Eventually, my mouth found those rosy nipples, pushing aside the thick hair with the tip of my nose and nuzzling her breasts. One hand continued to massage the inside of her thighs and although she spread her legs, I didn’t yet enter her. My hand carressed each breast, my fingers gently tweaking her nipples in a soothing rhythm.
Only when I felt her body completely relax did I unleash the storm of my passion upon her. She caught her breath as I penetrated her, driving hard into her depths. She instinctively rose to meet me and the effect was perhaps the most complete immersion into her body as was possible. Her feet wrapped around my back and my hands lifted her ass as I pumped into her. I wanted to drive out all the uncertainty, the grieving, and the pain. I wanted to possess her completely and for her to never doubt that she belonged to me.
The process had been excruciatingly slow and now I began to reward myself for the endurance. I ground my hips into her, rotating a bit with each thrust so as to slide along yet another wall of her woman’s cave. I could feel the explosion of her juices around me and as much as I wanted to do so in kind, I held back, continuing to pump into her.
I lifted her back, folding her against me so that her breasts slammed into my chest as her mound swallowed my balls. I just couldn’t seem to get close enough, warm enough, intimate enough for it to ever become enough.
In one smooth motion, I flipped her onto her tummy and hiked up her hips, pushing her legs apart so I could mount her like a sire. This was language she understood and instinctively responded to. She held very still, not wanting me to fall back and away from her. Over and over, I pumped her as quickly as I could. There was a ferocity building where the tenderness had once lived. I was claiming her. I would fill her and she would carry my seed within her; its heat and virility a message of love from my loins to her hot cave. She raised up and her hair slid over me, it’s silky texture inflamed me further until I could hold it back no longer. I exploded, within her and atop her; her bottom arching backward to revel in it and to keep the heat of my cock inside her. I found I could not move out of her and like two dogs, we were locked into that position until the pressure subsided and I was flaccid enough to pull out.
I collapsed to her side and she looked at me, her eyelids heavy with passion, her face rosy from the friction. I think we acknowledged silently that we’d never made love like that before. It felt more like a fusing of sword shaft to handle. Apart we were useless. Welded, we could not be vanquished.
I wrapped her in my arms and pulled a coverlet over us against the damp of the night. We slept.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Worth
I awoke early to the sound of the rigging clanging against the mast. I knew the wind had risen and gently woke Auggie and whispered, “Wind’s rising, let’s sail.” She nodded, although I think she would have gladly smothered me with a pillow.
I went topside, and indeed, the trees were swaying. The barometer was dropping and that meant heavy weather would be coming in, but, for now, it meant phenomenal sailing winds on a lake that was land-locked by steep hills and rarely saw these sustained, powerful breezes.
I partially ran up the mainsail, enough to catch the breeze and let it guide us out of the cove. I cranked up the anchor and we shot forward. I heard a curse from below and smiled. Evidently, Auggie had yet to recognize that this was a sailboat and not a rowboat.
She eventually appeared on deck, balancing a tray with two cups of coffee and two small bowls of scrambled eggs with shredded cheddar cheese peppered on top. “I thought bowls might be safer,” she said wryly in reference to the toppled plate lying broken below.
“A little trouble this morning?” I teased her.
“I would have been just fine if I’d had a little more sleep,” she grumbled playfully.
“Okay, sleepyhead. Message received. Eat your breakfast and then get to the back and take the wheel while I eat mine. The wind is rising nicely in advance of a storm and we want to take advantage of it.” She nodded and wolfed down her eggs and coffee. She scampered to the wheel and looked really excited to take her post. I laughed and snapped a picture of her; her hair blowing in the wind, her white shorts with a nautical navy and white striped cropped shirt fitting the setting perfectly. I wanted to take her then and there, but that would wait for later.
I showed her how to lean hard on the wheel so we could take advantage of the wind and move out of the cove. At one point, we were in deep enough water and I told her to put the keel down so we could come about. She looked at me, puzzled.
“To come about means that you have to steer so the wind is at your back, to fill the sails. Sometimes, especially in close quarters, you have to do what’s called tacking. That means you gain a little going in one direction and then come about and gain a bit more in a forty-five-degree angle from the first direction. Eventually, you can maneuver where the wind is fully at your back. On days like today, when the wind is due to a front, it can be wild and change direction without warning. You just have to be ready.”
I excused myself and went below to use the head and heard her screaming. I came bounding up and she had us heading directly into shore. I caught the wheel and turned it, showing her how to duck so we could come about. She was terrified, and I was sorry I’d left her without enough instruction to feel comfortable.
There was a flash and I looked to the west. The storm, it seemed, was much closer than I’d anticipated. Our view had been obscured by the large hills, and it was not a gradual darkening, but a sunshine to black wall transition. We were well into the lake at this point and I hurriedly looked for a cove where we could shelter until it passed. Auggie was at the wheel and I leapt forward to lower the sail.
The wind hit like a huge hand had slapped us aside. It caught the sail that was still open and the boat tipped to one side, almost lying flat on the water. I realized then that Auggie had not lowered the keel; there was no counterbalance to the wind-filled sail. I turned to tell her to do it and there was no one behind me. The wheel was spinning freely and I dropped everything to run and see where she’d gone overboard. The next blast of wind caught and the untended wheel spun, allowing the boom to swing freely, catching me in the back of the head.
***
I was dreaming of being in the shower with Auggie and how we’d made love again, just after having crawled from our bed. I had a headache and struggled to remember where I’d been the night before so I could guess how long this hangover would last.
It wasn’t a dream, though, and my head hurt because I’d been caught by the swinging boom. It all came back to me as the boat listed again in the storm. The rain was so dense I couldn’t see the shore and I began screaming Auggie’s name.