Windswept Shores

by Janice Seagraves

  “Madre de Dios,” Chico cursed again as he crossed himself.

  Seth stepped out of the boat, using the ladder he had made. He seemed unsteady. He stood a foot taller than the men, even the white guy seem short. “Rack off, hairy legs.”

  The men, who all wore shorts, looked down at their legs, then back to Seth with quizzical expressions.

  The blond man snorted in a dismissive manner, glancing at Megan. “Your man looks like he’s gonna fall over. What’s he on, pot?”

  He’s still sick, dammit. She shook her head as she gazed back at Seth.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen, Limey. We’re gonna tear your boat apart, take anything of value. Then we’ll take turns raping your woman, when we’re done we’ll burn your boat. If we feel generous, we’ll let you live, savvy.” The three men snickered.

  Junior, the one holding her arm, ran an appreciative gaze over her body, but stared at her breasts the longest, licking his lips. “Nice papayas, chica.”

  Megan gave an involuntary shudder of revulsion while ice cold terror filled her stomach. She gave a long look at her lover, silently begging him to save her.

  For a moment Seth’s only response was a wiry flexed eyebrow. “Limey? Wrong island, mate. Mine’s a bit bigger.” He gazed at Megan. “I reckon Tai Chi is a martial art form.”

  She blinked rapidly as she tried to decipher what he said. Oh, no, he’s not going to help me? Waves of panic threatened to smother her. For moment she couldn’t breathe. Then Megan glanced to the one holding her arm, and in a flash, she realized what Seth had meant.

  Bracing herself to move fast with a maneuver she had practiced every morning, she snapped her wrist breaking the man’s hold on her arm. Then grabbing his forearm, twisted it while she hooked her other hand on his shoulder. Pivoting on her foot, she stuck out her leg and pulled until he tripped. He belly-flopped with an explosion of air from his lungs. She followed him down and yanked his arm until it was between his shoulder blades.

  “Jodienda puta,” Junior yelled, kicking his legs. One clipped her shoulder, cuffing her ear, hard.

  “Now is that nice?” Megan shoved his arm up higher. Anger infused her limbs. “Still want my fruit?” She grabbed a squishy plum from under her knee, smashing it into his face.

  “Let go of him, bitch.”

  Megan looked over her shoulder. With a startled gasp, she realized she was staring down the barrel of a gun the blond man held.

  Chico whipped out a switchblade, flipping it open, snickering. Her mouth went dry while her heart skipped a beat.

  In a move too quick for her to see, Seth punched Chico in the face. After a bone cracking noise, he went down. “Bloody hell, he’s got a hard head.” Seth shook his hand as he examined it for damage.

  “Damn, Seth, did you kill him?”

  “He better not have.” The gun swung in Seth’s direction.

  Megan snatched up the pomegranate from her discarded basket, throwing it with all her strength. It connected with the blond man’s hand and exploded. Bright red juice splattered all over his white shirt and face.

  “Ow. God dammit.” The gun fell as he cradled his hand.

  Seth quickly snatched it up with the knife from the unconscious man. “I reckon ya have two options,” Seth said with his lazily Australian draw. “Leave this place, and forget you ever laid eyes on it or us. Or I’ll turn me mean bird on ya.” He nodded in Megan’s direction. She promptly jerked Junior’s arm higher. He let out a blood-curdling scream. Part of Megan died, hearing the noise. But she carefully blanked her face of all emotion, trusting Seth to know what he was doing.

  “We’ll leave, if it’s all the same to you.” The blond man bent, taking Chico under the arms. As he lifted him up, his gaze never left Seth’s. His head jerked toward Megan. “What about Junior?”

  “If he’ll behave, I might feel generous and let him up,” Megan told him.

  “Misericordia,” Junior begged. “I’ll be good.”

  “Oh, yes, you will,” Megan hissed.

  “Si, si,” he agreed.

  Megan grabbed his shoulder, turning him over, but didn’t relinquish the hold on his arm. She jerked him upright and shoved him over to his companions. “Promise to never come back, or I’ll kick your ass again.”

