Paradise

Quickly I gather my bikini bottoms from the floor, rescued at the last moment from the tide that swept away the remains of our bonfire. I step outside, feeling the brief scrap of fabric attempt to appease my modesty. The bra will have to be forgone, a victim of last night's dessert...but I'll adjust, and easily.

Grabbing a tube of sunblock I head for the beach, the warm waters of our lagoon whispering seductively in my ear. It's so beautiful here...so peaceful.

I watch as the minnows scatter before my glistening thighs, fleeing in panic from my massive invasion. I look up, scanning the surface of the water for a suitable destination...and then I see it. A large, flat slab of pink granite...something that has no earthly place here, in a lagoon in the South Pacific...but there it is, sitting in the center of our sheltered pool, dropped here by the hand of God, smoothed by the hand of the sea.

Tucking my tube of sunblock into my swimsuit, I dive into the warm, welcome arms of the lagoon and thrust my body through the still depths with long, hard strokes of my limbs. In no time I've reached my goal, the sun-warmed epicenter of out new world...glistening...inviting...serene.

I pause, scanning the beach for any sign that you have awakened... but no. Your sleep, when you finally allowed yourself the repose you had so completely earned, was deep and rumbling. I should let you rest. We have plans today...you'll need your strength.

I smile as I pull myself atop my granite dais, recalling the passion-filled night that has just passed. You were ardent, insatiable, your body giving and receiving pleasure until long after this island Paradise of ours had lost its hold on wakefulness. I flush...my body tingles yet. Your touch will remain with me for as long as the sea caresses the shore and beyond. We've reached new depths, you and I...grown closer...more intimate...more inextricably entwined. It feels good.

Gratefully, I lean back and feel the warmth of my stony bed warm my wet and chilled flesh, my toes dabbling childlike in the water below. I close my eyes against the glare of the tropical sun, and slip the tube of sunblock out of my bikini bottoms. Deftly, I unscrew the cap and fill my palm with the fragrant ointment, smoothing it sensuously over my breasts and abdomen, feeling the slippery comfort seep into my pores, teasing my flesh.

I gasp!

Something's grabbed my feet, dangling so vulnerably in the shallow water below! I start, rising on my elbows, shading my eyes from the sun.

"Hold still," you direct, "lay back."

I feel a tingle rise from my toes, my nipples forming hard peaks at the very sound of your voice...and I obey.

You stand, hip deep in the morning tide, your hands possessively grasping my ankles, your voice silent, yet holding me fast. A quick jerk, and I feel myself sliding forward, your body invading the space between my legs, my hair streaming out behind me across the wet, granite expanse I've left behind. I feel your hands sliding upward, circling my knees. Another jerk, and my buttocks teeter on the very edge, your wet thighs pressed against my intimate core.

You slip your fingers beneath the strings, tied so securely across my hips, and I feel a brief tug...a snap...and my bikini joins the anemonefish.

Silently, you lean forward, your naked and bulging sex grazing my own, your hands sliding hungrily over my oily breasts. Again I try to rise...to press my lips to yours, but once more you deny me the access that I so desire.

Your hand presses me downward, prone against my stony platform, your body retreats...lips trailing until your moist breath fills the space between my quivering thighs. A kiss...a lick, and then I feel you place my feet until my heels are tucked beneath my buttocks, my knees pointed skyward. Your hands caress the pale lining of my inner thighs. Then, parting them like the wings of a butterfly, you concentrate your attention on my dewy curls, inserting your thumbs to open my most intimate core to your gaze.

Softly, I moan, a slow flush creeping over my pale skin. I feel so exposed, so sensually invaded...so liquid beneath your intimate inspection.

You pin my thighs both to the right and to the left beneath your forearms, your head dipping, tongue extending until I begin to feel the first maddening assault of your lips within my private arena. I shiver as your tongue teases the hardening nub of my sex...flicking...caressing...calling forth the wet expression of my rising desire.

I whimper.

Maddeningly, I twine my fingers into your curling locks, my fingers trembling. I feel the torturing rasp of your facial hair as it chafes my tender flesh... pushing me to the very limit I can endure. My pulse quickens...a primitive cry rises in my throat, shattering the calm peace of our surroundings.

