Free Holiday Affair by Annie Seaton Page B

beneath his; she closed her eyes as she gave in to him. His tongue danced with hers, and then he moved his lips to feather soft kisses across her cheeks and slide down her neck once more.
    He felt her trembling. He paused and placed his forehead against hers.
    “Oh, Lissy. What are we going to do? I’m like a fourteen-year old boy around you.”
    “How about we go somewhere public and lay down some ground rules for work and home?”
    “One more kiss,” he said pulling her into him. He could not believe the effect this woman had on him. He had never felt so attracted to a woman in his life. The hard part was he knew that he couldn’t trust her. He was sure she was playing head games with both he and Tom.
    He pulled out of the kiss with a groan, ran his hand through his cropped hair and looked at her, feeling disgusted with his behavior.
    “Cafeteria, five minutes.” He walked out and pulled the door shut firmly behind him.

Chapter Nine
    It took fifteen minutes before Lissy was composed enough to go to the food court. She stood at the door of the cafeteria and saw Nick sitting reading the paper, with a mug of coffee in front of him. The cafeteria was crowded and noisy and that was just how she liked it for this meeting. She went to the counter, ordered her coffee and moved across to join him at the table.
    “Thank you for meeting with me, Dr. McIntyre.” His voice was calm, without a trace of emotion, and she nodded in return.
    “What I would like to do is discuss our research and how we are going to work together. We are both mature adults and professionals, and know that we have some personal issues. However, you’ll agree that we have to work around this to get the research report completed.
    You’re aiming for your associate professorial promotion and I want to finish my thesis. This research is critical for both of us. Do you agree?”
    She nodded.
    “What I propose is that once we’re finished at the end of semester, I’ll return to the Pacific and continue my studies in the field, and we will not have to spend anymore time together.”
    She looked at him, trying to imagine not seeing him.
    “Well?” he asked. “Do you have an opinion on that?” She certainly did. The thought of not seeing him again tore at her heartstrings, but there was no way she was going to share that with him.
    “That sounds like a good plan, Professor. I also think that a lot of our collaboration can be done by email, and we shouldn’t need to meet more than once a week to discuss our progress in person. Do you agree with that?” He nodded. She drained her coffee cup, stood up, and left him to his paper and coffee.
    Lissy returned to her office and decided to leave early and work from home. After she cleared her mail, emailed some files to herself and set her laptop to auto reply, she walked past Jenny’s office and put her hand in the door.
    “Hey, Jen. I have decided to take a half day of time in lieu, to get myself organized. I’m going to be snowed under with the new project and I need some personal time.” Jen looked at her with concern.
    “Are you feeling okay? You’re very flushed.”
    “Just a head cold coming on, back in the air conditioning. I’ll see you in the morning.” Lissy took the long route home and pulled up at the lookout on the edge of town. She stood at the brass compass plate that pointed in all directions to many locations, and traced her finger over the arrow that pointed east and said Coffs Harbour, 118 miles. Looking east, she saw paddocks of brown grass burned by the early frosts of winter, dotted with sheep, very different to the verdant green of the coast and even further from the sapphire vista of the Islands that were embedded in her heart.
    Not only did the pictures of the boat and islands flash through her head, but a tanned sailor with a bandanna around his head, singing a silly song to her filled her thoughts. The same sailor who had taken her to places she had never been before,