boy.'
He quickly forgot his pain as he watched her take off her shirt and then unzip her jeans. His eyes took in her tight, round breasts and the provocative curve of her muscular buttocks - the latter a legacy of her ice-skating days - as she bent down to slip out of her jeans. His anger began to fade too as his desire increased. Of all the women he'd ever known Rochelle had a body that came the closest to his sexual ideal. She had him where it counted the most, he realised ruefully - by the balls.
'Hey, Ro… I was only kidding.' His voice took on an unpleasant, pleading whine. 'You know that.'
'Yeah, sure.' She was naked now and as she climbed onto the bunk and got under the single blanket he received a glimpse of her pink, shaved crotch which excited him even more. He could feel himself getting harder as he thought of the last time he had shaved her - it was something he insisted upon doing to all his women. It had been in the dingy hotel room in Morocco - it had been around lunch time on a blazing hot day and they had both been as high as hell on hashish. Ro had lain there on the big bed in the bright sunshine while he had worked on her as slowly as possible, taking elaborate pains with every stroke of the cutthroat razor. Afterwards they had had some of the best sex he could remember...
He swallowed dryly as he got to his feet and went over to her bunk. 'Hey, c'mon Ro. Don't be a bitch. I'm feeling really horny.'
She looked up at him through bleary, red-rimmed eyes and said drowsily, 'I'm not kidding, Alex. I'm dead tired. I've got to get some sleep. In the morning I'll do anything you goddamn want but you're just going to have to wait.' Then she turned over on her side, with her back to him. 'Put the light out, will you?'
Cursing under his breath he went and switched out the light then stretched out on the other bottom bunk, not bothering to get undressed. He felt really tempted to go and screw her brains out whether she wanted it or not but he knew it wouldn't be worth the consequences. He needed her too much to risk wrecking their relationship completely.
He had been lying there in the dark for about fifteen minutes when he heard a soft tapping at the door. Warily he got up, put the light on and called, 'Who's there?'
'It's me, Chris. I've got to talk to you, Alex.'
As he opened the door Rochelle moaned and turned over. 'What's going on?' she asked sleepily.
'I'm sorry to disturb you guys,' Chris apologised in a loud whisper, 'But it's Mark. He's in a bad way and only Alex can help.'
Rochelle frowned. 'Alex can help Mark? I must be dreaming.'
Chris turned to Alex who had now closed the door and was leaning against it with an amused, self-satisfied expression. 'You know what I'm talking about,' she told him.
'Do I?' he asked blandly.
'Mark's going cold turkey and he's in a bad way. He thinks you've still got some junk with you. He lost all his when the boat went down.'
Rochelle propped herself up on one elbow, looking more alert now. 'Chris, what the hell are you going on about?'
Turning to her, Chris said, 'Mark's a heroin addict. Has been for the last six months, thanks to Alex here. Surely you've noticed the way he looks these days, and the way he's been behaving since we've been adrift?'
'Yeah, but I just thought that was shock…'
'The reason for the Morocco trip wasn't just to buy grass,' continued Chris grimly. 'Alex had talked Mark into doing a heroin deal as well, with Mark putting up most of the capital, of course. Paul and Linda didn't know anything about it. Alex knew they wouldn't want anything to do with smuggling hard drugs. But I thought you would have been let in on it by now.'
'Is this true?' Rochelle asked Alex.
He gave a casual shrug of his large shoulders. 'Yeah. I didn't tell you because you can't keep your damn trap