Ocean's Triumph

by Carlton, Demelza

  "What...then?" he asked breathlessly, pumping harder.

  This was better than the first time. Better than any time. I couldn't think. I couldn't focus on anything but the heat building, pushing, tantalising...

  I cried out as he drove me over the cliff of an orgasm. William's tongue caressed my nipple, but with the way my breasts were heaving as I tried to catch my breath, he soon sucked it into his mouth. I dragged air into my lungs and he sucked harder, pulling on my nipple even as my breast lifted with breath. The sound that came out of my mouth was halfway between a moan and a sob, as I squeezed my eyes shut to focus on the exquisite sensation. That wasn't all I squeezed, either as William's answering groan told me he enjoyed the clenching of my thigh muscles and all those between them.

  "Maria, you're going to make me...make me..." He slowed his thrusts, pushing deep and then almost pulling out of me, brushing against some nerve between my legs that ignited a little more with every stroke. His eyes stared deep into mine as if he knew exactly what he was doing. "I've dreamed about this. Dreamed of hearing you shout my name..."

  "William, I think I'm going to...ex...exp...William! Oh, William!" The pleasure nerve he was teasing blazed into blinding light and my words were lost as I screamed until I ran out of air and then screamed again. I was dimly aware of William pulling out of me, leaving me with an aching emptiness inside and the ghost of his heat.

  "No. I want...more. Please, William, don't stop now," I begged, not caring that I sounded weaker than ever before.

  He laughed gently and touched his lips to mine. "I have to, lass. You milked me for all I had. If you give me an hour or two, I might manage another time, but that was...powerful, that was. You've convinced me you're no ghost, but I'm hard pressed to understand how you came to be here. If you insist on more, maybe you can tell me your story in the time it takes me to recover. I wouldn't want to disappoint you, lass."

  Disappoint? He was everything I'd remembered and so much more. I ducked my head to hide my blush and realised we were both filthy from our roll in the mud. "Would you like to come for a swim in the Grotto with me?"

  William grinned. "Are you sure you're brave enough for that? There's a dragon that lives in this grotto. I've heard him roaring many a time. Even seen him once or twice. He might mistake a beautiful woman like you for a sacrifice sent to appease him, and take you deep into his lair where he'll hold you captive in the dark..."

  I laughed. "Did you never think that I might be your dragon? Come ashore in the shape of a woman to tempt you and lure a handsome man into my lair so that I might have my way with you forever?"

  William's laughter joined mine. "You tell a good story, Maria. Almost as good as mine. You're forgetting the day we met when I found you floating, barely alive, on a flimsy raft. You're a woman and a tempting one, too, but not a dragon."

  I hid my smile as I followed him into the water. William didn't believe in mythical creatures – not even after making love to one.

  Twenty

  William washed quickly and sat on my rock to dry in the sun, but I floated in the aquamarine water, hoping it could cool my ardour long enough to let me tell William my story – or as much as I was willing to tell.

  "Just watching you in the water takes me back to the night the Trevessa sank. I saw blood in the water...sharks...your clothes, shredded and bloodstained, floating in the waves...it took four men to hold me back, or I'd have dived in the water after you. If I'd known you were still alive, nothing would have stopped me. Not four men or forty. Your ghost has haunted my dreams and my waking moments every day since then. How did you survive the sharks? How did you make your way here? How did you find me? How did you learn to speak?"

  I laughed and waved my hands to stem the tide of his endless questions. "I'll tell you and answer as best I can, but I must start with that night. Sciarra dragged me to one of the little lifeboats and he launched it. He stood over me with a knife and threatened me if I didn't do what he wanted."

  "He was a complete savage," William snarled. "I should have beaten his head to a pulp instead of just knocking him out. Or thrown him overboard for the sharks. Hanging's too good for men like him..."

  "The ocean meted out her own justice to him that night. The waves tipped our boat so that the only person Sciarra's knife cut was himself before we were both thrown in the water. He was bleeding and the sharks honed in on him. While I clung to our overturned boat, he died screaming." I couldn't hide my smile.

