Storm-tossed Lovers

Christopher found Selina's home library and borrowed two books—"The Island of Dr. Moreau" by HG Wells and "The Firm" by another lawyer. After scanning both, he chose the shorter one, "The Island of Dr. Moreau," about a shipwrecked man who lands on an island of a madman experimenting with animals to make them human. It reminded him of the lengths to which biology could be stretched and the ethical issues that must be solved.

He read on the deck that morning. The wind gusted about him. On the beach, he saw small groups of walkers wearing billowing clothing and flapping jackets. Most of them wore shorts still, and he could appreciate their fine legs. The men were like Sandcastle, with tanned, blond-haired, sinewy muscles. The women kept their shorts as close to the top of their thigh as possible, letting as much of their long, slender, oiled, tight-kneed legs be on display as possible. Their long hair whipped like flags behind them as they walked. Christopher suspected that if the roiling clouds had not blocked the mid-day sun that these same women would have been exposing even more of their bodies. He had seen first-hand the liberating effect the beach had exerted on Elyse.

He heard a knock on the front door in the mid-afternoon. He ignored it initially but it continued insistently. When he went to see who might be intruding, he saw a tall police officer at the door. Dark shades covered his eyes. Red hair poked beneath his cap. He carried a toolbelt of weapons and communication equipment. He sported a red mustache.

Christopher opened the door, and the man removed his sunglasses and hat. His pale blue eyes demanded shade protection in this climate. He smiled a wide, bright smile with teeth that seemed a bit long even for such a tall man. "Hello?"

"I was looking for the owner, Selina. She asked me to investigate...well, I've found some of the things that were lost..."

"You must be Donovan," Christopher said. "Come in. I'm the owner of the truck that was broken into. I'm Christopher. Selina went shopping but I expect her back at any time."

Donovan came in but stood awkwardly in the foyer. He held in his hands a small box. "I didn't find much. No glasses—her sister lost her glasses—a woman's purse empty except for some mints and bits of makeup, and some papers. I'm afraid I've found no suitcases, clothing, credit cards or cash. I'd suggest that you contact your banks and cancel your cards. The biggest item was this stack of papers."

Christopher recognized the copy of Elyse's thesis that she had brought for Selina to read. It was somewhat damaged by rain, but most of it was still legible.

"I tried to read it but it makes no sense to me."

"Well, it's a doctoral thesis by Selina's sister. It deals with the brain chemistry involved with forming relationships—why some people fall in love, or think they do."

"Oh, I understood the science. I just didn't agree with the thesis. There is more to falling in love than the stimulation of points in the brain by chemical processes. She completely rules out the heart, or the soul, or the flash of love at first sight."

Christopher laughed. "Well, scientists measure what can be captured with statistics. Even Elyse hasn't found a way to quantify the heart or soul."

"That's a deficiency of science, not a proof that they don't exist. Right? Don't you agree?"

Who was this guy? He looked like a police officer but was arguing for love like a poet. When Christopher considered his argument, he realized that he leaned more toward the heart and soul descriptor of love than the biochemical. How else to describe the way Elyse had pulled him into her orbit without even trying?

"Thank you for bringing back our stuff. Would you like to stay and have a drink? Selina should be back soon."

"I appreciate your offer but I have to get back up north. Say hello to Selina for me." He held out his hand. "Christopher, was it?"

"Yes. Donovan, right?"

Outside the rain had begun and was being blown sideways by the increasing wind. The drops sounded like machine gun bullets against the side of Selina's house. Donovan held the door as he opened it to prevent the wind from smashing it open. As he opened the door, Selina, wet from the rain, ran up the steps.

"Thank you!" Selina held shopping bags over her head but it hadn't helped much. Her clothes were soaked. Drips formed under her on the foyer. When she saw that Donovan had opened the door for her, she smiled into his blue eyes. She lifted her lips so he could kiss her. Christopher felt an unreasoning tinge of jealousy at the touch of their lips.

"Donovan! So good to see you. You'll stay, won't you? It's becoming horrible out there."

He shook his head. "My captain needs me back at the station and responding to calls. The worse the weather, the stupider people seem to become. But I'll come back after the emergency is over. Promise."

Selina gave him a wet hug. He tipped his cap and tried to open the door again. This time, Elyse came bounding through, no less wet than Selina, dressed entirely in white. She bumped into Donovan.

