The Swimsuit Contest
by Andrew Mason aka Dr. Amazing

This is a work of fiction.  Tombraider and Lara Croft are both trademark and copyright of EIDOS Interactive and Core design.  All other characters are copyright of the author.

            This story contains violent and sexual content and is suggested for mature readers (18 and over).
            Comments, complimentary or critical, can be addressed to: dramazin@alphalink.com.au

Lara sipped her tea and sighed.  “That is truly delicious Jason.  I normally don’t get such comforts until several days after an expedition finishes.”

            “I worked in London for a few years and acquired ‘the art’,” explained Jason.

            “I don’t suppose you could organise a hot bath?” she asked, in jest.  The tea was having a therapeutic effect, easing her lethargy and pains, but a hot bath would be even better.

            “Crombie has a bath in his hut, which he won’t be using now,” replied Jason.  Give me fifteen minutes to haul some urns of hot water and I’ll have it ready for you.  You can sleep there too if you want to.”

            Lara remembered that her own hut was a shambles after her fight with Maia.  “Jason, you are an absolute treasure!”

            “Hmmph!  Tell my partner that when we get back and we’ll be even.”

            He paused before leaving, then spoke to her again, his voice serious and his manner dignified.  “The truth is, we’ll never really be even.  You risked your life for us, your soul perhaps, and I will not forget what you’ve done.  If you ever need anything from me, Miss Croft, just call.”

            He then exited the hut.  Lara turned a surprised look to Chifley, who merely shrugged.  “He’s right.  We’d all be dead, or vegetables, if not for you.”

            “They’re not vegetables Peter!  And we don’t know how much they will recover.  I’m already feeling much stronger after the altar drained most of me away.  Maybe tomorrow they’ll be their old selves.”

            “I hope you’re right,” said Chifley, though he sounded doubtful.

            Cassie had been strangely quiet but she chimed in now by saying, “I think I’ll give Jason a hand.”

            “This is a bit much!  I don’t expect you to be my servants.”

            “You deserve it honey.  It’s not much really after what you’ve been through.  And, for what it’s worth, you can include my name on your ‘favours-owed’ list underneath Jason’s.”  She laughed and Lara could hear a fading of fear in her laugh.  “I don’t know when you’ll ever need the services of a dyke and a queer, but call us and we’ll come a-runnin’.”

            Cassie exited then, leaving Lara feeling quietly pleased with herself.

            “We still have the problem of how we’re going to explain all the deaths,” said Chifley, reluctantly bringing her down to earth.

            She frowned.  “You’re right.  You all believed what I told you because you saw the demon inside Lorna, saw what it could do.”

            “And I saw the damned altar itself,” he added with a shudder.

            “Yes, but anyone else is going to have me committed if I tell them what really happened.”

            “It’ll make a good book,” he said with a smile.  “I’ll certainly buy it.”

            “I think you’ve earned a free copy,” she replied.  “I’m not sure I’ll be sharing this story though, even if I were to pass it off as fiction.”

            She remembered the terror she had felt while lying helpless on the altar, remembered the gruesome hands clutching at her body...

            “Are you all right Lara?” asked Chifley again.  He could see the darkening of her gaze.

            She nodded.  “Yes, at least I will be.  But I don’t want to ever go through that again.  I think I’ll steer clear of the supernatural from now on.”

            “I’m willing to bet you’ve said that before.”

            She laughed and he was relieved to hear it.  “You’d be right.  No doubt, a few weeks from now I’ll be eager for some new danger.”

            “Well, if you need a side-kick...”

            “I’ll be working alone, as per usual.”

            He looked crest-fallen and she wished she had not been so quick to rebuff his offer.

            Jason entered and announced that her bath was ready.  She stood, then staggered, surprised by a sudden light-headedness.  Chifley was at her side in a moment, putting his arm around her.

            “Thanks Peter,” she said.  “I guess I haven’t recovered as well as I thought.”

            She allowed him to support her as they walked to Crombie’s hut.  Her light-headness passed quickly enough, but she enjoyed the feel of his arm around her.  She normally hated having men act like gentlemen, deferring to a perceived weakness of her sex, but after Crombie’s lasciviousness she was grateful for Chifley’s chivalry.

            Chifley helped her to Crombie’s bath, which stood in a small room off the dining area.  Jason had managed to find bubble bath, which he had correctly guessed she would love.  Scented steam rose from the deep foamy water and it looked like pure heaven.

            “I think I’ll manage from here,” said Lara.

            “Of course,” replied Chifley, his face suddenly reddening.  She wasn’t sure why he was embarrassed, but she found it charming that he was.  It was, again, a terrific contrast to the behaviour she had experienced from Crombie.