Quickly you plunge your hardened member within me, pushing me over the edge...driving me to the brink of insanity. Your hands pin my hips, holding me fast, your breath coming now in ragged gasps. I feel you shudder deep inside of me, your body thrusting beyond control...beyond the civilized front that you maintain so carefully. The hot gush of your seed fills me, drowning me, and I feel myself once more crying out your name amid the shifting tide.

You thrust again, your strong arms gathering me against you, your teeth pressed against the hollows of my throat as you moan something primitive, growling against my flesh...and then we collapse, side by side atop the granite stage of our passionate play...limp in each other's arms.

The warm water of the lagoon swirls about us...time passes. Once again we are earthbound, the shifting sand beneath our feet. Finally, knowing that time is fleeting we gather a basket of goodies and make our way up the mountainside toward the hot springs that were so alluringly promised on our arrival.

The stream, so wide at its delta, now narrows, grows warm, then steaming as we ascend the foothills. A velvet green moss begins to form on the surface of the rocks below, undisturbed in the pristine fullness of the Eden that surrounds them. The foliage begins to change, the landscape deepening to disguise the volcanic upheaval that was creation....peace amid the aftermath of violence.

Finally, we break free of the dense kauri and red cedar, the orchids and frangipani, into a clearing filled with the mists of a thousand years. We've arrived.

Donned only in my delicate native pareau, my wraparound skirt tied securely about my waist in floral abandon, I spread our blanket and settle beside the picnic basket to catch my breath. It's beautiful here...unspoiled...mystical. Wild parrots squawk furiously at our unwelcome intrusion, and giant ferns bend low to the ground as though listening to our every word. We can only visit here...it isn't ours...just a loan from Pele, the god of the volcano, but we accept gratefully.

A waterfall cascades carelessly from the cliffs high above, filling the pool before us with the fragrant heat of the island's glowing heart. It calls to us...lures us with its warm seduction until we can resist no longer. Finally, giving in to its siren song, I unknot the pareau from my hips, dropping it to the mossy ground at my feet, and dive headlong into its warm and soothing depths.

You pause...watching...preserving the vision behind half-closed lids, then slip from your clothing as well, joining me in this misty tapestry. The sound of the falls whispers in my ears, rumbling deep inside of me as I watch you cleave the water with strong, powerful strokes, your body parting the ripples in its passing. The warm, bubbling water swirls against my heated flesh...between my thighs... mimicing a lover's caress.

I stand, the water cascading over my shoulders, my breasts...flowing gently over the places that cry out for your touch. And then you're there...your body against mine...your hands seeking...finding...

Softly, I moan, but the sound is lost in the muted din of the swirling water that surrounds us. I feel your arms about me, lifting me, carrying me through the flowing, liquid curtain to the echoing chamber beyond...a place apart, warm and womb-like in its seductive embrace.

We've reversed the progress of time, you and I. We've escaped to a world that existed before we were told what was right or wrong...what was expected...accepted. The only law, the one that binds us...the only truth, that which we find in each other.

In the dim echo that surrounds us, I drift against the hard, lean strength of you, making of you a willing prisoner...captured in my embrace between my unrelenting thighs...burying you deep inside of me. You gasp at the depth of my hunger...my need...as my legs twine around your hips, moving in a graceful ballet for our eyes alone.

I release my grip on your neck, my upper body floating free, my hair drifting around me like something angelic. I feel your hands on my hips, drawing me against you like a rhythmic wave, keeping me from drifting into space. Your hand...your fingers explore the delicate hub of my being, and the world begins to spin out of control.

Once more you draw me upright, close against your hard, thrusting body as you press me against the mossy wall of our chamber...all civilized pretense lost in the primitive rumble that fills us. My cries echo around amid the vibration...so penetrating...so intimate. This is how it was meant to be I think as I feel the last of my reserve shatter...this is how my mind will preserve it for all eternity.

I feel your lips against my throat, your low moans filled with abandon as you plunge your body into mine one last time, your liquid heat filling me in a way that no fantasy ever could. Your lips cover mine, stealing my very breath...your eyes repeating the vows your body began.

I melt against you...around you...my senses adrift in the swirling mist that engulfs us. Being here is all that matters, I think as I feel you carry me to the shore once again. No, not being here, being with you...anywhere.

