he had control, was the master of his own desires, but this Emily’s sweet innocence gripped him with more power than the most experienced woman and forced him to pull back while he still could.
He wrapped her in his arms and stared over her head at the lights on the edge of the harbour. What was he doing?
He would leave in three weeks. Began to realise she might not know the rules by which he played and did not need the complication he offered. A darker voice within disagreed. Perhaps she did?
Emily snuggled into the warmth of solid muscle. Lo-o-ovely kisses. Mmmmmm. Shame he’d stopped but that was good. She needed to be sensible. She could remember her mother’s cold voice very clearly even after all these years. ‘Your father and I don’t deserve this shame. You’re a tramp!’ Though how one fumbled night and a broken condom made her a tramp she didn’t know. And Gran had shooshed her and said it wasn’t true.
Well, she hadn’t tramped at all for the last sixteen years. A few pathetic-in-hindsight kisses and a meal or two. No wonder she hadn’t been tempted to chase those men. They didn’t kiss like this. She felt Marco’s arms loosen from the after hug and she guessed it was time to step away.
His hands slid down her shoulders with a lingering reluctance and dropped right away, and she pushed the hair from her eyes so she could see his face. He looked serious. Too serious.
‘Is everything okay?’ Crikey. Maybe she’d been a hopeless kisser and he was embarrassed.
‘You kiss like an angel.’
Her cheeks flamed. Had she said that out loud? He went on with a twisted smile. ‘And it seemed prudent to stop.’
Not quite sure how to take that but maybe with sincere gratitude because it wasn’t unreasonable to think that kiss could have led to an embarrassing incident. ‘Oh. Well.’ She brushed the hair out of her eyes again. ‘You’re pretty good yourself.’
The ferry pulled into Balmain East, tied up then untied and chugged across the harbour to McMahon’s Point. They both watched the busy deckhand with an intensity born of diversion from what they wanted to really do. Marco squeezed her hand and she squeezed back.
When the ferry pulled into Milson’s Point wharf, at least they had a purpose as they stepped across the walkway to the pier.
The laughing-clown mouth of the entrance invited them to join the milling crowd and Marco couldn’t help looking up at the squealing victims spinning above their heads on a swirling circular ride. His stomach contracted at the thought.
‘You like these rides?’
Emily laughed. ‘Not those ones. Though I am partial to the view from the Ferris wheel and a trip on the Wild Mouse.’
‘A wild mouse?’
She pointed. ‘Up there. It’s a mini roller-coaster that makes you think you’re going to fly out over the harbour and instead turns the corner suddenly. It’s Annie’s favourite.’
‘It sounds like your favourite. Not Annie’s.’ This one didn’t look too bad. At least it didn’t turn upside down.
He crossed to the payment window and purchased a wrist-banded ride pass for both of them.
‘Come.’ He lingered over the word until she grinned. ‘We will see who is the most frightened.’
They jogged up the gaily painted steps hand in hand and Emily turned to him. ‘Can’t you feel the infectious enthusiasm from the young crowd?’
He wasn’t sure if he was infected yet. The teens were having a ball on this Friday night and her smiling face turned from side to side as she caught glimpses of the screaming occupants … and perhaps seeping some foolishness into him.
A battered little red car on rails trundled across and stopped in front of them with a clang. ‘Jump in,’ the laconic ride attendant drawled, ‘man at the back, lady between his legs. I do the seat belt.’ Marco could tell he’d said the same a million times.
This idea improved with time, Marco thought with satisfaction, as Emily snuggled into the space between his legs with her skirt smoothed out in front of her. Nice. Warm and soft and in need of protection during this coming adventure. It was a very small car.
She had to lean back into his chest and his arms came along the outside of hers to grip the same handle. Snug. The car shunted off with an unexpected jerk and Emily was forced back into his chest with a bump. He tightened his hands and prepared to enjoy the ride.
They rolled down the first hill and jolted onto a runner to be pulled up the next and then gathered speed. It blurred after that.
The first sharp corner loomed as they rocketed towards it and he read the sign just before they turned.
‘Brace Yourself!’
He braced and Emily slammed into him and he slammed into the side of the car, she laughed and he had to laugh as the next corner came up and it seemed they would sail out over the harbour, but the trusty wheels remained hooked to the track as they flew around that one.
Emily laughed again and he could feel the spread of a huge smile across his face as the ride rocketed on. Up and down steep little hills that lifted them out of their seats as they bounced at the bottom, still stuck together, and he decided then they would repeat this experience before they went home.
The car rolled to a stop. It was over. Shame, that.
‘Lady out first. Then the gent. Keep to the left and down the stairs.’
Emily waited for him to climb out, not as elegantly as he could have wished but that smile seemed glued to his face and she laughed at his expression. ‘You’d think you’d never been to an amusement park before.’
The laughter fell away. No.
He tried not to think of his lonely childhood, his family moving towns in the dead of night, and those periods of abject poverty when his father had been in gaol.
‘Oh!’ She was not slow. The smile she threw him would have lit the whole harbour in a power failure. ‘In that case, we need to really make a night of it.’
She grabbed his hand and dragged him down the stairs. ‘It’s Coney Island for you. I want to see you in the rolling pipes and if you don’t get motion sickness I’m going to stick you to the wall in the Rotor.’
And the darkness was gone. Lifted from him by the light of her joy. He followed her, soaking in her delight in silly games, ridiculous rides and fairy floss. Her hand in his, laughing and looking at him to be sure he too enjoyed the night. A strange feeling to savour that she cared so much that he was the happy one.
He kissed her as she reached the end of the wacky walkway, kissed her after the slippery slide, and leant her back into the wall and kissed her thoroughly after another ride on the wild mouse.
The most memorable kiss—though not the most successful—was upside down in the centrifugal chamber where the forces glued them to the wall while the floor fell away. They only just made it back to upright before the floor came back and gravity returned.
From there it seemed natural to walk her back to his flat,
