by Eva Luxe
“How long have I been out?”
“Four or five hours? Blood loss knocked you out initially, then they sedated you to patch you up.”
“Sorry to ruin our trip, bro, but I don’t think I’ll be back on a board anytime soon. Not that I have a board to be on anymore, anyway,” Jack offered.
Wyatt laughed. “You don’t expect me to sit here in the hospital or in our hotel room with you for the next two weeks, do you? I intend to be on the beach bright and early tomorrow. Besides, you’re ‘shark bite guy’ now. You’re a local celebrity. You’ll have plenty of volunteers to help nurse you back to health.”
* * *
The next morning, Wyatt returned to the beach, intent on swallowing his fear and conquering the Fijian waves. Surveying the tide, he was aware of a presence sidling up to him.
He’d seen the girl who helped save his friend the prior afternoon, but he hadn’t really looked at her. As she approached, he drank her in, an exotic beauty beyond compare to the coeds back home in Ohio. She wore a black bikini top and jean shorts, her black hair a thick, wild, windswept mane. Her skin was more gold than brown and seemed to glow, rippling over tight, natural muscle.
Wyatt Sullivan wasn’t typically intimidated by anyone, especially women, but his voice had shriveled up deep inside when he tried to say hello. She stood next to him, watching the waves crash, surveying the set for herself.
“How’s your friend?” she finally asked.
Trying, but failing, to give off the cool, disinterested vibe he’d honed over the years, Wyatt cleared his throat to regain his voice before answering. “Oh, Jack? That was you yesterday?”
Her gaze never left the water as she nodded her reply.
“He’s in the hospital, they stitched him up. He’ll be ok. Probably won’t be doing anymore surfing, not this trip anyway.”
“Don’t they have bicycles in America?” she asked.
Perplexed by the question, Wyatt gave the native girl a sideways look. “Yeah, of course we do.”
“Then I assume Jack has ridden one, no?”
Wyatt nodded.
“And when he was learning to ride, he fell off a few times. Surfing, real surfing, is like that. If you let every little shark bite, jellyfish sting, or wipeout send you scurrying back to the beach, you just don’t get it. Surfing isn’t what you do, it’s who you are.” She smiled, but not at Wyatt. She was smiling out at the ocean, as if they were in on a secret that someone like Wyatt could never understand.
Wyatt watched as the gorgeous girl dropped a towel, wriggled out of her shorts, and made for the water with her board. He watched her paddle out, impressed by her guts. He’d wrestled with this moment ever since hearing Jack screaming and seeing the churning water near him run red in the aftermath of the attack.
Wyatt walked toward the water but stopped short as the first waves lapped at his toes. His feet sank and he let them. Watching the girl knife effortlessly through and between waves left him awestruck. Whatever skills he and Jack had developed paled next to the instinctual grace this Fijian goddess displayed.
Motionlessly, he watched her entire set and watched her emerge from the waves, glistening.
“Unless you’re planning to go out,” she said, motioning to the ocean. “Why don’t you take me to see your friend? I have to work this afternoon, but I have some free time now.”
Wyatt wasn’t going into the ocean, not in front of her. He knew how clumsy and awkward his attempts to surf would be, and any chance he had to score with her would be lost if she actually watched him surf.
Not like it wouldn’t be gone anyway once she visited Jack in the hospital, but she was so beautiful that he couldn’t help but hope.
Chapter 5 - Solomon
Stars were one of Jack’s most vivid recollections of Fiji. A night sky filled with more stars than there were grains of sand on the beach. Nowhere had he seen a sight to match it.
The native girl had come to visit him in the hospital, and the reunion caused tears to spill down her perfect cheeks. She told him her name was Karalaini, and he instantly thought it was the most beautiful name he’d ever heard.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she’d said. “I wasn’t sure if you’d make it.”
She stayed with him until dinner, calling a friend to take care of her clients. Talking and laughing with the handsome American seemed a much better way to spend the afternoon rather than trying to teach some pasty British kid to surf while he spent the time gawking at her rather than learning anything.
