by Lena Malick
She didn’t know how long they slept, but knew it couldn’t have been long. When she opened her eyes, the first light of morning was streaking across the ocean. She looked at him and found he was already awake, staring at the water. He gave her a light kiss. They lay quietly, the morning sun warming their bodies. Eventually they got up and went into the water, allowing to it revive them like a natural elixir as they stretched their stiff bodies.
They sailed back in a happy daze. After tying up at the dock, they went inside to find most of the others already up, grabbing breakfast and drifting in and out of the house. Red stood in the kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee, her flaming hair a wild mess piled atop her head.
“Hey, sunshine,” she said to Terra. “Want some breakfast?”
“No, thank you. Just coffee.” She found a mug and poured herself a cup.
“Well, you better eat something. Big day ahead of you.”
After a shower and a change of clothes, Terra met Nik out on the deck. “You sure you want to do this?” he asked her. “Yes,” she said. “I want to help. Put me to work. Please. I want to be a part of what you’re doing. “
Carmine joined them. “’Sup, man?”
“Hey, Carmine, can you use Terra today to help you?”
“Of course. Come on. I think I got a tool belt that’ll fit you. We’re building walls today.”
“Okay, great.” Terra said, a bit nervous. She hadn’t really expected to be building anything, just helping out however she could. But Carmine would have none of that. He was a master builder, and very patient in explaining things to her.
They spent the afternoon leveling a floor and setting a brick wall. It was hard work, and by the end of the day she was exhausted. But it was satisfying. She ran her hands over the red bricks, taking satisfaction in having helped create something so tangible.
“Good work, Little T. You got a knack for it. See you tomorrow,” Carmine said.
The next day, she helped pour concrete flooring. Terra quickly learned there was little deference to her as a girl. Nobody treated her like the weaker sex. Everyone was expected to pull their weight. It was both taxing and liberating. Terra remembered her father always made her feel like she was capable of nothing more than holding a flashlight. Here, the guys didn’t think twice about asking her to grab the wheel barrel and haul over two more bags of concrete mix.
When she took a shower after working all day, muscles she didn’t know she had ached. She discovered for the first time the satisfaction that could come from physical work. After a week, looking at her naked body in the mirror. Terra could see she had gotten leaner and stronger. She developed a deep tan from working outside. Come ‘fire time’, she ate ravenously, and began eating a big breakfast every morning. Every day, her body felt more powerful.
For the next few weeks, they fell into a rhythm. Every day, Terra would help Carmine with the construction of the buildings, and at night, after fire time and dinner, she and Nik would go to the island. Nik would anchor the boat and dive off, turning on the underwater lights. Sometimes they’d dive, and sometimes they’d go straight to the hull of the boat, eager to get at each other. Usually they’d start with hurried, fevered sex, as if the long wait since the night before had caused their bodies to starve. They’d go at each other with a hunger that grew stronger the more it was fed. Afterward, they’d lie together on their backs, or look out the boat window at the brightly lit water and swarms of colorful fish.
After resting, they’d have sex again. Every night, they’d try something different. Their total comfort and openness with each other brought out their adventurous side. Feeling free and more emboldened each night, Terra was shameless in her quest to learn everything possible about how to please him. She felt Nik had an unfair advantage in that he seemed to have an inexhaustible sexual knowledge. She was determined to even the score.
He proved both an expert teacher and a willing subject. As the weeks passed, they explored deeper and deeper pleasures, beyond what Terra knew was possible. She felt enormously empowered as she learned to do to him what he’d many times done to her—bring him just to the brink of orgasm, then not let him come. At these times, she felt drunk on the power she had over him as she kept him on the edge, in complete control of him as he would writhe and beg her to finish him off. In his delirious state, she’d tease him relentlessly, describing in detail what she was going to do to make him come. She learned how to stretch his pleasure further and further, and the more she could excite him, the more excited it made her. In the end, they were always exhausted and fully satiated.
In the middle of the night, after their bodies were too tired to go further, they’d sleep on the beach on thick blankets, under the warm duvet.
One night, they got to the island late. They were both extra tried from a long day of work in the hot sun. Instead of going into the hull of the boat, Nik suggested they lie on the beach and look at the stars. They lay on their backs, naked, looking up at the vast night sky. They talked for hours. Nik told her about what life was like in Greece. He told her how he first developed his love for the ocean by taking a small sailboat out by himself to fish when he was only eleven years old, one time staying out for three days and nights. Terra talked about college, and why she wanted to be a pediatrician.
They talked until they were nearly delirious with the need for sleep. Terra had been amazed at how little sleep she was getting, and how little it seemed to affect her. There were nights they only slept a couple hours, but she’d be ready to work the next day, full of energy, as if being with Nik gave her super powers. Now the need for sleep was catching up with her.
“I’m so happy here,” she said, forcing her eyes to stay open. She’d been careful not to allude to the future—not to make assumptions or expect that his future plans included her.
