“I find that I rather enjoy lazing under God’s sky in the altogether.” Jane waded ankle-deep into the warm ocean. “How peculiar of me.” She was civilization’s poorest of flirts and fared no better in this insular world of salty air, palms, and beach grass. Measured honesty and feigned indifference were the best that she had to offer.

Wayne studied her profile as she gazed toward the horizon. He was no stranger to the female form, and while this one had, at best, an ordinary figure, she might have been considered comely had she judged herself that way. Perhaps any woman or every woman was pretty sans habits. When he realized that his shorts could no longer conceal his salacious thoughts, he sat upon the sand and hugged his knees.

“You seem to be comfortable with it,” he said.

“I should hope not too comfortable. What sort of lady would that make me?”

“Clothes may make a woman, but you carry yourself as a lady without them.”

Jane turned and blushed, not for the compliment but rather for her unladylike fancies. Wayne was too much of a gentleman, which added fuel to Jane’s infatuation, and so she chose to be blunt. “I’m enough of a lady to choose not to look below a gentleman’s waist. Strip away your modesty, as it means nothing here, and walk with me au naturel in the surf.”

The appearance of immodesty was more worrisome to him than a spurious cloak of modesty. Wayne calmed himself down, down, he thought, and left his shorts behind. He jogged nude past the beached boat that had brought them there and caught up to his fellow castaway.

Jane had kept her promise, as far as he could tell, as they meandered. The fact that their time alone together was limited weighed on her mind. As much as she wanted to take his hand, she chose to wait. Premature affection would upset her strategy.

“You needn’t worry,” Wayne assured her.

“Worry?”

“We will be rescued.”

She tried not to smile. “Thank you for your confidence.”

“Don’t get me wrong. It could be weeks.”

“Or days. I am not worried.”

“’Days?’ You are more of an optimist than I.”

Jane stopped to take in the horizon. “The sky and the sea,” she mused. “The sea and the shore.” The clear ocean swirled behind her calves as she walked farther out, up to her knees, and she eventually replied. “It’s just a feeling I have. I wouldn’t object if it took months.”

~~~

Wayne had met Jane before, more than a few times, and vaguely remembered her after she reminded him of her name. “Am I early? Where is everyone?” she asked after greeting him on the dock. Wayne pointed at the boat chugging toward the distant, fog-bound private island. “Why am I always late?” she lamented. “Do you know if there will be another boat?”

Wayne re-read the card in his hand. “What does your invitation say?” Jane took hers out of her purse and handed it to him. “Right. Nine o’clock pickup. I was here before then, and you were only a few minutes late. I can’t believe I missed it.”

“Well, there must be somebody here who would ferry us.” Jane’s flat sandals clapped against the dock as she skipped from boat to boat. “Yoo-hoo!” she cried. “Ahoy! Excuse me!”

Wayne stayed put, unsure whether he should distance himself from the scampering woman, when someone finally responded to a more insistent, “You! You there!”

A man wearing a scruffy captain’s cap snapped at her to pipe down. Then he turned toward Jane’s hopeful face and glanced toward her companion. “Humph.”

“Sir? We hope you can help us.” She explained their predicament while Wayne, his protective nature overcoming his embarrassment, stood by her. “I have money,” she said.

The captain named his price, Jane looked deep into her purse, and Wayne countered at half the amount.

“Yer lucky I ain’t got nothin’ better to do.” He slipped on a sun-bleached life vest and started the engine while Wayne helped Jane on board.

“What’s your name, sir?” she shouted over the engine and against the wind.

“Smith!” he said with a laugh.

“Thank you, Captain Smith!”

The old boat was slower than the missed shuttle, and Wayne let his mind wander. Smith took advantage and gradually veered off course until neither the shore nor their island destination was visible. Eventually, Wayne looked out and asked where they were.

“Between here and there.”

Wayne twisted and turned, and saw nothing but open water. “What is this? Take us back!”

“Well, now, that ain’t gonna happen until we renegotiate my fee,” Smith said and locked the steering wheel into place.

The men threatened and closed in on one another while Jane anxiously watched. Suddenly, she lunged toward Captain Smith, shouting that he had a gun. Smith fell overboard, pulling Jane in after him. She clung onto the side of the boat with one hand, screaming for help, until Wayne could haul her back in.

Jane shivered in Wayne’s arms as the unattended boat sped away from the bobbing Captain Smith. “Will you be okay?” he asked as he draped his jacket around her shoulders. “I have to turn us around.”

“No! Don’t!” She clung tighter and pleaded into the man’s questioning eyes. “I’m scared.”

“We can’t leave him.” Wayne made sure that the woman was secure and gripped the boat’s wheel. He pounded it in frustration when it wouldn’t turn, and by the time he could turn off the engine, Smith had become a barely visible dot in the waves. “I have no experience with boats like this. Once I figure out how to unlock the wheel, we’ll go back.”

“He has a gun.”

Wayne had been looking right at the captain, but didn’t see any weapons in his hands. “If he had one, it’s gone now.”

Then, before they could see it, they heard the far-off whine of another boat’s engine. A small, speedy craft circled the spot where Smith was, and stopped. Wayne waved and shouted at them for assistance and, after a moment’s hesitation, Jane did too. No heed was given, and the other boat raced away.

“Damn it!” he exclaimed, and then apologized for his curse. Once he released the wheel’s lock, Wayne realized that he had lost his bearings. After a few false starts, he had the engine running but didn’t know where to go.

“What is it?” Jane asked.

“Did you happen to see where they went? Their direction?”

“Yes!” She pointed and said, “That way. I’m certain.”

