“No, for what this is, a ‘bare boat’ charter, it’s a great price. But, I can’t handle it.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel about anything. My sexual urges were evaporating. My experiences in the water were ill-advised and illegal without proper scuba Certification. This wondrous setting left me with conflicted emotions. Diving was dangerous and I wasn’t properly prepared, yet I could not wait for tomorrow. Like a little kid on his birthday, that was how exciting it was becoming. On the other hand, Ally was becoming less exciting. Maybe the perfect moment was missed. And now it could be awkward to make a pass.

“On the other boat, they would never have gotten away with what they did to that shark, either,” Ally told me.

“What? You mean that was a real shark they caught?”

“Didn’t you hear them? In fact, they caught at least three sharks. They beat their heads in with a monkey wrench. Chopped them up right there.” She pointed down to the stern diving platform and scratched her arms and legs hard again. At the place she pointed to on the platform there were just bits and chips of garbage.

“I was asleep,” I said. “Heard lots of excitement, though. I wasn’t sure if it was a dream or they were joking around, drunk or what.”

“That wasn’t a dream.”

I nodded reverently. “Such a thing would not be allowed on The Rapture, you’re right. It would cause a fist fight.”

We both chuckled at the irony. She went back over to the ladder, as though preparing to descend and leave. This caught me by complete surprise.

“Anyway,” she said. “Thanks for talking to me.” She climbed over the ladder and down. Her face had almost dropped from my view when she added, “Oh, I’m probably getting off tomorrow. Have fun on your trip, though.”

She never used my name. She probably forgot it again and she was leaving now anyway. I didn’t care enough to remind her yet another time, so I replied, “Yeah. Take it easy, Ally.”

She disappeared, and did not seem disappointed at all, so I was right to conclude there was nothing between us. It’s amazing how wrong one could be about the intentions of the opposite sex. Good thing I didn’t bother feeling worse by trying to sleep with her.

But I reconsidered everything in a second, wondering how many times in my life I’d have a set-up this good. Even if she did reject me no one would ever know the difference, so there was nothing to lose by persisting. Chalk it up to experimentation. “Ally! Ally!” I called down. No response came. I considered calling her again, but said to myself, If she didn’t hear that she is ignoring me.

I heard a small splash over the side and hopped out of my chair.

“Come in. It’s nice,” Ally’s voice spoke from somewhere in the water. She was near the ladder, maybe she never went below at all. Was she naked, or did she just want to frustrate my urges some more?

I answered, “Okay,” and descended to the diving platform. Her top and t-shirt were there. Seeing them I felt a bulging erection and removed my trunks. The dick sprang up high and straight. “I hope you don’t mind,” I told her, letting her see what I was doing before jumping in. “Trunks aren’t too comfortable under the circumstances.”

“Not a problem,” she spoke from the dark water.

I stood above her, behind the railing, swelling with thoughts of her breasts and shapely thighs spreading around me. I slipped into the water next to her, going under and rising back up to the surface, then kissing my way up her feet, her knees, thighs. With my fingers I separated her from her suit bottom, but only halfway. She did the rest, and the bottom drifted away on the soft current.

“I don’t have a condom,” I said floating beside her nude body.

“Neither do I.” She laughed.

“I haven’t—”

“I haven’t either,” we both said at almost the same time.

She had a shy note in her voice. The bun atop her straight regal neck was wet, and she released the knot to let it soak completely.

“I just had a full physical for a government job,” I told her. “So, everything is okay, no diseases or anything like that.” I didn’t exactly lie; everything was okay except my drug test! “Do we have to worry about any sharks if they chopped up those fish last night?”

“The current’s cleaned it all out by now. I’m not sure what I’m doing…the truth is I haven’t had sex with anyone for three years. Not since my husband died. He was killed around here by some pirates.”

“Oh… My, God. I’m so sorry.”

“He was an oceanographer. We worked together. Now I just document the decay of these waters. At least I can do that.”

“Why was he killed?”

“Um, exposing corruption, officials paid off for illegal coral, overfishing, pollution, drugs. The usual.” Treading water with faster and faster breaths we naturally left out a few pronouns.

“What—no Weapons of Mass Destruction?” That made her smile.

Something plopped in the water nearby, and the moment’s distraction gave me a chance to pull closer to rub my hardness against her thighs and run my fingers through her tuft.

The moment was so conflicting. After such a sad story maybe we’d wind up comforting each other as friends instead of having sex. But she felt soft and sincere as we hugged.

She responded by holding me in return, our pairs of legs pedaling the water in an easy synchronized rhythm, floating both of us with much less effort than if we were apart. I believed she was completely willing and this was a safe encounter with or without a condom.

Ally whispered, “I knew you were outside my berth, when you were listening to me…” We stared at each other and both knew exactly what the other was thinking. “I didn’t mind you out there. I was surprised at myself.”

Her openness was blowing me away. “Maybe it’s just human nature, like looking at something you’re not supposed to be looking at.”

“I only minded when you crashed in.” She giggled.

“I should’ve knocked,” I whispered in her ear. “…like Joni told me,” I almost added but didn’t.

Then she went under and sucked my hard organ. On surfacing she said, “There, something to remember me by.” Waves brought us together again, me slipping inside of her, each of us with three-hundred and sixty degree access to the other person’s body. This was so perfect and unforced there could be nothing wrong about the moment regardless of what gods you did or did not worship. Changing positions was effortless. My dick felt different as she swiveled on it. We went slow, soft ocean waves doing most of the up and down pumping for us and spending a good long period like that. We kept going about three times longer than if we were in a bed.

I noticed a light darting across the sky at a tremendous speed and disappear, probably a shooting star. More of them appeared and went away like fireflies crisscrossing the night sky. I stayed inside Ally after coming as my member remained hard and she didn’t seem to want me out. It was amazing warmth and closeness. The lights in the sky that I thought were shooting stars seemed to return from the places they had disappeared into. They were brighter than other objects in the sky, and when I checked them closely they seemed to be in a circle around the horizon.

“UFO’s…” I pointed out.

“Mysterious government project. Very secret.” She sounded 100 percent serious.

“Could even be natural phenomena.” Ours was a mysterious and wonderful point in one corner of the world. That was also a serious thought. “I’m sure you’re right, though, new kinds of laser beams. Satellite-mounted.”

“Oh, that’s nothing, listen, there are definitely strange goings-on around these parts, not supernatural or science fiction. Unless you believe the native tales of horror that something crashed here thousands of years ago. Everything’s haunted by the spirit of whatever it was.”

“No, I don’t believe any of that stuff any more than I believe in UFO’s.” But, having said that, something sketchy was going on out there.

Thunder grumbled, and I felt a chill in the water. It was time for bed. So we boarded and kissed Good-night.

Before turning in Ally exchanged a lot of not-so-nice words with Gun about killing, the laws of nature and karma. She was terribly passionate about the environment. But she became so nasty to him it made me think twice about any relationship with her even after what we just did. Gun was his defiant old self. People like him considered the environment to be theirs.

***