"We were on a yacht anchored in a windy lagoon, celebrating a new soda of Matthew's that was a huge success. I'd had a lot to drink. At one point I was standing off to the side all by myself. I was poking my ring finger in the little hole of an empty can, thinking about how Matthew and I were going to start a family. Apparently we were getting ready to sail some more. It was dark. I remember they were taking Matthew's picture just a few feet away. The flashes popped and at the same time a strong wind rocked the boat. I lost my balance and reached out to grab the rail but I was blinded by flashes and couldn't see. My finger was still in the can and I had no time to shake it off before grabbing on to stop myself from falling. I felt rope and metal and pain all at once. I had grabbed between the support line and the rail, and the can was caught between that and my hand. I think that was when I started to scream. I was leaning forward trying to free my hand when the boat lurched. I fell overboard. My finger didn't come with me. Matthew was standing at the rail of the boat, screaming hysterically. Someone jumped in. It was dark, but I saw the blood then, and when I reached for the life preserver I saw what had happened. The little white nub of bone. The rest of it gone. I passed out and woke up in the hospital. They said that the can with my finger and my wedding band had fallen overboard with me. They never found it. It's still out there in the ocean, lost, Matthew and I with it."
They were silent for a very long time. She did not cry anymore, she only lay there with her head turned on the pillow, eyes closed, waiting for him to let go of her hand. But he did not let go. Instead he kissed her right hand, then the left one, each knuckle. She was frozen in place as he did this, as he kissed between her pinkie and the middle finger, at the space where her ring finger once was. She gasped when she felt his tongue there.
Holding the hand, he leisurely traced along her breasts with her own fingertips. He trailed their course with his lips and tongue, taking tiny nips at one breast, then the other. He squatted over her, his knees on either side. His ponytail fell forward into her face and she let some of the gathered hair enter her mouth as he sucked her breasts with growing urgency. Her hips responded. She lifted herself against him, pressed his head harder into her chest. He held both of her breasts, licked beneath them. She felt a chilling tingle along the back of her neck each time the fine hairs of his buttocks brushed against her thighs. Gripping him beneath his armpits, she squeezed his strong chest between her hands and pulled him fully down onto her with all of her might.
"Slowly," he whispered, resisting her insistence. "There is no hurry."
"Yes," she moaned, nearly in tears. "Yes, hurry, I want you so bad." Never before had she been kept on edge like this, all of her energy wriggling beneath him, wanting him. It had always been Matthew wanting her when he needed, and she had always been there to service him. But this was not like that.
And then she felt a new emotion that was both exciting and frightening. "I need you," she mouthed without a sound into the pillow. Her inhibitions lifted and, as if beyond her control, she felt her entire self slacken, acceptance at last releasing her anxiety.
Sensing her sacrifice, he pressed his whole hard body against her, claiming her entirely from head to toe. His hot sex lay rigid between them, ready to consummate their bond.
With a lustful moan of anticipation he lay on his side and took her hand again. He kissed her wrists, her lips, her throat, traced her fingers along his ample sex, beneath his scrotum, which lay swollen over her hotness. She attempted to wrap her hand around it entirely, attempted to gently cup and fondle his testicles, but his control was beyond her own, and so she let him lead her maddeningly, pleasurably, on an erotic discovery of their bodies.
With his penis in both their hands, he played its tip along her folds, as far up to her navel, back again, and down and around the edge of her anus. In an instant he was inside her with his fingers. Then he removed his and encouraged hers in. At first she pulled away, her entire arm taut in his grip. He eased her resistance with a kiss that was both tender and probing, secure. "Shhh," he whispered, gently pressing her fingers inside her. She yielded, pressed a breast to his mouth as they alternated their exploration of her innermost region. Gently he withdrew his hand entirely, and watched her as she continued by herself, tuning in to her own rhythm.
"Yes," he said encouragingly, caressing between her buttocks with his hand. He changed position so that he could work his tongue between her fingers. She quickened her rhythm, squeezing his tongue with each press and flick. He followed her fingers inside with his tongue and she cried out his name when she felt it slide in the gap created by her missing finger. Her free hand flew to his hair and with a moan she freed his ponytail, wanting all of him inside her. His hands rolled and pinched her nipples in time with each lunge of his tongue, propelling her on mercilessly. She moaned deeply, and he pulled back when she drew close.