See part 1 for disclaimers:

Danté agreed to a truce after I tantalized her with the dinner that I was making. I had caught a few more of the blue crabs and after lighting a new fire (this time it only took two matches) I had them on hot rocks being roasted by the fire. I also had gathered some wild berries, papaya and bananas as well. Along with the coconut milk it made for a fairly hardy meal.

"Look Danté," I said. "I already apologized ok. I didn’t think about it until I had already bathed and washed my things. Besides it was a pretty big pond."

Danté lay back in the boat looking a little tired. "Gab...rie...lle know this, I am a very fast healer and when I get better you had better be ready because I owe you one for that."

The smile on Danté’s face was nothing less than evil and for the first time I was regretting my decision to tell her about the water. I was in big trouble and I knew it!

"Danté how long do you think it will be before someone finds us?"

"I’m not sure. To tell you the truth I’m a little worried that they haven’t found us yet."

It had been three days since we had landed on this beach. Danté’s health was steadily improving and her coloring seemed to be returning.

"Do you think you could maybe walk a little today after your trip to the woods?" My days have been filled with both escorting Danté to the woods so that she could relieve herself and foraging for food and water. It was amazingly hard work that left me exhausted at the end of the day. It did however keep me from worrying about the fact that Danté and I would have been missing for well over a week at this point and we still had not been found. I had long since stopped calling for help when searching for food. I had pretty much determined that we were alone in the area. Strangely instead of scaring me this served to comfort me. There was nothing to hurt us and there was no doubt in my mind that we would be found soon.

Danté turned over to let me look at the wound. Surprisingly Danté allowed me to check her with little to minimal fuss. I looked in amazement at her wound. "You are definitely one fast healer." I told her for the thirtieth time.

She chuckled as she always did and I helped her to sit up against one of the built in benches in the boat.

"Hey," I exclaimed as an idea came to me. "How would you like to go to the pond? You could drink as much as you want and not have to rely on me to bring water back to you in those small flasks? Besides," I added teasingly, "you could do with a bath." I purposely crinkled my nose and tried to look offended.

"Ok, ok I get the picture. Help me up girlie." Getting Danté to her feet wasn’t as hard as it had been at first. A few days rest as well as some food and water in her stomach went a long way with replenishing her strength. I helped her step out of the boat noting that she only grimaced slightly in pain this time and led her into the trees slowly. The normally fifteen minute walk took Danté and I a half-hour with a couple of stops for rest. Danté was sweating profusely when we reached the pond. I was regretting my decision to let her walk this far when we reached the pond.

"Oh wow, this is great!" she exclaimed as she looked down on the area about five feet below us. "How do we get down there?"

"Ooh bloody hell," I yelled and then blushed profusely as Danté looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I had always heard my father use that term and I would watch, as my mother would swat at him for cursing in front of us kids. I hadn’t brought the fact that Danté was hurt into the equation, I had always crawled down the Five-foot wall of rock when I came here for the water and a bath.

"I’m sorry Danté I didn’t think that far, I just thought that you would like to take a bath. I didn’t think about the fact that we would have to get down there."

"How did you find this place?" Danté asked. "I mean I would have never found it even if I was looking for it."

"I um kind of stumbled into it." I told her trying to gloss over how I had actually found the pond by literally falling over the side of the small cliff that we were now standing on.

"Uh huh, let me guess you found this place the same way we met right?"

"Uh yeah," I said. "Come on I think we might be able to get down there if we go this way."

I led Danté down about a quarter mile. The ground had started to slope down and we were finally with minimal effort able to get Danté down to the water.

I sat her down on the little strip of sand that surrounded the pond and we both began to eagerly undress. I was so excited that I didn’t think about being naked in front of my friend in fact I had already stripped to my underwear when I turned to help Danté and noticed that she had done the same.

‘My god she is beautiful’ my mind screamed so loud in fact that if not for the fact that Danté had not looked up I would have thought I had said it aloud. Danté had just finished unbraiding her hair and now sat in only her underwear and with her long black hair blowing in the wind. Although Danté was still quite pale and weak from her wound I could tell hat she was a very strong woman. The arms that encircled her legs in front of her looked very strong. I watched the muscles of her stomach ripple as she breathed.

