Crimson Rapture (11 page)

Still
dazed and confused, she asked, "Where are we?"

"Your
guess is as good as mine. We're on an island in the south seas. Fortunately, it
seems to be a large island with an adequate fresh water supply and an abundance
of food." He watched as she tried to comprehend all that was said.
"How do you feel?" he asked, brushing stray strands of hair from her
face. "Dizzy?"

She
nodded, still confused and somewhat dazed. "I'm thirsty," she added,
touching her lips, suddenly aware of her parched throat. He reached behind her
and withdrew an odd hairy shell, shaped like a mug with its top cut off.

"Here,
drink this."

She
would never forget her first taste of coconut milk. Nothing in the world had
ever tasted so good. It was sweet and delicious and she felt the soothing cream
slide down her throat all the way to her empty stomach. She finished, and not
willing to lose a single drop, she licked her lips and looked at him for more.

Justin
chuckled and handed her another shell. He withdrew his knife, cut open the one
she had just finished, and sliced off two pieces of the moist white meat. He
handed her the piece when she finished. She watched him eat it and there was
something about the gleam of amusement in those dark blue eyes that brought a
sudden awareness.

"My
clothes!" she half gasped as her arms crossed protectively over her near
naked figure.

"I
was wondering when you would notice."

"You...
you took off my clothes!"

"I
had to, not that I wouldn't have anyway. I first had to cut your skirts and
boots when the lifeboat capsized, for they were heavy and pulling you
under." His boots, however, rested an arm's length away. "I had to
remove the rest later to check for any damage— broken bones and such." He
chuckled at her, tossed the coconut aside, and his arms came around her, bringing
her back to him. Her arms braced against his broad shoulders and she lifted
from him, unaware of the view this afforded him.

"Don't
worry, Christina." He smiled as his gaze lowered, caressing the curves she
presented to him. "I have seen many beautiful women in my time and I must
say I'm very pleased."

He
watched shock lift on her features and he chuckled again, shifted so that she
was beneath him. Her breath caught and she closed her eyes, terrified by the
sweeping montage of sensations his body pressed upon her. He kissed her, firm
and warm, and exercising all the restraint he owned, he drank the sweetness of
her mouth with a deep but tender hunger.

She
froze in sheer panic but his kiss brought a warm rush through her and she felt
herself melting again, suddenly limp and passive and helpless. His own desire
rose with an urgency that shook him and he shifted to his side, bringing her
with him and kissing her still as his hands slowly roamed over her small back,
the curves of her waist.

She
trembled beneath his touch. He broke his kiss but his lips lazily explored the
contours of her face and neck while his hands continued to caress the softness
of her form. She felt flushed, scared by the small flame leaping through her,
and scared even more when his hand reached to the small of her back, pressing
her against the hard length of his desire. She stiffened dramatically,
instinctively knowing and yet not knowing. "No..." She tried to twist
away. "No... please, I—"

"Shhh,
sweetheart," he whispered, keeping her gently to him as he looked into the
terrified gray pools of her eyes. "Yes I want you, perhaps more than I
ever wanted a woman but no," he almost smiled, "I'm not going to take
you amongst twenty other people. Nor," he added, brushing his lips over
her forehead, "will I have you with this fear in your eyes."

She
bit her lips, waiting helplessly, afraid he was going to kiss her again, but
suddenly Beau raced up from the forest. Excited, the dog stopped in front of
Justin and dropped a dead bird at his feet, obviously as an offering. The first
sign that life would not be as she had known it. He barked again, pleased with
his catch and Justin stood to his feet as everyone else began to wake up.

The
first day began.

Christina
pulled herself into a tight ball to hide her naked figure. The torn chemise and
torn petticoat, all made of thin cotton material, barely covered her thighs.
She had nothing on beneath. While her hair was still partially braided, it fell
in a mass of disastrous tangles. She noticed various cuts and bruises and she
felt hungry and stiff. She first looked around to find something to cover
herself in.