~~~

Their boat ran aground a few yards offshore, thankfully undamaged despite Wayne’s clumsy attempts to beach it. They tried the boat’s radio once more, without a reply, before he secured the boat to a tree, and they explored the island. “This must be some sort of a naval outpost,” he declared when they saw a domed hut made of corrugated steel.

Inside, they found two bunks and one decrepit mattress, which they promptly dragged outside. The gun rack was empty, but there was fishing tackle by it. The radio was dead. Outside, there was a camouflage net awning on one side and a generator on the other. There was no fuel for it, and Wayne wondered whether the boat’s remaining fuel would be compatible, that is, if he had a way to transfer it.

“I think someone has been here recently,” he said.

“I don’t see how that can be. How can you tell?”

Wayne looked, then averted his eyes and apologized for looking. Jane had rejoined him, covered only in her undergarments.

“It is I who should apologize. Please don’t think ill of me,” she said. “My dress was very expensive, or, rather, expensive for me, and it is much too warm for the jacket you graciously offered.” Jane’s face colored red when his eyes scanned her body. “You said someone has been here?”

“These rations—most of the packages are covered with sea salt and dust, but these here are relatively clean.”

They had shelter, food, and water from a hand pump. The water ran clean after a few pulls of the handle, but Wayne insisted that they boil it before drinking.

Exploration of the small island didn’t take long, and they found no other evidence of humanity. Jane kept her amusement to herself over how uncomfortable Wayne was with her disrobed state. “I fear you are roasting,” she said. “You must be uncomfortable in your trousers and shirt. I promise not to tell anyone about you if you likewise promise for me.” She flashed a coy smile, and he stripped to his tank undershirt and boxers upon their return.

Jane swept the floor and organized the clutter, humming, while Wayne checked the small gas stove and lantern. “There’s plenty of wood for a fire outside, so we should save the gas for the lantern,” he said. “There’s only a partial can of white gas for them both.”

“We have more than that.”

“Really? Where? How would you know that?”

“Um, that’s what you’re talking about—that metal can? I’ve been puttering about, you see. Where were they?” She cheerfully presented two cans after a short search. “Here they are!”

“These are fresh. That and the new rations definitely mean that someone was here not long ago.”

“That’s good, then, isn’t it? Show me how to use the stove, and I’ll prepare something for us to eat.”

They slept next to one another on that first night, finding only one blanket to share. A ragged, braided rug, which they scrubbed with ocean sand and dried in the sun, was scarcely wide enough for two, but was better than sleeping on the floor.

Wayne watched as Jane, dimly lit by moonlight through the hut’s window, removed her top. She lay beside him, facing away. “I hope that you don’t object,” she said. “I am not comfortable sleeping in a brassiere, and I expect that sleep will come with some difficulty tonight.” Wayne assured her that he was fine and silently agreed.

They spooned, at times, in their intermittent slumber. Wayne turned away when he needed to, hoping to save her from his body’s reflexive reaction to her presence. Jane snuggled closer when she could get away with it, happy with his nestling, prominent manhood, and amazed at how often she would find it that way.

The next day, they gathered wood and foraged for edible flora, and small talk grew into increasingly comfortable conversation. Their nudity quickly became the norm, and while Wayne needed fewer cooling-down swims, he still sought an opportunity for a solitary escape. Jane felt the pressure as well, but reveled in it, wishing that she could put her desires on display the way that a man could.