  “Si, si.”

  “Head down toward your dinghy.” Seth waved the gun at them. Without looking down, he closed up the knife and put it in his pocket.

  They marched down the slope until they got close to the small boat. “Far enough.”

  “This is for threatening to rape me.” Megan pulled back like she did in Tai Chi and shoved Junior hard as she could. The men toppled down in a tangle of limbs.

  “Blimey, luv.”

  “The power of my chakras.” She smiled up at him.

  The men sorted themselves out, except for Chico who was still out cold.

  “I’ll get the rest of my men, bring guns, and then we’ll kill you both,” shouted the blond man as he got to his feet.

  “Now look here, mate, this here island is protected by a nasty earth spirit. If you step foot back ‘ere again, it’ll get you and yer men.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “No, he’s not,” Megan added, catching on. “It’s named El Diablo.”

  There was a snort and squeal, which seemed to echo down the beach.

  “Oh, look,” she glanced toward the noise, “here comes El Diablo now.”

  “Better run. He’s a mean one,” said Seth. “Eats dead bodies for tea, he does.”

  “I’ve seen it,” Megan said. “He gobbled up bodies washed up from a plane wreck. He has a taste for human flesh, and eats the souls of the living.”

  “What about you?” the blond asked.

  “He already had us.” She pulled her sarong down, showing her tummy tuck scar. “He takes it from here. Why do you think my man looks so bad? He ate his soul yesterday.”

  The men froze as they gazed toward the sound of pounding hooves, which got louder as it drew near. A look of horror spread across their faces.

  “El Diablo run—run,” screamed Junior as he tore-off to the dinghy.

  “Help me with Chico,” ordered the blond man, but Junior didn’t listen. He pushed the boat away from the shore.

  “Better hurry, El Diablo is in a bad mood today,” Megan told him, but had to turn her face away to keep from laughing.

  “Steady now, Megz,” Seth told her with a hand to her shoulder.

  “Junior, get back here.” The blond man waded into the surf, dragging his friend.

  “Sorry Hefe.” Junior jumped out and they dumped Chico into the boat, then threw themselves in.

  Another squeal, and the one-eyed pig dove into the water. The huge hog attempted to climb into the raft. The blond man used the paddle to keep the boar out. While Junior fought the old outboard motor, finally getting it started, they headed out. The swine swam behind them, snorting a challenge.

  The boar finally turned back, walked onto the beach, his cloven hooves cutting deeply into the wet sand. He shook off the water, then stared at Megan and Seth a long moment. Gave a satisfied grunt before trotting back the way he'd come.

  “I reckon he showed ‘em.” Seth smirked, pocketing the gun.

  “How did you know the one-eyed pig would show up?”

  He rubbed the back of his head while he gazed down at Megan a moment. “Didn’t, luv, I woke-up from a very strange dream.”

  They watched the pirates tie their dinghy and climb into their boat. Then the men flipped them off, yelling profanities.

  “You did?”

  “It were a walkabout in dreamtime. Me very own spiritual journey. The boar spoke to me, sounding like Bill.” Seth gave a one finger salute back to the pirates. “Weird, eh?”

  “You could have been hallucinating from the DT’s.”

  “Don’t know, luv.” He slipped an arm around her, but frowned. “Yer shaking?”

  “I-I was really frightened. I’ll be alright . . .
in a minute,” she said, but still felt the tremors traveling down her arms and legs. If I admit to how scared I was, I’ll bawl like a baby. “What did he say?” She wrapped an arm around Seth’s waist, giving him a brave smile, but blinked back tears.

  “Orright, luv, I’ll tell ya.” Seth wiped her face while he gave her a sympathetic smile in return. “Diablo said he reckoned it wasn’t my fault the spotted sow got hurt, and I was trying to help her. He forgave me for putting her out of her misery. He also gave us the right to live here. Megz, he said you were a very competent adversary, taking his eye and all. Then he told me to wake up, go save me woman, and be a man about it.”

