*
The sun warmed my face sweetly and kissed my skin with its rays. The water looked cool and inviting as the waves tossed themselves onto the shore. The deserted island behind me was silent but for the stirring wind in the trees and the roar of a waterfall in the distance. I feel like I’ve been running for days but as I see the shipwreck in the distance and planks of broken wood surrounding my tired body sprawled on the sand I know what made my muscles weep. I survived.
In wonderment and desperation I looked around to search for survivors. The stillness of the water in the distance makes me think for the worst. I turn my head from the sea and blink my sadness away before my tears begin to fall. I survived the shipwreck on my own and now I need to survive- starting right now.
I get up and turn to the shoreline. Surely some of the goods have washed up or at least survived whole. My bare feet walk along the wet sand and crash against the oncoming waves. The only thing left on my body is my tattered camisole and undergarments but I’m lucky to have that. My dark hair tangled by the sea and sand lays cool on my bare back as the sun beats onto my skin. And I walk.
In the distance I see something large and long and when I approach it I see it’s a person. I run with hopes of a survivor and as I get closer I see the dark hair covering the head to clue me into the body. Before I can understand why, “My love,” escapes my sore dry lips and I run to him. In my mind I know this man- his eyes, his hair- but I don’t know him really. His pants cover his legs to his calves and his bare back faces me with a gash on his shoulder.
I begin to think horrible thoughts. Maybe I’m wrong and this is his remains. I couldn’t bear to see his dead eyes staring up at me before I ever really knew him. A wave washes over his body as I approach him, rolling his body to the side. His eyes are closed to me but his body is still warm; maybe he wasn’t dead yet. I held onto those last tendrils of hope. With trembling fingers, I reached his throat and searched desperately for a pulse.
In a rush, a flood of memories come to me that I don’t remember experiencing. My father’s personal blacksmith and handyman, this man has been part of my life many years. As a young boy, his father worked with us and we grew together until his father died when he was twenty, just four years ago. I remember holding him close at the funeral, standing for the only family he has. I felt the tears soak through my dress when he cried on my shoulder. I’ve been secretly in love with him just about all my life.
Now seeing him helpless and possibly gone forever without knowing my feelings I fear I may never tell him. The pulse is there and very slow. I know not how to save him or how to help him. This may be my last chance to be with him, so I lay by his side and hold him to my body. His limp form is still hard with muscle gained from working hard. I’ve always admired his form, his silhouette, as he would work in his shop. His arms would ripple with the strain of his hammer being thrown onto the metal over and over.
The tears that swelled my eyes have now fallen, streaming in rivers down my flushed skin. I don’t know why I’m crying but this desperate sadness overwhelms me. This may be it, forever. His silent face tells me nothing but I pull it close, kissing the lifeless lips in out first kiss that may be our last. My mouth pressed to his as I wept and willed him to stay with me. In a moment before I pulled away, I felt his lips move under mine and they opened, his tongue searching in my mouth. I opened my eyes to look in his, awake and… alive. In a fit of joy, I threw my arms around him as my tears continued to flow. Our embrace ended slowly, with me gasping for breath when our lips separated.
“Why do you cry, my lady?” he asked as he wiped my face this his thumbs.
“I thought you were dead. I-I thought I’d never see you again.”
He smiled and it looked slightly strained, but his deep voice was soothing. “I’d never leave you without saying goodbye. And even when that day comes, no heaven would be as sweet as the embrace of your arms and your lips.”
“I’ve waited so many years for you to say that to me.”
He pulled me closer to his body, very much alive and throbbing as he pressed against me. “And I’ve waited years more to say them.”
He pushed my body onto the wet sand and kissed me once more, almost as if gaining energy from out joined lips and holding me tighter and closer with each passing moment. He crushed his hips closer to me and I felt the thrust of his pelvis onto mine, stirring new things deep inside me.
In the back of my head, my emotions were going mad into the frenzy of confusion. One part of me is panicking, feeling emotions and thrilling things in places I didn’t even know could be thrilled. I know I’ve never been with a man and I became scared that he would want to be with me. But I didn’t know the first thing to do! What do I do? How do I act? I have this unfamiliar drive to satisfy him and do whatever I can. I grind my body to his and I hear a moan escape his lips. In answer he moves his kisses to my neck and bites, kisses, delights and licks the delicate flesh that has never gotten this kind of treatment before.
Now the other part of me kicks in. This part is much lower in my body and hungry. It wants these kisses from his lips and it wants to feel his bare skin under my fingers pull and break from my nails. I felt an emptiness deep inside that I know he can fill.
When he pulls my camisole over my shoulder, a little panic grows to a grown up panic and I hesitate my body from his. He must have felt my tension because he stopped his oral assault on my body and took his glorious gaze to mine, searching.
“What is distressing you, love? Tell me and I’ll take care in what you need.”
Another wave took over our bodies and washed my camisole up my front, revealing my stomach and the bottom of my bare breasts. I feel the sweet sea breeze trail over my damp flesh and color sprang to my cheeks. He noticed and smiled, a cocky mouth turned in expression.
“Your modesty, my heart, shows your innocence. You have never been with a man before?”
I shake my head and say no in a panic again. “Are you angry with me?”
He laughed and kissed my frown. “On the contrary, I am delighted. No man has had the pleasure of sharing your body or your heart and I would be honored if you le that be me.”
His wet fingertips slowly grazed my cheek and rested on my shoulder. A yearning inside me wants him to go lower and touch my body anywhere he can find.
He whispered to me, “I almost lost you forever and the thought of not having you right now is pure torture.”
The idea of him being as frustrated and full of need as I am made me secretly delighted. With a new found boldness I took the bottom of the tattered cloth covering my chest and took it over my head, revealing my naked torso for the first time to a man.