Smooth Sailing (10 page)

“Yes,” Laurie said while Kaatje was still enunciating the last word.

“I’d love to feel your tongue on me, but I’m too salty for that to be fun for you. You’ve really got me excited, so we can keep it simple.” She took Laurie’s hand, then reached for her index and middle fingers, placing them on her clit. She smiled, letting out a soft groan when Laurie’s fingers settled against her. Then she moved them, guiding them as though they were her own. Laurie was up on one elbow, carefully watching Kaatje’s face as she touched her. Occasionally, Kaatje would lean forward and catch a kiss, which Laurie tenderly gave. “Your fingers feel fantastic,” Kaatje murmured. “Nice and soft and gentle.”

“I think I know what you like,” Laurie said. “Can I explore a little?”

“Yeah. That’d be great.” Kaatje opened her legs wider and laced her hands behind her head, staring up at the sky while Laurie stroked her just the way she’d been shown. “I’m very happy,” Kaatje said after a while. “This is perfect.”

“I like this,” Laurie murmured, kissing Kaatje’s neck and the hollow of her throat. “I like touching you.”

“Can you…?” Kaatje took Laurie’s hand and guided her to slide inside. “Yeah, that’s the way.” She took over stroking herself while Laurie carefully watched Kaatje’s face for every reaction. “A little slower…yeah…perfect. I’m close,” Kaatje whispered. “Really close.”

Laurie leaned over and kissed her, probing her mouth as she probed her pussy; trying to discover every spot that could give Kaatje pleasure. Kaatje’s fingers sped up, moving over her clit like a blur, but Laurie kept stroking her slowly, just the way Kaatje had guided her.

“Slower,” she whispered, her body as taut as a wire. “Nice and slow.” Then she started to jerk and shiver, moaning softly as she began to relax and release some of the tension that had built up in her body. Laurie’s fingers were still inside, her gaze trained on Kaatje’s face as her body pulsed gently around her fingers. Finally, Kaatje grasped her hand and withdrew it, placing it on her chest where Laurie could feel her rapidly beating heart.

Kaatje put her arms around Laurie’s neck and pulled her into a long, luxurious kiss. “Did you like your first time?” The question was nonchalant, and Laurie took a moment to let it register.

“Oh, God, was it that obvious?” She buried her head in the crook of Kaatje’s neck.

“No, not at all.” Kaatje cupped her cheek and forced her to raise her head. “I’m really happy that you chose me to be your first.”

Smiling, Laurie said, “I think you chose me. I never would have had the nerve to kiss you.” She kissed her quickly, glad she could do it without reserve. “When did you know?”

“It wasn’t any one thing. It was the sum of a bunch of little clues. I’m glad I wasn’t wrong,” she said, chuckling. “Can you imagine how insulting that would have been if you’d had sex with women hundreds of times?” She laughed harder, the sound carrying across the dark, calm water.

“How did you know?” Laurie asked again. “Tell me. I must have seemed like I didn’t have a clue.”

“No, not true. You seemed like someone who knew how to make love. Just not in this variety. Like when I asked you what you liked. You acted like no one had ever asked you that before.” She smiled impishly. “That sounds like someone who’s only been with men.”

Laurie gently slapped her cheek. “I hate to admit it, but you’re right. Most men don’t ask for a lot of guidance. They know what they want and they try to get it. Then, if they’re good guys, they’ll do their best to please you. But they’re not all good guys.”

“Neither are women. Good women, I mean. But most of us know you have to give and take. I’ve never been with a woman who didn’t try her best to give me an orgasm.”

“Some didn’t succeed?” Laurie looked at her expectantly.

“More than a couple.” She took Laurie’s hand and kissed it again. “You’re very talented. I think you should try this again.”

“Okay,” Laurie said gamely, putting her hand down to reach for Kaatje again.

Laughing, Kaatje pulled her hand away. “I meant with another woman.”

“Oh.” Laurie sat up and gazed at her, concerned. “Don’t you want me to touch you any more?”