  William's eyes looked huge, they were open so wide. "How did you survive? Why didn't they eat you?"

  For a moment, I considered telling him the truth. That I could control sharks and no shark in the sea was stupid enough to attempt taking a bite out of me. No. William could never know what I was. Not now, not ever. Even if he did believe me, which he never would.

  I took a deep breath. "The waves righted the lifeboat, but she was full of water. I hauled myself over the side and started bailing the water out. First with my hands and then I found a tin of some horrible, sweet milk. I drank the milk and used the tin to empty the boat. Scooping up seawater and throwing it over the side. Over and over again until my arms ached, but I kept going, even as the waves sent more water in. And when I couldn't lift my arms any more, I found a sail in one of the lockers. I wrapped myself up in it and fell asleep across one of the benches.

  "I woke up alone in the lifeboat, but more water had crept in overnight. I drank my milk breakfast and had two tins to bail with, so it went faster, but I soon tired myself out. I didn't have the strength to assemble the mast and hoist the sail, so I promised myself I'd do it the following day. I curled up under the sail and slept.

  "When next I woke, it was dark and my boat had stopped moving, but I heard voices. My lifeboat had been picked up by the Trevean, come to rescue survivors from the Trevessa. They'd thought the lifeboat was empty, but when one of them looked under the sail, they found me. I was bruised and battered from...from everything that happened on the Trevessa, and I had no pants, so they thought the worst. I was given into the care of a female passenger – a widow by the name of Merry D'Angelo. A teacher. She found me some clothes and helped me learn to speak your language while the Trevean searched for you and the others in the Trevessa lifeboats. For three weeks, we steamed up and down the ocean, looking for some sign of you, but we found nothing.

  "They gave up the search and headed for Fremantle, their destination port in Western Australia. Merry let me stay with her until I found a job – until she found me a job – and then I stayed on as a paying lodger. I think she was lonely. She did so much for me – so much more than I deserved. All while I earned the money to start searching for you and pay my passage to wherever I needed to go to find you." I was so carried away with my story that I didn't stop when I should have. I fought to hide my blush. My cards were on the table and it was too late to hide them now.

  William seized on my words. "You had to work? Maria, tell me you didn't...that you didn't sell your body for me?" The desperation and guilt in his eyes made my heart ache.

  I burst out laughing. "You think I...that I...I'd let a man touch me for money?" I fought to control myself. As if I'd let just any man touch me and live, when even those I loved dared death for the privilege. "I worked in a fish market. I sold fish. Occasionally, I helped with sorting the catch. And sometimes, when they were a man down, I got to go out on the boat and taste the salt spray as we sliced through the swell of the open ocean." I couldn't keep the desire from my tone. I knew now that I would always lust for the power of the ocean. I could never surrender to a simple life on land.

  Colour crept back into his relieved expression. "I can't imagine you as a fishwife. Didn't it smell terrible, working with fish every day?"

  I stared at him. Salt, seaweed and fish were the smell of home. How could they ever be anything else to me? "I guess it's just something I became used to," I ventured cautiously. My foot bumped into the rock and I pushed back, propelling myself into the middle of the
pool. My own reflected wave bounced off the rock and swept over my torso, chilling my breasts before they met warm air once more.

  William climbed back into the water, his eyes on me. "I've never seen a woman bathe naked before and I must say it's the most arousing thing I've ever seen." He swallowed noisily. "Maria, if you still want to, I'm ready for you."

  I looked down to discover he certainly was. I pushed my body effortlessly through the water until his body slid between my parted legs. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he grabbed me, both of us panting to connect in the most primal way possible.

  "Oh, yes," I moaned as William thrust deep inside me before his passionate kiss stole my willing tongue.

  Twenty-One

  I let the sun dry me as I watched William dress himself. A robber crab had made off with his drawers, but a quick search revealed both the thief and its haul and William had already pulled his pants on over his underthings.

