The Good Life (33 page)

“I'm all right. I have special Swiss stuff that's supposed to last all day.”

“Okay. You can take care of yourself. You don't know what you're missing.”

He swung around hoping to catch her off-guard with that special look in her eye, but her lively smile was full of fun, not innuendo. She kept throwing him off-balance. When her manner misled him into thinking of her as a child, she became an adult — a very assured and sophisticated adult, capable of taking men in her stride. There was nothing girlishly silly about her. She said things at times that sounded daringly suggestive, but he still wasn't sure how worldly-wise she was.

“Do you know where we're going?” he asked.

“Around the point, I suppose.” She looked in toward land. “We're passing Tahiti, where we were yesterday. All that's Mado's property. Mado from last night. We'll see the lighthouse soon. There are pretty deserted coves on the other side.”

“Shall we go exploring?”

“Onshore? If you can get us there. Can you row? We always anchor off. The boat can't go in very close.”

“You mean it's not deep enough. It's pretty impressive to have such a big boat all to ourselves. You probably take it all for granted.”

“Don't make me sound horrid. I've never known anybody like you. You don't think like most men, but I don't suppose I've really known many men —just silly boys. That's the difference. You're a man.”

“It's about time.”

“I don't mean just being twenty-one and grown-up. Men are interesting. They have experiences. I just do the same thing year after year, like most girls. We're such tiresome creatures. I wish I were going to New York when you go.”

“I do too.”

They shifted about, making room for each other on the mattress, and stretched out on their stomachs side by side, touching here and there. They cradled their chins on their folded arms and looked at each other. It was like being in bed together.

“What
are
you going to do?” Perry asked. “I mean, aside from finding a rich husband.”

“What else can a girl do? You don't think you'll find a fortune before Christmas? Without marrying a rich wife, that is. That wouldn't do me much good.”

“We don't sound as if we're going about it with the proper determination. I thought fortune hunters were single-minded.”

“Wait till you see me when I've sighted my prey.”

They laughed at their absurdity, and their eyes assured each other that they could be easily distracted from their hunt.

He edged closer to her. His erection was trapped uncomfortably under him. He wished he dared let her feel it. She wasn't shy about liking his body. May be she would like that important part of it.

If she turned out to be as willing as he was beginning to think she might be, he was going to have to decide what to do about it. The difficulties of clandestine meetings on board would make it easy to put her off if he could think of any reason to.

Lying beside her with a hard-on, he felt heroic for giving it even a moment's thought. He would try to leave the initiative more or less up to her; nobody could ask more of him. He couldn't help it if she had plenty of opportunity for seeing that he wanted her. He hadn't designed the little swimming trunks or decided that it was permissible to wear them in public. So far his erection hadn't popped out of them, but he couldn't go on worrying about shocking people. They wouldn't see anything if they didn't look.

He sat up and checked. He had a hard-on. He could see it, and anybody who knew anything about men could see it too, which probably included Bet. She was an innocent but not necessarily a virgin.

He raised his empty glass and signaled toward the stern. “I think I've ordered beer,” he said, looking down at her. “They must be getting used to me by now.”

She rolled over and sat up. “I didn't know anybody could drink so much of it without turning into a barrel.”

“It agrees with the poor.”

“I forgot. That's us. That ring should take care of your poor starving babies for a month or two.”

“Do you like it?” He laid his hand out flat on his thigh. She put her hand on it, toying with the ring. His heart accelerated, and his erection swelled against the taut fabric of the ridiculous trunks. They were beginning to handle each other with the freedom of lovers.

“It's stunning. I was going to tell you.”

Emile arrived with two beers. She withdrew her hand but not hastily, as if she would gladly leave it. Perry took both glasses with a smile and a nod for the steward.

“I'll drink them both if you don't want it,” he assured Bet.

“Oh, no. We'll get fat together. Give me that.”They laughed at the alacrity with which she took a long, thirsty swallow.

“We'll sweat it off,” he said, smoothing back a lock of dark hair from her brow.

She tilted her head to his hand. If she was aware of his erection, it didn't ruffle her composure.

Feeling his way with such a young girl, a new experience for him, stirred an odd, almost paternal, tenderness in him. He wanted her sweet body, but he couldn't really imagine having her. Touching each other with the familiarity of lovers was enough for a start.

They sat hunched against each other, and she pointed out features in the landscape as they slowly passed. They reached the lighthouse, a squat building at the end of a lonely point, and shifted course to head in toward layers of blue distant hills. They ran along low wooded land with no visible houses. It looked deserted enough, but he couldn't see if there were coves. The point had carried them quite far out to sea. There was plenty of open water between them and the coastal hills.

Perry began to feel the excitement of being physically adrift and self-sufficient, in immediate contact with the elements, without a destination imposed by roads or timetables. In theory they could decide on the spur of the moment to go to the ends of the earth. It was an odd feeling even if it lasted only a moment.

“Does your father ever go on long trips on the boat?” he asked.

“Not often. He likes his comfort. Storms aren't much fun. He went to Greece once.”

“Greece? You can go to Greece on this? How amazing. Why not India? Wouldn't you like to go to India?”

“Of course. Let's go to India this afternoon. They looked at each other and laughed as excitedly as children. He caught her hand and held it against his thigh. She left it in his possession.

“Oh, Perry, hurry up and get rich,” she exclaimed. “We could do all sorts of lovely things.”

“Together.”

“If you don't find anybody better,” she said blithely.

“How can I? I'm stuck on the boat with you,” he said.

“My choice is rather limited too,” she pointed out.

“It won't be for long. Billy is lining up likely partners for you.”