“I’d love for you to do that. But first, I need to eat. Aren’t you hungry?”

“I’m starving. I assumed you ate only once a day.”

“Let’s go to the cabin and polish off the remains of our lunch.” She picked up the tray she’d brought out earlier. “Soggy bread won’t satisfy me.”

*

They moved along the dark deck, Kaatje quickly and Laurie slowly and carefully. Kaatje was standing on the lower level, holding her hand out to steady Laurie when she jumped down. Without warning, a pressure settled around Laurie’s sternum and she wanted to jump into the dark water and swim to shore. Seeing Kaatje standing there looking at her was suddenly too…intimate. Moving from the gorgeous open seas into the interior of the boat somehow broke the spell and she didn’t want to go.

“Are you okay?”

She managed to nod, but that was it. Seconds passed, then she got out, “Bathroom?”

“Stomach upset?”

“No. Fine. Just need the bathroom.”

“You go in and I’ll pick up our stuff.”

Laurie slipped past her, almost lunged into the bathroom, and locked the door before dropping weak-kneed onto the toilet. She was stark naked and had just had sex…lesbian sex…with a complete stranger. Add in the fact that she’d missed her boat, and it made for a day more dramatic and traumatic than she’d ever had. Of all of the terms ever used to describe her, “madcap” had never made the list. But today had been madcap.

She sat there for a few minutes, head in her hands. It was too much to process. Too many things were flying around to even start to organize and assess them. Maybe tomorrow, safely back on the cruise ship, there would be time to sift through this crazy day and make some sense of it. As for now, Kaatje was in the galley and it was time to go out there and act like a spur-of-the-moment kinda woman. There was no need to admit that missing the boat was weighing much heavier on her mind than having sex was.

She opened the door, went upstairs and spied her clothes lying on the banquette of the galley table. Kaatje was only wearing her shirt. That gave some indication of where they each were on the comfort scale. Laurie would have put on a snowsuit if she’d had one. Anything to cover up. “Tell me about this boat,” she said, trying to get on safe conversational grounds. “I don’t know the terms for anything.” She slipped across the cabin and jumped into her clothes as quickly as she could.

“Okay. We were up on the trampoline, then we walked along the deck and jumped into the cockpit. Now we’re in the cabin. The galley specifically.”

“It’s bigger than it looks. Does this seating thing and table area turn into a bed? You could live here if it did.”

“No, it doesn’t. But you can easily live here. I do.”

“Where do you sleep?”

“There’s a berth on either side of the bathroom.”

“I don’t know how I missed that. I’m usually pretty aware.” Getting away for another few seconds seemed like a really good idea. “I’ll go take a peek.”

She stepped down and saw a narrow hallway with doors to the right and left. “I have my choice,” Kaatje said, standing right behind her. It was hard to get any privacy on a boat. But smelling Kaatje’s salty skin was strangely nice. Even though she was right there, she didn’t seem to be infringing too much on Laurie’s space.

Kaatje opened the door to the left, revealing a double bed that rested atop low cabinets in a room so narrow one would have to jump onto the bed to get in it.

“This is cute,” Laurie said. “It’s like a den.”

“Yeah, kinda.” They moved out and Kaatje opened the other door. “This is my berth.”

This one held what Laurie guessed was a queen-sized bed with shelves on the wall at the head for magazines and books, and lamps shooting a warm light onto the pillows. A few framed photographs of sunsets and sunrises and sailboats were on the walls.

“These are your photographs, aren’t they?”

“Yeah. When I take a shot I like I have it blown up to ten by twelve. Then I switch these out to keep things interesting.”

“It’s nice,” Laurie said, sliding her arm around Kaatje’s waist and giving her a squeeze. Why had she done that? A second ago she was considering jumping to her death. There was something calming about Kaatje. Almost like she was a big Valium. “I could easily see living here, even with the tiny bath.”

“It is small for an apartment, but kinda big for a boat. Still, it’s a turnoff for a lot of people. And I have to share it, when I have a full boat, but, other than that, I couldn’t ask for more.”

