Chapter 37

The lights of the island to the south lit the clouds from the bottom. Devlin could see the lights of cars, though the distance was too great for her to hear any but the loudest noises. Evan led her down the beach to the edge of the water. Here there was just the lapping of the waves, the light of the moon, and the dim shapes of other islands in the distance. They were out in the open, but somehow it seemed as if they were all alone.

He slid his hands up to cup her breasts, then, as he kissed her neck, slid his other hand down between her legs.

"You're direct," she said as she felt his touch. She slid her hand around his body, lightly squeezing his firm flesh.

"We could spend an hour fooling around," he said, "or..."

She ran her fingers around the waistband of his shorts. "Only if you get this thing off."

He stepped back and skinned his shorts off. She quickly untied her wrap, tossed it up the beach, and stepped back into his arms.

"I like the feel of you pressing against me," he said.

She squared her hips against his. "I like how we feel together," she replied. Kneeling, she kissed her way across the washboard of his stomach. "I like the way you taste." His skin was salty and a little rough. She brushed hit once more with her lips, and then lay back on the sand.

He ran his tongue up the inside of her leg from the ankle all the way to her apex. For just a moment he teased the sensitive skin around her core, and then his hands were on her hips. "Turn over," he said roughly. "I feel like an animal tonight."

She scrambled around on her hands and knees. She could feel the heat of his body as he knelt between her legs, his hands on her waist. He ran himself up her thighs, slowly, teasingly. She looked back over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of him silhouetted against the evening sky. And then she felt the nudge she was waiting for.

He pressed, opening her, sliding forward, sheathing himself in her heat in one strong motion.

"God, you're tight," he whispered.

She couldn't speak. Just the feel of him in her, two animals mating in the open for everyone to see... she clenched her muscles, more aware of him than she'd ever been with a guy.

Slowly, agonizingly, he pulled back until he was just barely in her, and then he slid forward again. It was a slow, powerful, controlled thrust, and he followed it with another. She lowered her head to her arms on the sand. She could see nothing. She could feel... the sand brushing her nipples until they were tight and aching... the heat of his body as he pressed forward against her... opening her depths... touching every sensitive place... her fingers clenching the sand. The smell of the sea filled her senses, the constant lapping of the waves in time to his thrusts, the heat of the sand against her, brushing her, clinging to her, firm and giving way at the same time.

Slowly he began to speed up, still in control, ever more powerful, filling her, taking her. She moved against him, taking him, holding his very being deep within her. The warmth of him spread through her. She gave herself over to the heat, feeling it rise up and shiver through her like a summer evening flash of lightning.

He climaxed with a groan, his body rigid, holding her tight against him. Finally, though, he slumped against her, reaching down to keep from collapsing on top of her.

She pushed him onto his back, bending down to take his softening cock in her mouth.

"You don't... you don't have to do that," he said thickly.

"But I want to," she replied, her voice husky.

She rubbed his cock against her face, sucking the last of his juices into her mouth. She nibbled down the thick vein on the underside of his length, and then gently took his balls, one at a time, into her mouth. She sucked and bathed them with her tongue. She could feel his involuntary reaction, feel him instinctively move upward at this attention. Taking his cock in just the tips of her fingers she let his balls go, slowly kissing his flaccid cock.

"You know... its wet with your... you don't have to..."

She looked up at him, resting her chin on his tummy. "Do you want me to stop doing this?"

"I'd be a fool to say yes."

She kissed his tip. "I didn't think you were a fool."

"You seem to be enjoying yourself."

She felt his cock beginning to thicken. "So do you." She applied herself to her sucking, playing with him, smiling as his cock slowly filled out in her mouth. She cupped his balls in her hand. She loved the way they rolled around in their little sack. Her touch seemed to stiffen him even more. Good, she thought. I want him hard.

She took him between her breasts, watching his face as his hardness was lost in her softness. "How's that?" she asked.

"God," he said, his head moving from side to side.

She moved on to kiss his tummy, rimming his navel, working her way up to the flat spots of his nipples, dragging her own breasts across his body. She swung her leg over his body and rubbed herself against his length, grinding against his hardness. He moaned softly, and she ran her hands across his chest and shoulders. She didn't want to stop, but it would feel even better somewhere else.

She lifted and rubbed his hardness against her wetness, and then sat back, impaling herself. Wet as she was, he resisted going in--she squirmed around, working it past the muscles of her entrance. Then, suddenly, he was past that, sliding, sliding, filling her all the way to the end. For just a moment they sat there, staring at each other with pleasure-hazed eyes. Then she began moving, up and down a little, side to side a little, touching every hot little spot in her depths. After a moment he put his hands on her breasts, kneading her soft flesh, molding it, squeezing out little bursts of pleasure with his fingers.