We spend the rest of the afternoon filling our hours with lunch, love and the fullness of life. Dark Beck's beer, roast beef and baby Swiss on Kaiser rolls, red skin potato salad, fresh mango and a Black Forest Torte vanish in short order. We talk...we laugh...we love, but all too soon it's time to go.

Slowly, we retrace our steps along the stream until the beach is once more in sight. Is it possible that we'll be in Papeete once again at this time tomorrow? It can't be...it can't...

Dim, unspoken thoughts haunt our last night beneath the clear, twinkling lights of heaven. We've found so much here...so much. So many promises, lost in the shuffle of the world we live in have been found in this place, preserved, awaiting our presence. Will they all be left behind when we go...abandoned...beyond our reach when we need them the most?

We watch in silence as the universe revolves around us...the hushed whisper of the island lulling us once more into its passionate embrace. We won't think of these things again this night...not this one. These haunts are for other times...other people. We won't waste the last of our precious moments pondering the plight of the world beyond. For us there is only here... and now.

Again and again we fill the night with our song until the stars have long since flown, giving way to another brilliant sunrise far across the shifting sea. Curled beneath the coverlet I feel you close behind me, your body warming the stillness between us, your arms wrapped protectively about my waist. I bask in the solid comfort of your voice whispering in my ear.

"How do I love thee..." you begin, the "song" so familiar and yet so precious.

I close my eyes as the words drift gently through my mind...warm memories of our first Christmas together. My lips part, willing the response I find so hard to give...the words I long to say...but once more I feel them die unborn, a victim of the silence that overshadows my being. I struggle...the need to "touch" you filling my very essence, and yet the mute isolation persists.

Someday...someday...

I turn to you, your gentle hands telling me that once again you understand, yet the tortured stillness continues. Why did God give me these feelings...this overwhelming love...then strike me dumb? The irony cries out in me once more. "How do I love thee...how do I love thee..."?

I fill the void with an act of tenderness...love...my sighs a pale substitute for the words that refuse to meet the light of day. We join, intimate and inseparable, two halves forming a perfect whole...a union both unique and timeless. The message is there...so near...so near...

We fill our last morning in Paradise giving...taking... sharing the beauty that lies between us, feeling the seconds tick away. Finally, passions quieted, we collect our physical baggage for the reluctant trip home. Our small seaplane will be arriving soon...Eden lost once again.

We stand on the lanai, watching the tiny dot on the horizon grow larger as the moments pass. The amphibian nears. Our respite here is almost over...our time of carefree innocence fading with the light of day.

"Do you know how much I love you?" you murmur softly, your voice a swirling caress deep inside of me, embracing places that no physical contact could ever reach.

I feel your arms enfold me, your body warm against my back, and the longing rises in me once more to whisper the words that seem to elude me, the confessions of love and truth that fill me each time I feel your hand in mine.

And then, like a miracle the heavens align, the words forming upon my lips as though they'd always been there waiting for this moment.

In a gentle torrent they begin to flow. "Did you know that sometimes I lay there at night just watching you sleep?" I ask, my voice soft with the rightness of what I'm finally able to say. "I reach out my hand, touch your shoulder and think...if I could compose the last minute of my life...I wouldn't change a thing."

I feel your lips graze my neck, trembling in a way that I've never felt before...but I can't stop now...not now...I must continue while the gods are smiling. "You're my first thought in the morning...my last thought at night. You're the answer to every prayer I've ever said...every wish I've ever had. Whenever I feel lost, all I have to do is look into your eyes, and I'm home again. My life began the day I met you."

It's your voice now that lies dormant within, lost in a maze of emotions that no words could express. I turn in your arms, my body cradled in your tender embrace, the gentle beat of your heart telling me all that I need to hear.

Silently, we stand on the lanai, watching the plane approach until the last minute fades away and out time to leave can be delayed no longer. With quiet efficiency, the pilot loads our baggage for the return home, smiling silently at the way you hold my hand...my heart.

The engines roar, and once again we find ourselves airborne. "Hard to leave Paradise, isn't it?" he comments as we break free of the calm waters of the lagoon and head northward toward Tahiti once more.

But he doesn't know...he couldn't. Paradise isn't a stretch of sand...not a place you visit. It's something you carry inside ...something pure and sheltered from the world beyond.

...and, if you're one of the very fortunate... something that you share.

I reach out and touch your hand, knowing that I'm not leaving Paradise behind. It's right here at my fingertips.

- The End -