"Sorry." She looked up and saw his blue eyes, mustache, reddish hair, and toothy smile. She smiled back.

"I'm Donovan."

"This is Elyse, my sister. You should go dry off, Elyse. Donovan was just leaving anyway."

Elyse paused, shook her short blond hair, spraying water droplets onto everyone. Only Donovan laughed. He turned to watch her as she went up the hallway and to her room. At the stairs, she stopped and pulled a handful of string bikinis from her shopping bags. "Too bad you have to leave. I could use a man's opinion on which of these to wear tonight."

"Hey!" Christopher said. Elyse rolled her eyes and jogged up the stairs. The rain increased in intensity outside.

"You probably should stay," Selina said. "It'll be safer here for a while."

"Let me check in first. I'm beginning to think you're right though."

Christopher thought about offering to drive him but figured that would leave the women alone in the storm. Donovan staying would have to be tolerated. After all, he was Selina's friend.

"Do you have a room I could use for privacy?"

"Use the study on the second floor."

Donovan jogged up the same stairway Elyse had used. Selina watched him go before turning to Christopher.

"Looks like the hurricane party's off," Christopher said.

"I wish. Sandcastle arranged to move everything to my place. Better hurricane protection."

The rain battered the sides of Selina's mansion. She found the control panel and powered the storm shutters to close off her house."The storm has arrived earlier than Sandcastle thought. He'll have to improvise."

Christopher and Selina climbed the stairs together. Christopher could hear Elyse's shower. Near the door of her bathroom, Donovan stood, his phone still in his ear. A small crack showed between the door and the door jamb. Donovan was checking Elyse out as she showered.

Selina ran to Donovan and pushed him hard enough that the tall man lost his balance. "What are you doing? That's my sister!"

"I was looking for the the study," he said from the hallway floor.

"Elyse! Do you think you could start closing the bathroom door completely from now on? You had another man checking your scrubbing technique."

"Visual stimuli. Men can't help themselves. It's biological, natural, probably uncontrollable. Was it Christopher again?"

"No! It was Donovan this time."

"Donovan? Hmm. Donovan."

"Just keep your door closed, please." Selina offered her hand to Donovan. "You. Get up. Make your call."

Donovan jumped up. "It's fine. The roads are impassable. I can stay here for a while longer, if you don't mind."

Selina sidled up to Donovan who pulled her closer. "Come here, Selina," he said. She sulked a little before allowing him to kiss her neck, her forehead, and finally, her lips. Donovan patted her backside as he left to find the study again, his phone still at his ear.

Christopher stood leaning against the hallway, watching the little performance of Selina and Donovan. There was a slight smile on his lips.

"What?" she said.

He shrugged.

"Well, listen to me. You need to give my sister the attention she is obviously craving. I hold you responsible if she distracts Donovan from me any more. Got it?"

"I'll do my best, Selina. She's not that responsive to me, in case you haven't noticed."

"You need to up your game. Try harder. If you need lessons in how to attract a woman, I can help you. But not when Donovan is around, okay? Or when Elyse is around."

"I don't need lessons, thank you." Christopher stomped down the hallway to his own room and slammed the door.

To Christopher's surprise, more than thirty people showed up for the hurricane party, most from the beach. He knew Sandcastle and recognized a few of the beach walkers but that left more than twenty people he did not know. It was not a problem for Selina, who greeted and welcomed everyone into her home. Elyse seemed to make friends quickly, too. Only Donovan and Christopher felt out of place as they sipped their drinks. The caterers had been unable to deliver the food, so only drinks were available for consumption. No one seemed to mind.

Outside the wind and rain roared as if incensed by the fact of the party, but the wind and the rain were unable to disrupt it. The party swirled on inside, the men in sports coats, except for Donovan and Christopher, and the women in short cocktail dresses. People danced to the outdated music of the Beach Boys, played ironically.

"Can I get you anything?" Selina asked both Christopher and Donovan. They both answered no. They both were waiting for the party to be over and they could spend some alone time with the two sisters.

Christopher found that he was a fair bartender, giving out the drinks that were ordered. Some of the guests played stump the bartender but he used Selina's tablet to look up the drinks he didn't know. So far, the internet was still working. The lights, though, were flashing, threatening to plunge the home into complete darkness every few minutes.

