I moved in close to her and pressed my lips to hers, filled with a sudden and urgent hunger. I could feel my erection straining hard against my jeans even as she reached for my belt buckle. I slid my hands around the curve of her breasts beneath her thin T-shirt, then down to her hips, which pressed into me. She let out a small gasp, then ground her hips against mine.

Less than a minute later we fell, still struggling out of our clothes, onto the cot. She was right: I’d been thinking about such a moment for a long time. I finally wriggled free of my jeans, but Chloe pressed both hands against my chest, holding me back, even as I reached down to slide my fingers between her thighs. I felt her shudder in response.

Then, finally, she relented, her hands sliding around my back. Rozalia could have walked in at that moment and I wouldn’t have given a damn. But we were alone, and would be for some time, and I soon slid deep inside her warmth, her fingers kneading at my flesh as I pushed deeper and deeper inside her.

It’s hardly surprising I came as quickly as I did, given how very long it had been. I felt a surge of emotion that threatened to overwhelm me, but she kept stroking and massaging my back, kissing my neck and chest, whispering something to me I couldn’t make out. Then she held me tight, her hips still moving against mine, her body rigid in the moment before she gave out a single small cry. Then she relaxed beneath me, her chest rising and falling from her exertions.

‘Jerry,’ she said, and I saw her cheeks were damp again.

‘Well, lookee here,’ said Rozalia with a grin, when she came stamping back into the hut more than an hour later.

We had both got dressed again, and I had stoked up the flames and was already onto my second pot of coffee. Rozalia was carrying a line and rod, a couple of fat bream hanging from hooks. Her expression told me she was under no illusions about what had taken place during her absence.

‘Say,’ she said, holding her catch up high, ‘either of you gutted a fish before?’

I took the wheel of the jeep an hour later, my belly full of fish and coffee. The morning light was thin, and the day’s warmth had not yet arrived, and so I kept my jacket buttoned up to the neck. As we made our way back along the coast road, I caught sight of the beached trawler I’d seen on my first trip to the statues.