            “Could you wait outside?” she asked.  She was reluctant to say goodnight to him.  “We still need to sort out how we’re going to explain things to the outside world.”

            He exited the room and closed the door.

            “Can you still hear me?” asked Lara, as she took off her robe.

            “Loud and clear,” he replied from behind the door.

            “Good.”  She peeled away the ragged remains of her shorts, turning up her nose at the sight of them.  Her stained top soon followed, along with her underwear.  She stepped gingerly into the bath, easing slowly into its warm caress.

            “Oh, this is wonderful!” she sighed.

            She heard Peter chuckle from behind the door and she wished she could see his smile.

            “You can come back in,” she said.

            “Are you sure?”

            “Don’t be shy Peter.  You won’t see anything through the bubbles.”

            He poked his head through the doorway, then re-entered.  He looked nervous and unsure of where to look.

            “It’s safer to have you in here,” explained Lara, wondering why she felt it necessary to justify keeping him close.  “The way I’ve been feeling I could easily pass out in this heat.”

            “Then it would be my pleasure to rescue you,” he joked.

            “For the second time tonight,” she said, giving him a stern look.  “Don’t think I’ve forgotten that.”

            He knelt beside the bath, so they could converse at eye level.

            She frowned, remembering her recent terror.  “I’ve been in some tight spots before Peter, but I always got myself out of them.  But tonight, down there...  I was gone, finished.  If not for you...”

            He looked uncomfortable.  “Let’s not exaggerate my effort.  I can’t even shoot straight.  All I did was distract him... it.”

            “But if you hadn’t done that, if you hadn’t been there...  I’m trying to say thank you.”

            Her reward was the glowing smile on his face.  “My pleasure ma’am.”

            She winced.  “Just don’t try doing John Wayne anymore, all right?”

            “And I thought I was getting better at it.  Do you want to hear Clint Eastwood?”

            “No,” she replied emphatically.  “Just give my back a scrub and keep quiet.”

            “Gladly.”

            She draped an arm across her breasts then leaned forward in the bath.  He lifted a flannel from the bath edge and dipped it into the bathwater.  He then began to wash her back, working up a lather on her, then washing it away.

            “Ah, that feels lovely,” she sighed.

            “Yes it does,” he agreed, with a chuckle.

            “Concentrate on the job,” she cautioned him.  “And on what we’re going to say tomorrow.”

            “We’ll have to blame someone,” said Chifley.  “We’ll say they went mad and attacked us all and you had to kill them to save us.”

            “Simple enough.  Crombie will have to be the culprit.  He killed Chrisina and Jack then retreated into the site and blew it up.”

            “Whoa!  You’re determined to blow it up tomorrow?”

            “I’d have done it tonight if I’d had the energy.  The thing isn’t dead Peter, only sealed inside the ruin.”

            “A ruin that held it prisoner for hundreds of years.  Why not leave well enough alone?  If we detonate the site we risk allowing it to escape.”

            “I can rig the explosives to collapse the site around the theatre, leaving its prison intact.  It must be done Peter, or other archaeologists will come and the demon will be free again.  And I don’t want it coming after me.”

            Despite the warmth of the bath she shuddered.  He put an arm around her, soaking his sleeve in the process.

            She looked into his face, seeing the admiration in his eyes, then kissed him.

            He kissed her back with a passion, his hand holding the back of her head.  She stood in the bath and he rose also, their kiss continuing.  Their lips parted and she could see a look of confusion and uncertainty on his face.  He stroked her cheek and whispered, “You are so beautiful.”

            She took his hand and guided it onto her breast, smiling at the surprise on his face.  He caressed her breasts enthusiastically and she winced briefly at his touch.

            “Sorry,” he whispered, withdrawing his hands.  “Are you sure you want this, after all you’ve been through?”

            “Surprisingly enough, after all I’ve been through, this is exactly what I want.”

            To emphasise the point she put her hand on the swelling in his trousers.

            He did not protest any further.  He lowered his head to her breast, kissing her wet nipples with a gentleness that made her sigh.  She stripped his wet shirt away from his chest, appreciating the strong torso she revealed.

            “Do you have a condom?” she asked.

            “Yes, thank god,” he replied.  He took his wallet from his trousers and produced the requested item.

            “So you won’t need these any more,” she said, tugging his trousers and briefs to the floor.  She was impressed again by what she revealed.

            She began to work on him with her mouth and he was astonished by her enthusiasm.  He gasped in pleasure.  “Oh god,” he breathed.  “Pinch me, I’m dreaming.”

            She obligingly pinched his behind, still devouring him.

            He spoke only in sighs for a few moments, then interrupted her.  “Enough, Lara, or I’ll be gone too soon.”