She washed the hut’s floors and laid flat stones outside the door to lessen the sand tracked indoors. He fiddled unsuccessfully with the generator and built a tepee of driftwood for the night’s signal fire. Wayne received no responses to his radioed SOS calls, and he wondered to himself whether the fire was worth lighting if no one would be close enough to radio.

Very late that night, or perhaps very early the next morning, Wayne opened his eyes.

“Are you awake?” Jane asked, staring at him.

“Yes. Are you okay?”

“Yes. I didn’t know, before tonight—I didn’t know that people opened their eyes sometimes while they slept.” She smiled a little and sighed. “I wanted to be sure you weren’t still asleep.” Without breaking her gaze, Jane slowly wrapped her hand around his phallus and tenderly kneaded it. “This was erect, earlier.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jane’s squeeze kept him from leaving. “No. I’m glad that I made you feel that way. I’m glad that I still do. I like you.” Her chest rose and fell higher with every stroke, faster with every stroke, as his cock quickly rose higher and got harder with every stroke. His eyes closed, and he enjoyed her soft touch. He needed this.

“Did you hear me?”

“Hmm?”

“I said that I like you.”

“Hmm, I like you too.”

Jane radiated confidence that exceeded her experience while she affectionately manipulated him. “Your eyes,” she cooed, and waited for him to open them. “I find such kindness in your eyes. Truly, this is not the way I am. I blame your virility, but never you, and I blame my weakness.”

Wayne’s shuddering moans telegraphed his orgasm, but its leading spurt still surprised Jane, who gasped and let go of his cock. She was astonished by the height and volume of her reward, and proudly tugged him again before his second load could splash land, and repeatedly again until he was emptied and too sensitive for her to continue.

He draped his arm over his eyes and caught his breath. Jane stared at his retreating cock as if it was broken, feeling guilty because she was the one who broke it. She rolled away, tucking the blanket close behind her, and covered her sex with her clean hand.

“Jane, I don’t know what to say.”

“Say nothing. Good night.” She flinched when he touched her shoulder.

“That was an intimate gesture. Although unexpected, it was appreciated.”

Jane dipped a finger up, between her parted labia, and up, not for the first time, of course, not that she would admit it. She was wet—untouched and yet wet. The sweet, musky aroma of his ejaculate melded with the smell of her depravity, and she easily added a second finger.

Otherwise, she lay still, lest he know.

“I should feel shame, but I do not. Did I do well?” She could sense his smile from behind, and it pleased her, as her fingers pleased her.

“Very well, indeed.”

She broke the silence that followed, fearing that he might discover the devilish goings-on under the privacy of their blanket. “You should know that I have never been wed, but I have known a man.”

“Your business is not mine.”

“Let me finish.” She was close to finishing. “He was unkind. You are the opposite of that. You are amiable and sympathetic. I like you, your walk, your words, your touch, tender and compassionate upon my shoulder, your very manliness…” Jane lost her voice upon her release, the trembling of which Wayne mistook for sobs.

“I should leave you to compose yourself,” he said. “I’ll wash and tend to the signal fire. Then we will rest and sleep together.”

~~~

Their day began hushed beyond their good mornings, because social intercourse did not need to include what happened in the dark. She arose first and chose to remain naked when she did, which permitted him to do the same. Nudity yielded to practicality when she cooked, and she wore his shirt backwards when she did.

They found a battery with a hand crank stowed near the hut’s radio, but that did them no more good than the radio on the boat. They filled their day by swimming and fishing, condemning the sand and becoming familiar with one another. They fretted at times about their rescue.

They supped on fish that evening and watched the sun set. Both were afraid of what the other would think if it was they who suggested that it was time for bed. “Sleep,” was the way Wayne finally phrased it. “It is late, and we should sleep.”

They lay back to back, not sleeping, until Jane shifted over onto her belly. After a moment and unseen, she slipped her hand underneath her prone body.

Not asleep.

Performing slumber, she sought his foot with hers. Wayne rolled toward her and thought long and hard about his role as a gentleman, and while he did, he caressed her smooth buttocks.

“I like that.” She was not facing him when she spoke, and her voice startled him. She opened her legs, only enough to be lady-like, to allow his hands to roam to the backs of her thighs, inside her thighs, and his hand dipped below to meet her awaiting fingers. She spread her knees wide and lifted herself a bit, enough, she reckoned, and said toward the wall in the darkness, “You may take me.”

Wayne pulled away the blanket and Jane held her breath as he climbed onto her back and glided his cock along her open palm. She guided it inside with a long, breathy moan. “Yes, like that,” she said. “Take me, as I take you.”

The sensation of the man’s hot iron was more exquisite than she had ever imagined, and she rewarded every thrust with the lay of her speechless voice. Jane’s short hairs tickled the open hand cupping her mound. She could feel his cock through her walls, pressing against her hand, and she dragged her fingernails along its engaging and retreating length.

They say to watch the quiet ones. The not-so-quiet woman’s cunt choked his shaft with its grip, clawing it back when he pulled back, and fighting it when he forced it in again. The position she had chosen to mate was as singular as she, and he fought for advantage as she struggled beneath him. He surrendered only his seed, and he felt, perhaps, that they had both won.

They rolled apart and then together. Jane rested, situated so that he couldn’t see her watch his thing as its veins submerged, and it rested.

“I should bathe,” he said. “Would you join me?”