Jack and Karalaini talked about their families, Fiji, Ohio, Wyatt, surfing, sharks, music, food, and whether or not they could name any celebrities from their respective countries.
He loved her mouth, her wild hair, her sun-kissed skin. His shoulders and biceps drew her attention, as well as his accent, which sounded southern to her, despite his protestations to the contrary.
Nurses wanted to remove his bandages and clean his wound before dinner, so she bid him adieu. She leaned in for a hug, and although neither planned it, the hug became a kiss.
Awkwardly trying to figure how to embrace him as he lay prone with his leg elevated, her nose bumped his and their mouths were too close for either to help themselves. Two nurses watched as a quick peck became something more, and finally one of them cleared her throat lest Karalaini and Jack fire up a full-fledged make out session.
With a smirk, she withdrew and spun on her heels, exiting with a promise to return in the morning.
Jack only hoped that with all the activity happening below his waist, neither nurse would notice his erection as they tended to his wound.
* * *
Wyatt found a group of Oxford University students on holiday and he became a de facto member of their group, surfing, snorkeling, drinking, and otherwise enjoying the islands.
Jack’s days were spent flirting with Laini, as he’d taken to calling her. The afternoon he was finally released from the hospital, she helped him get settled in his hotel room for the final few days of his stay.
That evening, the two of them wound up on the beach, no mean feat with Jack struggling to use crutches on the sand and Laini at his side, giving him something against which to brace and keep his balance. He wore cargo shorts and a golf shirt. She’d worn a simple yellow sundress. He’d never forget the color of it against her skin.
They lay on towels staring up at that brilliant panorama of stars, holding hands and enjoying the ocean breeze, the crashing of waves, and distant rumbling of thunder somewhere out over the Pacific. The impending storm had driven people indoors, and they had the stretch of sand to themselves.
Jack propped himself up on an elbow and kissed Laini deeply, his hand first on her face and then sliding down to her neck and finally lower, just barely grazing a nipple, causing her to gasp into his mouth. She kissed him more fervently, and as his hand moved back up to cradle her face, she took his wrist in her hand and guided him back to her breast.
He palmed it, gently at first and then more roughly as her kisses became more aggressive. She tugged at his shirt, eager to touch the chest and arms she’d admired since helping to pull him from the ocean.
He surrendered it easily, tossing it away, and she bit his shoulder playfully and gave him a wicked grin. He wanted desperately to roll on top of her, to press against her, but his injury made such an encounter impossible.
Sensing his wishes, and his difficulty, Laini rose, letting the straps of her dress fall from her shoulders, exposing her breasts to him as she swung her leg across his hips and settled atop him, careful not to let any of her weight fall back onto his stitched-together thigh. She leaned forward, her hair spilling all around him, letting his mouth envelop her nipples one by one, making her whimper.
Their shared need was evident in his bulge and the way she ground against it.
“I’m not hurting you, am I?” she rasped into his ear.
“Just the opposite,” he assured her, his hands on her ass pulling her as tightly as h
e could to him. Her hips churned as they kissed and his hands explored her sleek flesh, running up and down her naked back. Suddenly, she stiffened, teeth sinking into his shoulder to keep from screaming as the climax took her.
His shorts and boxers were soaked with their combined fluids, and he growled into her ear.
“I need to be inside you.”
Four hands fumbled at his belt buckle as she rose off him just enough to allow his cock to spring free.
Her dress pooled around him as she descended, accepting his searing hot length, inch by inch. Thoughts of his wound, raindrops falling more frequently, their lack of a condom, and the fact that they may not ever see each other again after the next two days, were forgotten.
They made love before an audience of crashing waves and a trillion stars, her body melting into his. All his past conquests paled in comparison to her. Nothing had felt like Laini did, the liquid vise of her body threatening to pull him over the edge each second she writhed atop him. He struggled to control his breathing, to look past her and somehow count the stars, anything to prolong their ecstasy.
