Island of Desire

"So I've been told," he said, then gracefully lowered himself to a kneeling position beside her, his legs folded under him.

He really is quite lovely. If he showed up back home, he'd have all the women drooling after him, once they got past the long hair and the tattoos.

And the fact that he's naked.

"So," he said, toying with the fringe of one of the cushions. "What was your childhood like?"

"Well, I was born in Chicago. But my parents moved us out to the suburbs once Connor was born..."

*****

"So you changed schools when your parents and sister died?" His voice was very soft.

It was maybe an hour later. They were lying down now, facing each other across a few inches of blanket-covered sand. As they talked about their childhoods, Brigid had done her best to ignore the joyful cries emanating from the other tent, and from the islanders' enthusiastic responses. But even so, she could feel the slow burn of desire heating her body, making her muscles feel loose and easy over her bones.

And the presence of such a fine male specimen wasn't helping, either.

She nodded, feeling her throat grow tight, as it did whenever her parents and Brenda were mentioned. "Connor...the kid's a genius, skipped a year when he was in grade school. But he was only nineteen. I wasn't going to let him run around on his own down there. With no one to look after him, he could have gotten into all sorts of trouble. I decided it was in his best interests that I transfer."

"This had nothing to do with your own needs, of course," Tahu said, his calm voice holding not a trace of sarcasm.

Her head jerked up, meeting his dark eyes. Not one of her boyfriends had ever made that connection on their own. Only Connor. And now Tahu.

His sister's a priestess, after all. Maybe she's not the only one in the family who is sensitive to others' emotions.

Her eyes welled with tears. "I had to be the strong one," she whispered. "Connor, he was just a kid. We had money from the insurance, but no one to look after us."

"It's not easy," Tahu's deep voice rumbled. She wanted to it wrap it around her like a warm, heavy blanket. "Especially when you have to be strong for both of you."

Brigid nodded, then suddenly broke down in quiet, wrenching sobs. Ashamed, she tried to hide her face. Instead, she found herself gathered within the circle of Tahu's arms, his hands slowly stroking her back, comforting her as one would a frightened kitten. She buried her head in the crook of his neck, giving vent to a grief nearly a decade old.

When she stopped at last, she felt clean, as hollow as an empty gourd. She was also aware of something more pressing. Pressing, in fact, into the skin of her belly. She drew back slightly to see what it was, and her eyes widened. "Oh, my," she said, impressed. While not as terrifyingly huge as his friend Burat, Tahu's cock was more than adequate.

Tahu looked down. "Sorry about that." His mouth twisted wryly, but he made no effort to cover himself. With what? His hand's not big enough, her mind put in. "The worst thing you can do to me is put a crying woman in my arms. My body thinks that the best way to make her feel better is to, well..."

"Make her feel...better?" she said suggestively, and he grinned.

"Exactly."

She set her hand on his shoulder. His muscles weren't bloated, like a steroid-using body-builder. Rather, they were the result of an outdoor life, good genes, and plenty of hard work.

"Make me feel better, Tahu," she said, and kissed him.

It was like kissing the sea, she decided later, when she was able to think. The slow, heavy beat of the ocean itself, calm and warm and placid, but with strength enough to overwhelm her, if she let it.

Before she knew it, her mouth was open, her tongue inviting his in wantonly. She curled a hand around a taut buttock, and pulled him in close to her, closing her eyes as his wonderful male heat pulsed against her stomach. She reached down and stroked it, from the wrinkled sac of his testes, up its hard, throbbing length, to the snug wrapping of his foreskin, and thence to the soft tip, leaking clear fluid in the orange light from the fires. He groaned as she touched him, and she smiled into his mouth, lifting one leg up and between his thighs. She stroked him sensually, loving the feel of his strong legs around hers.

His mouth left hers and dipped lower, seeking out the hollow of her throat. He licked her, strong and slow, his teeth nibbling at the fragile skin of her jaw, and she threw her head back. The motion arched her back, and brought one of her breasts within reach of his hand. As soon his hand cupped around it, her hand was on top of his, pressing it harder into her tit.

"Touch me," she gasped. Her body wanted him, needed him. Her nipple stood out high and taut on her breast, and when his thumb rubbed her sensitive aureolae, she felt a flood of heat between her legs. Unconsciously, her free hand crept down to her center, and she slid a finger between her folds, startled to find her clit already free of its hood, coated with her womanly dew. She shuddered as her finger stroked it.

