One's life really wasn't one's own, was it, although Ralph was certainly making good money and had had no difficulty acquiring this fine house for them right on the coast and not far from the forested glades of Big Sur. This stretch of highway from Monterey to San Luis Obispo must certainly be one of the most eye-pleasing areas in the world.

But somehow that wasn't quite enough.

Laura watched the white gulls circle among the rocks of the emerging coastline, and wondered why she felt so uneasy in such a beautiful setting. The stone seemed to be flowing – the sea, motionless. Where they met they locked in a pause more dynamic than motion. Beyond the white froth the surface of the ocean was an endless sheet of rippling glass. The rocks beyond its measured destructive force were like laws of nature – dark, jagged and forbidding. It was wonderful to be able to view nature like this, safe and warm within one's own cocoon – and yet what was missing?

When she watched the sea like this the often felt as if its adventure was being communicated to her in some ethereal way. She could feel it directly in her loins, up inside her full, highest breasts. Laura had been too well brought up to think of this as sensuality, but she did admit to herself that there was a feeling of excitement running in her blood when she watched the waves breaking like this. She couldn't explain it. It seemed merely as if these two vital life forces colliding together – stone and water – produced some sort of vibration inside her hypersensitive young flesh.

Laura turned away from the window. It wasn't good to submit oneself to too much of that, she thought. There were feelings building within her young body which could only be described as licentious, and she blushed as she considered the implications of her thoughts.