Slaves of Elysium (6 page)

Devereaux had been right about one thing. Nothing mattered now. If they were never going to escape from the fog then she could dare anything. She could be herself, her true self, and ask for the consummation she had craved for so long.

Fearful but resolute, she went out onto the aft deck and, still naked from the waist down, climbed the steps to the fly bridge.

Ash was sitting hunched up in the corner, partly under the helm dash. His face was buried in his hands and he was slowly rocking back and forth. He looked like a child hiding from his worst fears.

Everybody on the
Galatea
had escaped the reality of their situation except Jeni, she thought. Perhaps this would be her way.

She knelt down in front of Ash and gently took him by the shoulder. ‘Mr Ash... Bradley. It's Jeni. Please look at me.'

Ash shuddered, drawing in his breath raggedly in an effort to control his emotions.

‘Sorry, Jeni,' he said quietly, face still hidden. ‘Not feeling too good right now. Truth is, I can't take much more of this place. Sorry it had to end this way. Sorry we went on that crazy race. Should've talked Mark out of it... all my fault.'

‘No, it isn't,' Jeni said. ‘Please don't feel guilty. Just look at me.'

Slowly he lifted his face from his hands. She stood up, bringing her naked loins into his field of view. Slowly she turned round so he could see her abused bottom.

‘Jesus, kid, what's happened?' The sight shook him out of his despair. ‘Are you all right?'

He was a considerate man, but she wanted more than simple consideration. ‘I'm fine, really. But I do need you to do something for me.' She got down onto hands and knees and presented her hindquarters to his gaze, wantonly offering herself for mounting, as a mare to a stallion. She looked over her shoulder at him. ‘Please, I want to do it. And don't be gentle with me. I really mean that. Use me just as you want.'

For a long moment he simply stared at her in silence, seeking confirmation of her words in the depths of her eyes. She hid nothing in return. A glistening dewdrop of excitement formed on her swollen love lips. Then Ash climbed slowly to his feet and stood over her, his size and strength such a contrast to her slight vulnerability. He reached down, grasped a handful of her hair and pulled her gently but firmly back onto her heels.

‘Take off your top,' he said.

Jeni obeyed without a word, stripping off the thin cotton garment and leaving herself completely naked before him, resting her hands demurely on her thighs. Her proud breasts trembled in time with her breathing, their golden brown nipples standing in erect cones. Ash was watching her face for any sign of reluctance or displeasure as she bared herself at his command. But she only shivered with delight and gave an excited, tremulous smile. He nodded in slow understanding.

He dragged her masterfully across the deck on all fours onto the padded sundeck. Twisting her round he pushed her onto her back. Jeni spread herself ready to receive him, crooking her knees and opening her legs wide, the ‘V' of her thighs forming an invitation for use. She felt her swollen pubic lips gaping hungrily.

Ash stripped off his shirt and shorts. Jeni gulped at his naked body, hard and powerful. His erection stood up thickly. He was big. Would she be able to take him? He knelt down between her legs. She shuddered and closed her eyes.

Ash's big hands ran over her smooth inner thighs and then splayed her legs wider, opening the pouting cleft between them. His hands slid round under her buttocks and lifted her hips off the deck, positioning her for penetration. His questing cock-head found her slit and forced its way up into her wet and eager vagina. Jeni gasped. Ash bent forward, covering her body with his, grasping her flailing wrists, controlling and restraining her, bracing himself against the tension of her straining arms so he could sink his entire length into her to the root. Her breasts flattened against his chest, her hard nipples scoured by his tightly coiled hair. Then he was filling her completely and she sobbed with delight. He pulled back slightly and plunged into her again with a grunt. Gradually his thrusts became fiercer, reaming her insides as he lost any lingering reluctance in using her body for his pleasure as he wished.

Jeni whimpered and groaned and then shrieked. There was no reason to be silent now. ‘Yes, harder...' she pleaded. ‘Again... please... again!'

