On The Beach

The tiny skiff bobbed over the choppy waters to the little island just as the evening sun was mid-way down the horizon. “Island” was really a misnomer as the area of land was a little les than a mile across in any direction. It was discovered only a few years back after undersea volcanic activity had pushed it above the deep waters of the Pacific. A scouting team from the Geological Survey had been there to map it, but since then it lay largely abandoned, apart from the vegetation that springs up like magic from the ashes of any volcanic eruption and a colony of birds that made the crevices in the land their temporary migratory homes.

Sunil had found out about the island from a new atlas that had been published recently – as was his habit, before visiting a place he always studied maps of the land he was going to (as well as any desolate or quiet places near it). Sunil was a man of lonely places, and wherever he was he seemed to need to find some sort of refuge or secret garden that he could escape to when he needed to restore a sense of balance to his mind. An avid spelunker, he had stopped off on the island on his second day in Oahu. Like everyone else, he didn’t see much of interest there, although he knew it could be a welcome refuge from the crowds and cities that plagued so much of the modern world, even in the Island Paradise of Hawaii.

He had been in Hawaii only three days so far, where he and his friend, Sujatha, had decided to take their annual vacation. Both liked traveling, but neither had ever met each other despite being friends for years via the Internet and Postal Services. This time they decided they were going to vacation together for a change.

Previously Sujatha would usually go with some of her friends or family together, whereas Sunil always headed for the odd-spots and out of the way places that weren’t thronged with a horde of tourists. But after discussing the idea with him, Sujatha convinced him that this was one place that they shouldn’t miss, even if it was a “tried and true” tourist destination.

They had set out for the islet about ten minutes ago, and the fires from the Luau that they had just attended were still visible behind them as the darkening waters parted for the tiny craft to make way through the surface of the ocean. The Luau had been entertaining and Sujatha had great fun there, although she knew Sunil was more interested than entertained, as he never seemed to fit in anywhere, even at a party where the champagne was flowing freely and there was a general atmosphere of gaiety.

He never seemed to be able to “let go” in the presence of others, was so reserved and quiet – in so much contrast to her own exuberant vibrancy and almost Zen-like ability to engage herself fully and completely in whatever she was doing. Often she wondered what he was thinking as he sat quietly observing his surroundings as she took in all the fun she could handle and then some. He just didn’t seem to be “there” a lot of the times, like he was locked up behind his eyes and couldn’t get out of the prison of his mind.

As the skiff approached the beachhead, Sunil touched Sujatha, who had been lulled to sleep, very gently on the shoulder and said “We’re here” softly. Although Sunil had a rather intimidating exterior, looking somewhat like a member of an outlaw biker gang, whenever he spoke to anyone, it was always in a very soft monotonic voice that tended to soothe others with its slowness and docility.

Sujatha had always noticed this about him. His very soul was gentleness and any attempts at argument or strife were usually quickly nipped in the bud by a very rapid, but silent withdrawal into himself. If there was going to be strife, he certainly wasn’t going to be a part of it! He always made that perfectly clear.

However, tonight was a night when no strife was possible. The moon was already out and the blood-red sun was just beginning to set as they got their things and made a little picnic from the makings of the luau they had nabbed before setting out to their secret place.

Sujatha spread the quilt out on the black sand that was common to all basaltic islands. Sunil thought that the sand matched quite nicely with Sujatha’s lovely black hair. He had longed to touch her hair when he had first met her, but as usual, held back . . . the scared little boy in him nicely masquerading as a gentleman as it always did. The black waves lapping up against the beach had a tranquilizing effect on the both of them. There seemed to be no need for words at the moment.

They set out their foodstuffs and Sujatha pulled the bottle of champagne out of her sac. They had brought some Styrofoam cups to pour it in, and Sujatha thought that this was rather funny – drinking first-classed champagne in the cheapest goblets available! Sunil poured her a cup of the bubbly and sat down beside her as they watched the waves together. They watched as the sun sank lower into the sea and the calm aura of night descended upon them.

“Wow, it’s really dark out here, isn’t it?” exclaimed Sujatha. “Yes, it is” Sunil replied. He loved that about her . . . they way she could say things like “wow!’ and really mean them. The child in her had not died. He hoped that it never would. This was something that he could never seem to do. Sunil grew up in a swamp region, and he was well used to the aloneness and darkness that being away from civilization for a time could produce. “I can light the lantern if you like?” he offered. “No thanks, I like it like this. It’s nicer if we can see the stars! Did you enjoy the luau?”

“Yeah, it was nice,” replied Sunil.

“Just nice?”

“Well, it was great because you were there. I love to see you having fun”.

“Sunil, tell me, why don’t you ever seem to get involved in parties with other people? It always seemed to me like you’re holding a lot back and can’t relax.”

Sunil digested this statement for a second or two then looked down at the beach and said, “I don’t know, I just can’t. I don’t try to be that way, it just comes naturally. Around other people, I just close up. I have always been that way. I don’t like it any more than you do”.

Sujatha replied, “I never said I didn’t like it, just that I wish I could see you having some fun instead of being so serious all of the time.”