There wasn't the urgency this time, but she could feel the embers of their first time coming to life. Her hands on his shoulders, her breasts in his face, she moved against him, feeling him slide into her, feeling his length slide into her depths, driving everything out of her mind but the wonderful friction of him inside her. She threw her head back, her eyes closing of their own accord as the pleasure built and built and built. He was... so big... so hard... so long... so good... so hard... so... so... With a wordless cry she lost control, lost everything in the pleasure that swept through her as a wave.

She came back to herself in his arms. They were lying on their sides, his length still embedded in her, his arms around her, protecting her, cradling her. She inhaled his male scent, tasted his male sweat, felt his male strength.

She clenched her muscles around his length. "I... I think we have unfinished business here," she said. It was hard to get the words out, for some reason she was having trouble thinking.

"You mean... this?" He moved, stirring himself in her.

"That," she managed to force out. "God that feels good."

He began to move against her, warming her. After a moment she began to push back against him, matching him thrust for thrust.

"God, you're one hot woman."

She hooked her leg behind his, opening her up to him even more. She ran her hands across his shoulders and through his hair. His arms held her, pressing their flesh together in one giant caress. She buried her face against his neck, wanting to experience all of him, his taste, his touch, his feel, everything.

He began to speed up, his urgency lighting her fires again. She stared at his face, wanting to see him in his moment. His eyes lost their focus as he stared at something, somewhere. Slowly his face grew rigid and his arms tightened around her. His face tilted back, his mouth opening. And then, with a cry, he was there, his body shuddering as all of his need and urgency spilled over into her in one glorious moment.

She closed her eyes, giving herself over to the feelings surging through her, joining him in a wild burst of feeling that swept them both away.

They slowly relaxed. He kissed her lightly as their bodies adjusted to each other. She could feel the water of the ocean, bath water warm, lapping against them. While they had been... involved, the tide had come in, covering their legs already. She had no strength to get up, she let the warm water slowly lap its way up her body, covering them. The sand was a warm bed, the water the covers...

Devlin blinked awake, lying on her own bed, feeling the bodies beside her shift slightly. It was a dream, she told herself, disappointed. It was only a dream.

She levered herself upright and crawled over one of the two guys sharing her bed. She was hot and sticky, she needed to pee, and she needed time alone.

The night was warm. She turned on the hot tub and settled in. The swirling water was like a warm caress, and the bubbles soothed her muscles; at the moment she felt like she needed the soothing.

She was dreaming of making love to Evan. She was dreaming of them making love on the beach just like in some of the romance novels she'd read. She was dreaming of him. She hadn't dreamed of any other guy she'd been with. Ever.

She snorted when she realized that she'd slept with every guy she'd ever gone out with. Did that say something about her? Could she only relate to guys when they were in bed? Did she have to have sex with every guy she met? She didn't know any other girl who was that way. Was there something wrong with her?

Or was it just the way she'd grown up these last few years?

She supposed she could blame it on Danny, but she knew it wasn't him. He might have seduced her, but she allowed herself to be seduced. She'd gotten into that whole thing with her eyes wide open. Even the parties--she remembered thinking long and hard about going to those. She knew she'd be having sex with guys she didn't know, but that had been the attraction. Guys, strange guys, guys she didn't know, wouldn't be looking at her as a high school student. They'd be looking at her as a sexy, attractive woman. And that had been important to her.

She did blame herself for what had happened with Jeff. She'd totally misread that whole affair. Seen now, it had been a mistake to have sex with him. Nuts, it had been a mistake to go out with him more than once or twice. Still, it had seemed exciting at the time; somebody who knew her had desired her, had found her sexy and attractive. It wasn't until later she began to realize what a Momma's boy he was.

She knew guys through her classes, but they were just other students. She didn't feel any attraction, though she knew that if she gave them the slightest hint they'd want to jump into bed with her. It was time she faced up to it: with her figure, guys were easy. A smile, a little sway, maybe a little a jiggle, and guys could be putty in her hands. It was almost no challenge, if she wanted to do it. And... somehow... she didn't.

There were girls in her dorm who would kill to have her figure. She knew several girls who would give anything to have her sex life; entire evenings given over to sensual pleasure, no worries, no social pressure, just a catering of your deepest desires. She had all of that; what she didn't have was what they had: fun relationships with guys. Non-sexual relationships: dates, movies, dances, rides, walks, all of those things everyone else seemed to have.

She tried to think of the last time she hadn't been involved in a round of sex; even last summer was out, she and Danny had gotten together as often as they could. Face it, she told herself, every relationship you've had with a guy since you were 13 had been sexual. Krissi had commented on that only a couple of weeks before they'd come down here.