"Oh, no," Tahu rumbled. With a move which was almost insulting in its ease, he rolled her onto her back. "Pleasing you tonight is my job, not yours. I would be a poor host to let you do what I could do as well. Or better," he finished, his teeth startlingly white in the dim tent as he grinned at her. Her heart caught at the unexpected expression, so different from his usual stoic demeanor, and she found her hand reaching down to caress his cheek, even as he kissed his way down her shaking belly and spread her thighs, his mouth opening to taste her.

"Gods!" The word was jerked out of her mouth as if by force as he covered her pussy with his mouth. And he did cover it, his mouth opened wide, almost as if she had a second mouth between her legs, and his job was to explore it as thoroughly as he had the one on her head. The heat was amazing. His lips encompassed the entire length of her slit, and his hot, darting tongue glided between her folds, teasing them open with ludicrous ease.

It was so unlike the uncertain, nervous fumblings of her past lovers she was tempted to laugh. Here was a man who knew what he was doing! And then all thought was driven out of her mind, as his lips and tongue found her throbbing nodule and went to work. Bolts of pleasure, like the flashes of lightning which presaged a tropical storm, blazed through her mind. The warm dampness between her legs quickened to a flood, her nether lips hot and slick and wet. She found her hands squeezing her breasts rhythmically, the firm mounds of flesh rising up around her clenching fingers like a pair of pink-topped mountains emerging from the seas. Tahu's hands stroked the tight skin of her belly, where her muscles jittered in the foremath of what promised to be a stupendous orgasm.

Helplessly, her hands went to her inner thighs, spreading them as wide as possible, easing his access. Encouraged, his tongue dipped deep into her, and she shook as he ran it up her dripping slit, finishing with a loving suckle on her bud. Over and over he did it, until her hands were fisted in his hair, slowing his movements to a crawl, as she savored the incredible sensations he was giving her.

"Hard," she muttered thickly, barely able to get the words out around the rising tide of lust and desire. "I want something hard. Get up here and turn over," she demanded, rising to a half-sitting position and hooking her hands under his shoulders. Agreeably he rose to meet her, and it came to her suddenly that she had never had a lover who was so focused on her pleasure.

I'll have to think about that later. But right now her mind was spinning with the desire, no, the need to come. And as good as doing it with Tahu's mouth would be, that wasn't what her body ached for. She wanted to feel his hardness between her legs.

Almost angrily, she pushed him down on the pillows, his eyes glinting up at her as he came to rest on his back. He seemed slightly amused, as if she and he both knew he was only allowing her to do this. That if he chose, she would be as helpless in his arms as a week-old puppy.

She straddled him, her legs on either side of his dark, muscular thighs. The pendant that Elenoa had given her swayed between them, swinging like a pendulum from its cord. Sinking down, she let his shaft rest within her cleft, his head tickling her button. She had to close her eyes, and then, with the slightest of movements, she began to pleasure herself with him, only her hips and thighs moving, her motions as slow and delicate as a rehearsing ballerina. Up and down his cock she danced, her swollen clit rubbing him, coating him with her juices. From his base, where her sensitive lips felt the crinkle of his wiry pubic hair, to his tip, then back again, she teased herself with the promise of pleasure to come, almost letting him slip inside her channel, then dancing away again.

"By the Three," he moaned, his hands on her hips, "you are better than I could have ever dreamed."

"We have some tricks back on the mainland," she smiled. She bent down to kiss him, her breasts rubbing against his chest, and she sighed into his mouth as his clever, work-roughened hands worshiped them.

Slowly, she felt the surge of her orgasm approaching. Steady but inevitable, like the tide creeping up a beach, answering the call of sun and moon and earth. Her strokes sped, her body pressing her clit down on his rod, almost using him as a sex-toy. She groaned into his mouth, and his hands tangled in her hair, holding her close.

With a mighty surge, her climax hit, slow and thunderous and amazingly pleasurable. The muscles in her belly and womb rippled with release, and her hips dropped, trapping Tahu's mighty phallus between their bodies, her groin rubbing at him frantically, trying to prolong her pleasure. Her hands clenched around his arms, and her shriek of release was thankfully muffled by her lover's mouth, accepting her pleasure with gentle joy.

