Chapter 5 - Solomon
Stars were one of Jack’s most vivid recollections of Fiji. A night sky filled with more stars than there were grains of sand on the beach. Nowhere had he seen a sight to match it.
The native girl had come to visit him in the hospital, and the reunion caused tears to spill down her perfect cheeks. She told him her name was Karalaini, and he instantly thought it was the most beautiful name he’d ever heard.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she’d said. “I wasn’t sure if you’d make it.”
She stayed with him until dinner, calling a friend to take care of her clients. Talking and laughing with the handsome American seemed a much better way to spend the afternoon rather than trying to teach some pasty British kid to surf while he spent the time gawking at her rather than learning anything.
Jack and Karalaini talked about their families, Fiji, Ohio, Wyatt, surfing, sharks, music, food, and whether or not they could name any celebrities from their respective countries.
He loved her mouth, her wild hair, her sun-kissed skin. His shoulders and biceps drew her attention, as well as his accent, which sounded southern to her, despite his protestations to the contrary.
Nurses wanted to remove his bandages and clean his wound before dinner, so she bid him adieu. She leaned in for a hug, and although neither planned it, the hug became a kiss.
Awkwardly trying to figure how to embrace him as he lay prone with his leg elevated, her nose bumped his and their mouths were too close for either to help themselves. Two nurses watched as a quick peck became something more, and finally one of them cleared her throat lest Karalaini and Jack fire up a full-fledged make out session.
With a smirk, she withdrew and spun on her heels, exiting with a promise to return in the morning.
Jack only hoped that with all the activity happening below his waist, neither nurse would notice his erection as they tended to his wound.
* * *
Wyatt found a group of Oxford University students on holiday and he became a de facto member of their group, surfing, snorkeling, drinking, and otherwise enjoying the islands.
Jack’s days were spent flirting with Laini, as he’d taken to calling her. The afternoon he was finally released from the hospital, she helped him get settled in his hotel room for the final few days of his stay.
That evening, the two of them wound up on the beach, no mean feat with Jack struggling to use crutches on the sand and Laini at his side, giving him something against which to brace and keep his balance. He wore cargo shorts and a golf shirt. She’d worn a simple yellow sundress. He’d never forget the color of it against her skin.
They lay on towels staring up at that brilliant panorama of stars, holding hands and enjoying the ocean breeze, the crashing of waves, and distant rumbling of thunder somewhere out over the Pacific. The impending storm had driven people indoors, and they had the stretch of sand to themselves.
Jack propped himself up on an elbow and kissed Laini deeply, his hand first on her face and then sliding down to her neck and finally lower, just barely grazing a nipple, causing her to gasp into his mouth. She kissed him more fervently, and as his hand moved back up to cradle her face, she took his wrist in her hand and guided him back to her breast.
He palmed it, gently at first and then more roughly as her kisses became more aggressive. She tugged at his shirt, eager to touch the chest and arms she’d admired since helping to pull him from the ocean.
He surrendered it easily, tossing it away, and she bit his shoulder playfully and gave him a wicked grin. He wanted desperately to roll on top of her, to press against her, but his injury made such an encounter impossible.
Sensing his wishes, and his difficulty, Laini rose, letting the straps of her dress fall from her shoulders, exposing her breasts to him as she swung her leg across his hips and settled atop him, careful not to let any of her weight fall back onto his stitched-together thigh. She leaned forward, her hair spilling all around him, letting his mouth envelop her nipples one by one, making her whimper.
Their shared need was evident in his bulge and the way she ground against it.
“I’m not hurting you, am I?” she rasped into his ear.
“Just the opposite,” he assured her, his hands on her ass pulling her as tightly as he could to him. Her hips churned as they kissed and his hands explored her sleek flesh, running up and down her naked back. Suddenly, she stiffened, teeth sinking into his shoulder to keep from screaming as the climax took her.
His shorts and boxers were soaked with their combined fluids, and he growled into her ear.
“I need to be inside you.”
Four hands fumbled at his belt buckle as she rose off him just enough to allow his cock to spring free.
Her dress pooled around him as she descended, accepting his searing hot length, inch by inch. Thoughts of his wound, raindrops falling more frequently, their lack of a condom, and the fact that they may not ever see each other again after the next two days, were forgotten.
They made love before an audience of crashing waves and a trillion stars, her body melting into his. All his past conquests paled in comparison to her. Nothing had felt like Laini did, the liquid vise of her body threatening to pull him over the edge each second she writhed atop him. He struggled to control his breathing, to look past her and somehow count the stars, anything to prolong their ecstasy.
Lightning crashed down on the horizon, peals of thunder shaking the beach, and the once peaceful breeze rustling the palm fronds around them now causing the thick trees to sway.
Their eyes met amid the frenzy of the storm, soaked by the rain, and they shared an orgasm the fury of which neither could recall experiencing before. It was as if their bodies were trying to show the maelstrom that they could match its intensity, if only for a moment.
As the rain began in earnest, Laini and Jack surrendered the beach to the elements, shuffling back to the sanctuary of Jack’s hotel through the havoc of the storm. Arriving at the room, they discovered Wyatt and a guest, Suzy, one of the Oxford coeds.
Leaving the lovebirds to resume after the untimely interruption, Laini and Jack dined together. With the weather worsening, Laini excused herself to return home, to one of the smaller, “non-touristy” islands. She had young cousins who expected her in the morning, and if conditions didn’t change, there was no telling when she’d make it home. An uncle with a boat waited impatiently as the couple shared a kiss, promising to reunite the following afternoon.
Sadly, the reunion would never happen.
As Jack’s plane ascended into a welcome break in the clouds two days later, he scanned the islands below through eyes glistening with regret. Due to the storm, Laini had been unable to leave her island for two days, and the kiss on the dock had been their last.
He wanted nothing more than to leave Ohio behind, forget grad school, and remain in Fiji with Laini. Forever. But the real world beckoned, and she was destined to remain a memory, albeit a delicious, spectacular one.
A baby has a way of changing everyone’s plans.