“I would really appreciate it if you would stay the night with me.” Her voice was steady and calm.
I retraced my steps to stand in front of her again. If I close my eyes, maybe I can deliver the words that I’ve been rehearsing in my head while we were in the dinghy. “You’re angry and upset and you want me to comfort you. I get that and I’d like to. But you’re upset because one fuckwit had the stupidity to say he wanted to see you with your clothes off. A few months ago, I might have been that idiot.” I paused for breath and reached out to clasp her hands. “If you’d volunteered to do it, not a single man in that room would have objected, me included. We’d have all held our breath in anticipation until we went blue. I think, if you’d undone the buttons on your shirt and showed them even a glimpse of your bra, every man over 40 in that room would have had a heart attack. We’d have needed the nurse, the rescue helicopter, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and a boatload of defibrillators. And the reason why is because you’re beautiful. The first time I saw you in your bathers on deck I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”
I paused for breath and risked a look at her. She smiled faintly, but she didn’t say anything.
“You want me to stay and tell you what an amazing woman you are, that I’d be happy with you if I never saw you with your clothes off again. You are an amazing woman, it’s hard to believe any human man would have a hope in hell with you. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see you naked again, because seeing you and touching you and fooling around with you is so addictive that you’re like a drug. One hit and I’m hooked, the biggest, ugliest groper you ever fished up. And if one day I don’t see you, I’ll get withdrawal symptoms, as bad as any chemical drug.” That’s all I managed to say before I choked up and the words wouldn’t come out any more.
She cleared her throat. “Please, I’d still like you to stay.”
I laughed. “Because you think I’m different to them? I’m not. The only difference is that I want you to take your clothes off in private so I can be selfish and I don’t have to share you with anyone else. You don’t want me tonight.” I threw my hands up in surrender.
She took a step back into the light, so I could see her face more clearly. Her face was still tearstained, but her impish smile shone through the tears. “For someone who notices so much sometimes, it’s amazing how oblivious you can be. You really have no idea.” She pulled her shirt up and over her head, letting it dangle from her hand by her side. My head filled with the vision of blue lace that moved with her every breath.
She raised her eyebrows. “How much more do I have to take off to get you to come in and shut the door?” She started to undo the buttons on her shorts.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“Baiting a big, stubborn groper, I think,” she retorted. She started to slide the shorts down over her hips.
I looked around, but it was too dark to see if anyone else was nearby. “What if someone sees you?”
She looked at me with a puzzled smile. “I’m counting on you seeing me, and I’m hoping you’ll lock the door behind you, which should take care of everyone else.” The shorts slid to the floor and she kicked them aside. I was mesmerised by the sight of the blue lace g-string I’d dreamed about.
She walked slowly toward me, now wearing nothing but blue lace. I couldn’t move or take my eyes off her. This is the girl of my dreams, complete with blue lace underwear. She clasped her arms around my neck and kissed me, there in the middle of the path.
I didn’t know where to put my hands, but I had to get her inside before someone saw her. I grabbed her round the middle, my lips still on hers, and tried to walk us both into the house. She kicked the door shut behind us, pushing my back to it. Pressing up against me, she reached around me to lock the door. I came up for breath, gasping.
She looked into my eyes. “I’m upset because I wanted to kill a man tonight and I didn’t. And I would like you to stay because I think your presence may prevent me from killing a man in the morning, when he comes to mumble an apology.”
She crossed the kitchen and turned the lock on the back door, treating me to a clear view of exactly what her g-string didn’t cover. Shit, she does still want me and I’ve never wanted her so much. How in hell does she look sexier in her underwear than she does naked?
“Now, we have the house securely to ourselves and all night to enjoy it. What do you suggest we do first?” Her smile was wicked as she reached behind her to undo her bra.
No, not yet! I want to enjoy this for a bit longer. Then I want to help you take it all off…
“Oh, please don’t,” I begged her.
She looked at me in surprise. “You don’t want me to take my clothes off? I thought...” The colour drained from her face.
She thinks I don’t want her. Oh God, as if that could ever happen. I struggled with the words. “I’ve dreamed about this,” I began.
Her smile was thoughtful. “You’ve dreamed about me in my underwear?” She laughed.
Now I was embarrassed. “Yes,” I mumbled, not looking at her face.
She moved closer to me, within arm’s reach. “Do I ever take it off?” she asked gently.
I felt my face grow hot. I’m not going to tell Vanessa the fantasies I’d constructed in my head about her. “If I’m lucky,” I managed to say.
“And what else do we do?” she asked softly.
“We start slow,” I began, swallowing hard. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t work out what words to say. How do I explain to this perfect woman that all the fantasies I’d had about her since last weekend involved an incredibly elaborate seduction, until, miracle of miracles, she’d agree to take everything off and sleep with me again? Sex like we’d had last weekend was only ever the climax of my fantasies, right at the end, if I was lucky. If I wasn’t lucky, I’d get brought back to reality by a well-aimed rotten lobster or someone banging on my front door, telling me it was time to pull the pots or that their generator had blown. I’d managed to fuck up last weekend and here I am, about to screw up the second chance I never thought I’d get. Why don’t you just get one last eyeful of blue lace before you kiss her goodbye?