When she came back to herself, after the white spots had cleared from her vision, she found she was lying on his body, her head pillowed on his shoulder. With a faint start of surprise, her hand found his spear still enthusiastically erect. She curled her fingers around it wonderingly, surprised at Tahu's self-control. Almost any other man, she knew, would have been making spoken or, if he was very polite, unspoken demands she make him come.

This man, however...

She kissed the corner of his mouth fondly, her hand slowly jacking his manhood. "That was...very nice," she said, feeling that words were inadequate for the wonderful orgasm. "Thank you."

His lips quirked, but he returned her kiss strongly. "I'm not used to be being used like a dildo," he said wryly. "But you seemed to like it. And I wasn't going to interrupt you."

"Wise choice." He was ready, she could tell. More than ready, even. "You're very good, you know. Most men would have shot their wad and made a mess before I was done."

"My sister taught me," he said, his voice going high and breathless as she pleasured him with her hands, "that if I always made sure my partner was happy, I'd never lack for lovers."

"A wise woman," she replied. Then, taking pity on him, she rose up. Her hand crept down, circled his girth, and aimed it at her cleft. Sighing in pleasure, she sank down, a low, guttural moan escaping her throat as she took him into her body.

"Nice. Very nice." He stretched her, but not to the point where it was painful. He filled her quite well, actually.

She rose and fell, now concentrating on Tahu. She caressed his strong chest with her hands, bending low to lick and nibble on the curves of his ear. In turn, he held her breasts in his hands, the feel of his callused fingers making her shiver. For the first time, he took her nipples into his mouth, laving them with his tongue, and the feeling made her sheath clutch down on his rod, eliciting groans from them both.

She smiled, dreamily content. It had been a long, long time since she had taken such prolonged joy from the act of lovemaking. With her previous boyfriends, it had all been hurry and rush. She received the impression that Tahu would be content to prolong the session all night and into the coming morning, if that was her wish.

Luckily for both of them, it was not. More quickly than she could have possibly imagined, she felt a second climax approaching, and she quickened her strokes, hoping to bring Tahu to his orgasm at the same time as hers. She bent over him, her knees digging into the soft blankets, her hands cupping his face as he nursed her breasts. His hands squeezed her sweat-covered mounds as her thighs slapped against his, the unmistakable sound of two happy, horny people rutting carrying out of the tent and onto the beach.

Brigid didn't care. For once in her life, she threw away her nagging concerns about what others thought. Her entire mind focused, laserlike, on the here and now. Here, with Tahu's throbbing cock, filling up her womanly core. Now, with his lips loving her body.

"Peara ma," he gasped, and his groin pushed upward, meeting her strokes powerfully. Through her haze of lust, she could sense his cock swelling, expanding, ready to deliver its load of life-bearing seed. As it did, he collapsed into the nest of blankets, groaning loudly as he filled her, his cock filling her with hot, wonderful come. She felt her mind expanding, swelling to encompass the islands. An unseen presence hovered at her side, with power enough to char her bones to ashes if She chose.

~Will you take my gift, Daughter?~

There was no choice. As her orgasm filled her to bursting, so wonderful she thought her body itself would shatter from the mind-wrenching joy of it, she screamed aloud.

"Yes. Yes! Yes! Bless me, my Lady! I am yours!"

~So be it.~

*****

"Don't take this the wrong way," she said some time later, between lazy kisses, "but I'm not in love with you."

Tahu chuckled like a miniature earthquake. "I'd be worried if you were. How long have you known me? Three days? Four?" His arms curled around her protectively. "It has been an honor to initiate you into our ways."

From the tent nearby a hoarse shout sounded, and she smiled, recognizing Connor's voice. Thankfully, the bitter jealousy she had felt earlier seemed drained away, lost in her sexual reawakening.

"It sounds like I'm not the only one who is enjoying herself tonight," she said lazily, cuddling in closer. Her lips traced the curve of his collarbone, and she smiled as she felt his cock twitch against her thigh. "What was it you called me, there at the end?"

"What?"

"You called me something." She groped for the phrase. "Pee-ar-oo ma?"

"Pearu ma. It means, 'white pearl.' When I saw you the first day, with your skin as white as milk in the sunshine, I thought a pearl had descended from heaven to live with us."

"Very romantic," she teased. "You do know how pearls are made, don't you?"