  "Why aren't you getting dressed? Where are your clothes?"

  I lost all composure in helpless laughter. "I felt I didn't need them," I answered. Clothes only got in the way while swimming. "William, it will take too long to explain why, but I don't have any with me."

  William stared for a second, then turned his head away. He shrugged out of his jacket and held it out to me with shaking hands. "Please take it. I can't take you home like this. I'll go to the Settlement and bring you back something to wear. You can't wander around here naked – the mosquitoes will eat you alive and if one of the other men sees you..."

  I might have to kill him.

  I took the jacket. The smooth leather was warm in my fingers, much like his skin had been when we'd made love. Both his eyes and his tone had chilled now as if the sinking sun had stolen all his warmth. "William. Is it so hard to look at my body? You called me beautiful once. Has my appearance changed so much?"

  "No," he said hoarsely, his gaze flicking across my body. "You look exactly the same as you did then. But looking at you now makes me want to...do all sorts of things to you." He swallowed. "Things we shouldn't do until we're married. I'm sorry, Maria, but I can't seem to resist you. I take one look at you and I forget that there's anyone else in the world but us. But if I take you home like this...people will ask questions. They'll ask where you came from and why you aren't properly dressed. They'll think and say things about you that aren't true. I want you to come with me and be my wife, Maria – I've wanted it since I met you on the Trevessa, and you've haunted me every day since I lost you, because no other woman compared to you."

  I stepped closer. "If you still want me, then my heart is yours."

  William grabbed my hands, though I still held his jacket in one. "Of course I still want you. I've never stopped wanting you and even now I don't want to let you go. Maria, I offer you my heart, mind and body, and everything I own, to take care of you and protect you for the rest of my life."

  I swallowed. His heart. He gave me his, but he already had mine. "I...William, you already have my heart. I..." He kissed me into silence.

  "I'll speak to Jackson and see if you can stay with him and his wife until the Islander returns and we can go to Singapore to get married. Damn, Jackson won't have room for you – his house is full of coolies whose houses were buried in the landslide. Maybe one of the other married men can take you in – or if Jackson sends them to the Club instead, where they should have gone in the first place, then he and Anne will take you. Damn fool thinks he can keep the Club for the white folk when it's the best place to billet people when things like this happen. I wish you could stay with me, but you can't until we're married or people will talk."

  I stiffened. "I will not live in a house with strangers again without you, William. We've been parted for long enough. People always talk. I say let them."

  He shook his head. "They'll say bad things about you and I'll defend you, just like on the ship, but I won't be able to silence everyone, Maria. They'll call you...they'll say that you're no better than the ladies in the White House."

  My eyes blazed. Of course I was better in bed than those poor, tired women, endlessly servicing men they didn't love. "Then introduce me as your wife and say I arrived on the Islander. Tell them that we are already married instead of the truth."

  His eyes lit with hope. "You'd do that? Pretend to be my wife until you are? We'll take the next ship to Singapore and make it official." He paused as if the idea had dealt him a stunning physical blow. "You'll be my wife. I'll make you the happiest woman alive, lass. I swear it." He kissed me fiercely, holding me so tight that his shell buttons dug into my breasts. He seemed to realise it as he let me go. "But I can't take you back to Settlement like this, even if it will be dark when we get there. Put the jacket on."

  I slipped my arms into his leather jacket. The sleeves hung down past my hands, but the waistband sat snugly above my hips. I started to button it up, but my breasts were too big for the top buttons. The jacket squashed them together like an old-fashioned corset, pushing them up instead of covering them.

  "Oh, you can't wear that, lass. Maybe...maybe my shirt?"

  I removed the jacket with considerable relief and let him strip his shirt off and put it on me. For a moment, I was reminded of the first time he'd helped me dress on the Trevessa. The touch of his hands still quickened my heart, just as they had then.

  "It's hard to believe this isn't a dream, Maria," William said slowly as he buttoned his shirt over my breasts. A deep kiss followed which neither of us seemed to want to end. "I need to get you home. Do you think you can sit on the motorcycle behind me if I ride really slowly?"