“Well, I don’t know . . . just don’t trust other people much, so I sort of do whatever I can to become invisible and sort of fade away into the background, wherever I am. Everything I loved or learned, I did on my own . . . I had to build my own private universe when I was a child and I guess I never left it”.

Sujatha thought she heard an undercurrent of sadness in his reply, a sadness that never really ever left him she thought, but was more pronounced in the tenor of his reply, something he usually kept well-concealed. “What are you afraid of?” she asked.

“Well, it’s not any one thing, I guess. Getting hurt, being made fun of, enjoying something then losing it, stuff like that. If you get attached to someone and really like it, then they withdraw from you, your heart will break. That’s a feeling I don’t need to have”.

Sujatha drew closer to him and put her arm around his shoulders and rested her hair against him. She was silent for a while, then said, “You know, not everybody is like that. If you don’t feel, then how can you live?” She felt a wetness on her cheek and looked up and saw that he was crying softly. “HEY!” she said, “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad!”

“It’s OK, just when you live most of your life scared, you lose something, something important, and it hurts to see what you have lost. And you wonder if you can ever get it back again . . . and you know, it’s not the way I want to be . . . there’s a better way, but when you’re afraid of getting burned you withdraw like a turtle into a shell so that people can’t hurt you. That way you kill the disappointments before they ever occur”.

Sujatha kissed him on the forehead, and said softly, “There’s no reason for you to be scared with me. You know I care for you, I always have.”

“Yes, I know”, he said. “But sometimes it’s hard to snap out of a disguise that you wear all the time, you know? It’s like when you step into a room and someone smacks you in the face. You’re hurt the first time. Then you go into that room again and it happens again. You’re hurt again. But the third and fourth times, you expect it . . . you steel yourself up so that you’re expecting it. Then sooner or later, you become like that all the time, it’s like you’re wearing an emotional suit of armor so that you can’t be hurt anymore. And I think you won’t hurt me but I’m still scared. It’s hard to just take it off at will like a pair of clothes, you know?”

Sunil looked into Sujatha’s eyes. It looked as though she was about to cry. He could drown in those beautiful, dark eyes that looked as though they contained the whole world in them. She touched his hand and said “Trust me” softly. “OK, I’ll try” he said. “I love you” he then said, something he had said to her many times before in emails and letters.

Sujatha was still surprised. She had known many men, but never one as impenetrable as this, and she didn’t think that he would actually tell her in person. He continued, “I love who you are and what you are.” He looked down, but she grabbed his face and forced him to look at her. “Look at me” she said. “I want you, Sujatha. I want you forever. Your body, your heart, your soul, I want you to love me, I need you to love me, to take care of me even.”

He was crying again. “Sunil, I love you! You already have me! I am here with you, aren’t I? Not with any other guy. We’ve been friends for years, you’ve always stood by me, but I can’t love you unless you open your heart and let me in.” Sunil both loved and hated the way he felt. He had never felt such warm and tender feelings towards anyone before. But he knew this feeling was dangerous . . . very dangerous . . . it could often come before a rejection, something that he was all-too familiar with. He knew she was right, but it made him vulnerable and weak like a little child, unable to defend himself when the crash came.”

“I trust you”, he said. Those pools were eating him alive . . . he couldn’t look into her eyes and still keep his wall of defenses up. Something in this tiny lady just went to his core and struck at him. He realized that he had no defenses against her. She had said that she loved him and wouldn’t hurt him. He had to believe her and accept whatever consequences there were. He kissed her on the mouth, then buried his face in her beautiful tresses.

The fragrance filled his head like a drug, a peaceful nepenthe drowning away all the hurt and pain of a lifetime. It was impossible not to love this delicate flower of his openly. They sat that way for sometime in a loving embrace, like a god absolving his devotee and giving comfort to this hulk of a man who had been so badly bruised.

“Make love to me, Sunil. I want you! I need you!” she whispered to him. “Ok . . . uh, what do you want me to do exactly?” he asked. “Sunil!” she said, “Just love me! Do what comes naturally to you, and we can share it together. Whatever you feel is right, you do it! You lead me and I’ll guide you” she said.

They began French kissing . . . not really open mouthed kisses but a few short kisses with their tongues flickering into the others mouth occasionally, like playful little otters playing a game. “Sunil laughed. “See! I knew you could do it!” Sujatha said. “You can let go and have fun! So love me!”

Sunil kissed her lips gently and then slid down and kissed her on her throat. He made a line of small gentle kisses from her throat to her neck, where he nibbled on her neck. Sujatha began to squeal. He knew that she loved this from things she had told him before. She moaned softly into his ears . . . a sound he would remember for the rest of his life. He traced a line of kisses from her neck down to her shoulders and then over her arms. She trembled a little when he kissed the inside of her elbows . . . no one had ever kissed her there before, and she hadn’t known how sensitive this area could be!

He kissed her palm and made another line of kisses back up to her shoulder. Then he started on her anterior side, doing the same thing to her left arm. Tracing his mouth, very slowly and gently from her neck . . . oh! her neck! . . . down to her palms, leaving not one area of skin untouched. Sujatha just had a thought then, “This man isn’t just making love to me, he’s consuming me”. He was tasting all of her and making every cell of her body feel like a treasured jewel. Sujatha’s loins began to burn with the heat of passion as she became more excited.