He snorted, but apparently chose not to be offended. "I have been fishing in these waters since I was four. Of course I know. The origin has nothing to do with the beauty of the finished product." His hands traced the length of her spine, then cupped the globes of her butt-cheeks, kneading softly. "Much like yourself."

"Really?" Absurdly, her eyes stung with tears. Really, Brigid. This is silly, that a man who you barely know can make you feel better loved than a man who you went out with for over a year! To disguise the sudden spate of emotion, she slipped down his body, her tongue bathing his chest, then the flat lines of his stomach. When she reached his groin she paused, his nostrils filling with the scent of their lovemaking. Her mouth watered, and she was suddenly hungry for the taste of him.

Opening wide, she took his limp phallus into her mouth, her tongue stroking his length. The taste was ambrosial, and as he grew, hardening under her strokes, she took an absurd pleasure in the feat.

She let his head slip out of his mouth.

"If you have enough pearls," she whispered, "you can make a necklace. Want to try?"

*****

When they emerged from the tent, it was nearly dawn. The fires had burned out, and only the pink and gold of imminent sunrise lit the beach. Barely a dozen of the islanders had managed to keep the vigil, and when Brigid and Tahu came out, the cheers of welcome had a hoarse, strained note, more in relief than in triumph.

Wearily, Tahu raised Brigid's arm in the air, then dropped it with an exhausted sigh. She bit back a grin as she saw how the muscles of his thighs trembled as he walked up the beach, obviously making for the home he still shared with his parents.

"So, plowman, how was the field?" came a merry voice. Squinting against the bright light, Brigid saw the form of Burat approaching Tahu, a pair of oars clutched in one huge hand. She guessed he was getting ready to paddle back to his home island, now that the ceremony was over.

Tahu's voice was pitched low, but the morning breeze brought it clearly to Brigid's ears, as surely as if her lover of the night before was standing beside her. "If she isn't the incarnation of Mahuika herself, then I'm a white man. When she decides that she's ready for you, she's hotter than Mokolia chili and wetter than Faumea's tears. And she couldn't get enough. I thought she was going to wear all the skin off my dick, man! The last time, she was between my legs, and she would. Not. Stop. Not until she had got me hard one last time so she could suck me dry."

He sighed morosely. "I think she's ruined me for other women."

"Huh? What do you mean? Ruined you how?"

Tahu drummed his fingers against his thigh, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was standing stark naked on the main street of the village. "Remember that game you had against Nakanonu three years ago?"

His lips curled. "Always."

"Has any game ever been as good since that day?"

"No."

"Exactly." He slapped his friend's shoulder and limped up the street, slowly passing beyond Brigid's view.

Part of Brigid knew she should be horrified, having a man discuss her sexual performance with another man as if it were a fit topic for conversation. Instead, she experienced a feeling of fierce pride, which almost served to burn away the bone-deep weariness inside her.

Ruined him for other women, did I?

Smiling, her steps quick and light as dancing sparks, she entered her home.

*****

It was early afternoon before she woke up. She smiled as she emerged into belated consciousness, her body filled with the lassitude of a night of enthusiastic love-making. How long had it been, she wondered idly, her hand dipping between her legs to amuse itself, since she had been able to give herself over wholly to the joys of the body? Had she ever?

She frowned as she heard a squeaking sound coming from outside her suite. Slipping out of bed, she opened the door to find Connor pushing a propane grill down the hallway.

"Connor..." Words failed her, especially when she saw the trail of flaking rust and other, less mentionable residue he was leaving behind him. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? Shaw had this stashed on his balcony. I guess he couldn't be bothered to share it with anyone. Well, screw that. I'm going to get this downstairs to the patio and I'm going to grill tonight."

"Uh-huh. And who's going to clean up the mess you're making?"

"I will." His jaw set stubbornly. "It's Sunday. Kalele and Pelika have the day off. Pelika left a note downstairs. I think she believes we can't survive on her own. Well, I'll show her." In the depths of his dark brown eyes, a hint of his old manic humor gleamed. "Shaw left lots of meat here. I have a couple pounds of hamburger thawing right now. And there's french fries in the freezer. And barbeque sauce in the pantry. And everything else I need." He gave a mocking half-bow. "When you get the chance, perhaps Your Radiance can requisition some basic supplies like seed potatoes and onions.