They'd been sitting in her living room, wrapped up in her huge comforter, eating popcorn and watching some hokey movie on TV. They'd started talking about some of the things they'd done, and before she knew it she'd been telling Krissi about every guy she could remember being with.

"It's a good thing we have birth control," Krissi said when she'd finally run down.

"Oh?"

"You're 19. By my conservative estimate, without birth control you'd have had 5 or 6 kids by now."

"I'd have probably quit after 1 or 2."

"Possibly. Let's see. Your mother started you on the Pill when you were 14. Right?" Devlin nodded. "And you've never been much of a condom using girl, have you?"

"Just Tuesday nights."

"That's what I thought. Hmm, let's see. The Pill keeps a girl from ovulating. No ovum, no pregnancy. But if you hadn't used the Pill, if you just let things happen, then Danny, Jeff, or one of the guys at Emma's, would have been a father by now."

"Do you think the Pill changes a girl's behavior that much?"

Krissi shrugged. "The conservative religious types would say yes, young women are pure and naturally celibate, and the Pill encourages them to have sex."

Devlin snorted. "What reality do they live in? You should hear it in the dorms."

"I can imagine. Anyway, those people say yes, while women's magazines say no, having sex without making babies does not change a girl's behavior."

"Given what I saw in High School, I'd probably side with the magazines."

"I'm not saying they're right or wrong," Krissi said. "I haven't studied the subject. I know a girl doesn't think about such things unless she's trying to get pregnant. In some ways it's like a guy; they don't seem to care what happens after they cum. A few do, the responsible ones, but I think the age of responsibility for a guy is somewhere around 35, or maybe 45."

"I'd say 25 and with kids," Devlin said, "but I see your point." She sighed. "I know I was active, with Butch, before I was on birth control."

"And damned lucky you didn't make him a father," Krissi said. "Of course that's just my personal opinion."

Was she thinking of Evan as a potential father? She had thought that about Jeff, and look where it got her. She'd have to get to know Evan a lot better before she let things get that far. But still...

"What are you doing out here all alone?" a male voice asked from behind her.

Devlin looked up. It was Brian McMillan. "Just sitting here, thinking." Brian was naked, and he slipped into the hot tub, stretching out and resting the back of his head on the side.

"Uh oh," he said. "Some guy is in for it."

"What's that supposed to mean."

"Oh, just something I observed a while back. When a woman gets to thinking, especially if she's alone, things start happening. Next thing you know you'll be having long walks with the other girls, talking about some relationship. And then, weeks from now, some guy will learn how you've already decided his future."

"That isn't the way it happens," she said, laughing.

"No?" He grinned, his teeth impossibly white in the moonlight. "What were you just thinking about? And don't blow me off. Oh, you can blow me anytime you want, but don't blow me off with some nonsense story that you weren't seriously thinking about something."

She weighed how much to say. Who else could she talk this over with? Danny? He'd listen, but he was over 1,000 miles away. Krissi? Possibly, but she wasn't here. Who else?

"I was thinking about this guy I've been seeing the last few days," she said. "And I was looking at my life up until now, or at least these last few years."

"You probably haven't reached any conclusions," he said. "You're probably just trying to talk things through right now, just getting your mind wrapped around things."

"Well..." He was right. She hadn't really reached any conclusions, well, except that she wanted to keep seeing Evan. "How did you know that?"

"My sister. She and I have talked about things for as far back as I can remember. Women have more complicated emotional lives than guys do, that's one of the things I've learned from her."

"We do not."

He shook his head. "Guys are goal-oriented. Get the mammoth. Get the bison. Feed the tribe. You know: the hunter part of hunter-gather. That takes teamwork, but you're still focused on the goal. Women, though, are the 'gather' part of the equation. And that takes a different kind of cooperation. There isn't that single, over-riding goal."

"That sounds like pop-psychology."

"It is, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. Women's whole lives are built around that sort of cooperation. You can gather the food and take care of the kids, but women learned very quickly that a division of labor made things easier for everyone. And that takes relationships. There's more, but that's the essentials."

"I don't know." She stretched out a little, feeling his legs brush hers. She shifted, moving her feet to a different part of the hot tub. "That sounds too... I don't know, too trite."

"Perhaps. But I think there's a lot of truth to it. There's more. I could probably go on for hours about this whole idea. But, bottom line, women spend a lot of time thinking about relationships. When they're facing a major change in their life they start by thinking things while alone, and then they seek affirmation from their girlfriends. That's what I see you doing out here."

"Maybe." He was right, but she wasn't sure she wanted to tell him that. He was a guy, after all.