            She stood up, kissing his belly as she rose.  She pressed herself against him and whispered into his ear, “I just wanted to make sure you were ready for me.”

            “Much appreciated, but a smile from you would be enough to get me going.”

            They kissed and he clasped her behind, pulling her closer to him, pressing his penis against her lower belly.

            “Bedroom, quick smart,” she ordered.

            “Yes ma’am!”

            They moved to Crombie’s bedroom, kissing and fondling each other on the way.  They did not bother to pull back the sheets.  Lara pushed him back onto the covers and kneeled over him.  She rolled the condom onto his turgid penis then guided it inside her.

            “Oh god!” he sighed as he entered her warm depths.

            She smiled then began to move on him, gently at first, tauntingly, then with a growing urgency.

            They were both groaning in pleasure now.  She leaned forward, resting her weight on her hands.  He reached up to her breasts, looming over his face.  He caressed them, gently at first, then more passionately.  He squeezed her nipples and she grunted, her pleasure overwhelming any pain.  “Yes, yes,” she sighed and he squeezed them again and again.

            A massive, shuddering orgasm engulfed her.  She could scarcely breathe, so powerful was the feeling that surged through her.  She grabbed his hands, crushing them into the flesh of her breasts, then arched her back, pressing him as deeply into her as she could.

            When she returned to earth, she returned with a wry laugh.  “Good god!  If the demon couldn’t kill me, you very nearly did!”

            He was gasping beneath her, also recovering from an orgasm.  She leaned forward and put her head in the crook of his neck.

            “Good god,” he sighed.

            “How very religious we’ve both become,” she said with a giggle.  She couldn’t remember giggling since she was a schoolgirl.

            He laughed also.  “And why not?  My prayers have certainly been answered.”

            They rolled over on the bed so that they were facing each other, though they were both reluctant to have him withdraw from her.  He put his hand on her cheek, stroking her skin with feather lightness.  “You can’t know how many nights I’ve dreamed about this,” he confessed.

            She smiled.  “And did I live up to your dreams?”

            “My imagination must not be as good as I thought.  You were better, by far, than the best dream I’ve ever had.”

            “Ooh, high praise.”

            “And me,” he asked anxiously.  “Was I good for you?”

            “Oh please Peter!  Do you really need to ask?  Do you think I go off like a firecracker for no reason?”

            He laughed, amazed by her sense of humour.  How could she be so funny and so sexy at the same time?  “Well it’s just as well you don’t,” he said.  “That would be quite dangerous in the middle of an expedition.”

            “I can think of a few occasions where it would be most inconvenient.”

            “You’re clearly going to need me around to keep you out of trouble.”

            She smiled, but there was some sadness in her smile.  “Let’s talk tomorrow Peter.  My weariness is starting to catch up to me.”

            She gently pulled herself away from him.  He kissed her then said, “Sleep well.”

            She smiled weakly, her weariness overpowering her.  “I think I may have overdone it today,” she muttered, her eyes closing.

            Then she drifted into slumber, pleasantly aware that he was still watching her face.

            She woke early the next morning, in the uncertain light of dawn.  She looked across the pillow at Chifley who was asleep with a smile on his face.

            She wondered where the relationship would lead.  She knew that her lifestyle made relationships awkward and she hoped that Chifley would tolerate her absences and the risks she took.

            She wondered if he would have the energy for more lovemaking.  She smiled to herself.  She was sure she could get him interested.

            Then his eyes snapped open, as if he had never been asleep.

            “Good morning,” she said.  “How’s my hero?”

            “Still enjoying the memory of last night,” he replied.  “I’ve never had the woman take control like that before.”

            “No?”  She was surprised that no other woman had seduced him; he was certainly seducible.

            “No.  In my day, the woman was submissive to the man.”

            “In your day?”  She wasn’t sure what he was talking about but she was willing to play along.  “You did pretty well for an old-timer.”

            She slid over to him and straddled him, sitting across his stomach.  “So you don’t like the girl to be on top, eh?”

            “I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

            He raised his hands to her breasts and squeezed them with a ferocity that made her gasp in pain.

            “Jesus Peter!”  She put her hands on his, trying to pry them away.  “Let go!  They’re a bit tender from…”

            Then an awful thought entered her head.  This was not the way Chifley had caressed her, this was the way that Crombie had treated her.

            She succeeded in freeing herself from his cruel grasp and she slipped out of the bed watching him all the while.

            “It’s you, isn’t it?” she asked, her voice shrill, her eyes wide in fear.

            The evil smile on Chifley’s face was answer enough.

            “Do you think I would let you leave me dear?”  He was rising from the bed, his eyes looking hungrily at her.

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