The breath was being driven out of her by the relentless pistoning of his plunging cock as he bore her down even further into the cushions. She squirmed in perverse delight as far as she was able, skewered on his manhood, pinned to the deck by his weight. Utterly helpless. Used. Mastered.

He came, pumping his essence into her. It was as it should be, she thought deliriously as fireworks exploded in her churning loins. A sensual rocket burned up her spine and burst in her brain, saturating her senses in multicoloured pleasure.

Ash slumped over her and the pair of them lay still, lost in the afterglow of nature's most primal solace. For a few precious moments they had rejected the thrall of the endless fog and unmoving sun.

‘Thank you,' Jeni said softly.

 

Engines roaring, the
Galatea
drove through the fog at top speed.

Jeni, still naked, was bent forward over the fly bridge windshield. Ash was steering with one hand. The other was between Jeni's legs, his thumb in her anus, his fingers buried in her slippery cleft. When he pinched her she yelled at the top of her lungs, a living foghorn.

What they had done was mad, what they were doing now was madder. It was a last defiant gesture before whatever fate intended their end to be. If there were something within the grey shroud they would either crash through it or run out of fuel in the attempt. They did not care what Rebecca and Devereaux, still below in their cabin, thought of these wild manoeuvres. Perhaps the pair of them were dead drunk, perhaps they had sought the same release as she and Ash. It did not matter now.

Ash threw the boat into a turn that had Jeni grasping at the rail; charging at the taunting changeless orange sun that receded before them. Then they swung round again away, propellers churning the water and sending up a foaming wake. Ash's hand pinched Jeni's intimate flesh and she yelled again. Anything to relieve the dreadful silence, to make something change, to shatter the changeless limbo in which they were trapped.

They tore on and on into the grey void that seemed to have swallowed all time and space.

The engines coughed fitfully, briefly recovered, then spluttered and died. The
Galatea
lost headway and glided to a gentle halt. Grey silence enveloped them once more.

‘I guess that's it,' Ash said quietly.

‘We tried,' Jeni said. She sank down against his legs, resting her cheek on his knee. ‘Please hold me. Don't let me go... whatever happens.'

‘I won't, kid. I promise.'

They sat together for a timeless period. At least Jeni had been honest with herself for once, she thought. How long would the brief contentment last? She nuzzled closer to Ash, drawing comfort from his strong presence as he patted and stroked her as one might a dog, her hair ruffling in the gentle breeze...

The breeze?

Jeni sat up quickly. Ash was already looking around in wonder.

For the first time in days, though the boat was motionless, there was a breeze!

Wind was stirring the cloying fog, turning it into restless billows and sending ripples across the hitherto glassy water. It was getting darker. Even as they watched a ragged veil closed over the ghost sun that had held them in its pallid glow for so long. Jeni felt a moment of nausea and doubled over. When she looked up again it had completely vanished.

Ash grasped Jeni by her hair, possessive yet also comforting. ‘This is it, one way or another.'

The
Galatea
rocked as a larger wave struck it. The fog was being torn to shreds about them, revealing an empty ocean. The sky above was heavy with dark, billowing clouds, picked out by the golden rays of the true sun low on the horizon where only moments before the changeless orange globe had hung.

A cold wind whipped foam off the top of the waves, making the boat rock more violently. The sun winked out from its cover of inky cloud. Lightning played about thunderhead peaks. Jeni shivered, suddenly conscious of her nudity. They were back in the real world once more – and in the path of another storm.

Suddenly Ash cursed, looking at his watch.

‘What's wrong?' Jeni asked.

‘It's evening. The sun's setting. West is behind us. All this time we've been going east! We're nowhere near the US coast, we're in the middle of the Atlantic!'

 

 

 

The storm tossed the powerless
Galatea
about like a toy boat in a bath.

