Tears of the Moon - Di Morrissey [145]
‘Well, I’m waiting,’ said Amy with a grin, rather pleased that her little joke had gone over so well.
‘Nah. We’ll give Streeter’s a miss. We’ll pick ‘em up in Darwin. Friend of mine there has a load coming up from Sydney. What the larrikins down there call “salvage”. Sort of got lost in a warehouse one night some months ago. Of course, the shipment won’t be through the usual channels. We’ll take delivery at a place not overrun by customs and the like. Then we sail up to a friendly island chief I know and spread the word that we’re open for business and make 300 percent profit.’
Amy’s head whirled. Gun running was not an option she had imagined in her fantasies. Still, 300 percent profit had a lovely sound to it.
‘About the security you mentioned, the better guns?’ She pushed her glass over to him.
He poured them both the rum, sloshed lemonade into her glass then looked across the table and grinned. ‘The Sydney boys have that in hand. They have also acquired an army Lewis machine gun. It’s as good as having a score of riflemen on board. An expensive item, I’m afraid, but an essential investment.’ He gave her a while to take this in, then asked, ‘Well, are you in?’
Their eyes met and locked in an unblinking transmission of messages. Messages that said we both know who we are, what we want and what we can give each other and we both know the answer is yes.
Amy decided to lay her cards on the table. ‘I have no ready cash of my own, but as Tyndall’s wife I am entitled to a share of the business. The pearls in the safe will be my share. It’s fair. Tyndall gets his freedom in return.’
‘A divorce?’
‘If he wants to do the hard work. I’m not going to bother,’ she flicked a hand dismissively. ‘And after this little enterprise, what then?’ she asked.
‘You’ll have money, you can do what you want.’
‘I would be looking for further opportunities in return for my investment,’ said Amy. ‘I have to think of my future.’
He gave her an appraising look. ‘If we get on, we could consider another business project or two.’
‘Just business?’ Amy leaned forward and ran her tongue over her lips. Raising an eyebrow, she whispered provocatively, ‘Maybe we should see how well we get on.’
Gunther glanced down at her breasts and reached for her hand. He pulled her to her feet. ‘The bunk’s in there. Let’s see how compatible we are then,’ he said, giving her a gentle shove.
Amy fell back through a curtain onto the bunk, giggling, and watching him strip off his clothes. She felt slightly lightheaded from the strong liquor. She knew it would have to come to this at some stage in any relationship with Gunther and besides, she enjoyed sex. Tyndall’s rejection of her had made her feel frustrated and undesirable. She desperately craved the attentions of a man.
Gunther wasted no time in delicate foreplay. Amy had been prepared for rough copulation and expected Gunther to roll away when satisfied. What came as a shock—a wildly erotic and stimulating one—was the untold pleasure he aroused in her. He gave a lusty laugh as she cried in ecstasy.
Later as she lay back satiated and sore but immensely satisfied, he revealed his secret. Taking her hand, he rubbed it along the shaft of his penis till she felt a strange hard bump on the underside.
‘What’s that? Is that what made it feel so good?’ she asked.
‘Ah, a woman who doesn’t mind admitting she likes sex,’ grinned Gunther. ‘It’s a pearl. The best baroque, placed in just the right place under the skin to please the ladies. Learned it from a Jap diver. They pierce the skin and stick in the penis pearl. Skin grows back over it and you drive the women crazy.’
Amy had to agree with him as she realised with delight that a partnership with Gunther was going to be profitable in more ways than one.
Early the following morning, before dawn, as the sulky travelled through the quiet streets back to the house on the cliff, Amy reflected on the events of the night. As always seemed to happen to her, an opportunity came along just when she was feeling trapped and