My breath caught in my throat as I looked her up and down. My hand was shaking as I ran it lightly across her face and into her hair. Tentatively, I pressed my lips against hers and closed my eyes. I felt her lips part as she took a breath.
I pulled away, cautiously, before opening my eyes. She was right there in front of me. She hadn’t moved. Her eyes were laughing at me even before I heard her amused voice. “It might take a while if we go this slow.”
For the first time ever, her laughter irritated me. “Haven’t you noticed I get tongue-tied around you? You’re not making this any easier,” I snapped.
Vanessa stopped laughing. Her expression turned gentle. She took my hand and led me to her bedroom, which I’d never seen. Her hands helped me to take my shirt off, then my shorts, so I was standing there in my underwear, just like her.
She was facing me, close enough to touch. Her smile was soft. “Are your dreams different to anything we’ve done together before?”
I want to give you the best night of your life. I want it to be so good you’re still beside me when I wake up in the morning. My voice died and I didn’t manage to say a word of it. I nodded, looking down at my feet. Fuck.
She took a step closer, so now all I could see was the deep, inviting cleavage between her boobs, edged with blue lace.
“Show me,” she whispered. “We have all night. Show me your dreams, and I promise you will be lucky.”
I learned that when a man’s dreams come true, he yearns for more. At the end of that night with Vanessa, I yearned for sleep, so I could dream about her all over again. With my eyes open.
63. Belinda
“What occupies your attention for so long? Surely nothing on land could hold such fascination.” Maria’s voice came from the cabin.
I responded without taking my eyes from
the island. “Her interaction with the young human fisherman.”
I heard her footsteps on the deck, her voice growing louder as she approached. “Does their conversation have such great import? I had not thought him a source of significant information. Perhaps her preference for him has been a pretext to pump him for his knowledge. This I would understand.”
I reflected on how best to phrase my response. “No, it appears that the human is the one engaged in pumping.”
Maria’s reaction was immediate. “What? He knows about us and seeks information about our sisters in the deep?” Maria came to stand by my side, peering across the water at the window of the blue house.
I tried to caution her before she discerned their interactions. “Calm yourself. It appears the only information he seeks is whether she derives enjoyment from his attentions. She freely and frequently asserts that she does.”
Maria’s anxiety gave way to disgust. “You have been watching her let him stick a bit of himself inside of her?”
I tried not to laugh. “Several bits, actually. Some of his fingers, his tongue, as well as the appendage that is inside her at present. She has expressed considerable pleasure at his repeated penetration of her on at least three occasions. Wait...no, it appears to be four.”
Maria turned away. “This is disgusting to watch. I do not know how you can stand it. Why does she not close the curtains over the window so that no one witnesses her degradation?”
"It is too dark for humans to see through the window. Only we can penetrate the darkness to see her close relations with the human fisherman. Our people do not hide from our sisters in the deep,” I called after her.
I heard the splash as Maria went over the side. “Even this talk of penetration makes me feel unwell, my skin soiled.”
I made my voice reasonable. “Then do not watch. I will keep watch, in accordance with her orders. Go and wash your imaginary soiled skin in the waves. On your return, please bring me something small for dinner. Small, sweet fish, easily slid down whole. I find I am not unwell at all, but hungry.”
Maria took off into the water, the ripples barely marking her passage.
I turned my eyes back to the bedroom in the blue house. They had changed position again, to one I had not seen before. She was particularly vocal about her enjoyment of this. I wondered idly whether I would also find such a method of joining with a human male equally enjoyable. I dismissed the thought. Necessity would not require me to join with a human male again.
After several hours of energetic activity, they lay exhausted on her bed. Both were naked and lying on their sides, facing the same way. He was so close behind her that a casual arm thrown over her ended in draping his fingers over her breasts. In fact, he was so close behind her that if his present limp appendage were to become engorged with blood again, it would penetrate her without her consent. She wiggled and rubbed her behind against him, so that she was even closer to him than before.
Perhaps she had already given her consent and she was waiting for a firmer response from the human. I reflected on this until I heard a splash from behind me.
Maria returned, replete, carrying a handful of fish as long as her hand. It wasn’t until I had eaten my sweet little fish and I was sipping the fiery liquor we had brought from the mainland that a thought occurred to me.
Her coupling with this human was not driven by necessity or duty. What did drive her to lie naked beside him?
I took comfort in the fact that the young human fisherman also did not know the answer to this. Perhaps we were not so different to the humans, after all.
I sipped my fiery drink, feeling it burn as I swallowed. I closed my eyes, reminded of the burn of fires in the past, thinking of flames that, once kindled, could never be extinguished.
Zerafina, my fiery daughter, I will return home to you soon.
64. Joe
I woke up tangled with Vanessa and the sheets in her bed. What I wanted more than anything was to pick up where we’d left off before, but she was already rolling out of bed, away from me. Someone was knocking hard at the front door and it looked like the sun was up.