  Megan arched an eyebrow. “Oh, really, be a man was it?”

  “Yes, but I reckon ya did most of the saving.”

  “Well, you certainly helped by telling me about Tai Chi. I didn’t even realize it was a martial art form until you mentioned it.”

  “What did you reckon it was?”

  “Exercise.”

  He laughed long and hard. “Let’s have a walkie, eh? I need to stretch me legs.”

  “Sure.”

  Seth kept his face turned toward the pirate ship. Megan realized he was keeping an eye on the men, making sure they weren’t trying to land somewhere else on the island and have another try at them. When their ship faded into the distance, he relaxed and his shoulders dropped. He smiled at her. “Gawd, it feels good to be out of the boat with the sun on me face again.”

  “It’s nice to be with you, too.” She smiled back, noting that his dove gray eyes were clear again.

  He led her over to a large log lying on the beach. “Step up here, luv.” When she did, he examined her knee. “Are you bleeding?”

  “No, it’s only fruit juice, I knelt on a plum and it stained my skin.”

  He picked up her wrist. “That dirty bastard bruised ya. Here’s an imprint of each of his fingers.”

  Megan gazed at his angry expression with some surprise. He had stayed so calm during the fight. “Hey, it’s okay. I smashed fruit into his face. I probably gave him a black eye and a sore arm.”

  “Megz, it shouldn’t have happened. I should have protected ya. They could have hurt ya so bad.”

  She cupped his face. “Don’t be hard on yourself, my darling. You were going through withdrawals. You were sick. You were there when it mattered, that’s what’s important. There is more to being a man than hitting. You have to know when to let the other person do what they can.”

  “I saw the fear in yer face, so I told ya the first thing that entered my head.” He gazed a long time into her eyes.

  She nodded. “It worked.”

  “Megz, if anything would have happened to ya, it would have killed me. I’m lost without you, love. Life without ya wouldn’t be worth the trouble.” He kissed her long and passionately, his rough whiskers scratching her face. When the kiss ended, he nuzzled her neck.

  “Tickles,” she said with a laugh.

  “I’ll shave later.” Pulling her bikini top to the side of each breast, he teased one nipple, then the other, until they were hard points. He reached down and moved her sarong to the side so he could cup her mound. “Ya ready for a naughty?”

  She looked around. “Out here?”

  “Megz, there is no one here but us.”

  “There-there were men here just a moment ago,” she sputtered.

  “They’re not ‘ere now, luv,” he told her with a twinkle in his eye. “With ya on that log, we can do it standing up.” Holding her by the hips, he thrust his pelvis against hers.

  Megan slapped his shoulder. “What am I going to do with you?” She couldn’t help but smile back.

  “Love me forever?” He pulled out a necklace from his pocket, and on the silver chain hung a piece of shell from the conch he found. It was now a polished, chunky heart shape with a showy pink and white swirl at its center.

  “Oh, it so pretty. I didn’t know you finished it.”

  “Not all me sleepless nights were from the DTs. I reckoned it for a surprise, and this seems a good a time as any.” He fastened it around her neck, where it hung between her bare breasts. Nuzzling her ear, he asked, “What’s your answer for me, Megz?”

  “I’m yours forever and always, my silly Aussie.”

  “Ace.” Seth tugged off her bottoms, so he could slip his hand between her thighs.

  It wasn’t long till she was moaning. “Oh, Seth, now, please.”

  “Right-o.” He dropped his shorts and fit himself inside her.

  Megan clung to Seth’s wide shoulders, but thought she would faint with the friction this new position brought. She shuddered into her climax. Seth groaned into his a moment later. They held each other to keep from falling down, while they remembered how to breathe.

  Seth grinned. “Want to go again?”

  “My legs are so weak, I can barely stand,” she complained with a smile.

  “Hold on, me luv.”

  She locked her arms behind his head. Seth cupped her ass, keeping himself inside of her. He turned to sit down on the log.

  “Oh, God, Seth, you’re in really deep.” She moved up a bit, wrapped her legs around him, so she could get into a better position.

