herself it was the right one. Why were all the right decisions the most difficult? The same reason all the delicious food was bad for you. Sometimes life just sucked. But she was very certain of one thing. Everything was not what it seemed on the surface with Colby Taylor, surf instructor, and she wanted nothing to do with discovering what was underneath.

Elizabeth’s resolve lasted three days. Colby must have been waiting for her to emerge from her hotel, because the minute she stepped out of the lobby she was there asking if she wanted to grab some lunch. Thirty minutes later she was sitting on a wooden bench under a banyan tree in downtown Lahaina.

They had stopped at a local restaurant and ordered a box lunch, then walked a few blocks to the square. As they ate, Colby recited a bit of Maui history.

“This banyan tree was first planted in 1873 and marked the fiftieth anniversary of Christian missionary work here in Lahaina. It was imported from India when it was only eight feet tall. It’s over sixty feet high now and has twelve major trunks and a huge core. It stretches over a two-hundred-foot area and shades two-thirds of an acre. See that section there?” Colby pointed to a branch system practically horizontal to the ground. “See what looks like vines hanging down?”

Elizabeth followed her finger and nodded. The branches of this enormous tree had hundreds of such vines.

“That’s actually the root system. These trees have aerial roots, or roots that grow upward and form secondary trunks to support the expansive limbs.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s amazing.” People were taking pictures everywhere and Elizabeth suddenly wanted to have a picture made of her and Colby leaning against one of the massive branches, arms wrapped around each other like the couple directly across from them. Wouldn’t that be a fine souvenir to take back and display on her desk?

What was she thinking? She couldn’t get away with a picture of her and another woman on the hundred-year-old mahogany desk. Her assistant would be the first to ask about it, and she could practically hear the unspoken questions in her voice. Frank Wagner from the math department would be next. He had lobbied hard for the position she now held and came sniffing around every week or so trying to dig up any dirt he could on her. He was most likely the one funneling shit to the board that she in turn had to spend hours answering. She could just imagine his leer when he saw the photo.

“Elizabeth?”

Colby had said something and she hadn’t even heard her. “I’m sorry, you caught me daydreaming. What did you say?” Her inattentiveness embarrassed her.

“I asked if you’d like to walk down by the water.”

“Sure, that would be nice,” she said quickly. Anything to spend more time with Colby. Even though she’d convinced herself otherwise. But that was yesterday and the day before and the day before that. Today was another day entirely.

Colby didn’t begin to try to understand the shift in Elizabeth. She had practically run away the other day after her excuse not to go surfing. She had a lot of experience reading people and had seen right through her.

First she was elusive, then bold, then shy and adventurous. At times Colby didn’t know if she would push her away or jump her right where they stood. She was sultry and restrained all in the same body, practically in the same breath. It was almost as if she was fighting her attraction.

Colby understood, since she was a local and any relationship they had would be short at best, heartbreaking at worst. Some women were built for short-term vacation flings, but she suspected Elizabeth was trying to decide if she was one of them. Her willingness to be kissed under the eucalyptus trees that night, sure, and the way she blatantly flirted with her said she was. But something was holding her back.

Colby’s nickname preceded her, and she was a legend in the minds of her fellow surfers. If they knew the truth they would be stunned. She wasn’t celibate but certainly didn’t sleep with as many women as everyone thought. It was easier to play along than try to convince them otherwise. She honestly didn’t know why women found her so attractive. She was too thin, her breasts too flat, and her wardrobe, as limited as it was, was for function, not fashion.

She envisioned Elizabeth sitting on the shore that night. At that moment Colby had drifted outside herself and watched from a distance as she walked over to Elizabeth, drew her into her arms, and kissed her. Somebody else had explored her lips and mouth, toyed with her tongue. A stranger had touched her hot flesh, caressed her heavy breasts, and sucked an erect nipple, then dipped into her pants. But it was Colby who had stepped away, ending the vision that later became clear as the fog of passion dissipated.

She had no right to this woman, wasn’t entitled to this joy, this excitement, this pleasure, but had done it anyway. She was ashamed of her actions and glad they had been interrupted. But she continued to be drawn to her. It made no sense, though it had driven her to practically stake out the resort for three days until Elizabeth finally emerged.

Elizabeth was a mystery. And it scared the hell out of her that she wanted to solve it.

“I thought we were meeting at the pool.” Colby hadn’t expected Elizabeth to be waiting for her. After walking and talking for several hours yesterday afternoon they had rescheduled Elizabeth’s surfing lesson for today.

“We were. I just thought I’d meet you halfway. It’s not a problem, is it?” Elizabeth hesitated just before she dropped her towel and beach bag onto a vacant chair.

“No, not at all,” she choked out. Her breath had stuck somewhere between an inhale and an exhale at the sight of Elizabeth walking toward her in her beachwear. “Just give me a minute and we’ll get started.”

She quickly secured the boards and life vests she used for her classes and jogged back to where Elizabeth was waiting. She had wanted to at least brush her teeth before seeing Elizabeth again, because they would be very close for the next hour.

“Ready?” she asked, wondering if she was.

Elizabeth gave a thumbs-up. “Let’s do it.”

Her mouth grew dry and her hands began to shake. She had never been jittery, even during the first lesson she ever gave. But this was different. This was Elizabeth, and she wanted not only to impress her but have her enjoy surfing as much as she did. Here we go.

Elizabeth was standing next to one of the boards she had stuck vertically in the sand.

“Okay, usually I begin with a little history lesson, but we can skip that and start with the basics—”

“No.”

“No?”

“No, I want it all. History, safety, equipment. Everything you’d give a paying customer.”

“Okay, but you’re nothing like any of my other students.”

“Well, I’ve never had a teacher as distractingly good-looking as you. So we’re even. Except I get the raw end here. If I don’t pay attention I’ll end up drinking more of the Pacific than I care to.”

Elizabeth’s smile was devastating, and Colby had to open her mouth several times before something coherent came out. “Surfing is one of the oldest activities on the islands. It was a form of transportation from one island to another, and fishermen used it to bring their catch back to shore. Over time, surfing evolved from a form of getting around to an enjoyable pastime.”

“Kind of like sex,” Elizabeth said calmly. She must have looked confused because Elizabeth clarified her comment. “It was needed to continue the human race, but now we do it for fun as well.”

Colby swallowed the vision of having fun with Elizabeth. “Spoken like a true scholar. Now, where was I? Yes, I remember. The beach movies of the fifties and sixties glamorized surfing while Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon romanticized it. Can’t beat either one. It’s a great chick magnet,” she said, ignoring the look of surprise on Elizabeth’s face and moving toward the board. “We use several types of boards. This is a longboard. It’s long, duh, wide, stable, more buoyant, and easier to paddle than the others. It’s ideal for beginners. Now for the safety speech.” She moved away from the board and looked Elizabeth directly in the eye.