The
men gathered around Justin, while Hanna and Elsie came immediately to her side,
joyously exclaiming over the fact that she was well, that they had all survived.

"Christy,
you had us worried so when you wouldn't wake, but Justin kept sayin' you would
be fine, but that 'ead injuries sometimes take time and to leave you be,
but—"

"But
we didn't know," Elsie broke in. "Kept thinkin' that a wrap in the
'ead kin do a soul in—you know, leave 'im without their wits but you're fine
now, aren't you

Christina
smiled at their concern, nodding. "Yes, I'm fine. I don't even think I
really did suffer a head injury." A hand reached to her head and, save for
a certain heaviness, she felt no pain there. "I think I just
fainted."

"Well,
little wonder. 'Twas a terror! Never thought we would live to see this day, but
'ere we are!" Hanna spread her arms to embrace a day she never thought to
see.

A
smile lifted to Christina's eyes and suddenly she laughed too. "Yes, we
have been spared!" The same joy at having survived certain death suddenly
filled her; she was alive and she was glad! "But how are you? You two
look—"

She
was about to say awful. Hanna had on only a tattered chemise and petticoat too,
though the full skirt of her petticoat was still intact. The young lady's plump
figure was noticeably thinner from the ordeal and various cuts and bruises
marred her exposed skin too. The thick red curls clustered in a riot of
tangles.

"—like
we've been through 'ell!" Elsie finished for her, looking every bit as bad
as Hanna, though she had both a petticoat and a chemise in one piece. "But
we 'ave. There's a stream back there," she pointed. "We should wash
up first thing."

The
two women jumped up and Hanna reached a hand to Christina. She shook her head.
"I can't," she whispered, glancing down at her bare form, once again
acutely conscious of her nakedness. "I can't... I would just die..."

"Oh,
Christy, we're all 'alf naked. Even the men. There's nothin' to be done. Jacob
says first thing Justin will do is try to bring up as much of the ship out
there as possible and maybe then we'll 'ave some clothes but now—now we're all
left with w'at nature gave us."

Christina
shook her head. She simply could not walk among all these people without
clothes. She would die...

"Come
on, Christy, 'twon't kill you, I pro—"

"You
'ush," Elsie suddenly said to Hanna. "She's not like us. She's a lady
and she's 'as a lady's modesty." Christina started to protest but Elsie
stopped her. "I have my chemise, you kin 'ave me petticoat."

"Oh
no, I couldn't." She shook her head.

"Yes
ye can and ye will."

Christina
was too poor to turn down Elsie's generosity. She was a good deal taller than
Elsie and so once the petticoat was on, it fitted midway between her knees and
ankles but a least she could move about now. She knew she looked a curious
sight but then they all looked curious, each person wore signs of having
survived a holocaust.

There
was much work to be done. Justin ordered two men on a journey around the
circumference of the island in opposite directions to ascertain its size. Five men
were ordered into the interior of the island, each taking different directions.
These scouts were to report back on what they found, with the further
instruction to keep an eye out for places that would make a good camp, perhaps
caves or an area with natural barriers and protection, and one near a fresh
water supply. The rest of the men were ordered to gather foodstuffs, whatever
could be found. Which was no problem, for the beach was littered with debris,
much of which was edible fish.

The
arduous task of retrieving things from the sunken ship would begin as soon as
the water calmed, probably on the morrow. The venture's success would depend on
the depth of the water in which the ship had sunk. Justin was hopeful, for the
ship had crashed on a barrier reef, probably in thirty or forty feet of water,
perhaps less. They would soon see.

Single
file, the three women walked along the narrow bank of the stream and
Christina's eyes widened in stages to take in the surroundings. She had never
seen anything like it. Washed by frequent rains, the island gave birth to lush
tropical foliage: trees, ferns, and plants so dense as to render much of the
island impenetrable. Crowding every space, ivy clung to anything with height,
hanging like blankets from branches of trees. Exotic plants and ferns fought
for sunlight and grew higher than her head. A haunting dark green shaded
everything and the air was thick and moist with the scent of the fecund earth.
She had never heard such sounds either, exotic jungle sounds from every
direction seemed to rise from the very earth itself.