  “My fault fer not doing ya more often.”

  Megan arched an eyebrow. “Is that a promise or a threat?”

  “Which would ya prefer?”

  With one hand behind his neck, she ran her thumb over his bottom lip, giving him an impish grin. Her heart felt so full, it was fit to burst. There are worse places to be, and worse people to be with. At least now I have someone who really adores me, and I him. With my letters sent off, my sons will know that I’m alright. As Seth says they are grown men now. Time to cut the apron strings and let them live their own lives, too.

  “A promise.” She coyly gazed up at him through her red lashes. “To love me often.”

  “Forever and always, me luv. Give us a pash,” he said, and then he kissed her long and hard.

  About the Author

  Visit Janice's website at http://janiceseagraves.org

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  If you enjoyed this story, you may like, LUCKY MR M. by Jasmine Aherne. The first chapter is here for your convenience. Enjoy!

  Lucky Mr. M

  By Jasmine Aherne

  Windswept Shores

  Chapter One

  “I’m not so sure… I mean, I don’t even have anyone to try it out with.” Lorna hesitantly ran her finger over the smooth, glossy pages of the adult toys catalog. The sleek shape, length and ridges of the advertised vibrator promised “toe-curling, ceiling-high” pleasure – and who wouldn’t want that?

  Lorna and her closest friends, Kate, Susie and Sara, had piled into Lorna’s living room and sprawled lazily across her comfy, but threadbare, couch. Something girly and upbeat flowed from the stereo in the corner.

  “You won’t regret it.” Kate, a curvy brunette, purred into her wineglass. “And who says you need a man? The very point of these things is that you get the best part of a man without the other junk that comes with it.”

  “I guess so.” Lorna flipped a few pages.

  She had invited her three closest friends over to cross off one more thing in their “209 things to do in 2009 list” – to attend a promotional party in which an adult store rep came to show off toys, lingerie and edible sex aids – and then to purchase one of the said toys.

  N
ow, the cheerful rep, with her bouncy hair and sticky pink lip gloss, had left, handing the girls glossy-paged catalogs, and Lorna and her friends, still thinking about what to order, had promised to get in touch.

  Kate’s list of things to buy covered two pages of sky-blue notepaper already. “Why the hell not?” she said, as she flicked her pen and added a set of cute PJs to the items. “I mean, in the immortal words of Woody Allen, ‘Don’t knock masturbation, it’s sex with someone you love.’ I mean, if you can’t get properly intimate with yourself down there, why would a man want to?”

  “Right,” Susie, a petite blonde, chipped in. “How’re you ever going to show him what you like?”

  Lorna eyed the vibrators in the catalog and couldn’t help wondering if any man faced with one of the giant penises wouldn’t feel a bit, well… small in comparison. She checked out the specs for one of the “mammoth” toys and doubted it would even fit inside her.

  She’d never been overly liberated when it came to sex. And she’d never shared that with anyone, until one fateful night with her friends. Too many cocktails, added to a large supply of chocolate and a sexy film on the TV, had led to Lorna confessing that her sexual experience with men up to this moment in time could be described as a little… limited.

  Thus, the sex toy exploration had been added to The List.

  Lorna couldn’t say she felt any better, even after handling some of the vibrators. She supposed she might feel differently on her own in bed, a few mango-scented candles lit, and an image of a shirtless Johnny Depp playing in her mind.

  Kate nudged her. “You said you don’t have any one to try them out with. Is that true? Or is there someone you like?”

  “Ooooh,” Susie chimed in.

  Lorna rolled her eyes. “We’re not in high school anymore, you guys.” But her cheeks did flush a bit.

  Kate whooped. “There is! I knew it. Who is it?”

  Lorna sighed. “My roommate has this friend who stops over sometimes, Jamie.” Just thinking about him made her insides melt into the consistency of gooey chocolate. When she closed her eyes she saw his floppy brown hair, ocean-blue eyes, and the dark shadow of stubble that made him look so mysterious. “But I doubt he’s interested in me.”