She had never known a man to go so slow, and treat her with such exquisite care. Most of the men she had had before were the “Wham bam, thank you ma’am!” types. He wasn’t having sex with her -- he was making love to her whole body. A warm glow began to creep into her cells as she felt a type of whole-body arousal that she had never had before.

Sujatha began to kiss Sunil’s nipples, and he giggled. He hadn’t known that a man’s nipples were sensitive too! As she kissed his chest, Sunil began to caress her hair and kiss her eyes and the top of her head, before descending down slowly again to her earlobes and nibbling playfully at them. His tongue crept out and licked the back crevice of Sujatha’s ears. She could feel Sunil begin to stiffen like a board. “Come into me!” she said. Sunil just smiled and removed her bikini and began tracing a line of his hypnotic kisses down to the valley between her tiny breasts. He sucked at the nipples like he was a newborn baby, hungry for all that this lady had to give. He kissed the underside between her breasts and stomach which brought on an extra deluge of moans.

He kissed the centerline of her stomach down to her navel licking and kissing every inch of flesh, but didn’t continue into her bikini bottom. Sujatha wondered why. She soon found out! He toes! He was kissing her toes. He was suddenly gone from on top of her and was kissing her feet. “Oh!” she screeched as he kissed the dimple formed by her ankle bone and heel. He was finding all sort of new pleasurable spots that she had never known were there to be stimulated. She was soaking wet know, aching for him, but still he waited, making her clitoris ache with hunger. He started up from her feet on the underside of her calf, paying especial attention to the area behind the knee . . . another sensitive spot! She almost let out a scream when he kissed here there.

His lips traced a line of ecstasy up to her inner thighs, where he kissed very gently the hot flesh. Sujatha reached down to pull her bottoms down, but Sunil’s hands stopped her. He wasn’t finished yet. This was torture! He, as usual, making a point not to leave out any inch of her body, moved to her other foot, and began kissing and touching her toes and feet. When Sunil touched her right foot, she thought she was about to have an orgasm then. That would be a first! The world’s only woman who can have a foot-orgasm! But he was relentless, making his way ever slowly up to her sacred triangular region.

Sunil raised her legs gently and began kissing her vulva through the thin cloth that was her bathing suit. He could taste her sweet nectar and smell her lovely flowery essence through the cloth. Sujatha screamed a delighted scream. Finally Sunil slipped his fingers round her waist and gave her belly button another quick tongue kiss before gently easing her only remaining garment down. He placed the cloth next on the quilt then raised her legs in unison so that he could get to her sacred flower.

Sunil began licking her vaginal lips from top to bottom in a long slow motion, just like he was licking a delicious ice-cream cone. He began to kiss her nether lips, first lightly and then harder. Sunil began tracing letters of the alphabet on her yoni, seeing which strokes gave her the most pleasure and mentally making a note of each one. He slipped his tongue into her vagina and lapped up her sweet juices.

He penetrated with his tongue over and over again until Sujatha thought she could stand it no more. Then Sunil rolled his tongue into a U-shape and took her clitoris and began using his tongue as a sort of artificial vagina for her clitoris to fit into. He moved his tongue back and forth until she could stand it no more! Sujatha screamed “Oh, my god!” in a long shrieking howl, and then she pushed his head away for a minute as her clitoris became too sensitive to stand touch.

Sunil went and kissed her in the forehead before diving back down and giving her clitoris one more hard suck, almost painfully pleasurable He stuck his finger into her and scratched at a spot halfway between into her vagina and she felt an immense almost heavenly burst of new pleasure. She had heard of the G-Spot before, but always thought it was a myth. It wasn’t!

Then he was on top of her again. He said “I love you”, and entered into her. Their hips moving back and forward in unison, almost keeping time to the waves outside, Sunil emptied his seed into his only love. Sujatha lay panting and her heart beating hard as after her second orgasm she was totally spent. Sunil lay his head down on her chest to hear her woman’s heart beating. He loved that sound. The sound of life and love. He lay down next to her and they cuddled up and Sunil stroked her hair.

“You OK?” he asked. “Wonderful!” she said, then kissed her mouth. She could taste her own juices on his tongue and loved it. They lay bathing in the moonlight, naked under the stars of heaven for about half an hour, not talking, and not needing to. Sujatha turned over on her back to rest and Sunil took his gentle hands and began running her back. It felt so soothing! Up and down, very gently, the relaxation she felt was so deep that she did not notice when she drifted off of her cloud and off to sleep.

It was still dark when they awoke. Sunil was already awake. “Want to want to watch the sun rise with me?” Sunil asked. Sujatha smiled sweetly at him and went over and gave him a hug before sitting on his lap and watching the sun come up on this second day of April. They sat quietly watching the sun come up to light the world again.

“Wanna marry me?” Sunil suddenly asked. Sujatha closed her eyes before turning around into her man’s safe embrace and whispered softly “YES”.

It was going to be a great new day.