“Where are we?” She made a circle over her head. “I can’t get my bearings.”

“We’re in the hull.” At Laurie’s blank look she added, “The part that stays in the water. The forty-seven foot long thing that looks like a canoe?”

“Oh, I thought they looked like kayaks. What’s in the other one?”

“Two more berths and one small bath. I use one berth as my office, but I can turn it back into a regular berth in ten minutes. In high season I try to fill the boat and take people out for as long as they want to go. That’s where I make most of my money.”

They started to walk back up to the galley. “How many do you take?”

“I can only take six. That’s all I’m legally allowed with the kind of license I have. One time I had a woman and five kids. That was a rockin’ two days. I earned my two thousand dollars that trip.”

“Wow, that’s a good chunk of change.”

Kaatje was standing in front of the half-sized refrigerator, pulling out white containers. “A thousand minimum US per day for an overnight. I’m on duty every minute. That doesn’t seem like a lot to me.”

“No, I guess not,” she said thoughtfully. “What will you do next?”

“For…?” She started to dish out the contents of the containers onto colorful plates.

“For you. For your business plan. More boats? Bigger boats?”

“No.” Kaatje finished what she was doing and brought the plates over to the table where Laurie was sitting. “What would you like to drink?”

“Just water.’

‘Sparkling or flat?”

“Uhm…sparkling. You’re a very good hostess.”

“Practice, practice.” She handed Laurie a glass and carried her own back to the table. “My business plan is to have good weather and customers with available balances on their credit cards.” She smiled quickly, with Laurie noting that this was her perfunctory smile, the one she used to show the topic was finished.

But Laurie was too tenacious to let a facial gesture put her off. “But you’re very young. You can’t be satisfied with where you are in life.”

“I can’t?” She took a bite of shrimp-laced pasta, her perfunctory smile absent. “You must be mistaken, because I am.”

“But you could have much more.”

“More what?” She chewed, barely looking at Laurie as she reloaded her fork.

“More business. More money. You could really make a good buck if you expanded.”

“Then what?” She took another bite, still with no eye contact.

“Then you’d be able to do more. You could…retire early.”

Now their eyes met. “Retire from what?”

“From having to take people out. You could do what you want.”

“This
is
what I want. I like taking people out.”

“But it’s human nature to want to improve, to keep striving.”

“Not this human. I’m happy. Doing more would make me unhappy.” She got up and took a baguette from the counter, rapping it on the counter to test it. “A little limp, but not too bad.” She cut a few slices, raised an eyebrow at Laurie, then brought her bread back to the table. She poured a little olive oil and vinegar from cruets on the table onto a corner of her plate and dipped the bread, then took a small bite with each bit of pasta. “I love bread. I’m always looking for good bread near my harbor.”

“Come on,” Laurie said, trying to engage Kaatje in the discussion. “Talk to me.”

“I am talking, I just don’t have anything else to say. I’m happy. I don’t want more. I do what I love for six or seven months, then I take a month or two off and go to the Netherlands to see my family and friends. I don’t know how to improve on that life.”

“I didn’t realize you had family in…Europe.” She was embarrassed to admit she wasn’t sure what term to use, recalling some confusion in her mind about the difference between Holland and Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Or was that Denmark? All of those countries were scrunched up in that little corner of Europe.

Now it was Kaatje’s turn to look blank. “I said I was Dutch.”

“I said I was half Norwegian, but I don’t have family in Norway…that I know of.”

“Oh, I didn’t make myself clear. I’m Dutch. From Amsterdam. I’ve only been here around ten years now.”

“Ahh. I thought your accent was…I don’t know…Caribbean or something.”

“Mmm. It gets to be a little Caribbean after I’ve been here for a few months. My friends in Holland have told me that.”

“Why did you come here? How did you even know about the island?”

“My father got transferred here when I was just entering university. I wasn’t…well, I assume I would have done well, but I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do in life. It made sense to come along. My parents are still here, but they’ll probably go back home to retire. I’ll stay.” She patted the wall behind her. “This is my home.”