Her words hung in the air. She couldn’t see his face. “Everybody is, it seems,” she continued, trying to cover. “Red, Carmine, Soren. Allan told me about his life in Boston, how much he hated it. He’s like a new man, he says. All of them. Everybody seems so… content. Happy to be here, I mean.”
“Work and love,” Nik said.
“What?”
Nik propped up on an elbow. “It’s what Freud finally concluded. Sigmund Freud. After all his years of analysis, studying people. He was trying to come up with what give a person’s life its value. That’s what he came up with. Work and love.”
His eyes drifted down her body. He traced his fingers from her lips to her thighs, then up her belly and over her breasts. “I think that’s what make people happy. To have work you do that you believe in, something that contributes something to the world. And to do it with someone you…” He paused.
That look came over him. She hadn’t seen it in awhile. The light from the boat reflected in his eyes, mirroring the ocean water that seemed to be a part of him. She reached up and ran her hand over the stubble of his unshaven face. The look was there. The look of internal struggle. Of needing to say something.
She pulled him close, kissing him, trying to relieve him of his struggle. She knew he was exhausted, but still he responded to her kiss as if it was the very first time their mouths had met. She slid her hand through his hair as she kissed him deeper, feeling his rough stubble against her mouth. She could feel his pulse beginning to quicken, his chest rising as his breathing increased.
“Shhh,” she whispered in his ear, pushing him down on his back. “My tired boy. You need to sleep.”
She slid her hand over his chest and down over the ripples of his belly. She continued down to his groin until she cupped his soft balls, warm and supple in her hand. She loved the delicate, silky texture as she massaging him. She moved her hand up, tenderly holding him. She could feel him grow in her hand. She was always amazed at how fast he reacted to her touch. She squeezed him as he grew firmer, expanding until he felt as solid as a flexed muscle.
She knew his body needed sleep, no matter how much he was responding to her. She knew
she needed to sleep too. Ever since coming here she felt like she didn’t want to miss anything by wasting time sleeping. She used to think of sleep as a wonderful escape, but now she didn’t want to escape, she wanted to experience everything and more.
Still holding him, she moved on top of him, straddling him. The feeling of him first entering her was always intoxicating. She closed her eyes, absorbing the sensation of him filling her as she slid down on him, taking him all the way in.
There was a light breeze, bringing with it all the lush, fragrant smells of the island. Some birds squawked in the distance, probably near their nesting place in the center of the island. Terra breathed it all in, tilting her head back. Her feet slid off the blankets—she dug them in, the cool sand sliding between her toes. The feeling of him inside her had created a kind of imprint on her body, as if it was now the natural state her body craved and always wanted to return to.
Eyes still closed, she moved up and slid back down on him, feeling her body quickly go to that place of intense, sustained pleasure. She learned forward and very slowly lifted up, then down again, focused intently on the deep pleasure of the moment, like nothing else in the world existed. Leaning down further, she kissed his chin, feeling his warm breath push over her face.
“Shhh,” she said, as she pushed down on him. She settled on his chest, resting her head in the crook of his neck. “Sleep, baby,” she whispered into his neck. “Just sleep.”
He was still hard inside her, but she felt his body give way. He breathed out a long, deep breath, giving over to sleep. She closed her eyes as the night breeze brushed against her bare back with a hush. Still filled with him, she breathed him in, feeling a contentment she’d never known, and drifted off to sleep.
She woke twice. The first time was about an hour after they fell asleep. He was asleep, but still inside her, and still fully erect. She stayed still, coming out of her sleep slowly, still dreaming. She was momentarily disoriented. A breeze brushed her back as she heard the sound of the waves.
It took her a moment to realize he was inside her. She didn’t know such a thing was possible. A warm flush rolled through her body. She slowly sat up, looking down at him. He was sound asleep. She gently moved forward and back. He stirred, his head rolling to the side, moaning, but remained asleep. There was only the light from the moon and the soft glow coming from the boat lights. Looking at his face, Terra was so consumed with love for him that she began to weep, her tears falling on his chest. She lay back down on him, nestling in his neck, and cried silently into the tangle of his hair.
The second time she woke, it was early morning. They were in the same position, with her straddling him. Sitting up, she was amazed to realize he was still fully hard, deep inside her.
The tide had come in. The waves were rolling up just a few yards away. The island had a fresh morning smell, tangy and vibrant. A light fog hung over the tree tops.
Terra moved gently on him, feeling him in the center of her being. Looking down at him, his face was serene. As she had so many times before, she marveled at his beauty. His chiseled features were like that of a Greek god, or the work of a Renaissance sculpture. The muscles of his long, lean torso were sharply defined, the result of swimming, diving, and hard physical work. His dark, sun-streaked hair lie spread on the blanket.
She watched his chest rise and fall. The medallion he usually wore had slipped to the side of his neck. She reached down and held it in her hand, brushing sand off the face of it. The feel of it brought back all the memories of when they first met, and her time back in Michigan—those late nights when she’d lie in bed, holding the medallion to her chest, desperately wanting to feel his touch.