Lightning crashed down on the horizon, peals of thunder shaking the beach, and the once peaceful breeze rustling the palm fronds around them now causing the thick trees to sway.
Their eyes met amid the frenzy of the storm, soaked by the rain, and they shared an orgasm the fury of which neither could recall experiencing before. It was as if their bodies were trying to show the maelstrom that they could match its intensity, if only for a moment.
As the rain began in earnest, Laini and Jack surrendered the beach to the elements, shuffling back to the sanctuary of Jack’s hotel through the havoc of the storm. Arriving at the room, they discovered Wyatt and a guest, Suzy, one of the Oxford coeds.
Leaving the lovebirds to resume after the untimely interruption, Laini and Jack dined together. With the weather worsening, Laini excused herself to return home, to one of the smaller, “non-touristy” islands. She had young cousins who expected her in the morning, and if conditions didn’t change, there was no telling when she’d make it home. An uncle with a boat waited impatiently as the couple shared a kiss, promising to reunite the following afternoon.
Sadly, the reunion would never happen.
As Jack’s plane ascended into a welcome break in the clouds two days later, he scanned the islands below through eyes glistening with regret. Due to the storm, Laini had been unable to leave her island for two days, and the kiss on the dock had been their last.
He wanted nothing more than to leave Ohio behind, forget grad school, and remain in Fiji with Laini. Forever. But the real world beckoned, and she was destined to remain a memory, albeit a delicious, spectacular one.
A baby has a way of changing everyone’s plans.
Chapter 6 - Solomon
Jack, it’s Gavin. Mom got some letter, an airmail letter that was forwarded to her from your old apartment address in Columbus. I can mail it or bring it when I come up to visit, just let me know what to do with it.
Jack listened to the voicemail from his brother twice, not quite sure who’d be sending him a letter from outside the country, especially to the apartment he lived in during his senior year at Ohio State. After his return from Fiji, he spent a month with his parents in Cincinnati before striking off for grad school at Penn State.
School was going well, his wound had healed nicely, and he was already looking forward to Spring Break 1994, a return to Hawaii, where he and Wyatt would keep themselves sharp for a trip to Australia in the summer.
Jack phoned his older brother Gavin regarding the mysterious letter.
“Dude, just go ahead and open it. Read it to me. I have no clue,” Jack requested.
“Sure thing, give me a sec. Okay, it’s from…holy shit, Jack.”
“What? Who’s it from?” Jack heard laughter coming through the line, then Gavin cleared his throat and composed himself.
“You didn’t tell me how much fun you had in Fiji, bro.”
“I almost got my leg bitten off by a shark. ‘Fun’ isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.”
“And what did you do for ‘physical therapy’ following the accident? Does the name Karalaini ring a bell?”
“Yeah, of course, she was a girl I…” Jack’s voice trailed off.
“A girl you what, bro? Had unprotected sex with?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jack sat down, suddenly feeling lightheaded.
“Wish I was. Looks like you left a souvenir behind in Fiji. This Karalaini is pregnant and she says it’s yours.”
Jack had always been careful. He’d had more than his share of fun and had no problem attracting women, but he was always adamant about a condom being involved.
Well, almost always.
* * *
Once Karalaini realized she was late, got a test, and her suspicion was confirmed, she immediately knew who the father had to be. The American, Jack. There had been no other.
She briefly considered finding a way to terminate the pregnancy, as she was nineteen, barely knew the father, had no real way to contact him, and was positive he’d deny everything and pretend she and her child didn’t exist, anyway.
But abortion was only legal in Fiji if either her life or the life of the baby were in danger, and she didn’t relish the thought of either of them being at risk. Her best friend, Lucy, had family in Australia, and she thought that laws were different there, but she didn’t have the money to make that a reality, either.
Besides, it had never been a question she would keep the baby. Despite what many would have told her, she knew it was her destiny. Jack had come into her life for a reason. And now she knew why.