The four of them huddled inside the main cabin. Blue-white lightning blazed in at the windows where the pearly haze had glowed only a short time earlier. Devereaux and Rebecca, looking sick and hollow-eyed, sat together on the couch. Ash manned the helm. Jeni clung to the back of his seat, bracing herself against the pitching of the boat. Close to Ash seemed the proper place to be.

‘The radio's working again!' Ash shouted over the rush of waves and boom of thunder. ‘At least, I can get static. I'm sending a mayday. Don't know if anybody can hear us though.'

With the lifting of the fog the gyro and magnetic compasses had also started to work. The satellite navigation system was live, but displayed error messages suggested they were somehow out of signal range.

As the storm had raced towards them Jeni ran from the fly bridge to her own cabin to put on fresh clothes. She had said nothing to Ash, but both knew things would never be the same between them again. They would talk more about what they had shared later. Now they must concentrate on survival.

Jeni had roused Rebecca and Devereaux, still clinging together in a drunken slumber. As they looked about them in bleary confusion she wondered how much they recalled of their earlier treatment of her. The sea rose and the
Galatea
pitched and yawed sickeningly. Jeni heard the hull creaking and practically forced the pair into their lifejackets. As the reality of their situation finally impinged on Rebecca she desperately snatched up her jewellery case and hugged it to her chest. Then the two staggered down the corridor after Jeni to the lower helm where Ash was already seated.

The storm worsened by the minute, increasing in ferocity as quickly as the one that had cut short the race to Nassau.

‘Without the engines there's no way we can ride this one out,' Ash shouted to Devereaux, who nodded dumbly. A huge wave broke over the bow, pounding against the hull like a giant hammer. From somewhere forward Jeni heard a tearing, splintering sound.

‘She's coming apart!' Ash shouted. Some of the displays on the helm dash began to flicker and wink out. The main cabin lights died. Ash snapped on a flashlight. ‘That's it,' he said decisively, hauled himself out of his seat and staggered across the tossing deck to the rear saloon doors. ‘I'm getting the life raft ready.'

‘I'll get the reserve water,' Devereaux roused himself enough to say, and picked up another flashlight and headed for the galley.

Ash slid back the saloon door onto the darkening night, letting in a spray of water and the full howling fury of the storm. He clawed his way across to a large metal cylinder mounted by the stern rail and twisted and tugged at its latch. The cylinder split apart, forced open by billowing fluorescent fabric, swelling and taking shape before their eyes as it inflated.

Devereaux reappeared carrying two plastic carboys of water. Jeni took one from him and they staggered towards the saloon door, with Rebecca following still clutching her jewel case. The deck of the saloon was slowly tilting towards the bows, quite independently of the storm-induced pitching.

The
Galatea
was sinking.

Fully inflated, the life raft bounced and swayed on its tethers off the stern rail, a red beacon flashing on the top of its domed canopy. Ash, already soaked by the driving spray, was working his way along the rails back to the doorway, and in a few moments he had strung a line between the saloon door across the deck to a large eyelet set in the side of the raft.

A wave broke over the deck, washing into the saloon over their ankles and almost knocking Ash off his feet. Rebecca eyed the gap between the door and the weather flaps of the bucking inflatable and shrank back.

‘I can't do it!' she cried.

‘There's no choice!' Devereaux shouted. ‘Look, I'll get in first, ready to help you.' He hauled himself along the safety line over the streaming deck and dropped into the raft, then turned about and beckoned to Rebecca.

‘You'll need both hands!' Jeni shouted. ‘Forget your jewels!'

‘No!' Rebecca stubbornly refused. ‘I'm not losing them!'

In desperation Jeni snatched the box out of Rebecca's hands and threw it to Devereaux, who miraculously managed to catch it, then she pushed Rebecca out onto the deck. Ash caught her arm, closed her hands over the safety line and shoved her towards Devereaux who reached out towards her. Jeni felt the bow of the yacht dropping away behind her and sprang for the line. Ash's strong hands caught her and helped her along.