She made a face. “They always want to arrange my life. Of course, Mummy had already warned me about you, so we know what to expect from her.”

“I have one advantage,” Perry said. “Nobody cares if I throw myself away on you.”

“You must have a family.”

“In Seattle. They gave up trying to influence me long ago.”

“Good heavens. I wouldn't dare try to influence you. You have a mind of your own. Well, that's what one wants in a man. Monique says that if a man is waiting for a woman to lead him, he's not worth bothering about.”

“Monique seems to have a mind of her own too.”

“She's my best friend at school. We tell each other everything. I have to write her about you.”

“Be sure to tell her how influential I am.”

“It'll just be a letter, not a book. I'll hardly have room to get started.”

“True. It's a big subject.”

“It is indeed.” She dropped her eyes and lifted them quickly with a wickedly knowing gleam in them. She knew what was going on.

They pressed their shoulders together and burst out laughing. Did her school chums talk about their boyfriends' erections? It wasn't what he expected with sheltered young ladies, but she seemed to be encouraging him.

He hastily revised the limits he had imposed on himself, preparing for the next advance in their growing intimacy.

They were getting quite close to land. The wooded landscape still looked rather deserted, but he saw things that might be indications of coves — indentations in the shoreline, rocky fingers of land reaching into the sea.

The vibration of the boat had subsided; they had probably slowed down. He looked back and saw that they had nosed in behind a long projection of land that seemed to enclose them from the open sea.

The motor suddenly accelerated with a smooth roar of power, a chain rattled in the bow, and there was a splash. Then the rattle of chain began to die down as the bow swung around to face the point that they'd been running along since they'd rounded the lighthouse. The rattle of the chain stopped abruptly. The motors died.

An enormous silence settled over them broken only by the grating rasp of the cicadas coming to them from the nearby land. He remembered them from somewhere he'd lived in the States: a summer sound.

“India already?” he asked. Her laughter rang out in the silence. He loved making her laugh and chuckled with pleasure. “Will we lunch here? We'll go exploring later.”

“I think I've been here before. If I'm right, there's a rather divine little cove that you can't really see till you're in it.” She sat forward, looking around. “I'm not sure. There's a scrap of beach, but you wouldn't see it from out here.”

She propped herself on his thigh while she straightened her legs so she could stand. As she did so, her hand slid across his erection. He wasn't sure it was intentional, but she didn't snatch her hand away.

He scrambled to his feet with her, and they stood beside each other, gazing at the sun-parched land. He suspected that she was as eager as he was to find some privacy ashore. He slipped an arm around her waist, and she leaned in against the shelter of his embrace. Short of making an outright pass at him, she had taken all the initiatives he could ask for. He smiled down at the top of her head and nudged it with his chin.

“Everything looks so different from the sea,” he said. “Could that be it?” He pointed at some rocks that seemed to project from the surrounding land.

“May be. If it's here at all.” She turned, staying within the circle of his arm, and they faced each other in unguarded anticipation of whatever this was leading to. She must know what she would permit. Standing on deck in full view of everybody limited immediate developments.

He brought his hips in so that she could feel his hardness against her. She didn't flinch from it but responded with pressures of her own. Their hands began to move cautiously on each other but dropped to their sides in each other's grip. She shook her hair back.

“I'll write Monique that you're the most attractive man on board,” she said with a breathless little burst of laughter.

“You can say that I'm crazy about you.”

“I'll tell her it has a fascinating effect on a man. Shall we go see what Daddy's doing? It must be long past noon.”

“I hope so. I'm ravenous. I'd like a quick swim, wouldn't you?”

“It's allowed when we're anchored. They'll put steps out in a minute.”

He was ready to call a halt until they were alone. Even if Billy had been watching, he couldn't have seen anything so far that went beyond the rules he had laid down. As he said himself, if Bet was ready for sex, there was nothing anybody could do about it.

Perry released her with promising little caresses of his hands and let her pass in front of him to the covered deck.

Billy was there looking smart in slacks and a sport shirt and in competent command near the wheel. He lifted his glass to them as they appeared.

Perry reminded himself that he and Bet were just pals. After coming so close to declaring themselves openly, it was a wrench to feel deprived of her again. He didn't want her to think that he was pulling back. She probably didn't know that Billy would be as outraged as her mother if he guessed what they were up to.

Emile was waiting to serve them. Perry was careful not to order for Bet so as not to look as if he were taking over, and he restrained himself from following her to her chair. “Are you running the boat, Billy?” he asked.

Billy smiled at him delightedly. “The captain may be around somewhere. We don't need him. Did you notice that extraordinary feat of seamanship? I anchored.”

“You did? You told them to throw the anchor in and everything? Amazing.” Billy chortled. He was obviously in high good humor.

After last night Perry hoped he would be left in peace to devote himself to Bet. He took the beer Emile brought him and saw that she was having something with ice in it. He immediately wanted to know what it was. He was hooked.

“Are we going to have a swim?” she called. “The steps are there.”

He did his best not to rush to her. She was claiming his attention. She was hooked too.

They swam away from the stern, diving from the deck, which was only four feet above the water. The sea was a cold, clear, sparkling tonic. They could see the sandy bottom and the hull floating at what looked like a great distance above it. He scanned the shoreline as they swam, looking for a place to land the dinghy. The invisible cove must offer some degree of privacy. They were less than a hundred yards offshore.

“We're supposed to be careful about getting the deck wet,” Bet said when they'd used the steps to climb back on board the boat. “We better dry off a bit.”

Towels were hanging over the rail for them. They dried each other after a fashion, making an excuse for playing games. He had the feeling that she wouldn't mind getting out of her tight suit. “It would be more fun if we were nudists,” he said.