She had enough family to help her, and despite whatever embarrassment the whole ordeal would cause her own parents, she couldn’t imagine that they’d turn their backs on her, especially once the baby arrived.
She had to at least try to find Jack, if not for financial assistance, simply because it was the right thing to do. He deserved to know he was going to be a father. The hospital had to have some sort of contact information for Jack, and although they were reluctant to release it to her, she eventually talked an administrator into slipping her a mailing address for the local mini-celebrity, their American shark bite victim, Jack O’Connor.
Karalaini wrote a letter and mailed it to an apartment located someplace called Columbus, Ohio.
The letter arrived to find Jack long gone, but the new tenant decided, fortunately, that an airmail letter was likely of some value and the piece of mail meandered its way from the landlord, to Ohio State University, to Mrs. Margaret O’Connor, Jack’s mother, and finally to Jack’s eldest sibling, Gavin.
The call went silent so long that Gavin thought his brother must have hung up, but finally Jack spoke. “Wow. Uncle Gavin has quite a ring to it, eh?”
Gavin chuckled. “So, do I get a sister-in-law out of this deal? And does she have any sisters?”
Both brothers laughed, but Jack knew the time for mirth was past. On a speck in the ocean, half a world away, his baby was coming.
* * *
Jack O’Connor cancelled a dinner date he’d arranged with a pretty young Penn State coed and he sat in his apartment just off campus with a six pack while he stared out the window, watching the afternoon sun set and the stars begin to fill the sky.
After mulling it over for several days, Jack O’Connor picked up the phone and dialed the number Laini had put in her letter. Living with extended family, a group sharing one telephone, and with a sixteen-hour time difference, it took the better part of three more days for the pair to make contact.
Karalaini’s voice trembled when she picked up the receiver after being summoned to the phone by her cousin.
“Bula! Jack, is it really you?” Karalaini greeted Jack with the Fijian version of “aloha,” the versatile “bula,” a word Jack grew familiar with during his stay the previous summer.
“Bula, Laini. I got your letter. Well, obviously
I got your letter. How are you? How’s the…is the baby okay?” Jack’s reply included “bula,” which best translates to English as “health,” wishing good health to the recipient. He’d never meant it more.
Jack heard her exhale. She couldn’t quite believe this was happening, that she’d actually tracked him down, and that he responded, when her friends had convinced her that no guy on the other side of the planet would bother to take responsibility for something that he’d inevitably think of as a holiday fling.
“Yes, Jack, the baby is great. I’m fine. I’m so glad I found you, that you called. How are you? Your leg?”
“As you might imagine, I’m a little surprised by all of this, I mean I’ve thought of you so much, and I was so frustrated that I didn’t have a way to contact you once I got home. My leg is perfect. What does your family think about you being, you know, about you having a baby?” Jack couldn’t get over hearing her voice again. He would have done anything at that moment to climb through the phone and hold her. She had to be terrified.
“They’re excited, most of them, but it’s hard for my parents, this isn’t at all how they expected to become grandparents. I mean they haven’t even met you,” she explained.
“I intend to rectify that just as soon as I can. I’m in school now, but I have a break for Christmas and then Spring Break a few months later. I wanted to see if I could visit for one or both if I could,” Jack offered, suddenly realizing how badly he needed to see her again.
“I’d like that very much. Calling here must be so expensive. You have my address. Let’s write and maybe we can talk sometimes and you can tell me when you can come. I miss you, Jack.”
* * *
With Wyatt’s help, Jack scraped together the money for a December visit, and despite the insistence of his parents that they accompany him, he made the trip alone.
He and Laini spent a heavenly week together, a reunion marked by a feast in his honor thrown by Karalaini’s family at which he met so many Fijians, with so many vowels in their names, that his head spun.
They made love again. And again. And again. It was better than they both remembered, each time better than the last. Jack couldn’t get enough of Laini and Laini couldn’t bear to be more than a few inches away from Jack at all times.