Following
Jacob's instructions, they continued along the bank of the stream until they
came to a small clearing at the foot of a steep cliff. A small waterfall fell
into a deep pool of water. Huge granite boulders surrounded one side of the
pool while trees almost hidden in vines and ferns grew on all other sides.

"
'Tis paradise, like... like 'eaven," Hanna whispered, afraid to break the
sanctity around them.

"Yes,"
Christina whispered too. "Like the original Garden of Eden."

They
had passed fallen trees, torn vines, and ferns on their way, and debris floated
in the pool, but even the fierceness of the storm could not destroy the
prolific garden life on the island.

Elsie,
too afraid of water, remained on the bank but Hanna and Christina removed their
clothes and stepped cautiously into the shallow pool. "Oh, it feels so good."
Christina smiled, lowering, then disappearing beneath the surface to wash away
the sticky saltiness on her skin and hair. Hanna followed bravely while Elsie
watched on nervously, contenting herself to remain on the safe shore of the
bank and merely splashed water on her skin.

The
quick bath was invigorating and, once out, Christina quickly struggled back
into her chemise. There was nothing to dry off on and thin material clung to
her wet frame like an extra layer of skin. She wrung out her wet mat of hair,
twisted it tightly as possible into a knot on her head, and secured it with a
small twig. It fell loose with her first movement. She gave up.

Many
things occurred to her as once. They had no comb or brush—surely she would have
to cut her hair—but that was hardly the extent of the things they would live
without. There were no pots, pans, baskets, or buckets, no tools of any kind,
save for the men's swords and knives—no shelter, clothes, medicine, or even
bandages and, as her stomach reminded her, no food either.

They
would be like savages. Four women and almost twenty men. The ratio gave her a
moment's fear, for instinctively she knew it bode ill. What was it her father
used to say... "Man is separated from his savage roots only by a thin veil
of civilization..."

Was
it not civilization that protected women?

Yes
and now there was no civilization.

Elsie
and Hanna were each lost to their own musings and Christina, on her hands and
knees, stared intently into the dark pool of water, suddenly seeing an unpleasant
future.

Justin
wanted her as a man wants his wife. She was helpless to stop him. How could she
fight such a man? How could she fight a man who owned the strength to break a
man's legs, to fight dozens of equally strong and able-bodied men? A man who tossed
her hundred or so pounds over his shoulder as though she were but a feather
pillow. A man who led hundreds of hardened men already living by the savage
rule of might?

No,
she could not fight him. When he held her she very nearly swooned by the strength
radiating from his tall frame, the power in his muscled arms, that warmth of
his. And even if she had equal physical strength, she would lose the battle
with him. The sheer force of his will would overwhelm the most formidable
opponent...

Oh,
she hated her helplessness! She was a pathetic creature indeed, too timid to
raise her voice yet alone her fists. Not that any action would prove anything
but futile pitted against him. How she would love, though, to tell him what she
thought of him. She had fallen in love with him, she knew, but only a small
part of a much larger picture. The real Justin was forceful, cruel and—

"Mean!"
she said out loud, suddenly slamming her fists into the water.

Elsie
and Hanna exchanged confused glances. "Christy?" Hanna asked.

Christina
looked at her two friends, both startled by her outburst. The haunting sounds
of the jungle seemed to dim, sounding like an eerie echo and nothing but
nothing stirred. Apprehension caused fear and her fear looked for a concrete
source that wasn't there. Alerted, Christina looked past them and stared into
the forest beyond. It was not real, yet real, and she imagined she could see
him. Elsie and Hanna turned around too and stared, feeling the exact same
thing. A ghost was watching them from the forest.