"Joanne and I have done a lot of that. She's after the guy's perspective, and that's what I give her. I like to think I've saved her from a couple of nasty things, and, well, she's saved me from at least one bad relationship."

"Sort of covering for each other."

"That's it," he said, nodding. "And that's what I see going on here. You're quite taken with this guy, aren't you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Pretty much. Is there something special about him? Or is this just a Spring Break fling?"

"I, uh, I haven't really met someone like him, and, well, truth to tell, I don't have that much experience on the dating scene."

"Oh?" He shifted slightly, keeping his distance from her. "Want to talk about it?"

"A lot of it is pretty personal."

"I'm an early-bird. I can't sleep in. Want to talk about it?"

"Well..."

A half-hour later she ran down. She hadn't told him everything, just most things. Now she wondered if she'd told him too much. All that stuff with Danny, for instance. Legally speaking that was statutory rape, and if Brian took it to the authorities it would destroy Danny and Sue.

"I think," Brian said slowly, "that Evan is good for you." He grinned. "He's the first guy you've met who is unavailable to you. Not that he wouldn't jump your bones if you gave him the slightest hint. God knows, I would. But somehow you gave him the signal that, as sexy as you are, and as knock-out gorgeous as you are, you weren't there for the bedding.

"I'll tell you this, speaking as a guy: he wants to haul you into the sack and fuck your brains out, suspecting, quite rightly, that sex with you would be mind-blowing and too fantastic for words. But he picked up on whatever signal you sent him, even if you don't realize you sent it, and he's willing to wait."

"So you're saying he's just a sex-partner I haven't gotten to yet."

Brian shook his head. "No, I'm saying that, with you, he's going to wait because he knows, maybe subconsciously, that this is a relationship that's more than just a hop in the sack. You sent the signal that you want more than that, he's agreeing, and, this is just a guess, he's thinking you're the woman to that with.

"This is one thing I know about athletes, Devlin; athletes are used to women throwing themselves at them. It happens far more than the general public realizes. I'd read that one pro basketball player had lost track of how many women he'd been to bed with, but it had to number some 5,000."

"What? 5,000? Are you serious?"

"He had a 15 year career in the NBA. You figure 3-4 women a week, maybe, say, 5 a week; over the course of a six-month season that would come to 130 a year, and that's just during the season. You do the math, but when you add the off-season, you can see where 5,000 is probably a low number. Personally I've thought the actual number is probably twice that."

"10,000!? Now I know you're putting me on. That would be almost two women a day for 15 years."

He shrugged. "Whether that's a real number, or not, I don't know. But the opportunity was there, that's what I'm saying. And that same opportunity is there for any professional athlete who makes half an effort.

"For whatever reason, though, he's not looking at you as 'opportunity'. And, from what I've heard from Krissi and Joanne, you shouldn't consider him the same way, either."

Devlin filed that observation away for future consideration. "What do I owe you for this insight, a blow-job?"

Brian smiled and climbed out of the hot tub. "I told you I wouldn't say no to one, but right now I don't think it would be the best thing for you."

She eyed the way his cock glistened with the water running off of it. "I could give you one that would blow your mind."

"I'm sure you could." He came around to her side of the hot tub, knelt, and dropped a kiss on her forehead. "But right now you've got a lot on your mind. Maybe later, when we can do it for just the fun of it. And then I'll lick your precious pearl until you scream."

He rose and walked away, the water leaving silver trails down his back and across his butt. She thought of what it would be like to run her hands over that butt. She'd have to make a point of doing that before she went home. She sighed. They were going to be here for four more days. She should have plenty of time to find out if Brian's buns were as tight as they looked. In the meantime...

She got out of the hot tub and headed back into the cabin. There were two guys on her bed; one of the other girls had her period, freeing up some male flesh, and she'd been the lucky recipient. She eyed their sleeping forms--one guy was lying on his stomach, but the other was on his side--lifted his cock, and started sucking.

By the time the sun came up she was feeling sated. They had used up the condoms the night before, and nobody felt like finding more. Instead they'd 'barebacked' it. She was just as sweaty as she'd been the night before, but for a different reason. As one guy had cum, the other had moved in. Nobody seemed to mind 'sloppy seconds', or if they did they didn't say a thing. She'd just relaxed and let it all happen. And whatever sexual urgency she'd been feeling had been thoroughly dissipated.

She went over to the pool, and slipped in, just drifting back and forth in the water. After a bit she saw Linda's husband Jim setting out the breakfast buffet. She paddled over to watch, floating on her back, content to let the water cleanse her.

"Call for you," Jim said as he came out of the house with the phone. "It's Evan."

She glanced at the time: 6:45, a lot earlier than she expected. She got out of the pool and spent a moment wringing out her hair.