She sat still for a moment, taking it all in. She knew the island well enough to know the birds and animals usually make noise in the early morning, as if claiming the day. But all was quiet, except for some light chatter from some howler monkeys in the distance. Dropping her head back and breathing in the fresh morning air, she had the overwhelming sense that she and Nik were part of the natural world that surrounded them, like they were part of the elements. She felt an overwhelming sense of connection to both him and everything around them. She sat upright and looked down at him again.
As she placed the medallion back on his chest, his head rolled to the side in his first sign of waking. A wave broke on the shore and the spray from it whooshed over Terra’s naked body. She shivered, pleasure shimmering through her as if she’d been sprinkled with magic pixie dust. She was amazed at the constant readiness of her own body. Though her hips were stiff from sleeping on him, she was slippery wet. She moved on him, pushing down and squeezing her pelvic muscles, clamping him in. The monkey's chatter got a little louder, followed by some low birdcalls.
As she looked down at his face, she could both feel and see the progression of pleasure that had taken hold of him. She moved on him, slowly lifting and falling. He seemed to be in a state between sleep and waking, his eyes still closed but his back arching with her movements.
She could tell from the tension in his body he was close to coming. She loved the feeling of being able to bring him such pleasure, knowing exactly how to push him over the edge, and just when to do it. She hesitated, extending the moment, then pushed down and held, moving slightly forward and back. He tensed. His body shivered.
He opened his eyes and looked up at her, coming out of his half sleep. He was greeted with her luminous face looking down at him, glowing as if it was lit from within, her hair falling forward over him.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too,” she said.
As she looked into his eyes, she saw relief flood his face, as if he was letting go of something he’d been holding on to. She felt his first burst inside her. She held tight, clamping onto him. Looking into her eyes, he released in long, shuttering spasms. She could feel the eruptions deep in her center. Her own climax began to roll through her, pulsing and shimmering in glistening waves.
The birds and animals increased their chorus of voices, expressing their gratitude for a brand new day.
Chapter 7
It rained for the next three days. All the work came to a halt. Nik rolled the doors shut and closed all the windows in the house, as if they were going into hibernation. “Even the road in will be closed from rain. Best to just wait out,” he said.
Terra was so used to sleeping on the boat or on the island, she forgot how good a real bed felt. She also didn’t realize how tired she was. The last six weeks had been non-stop. Not just physically, but emotionally.
The first night, they slept ten hours without even stirring, and the next day they took a long nap in the middle of the afternoon, followed by a luxurious bath together. The rain was torrential, coming down in sheets, ensconcing the house in a comforting vibration of sound.
Late in the afternoon, while Nik settled in with a book, Terra took the opportunity to call Vicky. She’d been pretty good about calling a couple times a week, but they usually only talked briefly, if at all, always catching each other coming or going. This time her timing was perfect.
“Damn, girl. What are you going to do?” Vicky asked, after Terra updated her.
“I don’t know.”
“Have you talked about it? I mean, you’re not exactly neighbors.”
“I know.”
“But you love each other?”
“Yes.”
Terra heard Vicky let out a long exhale. “Well, not to state the obvious, but how exactly is that going to work? You’re supposed to be back here starting your fall classes in less than two weeks.”
“I know.”
For the next two days, Nik and Terra slept, had sex, ate, and read. They took full advantage of having the house to themselves, making love whenever and wherever they pleased—in the bathtub, the kitchen, even on the dining room table.
Terra took on a domestic role she never knew she possessed. She’d never been much for cooking, but she’d learned a few things s
ince being here, and found she loved cooking meals for Nik. She was as surprised as anyone to find this domestic streak in herself, taking secret pleasure in bringing him cups of tea while he read.
The entire time, Terra was trying to figure out what their future together might be. She knew Nik was thinking the same thing. He was writing in his journal a lot, which Terra knew meant he was either planning something, or trying to figure something out. She wanted to talk to him about it, but before she approached him, she wanted to have some ideas herself, and not just expect him to take care of it all.
On the third day, it was still raining hard. It was early afternoon. Nik was sitting on the couch, writing in his journal. Terra brought him a cup of tea. She was restless and decided to go for a walk, despite the rain.
“Now? In the rain?” he asked as she handed him his tea.
“Yeah.”
“Do you want company?”
“No, you drink your tea. I won’t be gone long.”
Terra put on shorts and a tank top. Though it was raining, it was still warm outside. She stepped onto the deck and was instantly soaked. It felt wonderful. Walking along the shoreline, the wet sand felt good on her bare feet. Spidey called out to her from his perch at the top of his tree, as if to let her know he hadn’t washed away.
Terra stopped and looked out at the water, watching the rain pound the ocean. She realized she hadn’t spent any time alone in awhile. At home, being alone was normal. It was what she was used to. But not here.
She strolled over to the buildings they had been working on, feeling pride in knowing her hard work had played a small part in their creation. Most of the work was done. She was amazed at how much she’d learned since she’d been here.
