Good grief, not only brawn and beauty, but brains too.
Laurie was slightly awestruck. Both her new friends were scientists, quite eminent by the sound of it, but in entirely different fields. Ed's research specialty was climate studies, with a particular interest in long term weather patterns, global warming and other issues; while Denny was a leading volcanologist. Laurie actually fancied she'd seen him on the television, interviewed when there'd been a large eruption. His hair had been much shorter, and the clip had been barely seconds, but thinking back, she was sure it'd been him.
"That's why we're here, really," he said, swirling his glass as they touched on field work. He was drinking water now, Laurie noticed. Did he think that he needed a clear head for something? "We've been loafing around in colleges and cozy cloistered seats of learning long enough, so now we're both going out in the field. This is a last hedonistic holiday for a while, a chance to have some fun together before we head off to the ends of the earth, in different directions."
Ed shrugged, quirking his lips. "Well, not quite the opposite ends, but near enough. Denny's off to Indonesia to study his pet volcanoes there, and I'm away to Antarctica at the end of October, to monitor the ozone layer amongst other things."
"Bloody hell! Antarctica? No wonder you wanted some late season Caribbean sun." Laurie stared at him, trying to see him with a bushy beard and bundled up in multiple layers of insulated parka, looking like a sexy Ernest Shackleton. It was difficult; she still kept seeing him naked. "And I suppose half way up the side of volcano in Indonesia isn't a bed of roses either."
"No, it can get a bit hairy, sometimes, close to something active," admitted Denny.
They were back in the conversation area now, with her and Denny sharing the settee again. She'd noticed that contrary to her expectations, having seen Ed fuck him last night, the blond was the ever so slightly dominant persona, in conversation at least. Ed seemed content to be quieter, listening and watching shrewdly while almost basking in the golden glow of his stunning partner.
"So how long will you both be away for?" She glanced from one to the other, and caught a look passing between them. It was fleeting, but also telling. They cared deeply for each other and it was going to be hard to be apart.
"Well, Denny's off for five months and me just for four." Ed swirled his drink in his glass. "I'm looking forward to it, professionally speaking, but it's going to be tough without sex for all those months." He case Laurie a seductive glance. "I'll just have to rely on being absorbed in the work… and internet chats and my good right hand."
Laurie's blushes had settled during their over dinner conversation, but now, instantly, she was glowing again. Especially when Denny added, "His very good right hand."
"Um… yes, it must be difficult when you're established couple," she observed, at a bit of a loss. The looks being exchanged between the two men were sultrier now, and Denny had this particular quirk of running his tongue over his bottom lip that was doing devilish things to her libido. It was crazy, but still, she couldn't help herself. "Do you… do you live together?"
"Part of the time," said Denny, returning his attention to her, "We have a place in London, that's near to my college… and Ed commutes and we spend weekends together. A good thing too. Because if we lived together all the time we'd probably spend far too much time shagging and never get any work done."
"Er… yes," was all she could manage.
"Pack it in, Den… you're embarrassing our guest," chided Ed, although his eyes were sparkling as he spoke. No doubt eager to get to the shagging.
"It's okay. No harm done… although maybe I should be on my way. I'm a bit tired."
Chicken! Scaredy cat!
But even as she chastised herself, Denny shot out a hand and prevented her from rising.
"Don't go, Laurie… please." His eyes were clear and blue, and the request seemed genuine. "Tell us about you. What's your story?"
Ah, the crunch. She'd known it would come and here it was.
"There's nothing much to tell you, really. I'm an office manager, working in a boring office for a boring firm. I don't do anything exciting or valuable to society. I'm twenty seven… but… well, at the moment I feel old as Methuselah and about as interesting. No special hobbies, except reading and sometimes I do a bit of sketching. I like art."
She was babbling, and avoiding the issue. Ed clearly knew that, because he leant forward in his chair, his warm brown eyes intent. "What are you doing here, Laurie? It's not usually the sort of place where a woman, or a man for that matter, holidays alone."
To her horror, Laurie's eyes started to water, and a strange wobbly feeling gripped her. If it hadn't been for Denny's gentle hold on her arm, which seemed to be supplying strength directly into her bloodstream, she might have had dizzy turn. She squared her shoulders, blinked, and mentally braced up.
"I'm on my honeymoon, actually."
Both men had the grace to look taken aback. Denny blinked. "But… don't you need a husband for that? Where is he?"
Laurie took a big breath. She felt oxygen starved. "I don't have a husband. I nearly did have one… but the guy I was engaged to told me he was going to marry his pregnant girlfriend. And he waited until two weeks before our wedding to inform me of th… that!" Her lip quivered. She fought to control it, but it was getting hopeless. "So there you are. I'm honeymooning alone because it was too late for a refund. And I've left that fuck bastard to make the arrangements for selling our house and sorting out everything else. To hell with him!"
It'd been more superficially civilized than that, but Laurie didn't care how it sounded. The grief and anguish and shock broke over her all over again like a great wave crashing over the white beach just a couple of hundred yards away. She began to gulp and sniff and sob, and descend into being a complete mess, longing for the ground to open up, allow her to drop in, and cover her up again.
She was a pond of shame and distress, isolated by her state of rejection. Until Denny's warm, white-clad arms folded around her, and she found herself clasped against his firm chest and enveloped in a delicious cloud of his spicy male cologne. Even as she still gulped and sobbed, she was aware of Ed swiftly crossing the gap between his chair and the sofa, and dropping his knees in front of her. While Denny hugged her, his lover stroked her back and her forearm in a slow, soothing rhythm.
Laurie had no idea how long they rocked and comforted her. It could have been minutes; it could have been hours. She only knew that their attention, even just their presence, was far more of a panacea than the commiserations of her girlfriends had been, and even gentler and more tender than the response of her family.
Enclosed in a circle of warmth and silent understanding created by two virtual strangers, she suddenly felt the ice shell she'd formed round her heart starting to melt. A carapace she had barely been aware of, that she'd erected to keep herself sane, but which she suddenly realized that she didn't need as much. Not now.
"What a despicable, idiotic fuck," growled Denny, breaking the silence, "How the hell could he do that to a gorgeous woman like you?"
Laurie laughed, and dabbed at her eyes with her free hand. The one Ed wasn't caressing.
"He is… yes, he is a despicable idiotic fuck, you're right there."
"Exactly," concurred Ed, "And he doesn't deserve a woman like you. You're obviously far better off without him."
They were just being nice, but still it felt good. The way they spoke of her, describing her as gorgeous, made her spirits soar.
Settling down, she found herself smiling. "It's funny… the way you two call me 'gorgeous' and all. Surely you really think that… well… you each think the other is gorgeous, not some leftover woman who blunders in and makes an exhibition of herself?"