Two of the women Sandcastle had brought gravitated to the bar and stayed there. Christopher had seen them walking on the beach earlier that day. He recognized the long hair on each of them that had fluttered wildly in the breeze that morning. Up close, they were both gaunt, sere, and quiet. In their tight, short cocktail dresses, he could see how bony their legs and arms were. They were models, but it made him appreciate Elyse's shapely body and Selina's mature curves. These models had knees that were wider than the rest of their legs.

"Just soda," they ordered for their drinks. "Calories," they explained. They both had an unusual twist to their pronunciation. They had come from Bulgaria at Sandcastle's expense and spoke English with a peculiar lilt. Unable to pronounce the 'th' sound, substituting 'd' in dose words, dey spent much time wid deir heads togedder.

"Anodder one?" the blond whose hair reached her hips asked.

"Sure." Christoper twisted open a bottle of club soda, and half-filled her glass. "How about a little vodka? You won't even taste it."

The blond looked at her friend, a dark-haired duplicate of herself, inquiring for permission. The dark-haired girl tossed her hair over her shoulder and tucked it behind her ear before answering. "Just a liddle." She gave a hint of a smile. Christopher poured vodka for them both.

Within an hour, the models had downed half a dozen drinks and were bouncing against each other and the bar. The dark one, Mila, missed the barstool when she went to sit and had to be pulled up by the blond, Lala. They both stumbled to the bathroom to straighten themselves. When they came back, Mila had the hiccups, and Lala was wearing glasses.

"Let me know if you see Sandcastle. He don't like me to wear glasses, okay?"

Donovan stepped forward. "Cost you a kiss, but well worth it. I'm taller than the crowd and I can see him coming from across the room."

Lala wavered, ducked her head, then lifted her face to Donovan. "All right. One!"

Donovan pulled her into a bearhug, surprising her. She held her glasses in one hand and her blond hair in the other while her body was pressed against him. The kiss lasted a good thirty seconds. When he let up, Lala wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

"Dat was unexpected," she said to Christopher. "Could I have anodder drink?"

Mila held out her glass, too. "Do I got ta kiss for a drink, too?"

"Of course," said Donovan.

Mila leaned into the kiss. Donovan embraced her and pulled her close, his hands on her rear end, edging up her dress. She slipped her thin leg between his large thighs and tilted her head as she kissed him. Lala watched impassively.

Suddenly, the noise in the house stopped. The music had ended. The glasses were put down. Conversations stopped mid-sentence. Everyone was listening, and hearing nothing.

The wind and the rain had stopped.

Selina opened the door to the deck and her guests filed out. The wind was silent. The clouds moved without roaring. Waves on the gulf were doing their pyramidal dance in place. In the distance, a siren quavered. Debris littered the beach together with highway signs and broken palm trees.

Sandcastle observed his domain with a critical eye.

"Is it over?" Elyse asked.

Sandcastle shook his head. "No. This is the heart of the storm, the eye of the hurricane. This is the equipoise of the storm. It won't last but will resume with a vengeance."

Everyone waited, but did not know exactly what it was they were awaiting.

Sandcastle puffed on his pipe, took it out of his mouth, cleared it against Selina's railing. Then he shouted, "Do we risk it?"

The beach-goers shouted back, "Hell yeah!"

They began to shed their clothing and run to the gulf, tempting Mother Nature with their audacity. Mila and Lala shimmied out of their dresses, confirming what Christopher had suspected, that they were wearing no underclothing. Their hair flew light streamers behind them as they raced into the water, followed by Sandcastle, the other beach guests, and Donovan.

Christopher, Selina, and Elyse remained alone on the deck. The lights that illuminated the beach still worked although they flickered occasionally. The party-goers reached the surf, whooping and hollering. Some ran into the waves, others dove in, some waded carefully. They splashed each other, tackled one another. It was a playful time. Several of the members embraced and kissed each other. Donovan held Mila and Lala in each arm, and kissed them alternately as they squealed in feigned or real offense.

Christopher, Selina, and Elyse looked at each other. Who would strip off first? Of course, it was Elyse. She dropped the white shorts she was wearing and flung the halter off. She, too, wore nothing underneath.

"You shaved," Christopher said, staring at her naked mons. "Since last night, you shaved."