~~~

Jane threaded a plucked flower into her hair as they strolled across their island long after sunrise. “You wear a beard well. Might you keep it?”

“I would not miss shaving, certainly.”

“I want you to keep it when we go home.”

“These days were not what I had expected when I was given the invitation. If I am to be honest, I was surprised to have received one.”

Jane snaked her fingers between his. “We have yet to kiss. You have never kissed me.” She faced him, impassive, and took his other hand. After a short beat, she stepped and they touched bodies.

And he kissed her.

“That was more respectful than I deserve,” she said. “We are unwed and unclothed. Kiss me as if I were beautiful.” She threw her arms over his neck. “Kiss me as if I were not the only woman on the island.”

And she kissed him.

“What would well-mannered society think of us if they found us this way?” Jane brought herself down to her knees and prompted Wayne to join her. “We would be but savages to them, savages of the isle to be observed as we rut.”

She lowered his back onto the warm sand and straddled him. “See me,” she whispered, grinding her private parts against his. “Do you take me?” Jane made a show of sighing and shuddering as she took him in.

Jane was plainly not the meek woman whose acquaintance Wayne had met on the mainland—submissive by word and behavior, yet assertive in carnal deeds. He might have pondered on how contrary that was, had his cock not been so wetted and warm.

“Take me,” she said, and she moaned. With her palms on his chest, she writhed on his lap. “I take you. I do,” she cried, sheathing and unsheathing his sword. “Oh, God, I take you, before God I take thee, I do, I do, oh God!”

Jane was beautiful when she climaxed, he thought, and he realized he had never seen her before when she did—if she did. She bowed her head after that, and he thrust upward until she again reached her peak, and he joined her. She collapsed silently onto his chest and kept him and his seed inside for as long as she could. As much as her heart wanted to be heard, it was not yet time to speak of love.

“I could do this for the rest of my life,” she said, and they did for the rest of their time on the island.

~~~

“Nobody had reported us as missing until yesterday? What became of the captain of the boat we chartered? We saw him being taken from the sea, and that was five days ago.” Jane stood close to Wayne on the Coast Guard craft that had rescued them, as he talked with its captain.

“We came looking for you right after we received a call about a lost couple and their boat. You were smart to radio us when you saw us. It’s a big ocean, and you were as lucky to see us as you were to find the island.”

Wayne repeated their story in detail, emphasizing that it was not his boat, and showed their invitations as proof. Jane interjected only to be sure the authorities knew that Smith had a gun. “We were to be ferried to a soiree at my employer’s private island. Did no one report when we failed to arrive?”

“I don’t know of any ‘Captain Smith.’ We’ll find who the boat’s owner is once we return to the station. I’m sorry, but no, nobody reported you by name. The man who called us was vague and wouldn’t identify himself. Honestly, we thought it was a hoax.”

Jane clung tightly to Wayne’s arm as the former castaways waited by the busy docks for their transport into town. “What a tale we’ll have for our friends and family,” she exclaimed. “Of course, there is much that I will keep to myself, and I pray that as a gentleman you’ll do the same. Perhaps I shall write it all in a journal for our great-grandchildren to find. Should I be frank and tell all? How scandalous!”

Wayne was half listening as he squinted into the crowd. “Is that Smith? Jane, over there, is that Smith?”

“Oh, I don’t think so…”

“It is! You! Captain Smith!” Jane followed Wayne, but the man they saw lost himself in the crowd. “Damn!”

“My dear, does it matter? What he did was horrible, of course, but I think I would thank him in the end.”

Wayne had suspected that their separation might be difficult for her, but it was proving to be even more so. He was running break-up scenarios through his head when she placed his hand on her belly.

“It’s too soon to know for sure, but I’m hopeful, aren’t you?”