  My heart leaped at the thought of my first motorcycle ride with William. I looked at the Triumph, then recoiled in horror as I realised the only place to sit behind him was a small, wire shelf on top of the rear mudguard. For the first time in my life, I longed for underwear. "I'd rather swim back to Flying Fish Cove," I replied without thinking.

  William burst out laughing. "But it's miles! You can't do that. Honestly, a motorcycle's nothing to be afraid of. You just hold on tight and I'll keep you safe. I promise."

  Was he not seeing the same motorcycle I was? I strode over to the Triumph and tapped the hefty shock-absorbing spring beneath the rider's seat. "Would you want this thing between your legs? What if you stop suddenly?"

  He turned redder than the crabs milling around our feet. "I never thought..."

  I winked. "Put a proper seat on the back of that and give me a pair of pants, and you can take me for a ride anywhere you like."

  After some consideration, I agreed to sit in the seat while William wheeled the Triumph back to Settlement. Of course, this meant he had his arm around me all the way back, which suited us both just fine.

  Twenty-Two

  The sun had well and truly set by the time we reached Rocky Point and William's house. The house was a blaze of light and a pith-helmeted figure paced the length of the veranda.

  William helped me off the bike and kept an arm around me as I walked stiffly toward the steps. At the top, he recognised the pacing man. "Jackson?"

  "Where on Earth have you been? And who in blazes is she?"

  William stepped in front of me, as if to preserve my modesty. "May I introduce my wife, Maria?"

  Jackson spluttered but didn't manage to say anything intelligible.

  I slipped around William and held out my hand. "Mr Jackson. The moment the lighter from the Islander landed, William insisted on taking me up to see a dragon in a grotto. We found no dragon, but I wanted a dip in the grotto." His eyes were transfixed by my bare legs. I hurried to find some excuse for my state of undress. "Some of the local crab inhabitants stole my things while we were –" I coughed delicately "– swimming." I blushed.

  To my relief, there was no light of recognition in Jackson's eyes. He took my hand and kissed the back of it. "A pleasure, Mrs McGregor. No wonder your husband kept you a secret."

  "Maria, you should go and change for dinner," William said quickly, taking my ar
m. "I'll show you where your things are." He hustled me into the house, guiding me to his bedroom before he shut the door behind him. "Now what? I don't have any women's clothing and if I ask any of the servants, it'll be all over the island by dawn." Inspiration lit his eyes. "No, that's not true. Some woman's trunk was mixed up with my things in Fremantle and it ended up on the Islander. So when we landed, someone brought it up here the rest of my luggage. It's all yours, Maria, if anything fits you." He dropped to his knees and flipped open the rusty catch. William lifted the lid and gestured proudly at the contents.

  I laughed softly and knelt beside him. I rummaged through my things for a suitable dress and appropriate undergarments to go underneath it. I threw them on the bed and sighed at the creases in my dress. "Everything has been in here too long – they need to be aired and ironed." I pulled his shirt over my head and dropped it beside my clothes. I dressed quickly, buttoning the front of my dress over the brassiere before I turned to face William. "Is this...will this be all right?" I glanced down at my bare feet. "I have shoes, too, and I still need to comb my hair..."

  William's arms closed around me, pulling my body against his. "I've never seen you look so beautiful. This is the first time I've ever seen you in a dress."

  My startled eyes lifted to meet his. Surely he'd seen me wear dresses in Fremantle – I'd been wearing my best on the day of the motorcycle race. "Don't be silly. Of course you have. At the race at Ascot, in Armstrong's motorcycle shop, on the boardwalk outside the South Beach Hydrodome. You barely glanced at me, but I know you saw me."

  His hands gripped my shoulders. "That was really you? I thought your ghost was haunting me again. Everywhere I went, it seemed like I saw you! And the way you stared at me, as if you blamed me for leaving you in the water like the coward I was. If I'd known you were alive, nothing would have kept me from you, I swear."