"My new swim suits required that I do shave. Now, are you coming or not?" Elyse slipped out of her sandals, the last pieces of clothing, and ran to the edge of the beach. Donovan was waiting for her. He pulled her forward into the cluster of himself and the two models.

Christopher watched her leave. He turned back to Selina and saw that she had stripped as well. She looked absolutely the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, even counting porno. She had breasts that were sun-darkened but full. Her areolae had been tautened by the open air and the exposure to view. Her shoulders were entirely smooth, inviting him to stroke them, bring her close. His eyes moved lower. She was shaved as closely as her sister. Elyse had seemed obscene in her exposure; Selina looked entirely natural, as though every woman should be so denuded. He loved her plush thighs, her narrow ankles, her muscled calves.

Christopher reached out to her hand. She grabbed his hand and held him from leaving. "Come inside," she said, "we can watch from the third floor sitting area." She pulled him inside and up the stairway until they were alone on the third floor.

Selina opened the hurricane shutters. She was right. He could see everyone frolicking. Donovan was pulling Elyse close to him, and she had her arms around his neck. The waves rocked them as they stood. The two models had made it to the beach where they collapsed in each other's arms on the beach.

"I need to be out there," he told Selina. She put a finger to his lips to hush him, and turned her body to be flush up against his. He felt her warmth against him and smelled her exotic fragrance. Intoxicating. His dick began to swell against her pillowy thigh.

"Sorry," he said.

"Don't be silly. What is it that Elyse always says? It's natural. It's biology. I know you want her, not me."

"You're beautiful, Selina, but you're not Elyse."

"You're going to lose her to lugs like Donovan if you don't up your game, Christopher. Okay?"

He nodded, unsure what she wanted from him.

Then she grabbed his balls with her left hand. He jumped but she held on.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of. From what I can tell, you're bigger than Donovan. Bigger than any man here except Todd, and he works in porn, so that doesn't count. You're huge, Christopher. Any woman would enjoy making love to you."

"Love is more than the size of a penis, though."

Selina sniffed. "Perhaps, but the size can be an asset. You've got an asset. Let's see what else we can do." She stepped back so he could see all of her, letting his cock waggle between them.

"Touch my breast."

"No! You're Elyse's sister. What if she ever found out? No."

Selina shrugged. She reached her hand out to Christopher's nipple and used her thumb and forefinger to tease it to erection. He moaned at her touch. His cock raised even higher.

"See? Do you feel it all the way down to your balls? I know you do. All men do. Women feel the same way. Do you like it?"

"Yes, oh, I do, yes."

"Now, repay the favor. Grab my breast."

Christopher stretched out his hand and glommed onto Selina's left boob. Its heaviness felt warm in his mitt.

"No," she said. "No woman likes to be grabbed like she was a bread dough."

"Some do," he protested.

"No. They don't." She took his hand, opened it, and guides his fingers to her stiff dark nipple. "Feel that? So do I. I want you to tease me, to make me want your touch on other parts of my body, to feel excited at your touch. Try it. Softer. Now a little harder. Let your fingers feel the nipple's resistance. Good. Good. Now the other one. Good. Very nice."

As she talked, she used her hands on his nipples as well. She demonstrated what she was talking about and he learned quickly, until they were both panting together. She dropped her hands and Christopher did likewise, immediately.

"Better, better. Now pull me closer. Good. I like the way your body feels against my body. What do you say?"

"I'm dying here."

"Enjoy it, Christopher. I know you want to fuck, but that's because you're inexperienced. One shouldn't jump to fucking too quickly. There are too many other pleasures that a man and a woman can share."

Christopher slipped his arms around her and his hands landed on her rounded behind. It quivered slightly under his touch.

"That's good. Now, touch me in front. Use one or two fingers, which ever you like. Touch me."

Christopher slid one hand from her behind and inserted it between them. He felt the heat of her pussy. Although her body looked smoothly shaved, he felt tiny stubbles as he approached her slit.

"Don't stop now, Christopher, that's just mean." She slipped one of her hands onto his penis, her thumb on the very tip, gently massaging the glans. "I'm trusting you not to come, Christopher. Can you stand it?"

He nodded but was glad he didn't have to swear not to come early. He slid his finger until he found her opening, warm like the water from a tub faucet.