I got my shorts on before she was dressed, so I answered the door for her.
Two men stood outside, looking like they had terrible hangovers. One was just recognisable as Admiral Buck minus his newspaper hat. He was also missing an eyebrow and he’d acquired a lot of makeup. The other bloke was the idiot who was lucky to be alive.
“Is Vanessa home? I was told she lived here,” Admiral Buck asked loudly, squinting at me.
“She does. I’ll go see if she’s up.” I left them at the door to see if she was dressed yet. She was; wearing a polo shirt buttoned up to the top and pants that came down to just past her knees, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, brushing her hair into a ponytail. She went into the bathroom and washed her face, before following me out to the front door.
She leaned against one side of the doorframe, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Good morning. What do you want?”
“Matt here wants to apologise for saying bad things about you last night.” Buck shoved Matt forward and backed away.
Behind them, I could see Vanessa’s formidable deckies watching with interest from the deck of her boat. If she killed him, they’d take him and dump his body somewhere in the deep, without a qualm. Those two are cold and inhuman, like no one else I’ve ever met.
Matt was mumbling his way through a semi-unintelligible apology. The only word I definitely understood was “sorry”, which he repeated often.
When he ran down, Vanessa spoke. “You’re sorry?” She didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic about the idea.
Matt nodded emphatically.
She grabbed him by his shoulders. “Not yet you’re not.” She brought her knee up between his legs, so hard she actually lifted him off the ground. I winced in sympathy. He made a wordless squeaking noise that sounded like distant dolphins. “Every time you look at an attractive woman and you start getting aroused, you’re going to hurt. Then you’re going to be sorry. Maybe even sorry enough to make me feel better, because I know you’ll never do it again.”
She let go of him and he crumpled into a heap on the path.
Her deckies found this hilarious. I could hear their laughter, from the other end of the jetty.
“You,” she addressed Buck.
He stayed a safe distance away. “Me?”
“You get your mate here out of my sight before I hurt him worse. He’ll want some ice on that.” She turned and stalked back into the house, shutting the door firmly behind her. She sagged against the door, her eyes closed.
“Wow. I hope I never offend you,” I blurted out. I uncrossed my legs, slowly.
She looked up, opening her eyes. Her smile was rueful as she stood up. “Me too, because I’m not sure I could do that to you. Well, at least it wasn’t as messy or as final as using a broken bottle,” she said matter-of-factly.
“One of the guys told me something last night...” I began, hesitant but dying to know. “About the deckie Skipper had before me.”
“What did they tell you?” Her voice had turned low and cautious.
Oh shit. Shouldn’t have said anything. It’s too late now.
“They say he fell off a cliff, but that he offended you not long before he fell.” I tried to match her cautious tone, but it just came out sounding scared.
“He suggested I was a whore and offered me twenty dollars to sleep with him. When I refused and tried to walk away, he touched me without my permission. I did the same to him as the idiot this morning. Instead of being incapacitated, this only angered him. He tackled me to the ground and he attempted to remove my clothing. My deckhands were nearby and came to my assistance. Maria kicked him in the face, which I believe broke his jaw. Belinda wished to remove some of his appendages and, without being aware of our location, he backed away from her. He fell backwards off the cliff and did himself further damage. He requested our assistance, but I
forbade my deckhands from touching him further, either to assist or inflict additional damage. I informed him that if I ever saw him again, I would kill him. Belinda indicated that if she saw him again, she would remove any unnecessary appendages. I’m not sure whether he remembers this, though, as he injured his head in the fall and appeared quite hazy regarding the details before he fell, when he was questioned the following day.” She delivered this entire account in a tone devoid of emotion, without looking at me. She took a deep breath and met my eyes. “I don’t believe there were any other witnesses, though I am certain that some of the fishermen who were present in the club that night suspect the truth, or some of it.”
“The idiot called you a whore and tried to rape you. I’m surprised you didn’t want to kill him on the spot, too.” Like the guy last night, who only made an insulting comment. Good thing she didn’t have her deckhands with her last night.
“He attempted to remove my clothing. That is all. I did want to kill him, but I resisted the urge. I left him bleeding in the water, my gift to the sharks.” She shrugged. “It’s none of my concern that the other fishers chose to assist him.”
I imagined the dickhead deckie as like Dean on drugs, desperate for the first decent girl he saw after a long stint in the bush. He’d lived in my shack, done my job…hell, he’d probably watched those old porn films about Debbie. Now I understood why Skipper warned me to keep away from her. Even more amazed, I wondered why she’d picked me.
“You have no idea how happy I am you decided to sleep with me instead of leaving me to be food for sharks,” I said.
She gave a tiny smile. “Well, if you were to call me a whore, I might reconsider feeding you to the sharks. I’m sure the tiger shark we caught on the weekend had some mates who’d like revenge.”
I’d been the only one in the water when she went for the shark with a knife. Did she seriously go after it to save me?
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