"Gabby?" She asked brusquely. I noticed her brow was arched and I wondered how many times she had called my name. "Are you ready?"

"Oh yeah, I’m ready." I told her. I allowed her to use my shoulder for balance as we stepped into the pond. "Ooh," she breathed as she stepped into the pond. Her warm skin immediately getting goose bumps as it came in contact with the cool pond.

By the time we were near the center of the pond Danté was barely chest deep in the water but it was already up to my chin. "I wish we had soap," she said as we both attempted to bathe in the water as best we could. "Here if you wash my hair I will do yours," she said. Not waiting for the answer she turned her back to me and dipped her long hair back into the water and then back up again. Since we didn’t have any soap I just kind of ran my hands through Danté’s silky hair to get the tangles out, and to rinse the sweat from her hair.

I was enjoying washing Danté’s hair. It wasn’t even just the fact that her hair felt great in my hands, it was also the sounds that she made as I massaged her scalp.

"Feel good?" I asked her after about five minutes of massaging her scalp.

"Umm hmmm," was her only answer.

I was struggling to control my breathing as I ran my fingers through Danté’s hair. My stomach tightened the first time I heard Danté’s barely audible groans of pleasure. Suddenly I felt the urge to turn Danté around and kiss her… kiss her shoulders… kiss her body… kiss something.

I inhaled sharply. What the hell am I thinking…? Danté doesn’t feel that way about me and I shouldn’t feel that way about her…should I? I continued to massage Danté’s hair as I let my mind wander over the events that had led us to our current location. I remembered my reaction to Danté on the ship and how just the thought of her made me burn with anger…or was it something else that I mistook for anger? I wonder how I’m going to make it through my hair getting washed.

Danté’s wounds continued to heal very quickly. In no time at all, she was moving about without any help from me. She had come up with the idea to notch the boat for every day that we were on the island. We had been on the island for nearly two months when Danté decided that we should move closer inland. Danté had taken to exploring the island while I wrote in my memory books in the boat. It was she in fact that determined that we were on an island, which accounted for why we had not seen anyone since we landed here.

Danté had also managed to find the stream that was the original source for the pond that we bathe in. Danté was ecstatic about the stream she has this thing about not bathing in the same water that she drinks. I secretly was ecstatic about the stream as well but I didn’t tell her that.

It had started to get unbearably hot on the island. The trees Danté explained to me protect the areas near the water from direct sunlight. So it is much cooler there. She felt that we should move closer to the water and build some type of shelter.

"But Danté what if a boat should come and we don’t…?" Even after two months I still believed that we would be found I know that my family would not stop looking for me until they had conclusive evidence that we were dead.

"I have thought about that," she answered. I could stack a large pile of kindling over there non those rocks and if we see a ship we can light it. "And I figured if we buried the boat in the sand straight up in the air and maybe tie some cloth from my dress on a cane pole it would alert anyone searching don’t you think?"

After considering it for a moment I agreed. It was beginning to get too hot to stay on the beach without any protection from the sun. Besides it would be nice to not have to walk fifteen minutes just to get a bath and a cool drink.

"Well, where will we sleep?" I asked petulantly. I’m not sure why I was giving her such a hard time but I was in a bad mood.

"We will have to build shelter. There are plenty of trees and things that we could use closer to the stream."

Danté buried most of the bow of the boat in the sand until she was sure that the boat would not blow down. She did the same with the cane pole. She tied a piece of what was left of her dress on to the end of the pole and gestured that we should be on our way.

I walked a few paces behind Danté as I usually did when we went on our excursions for food. It was the best way for me to observe her without being observed. Danté it seemed had a modest side to her, where I had long since removed my dress and pretty much went about my days in my slip. Danté had hung on to what was left of her dress like a small child with a security blanket. Even more curious was the fact that she didn’t seem to mind losing the dress in order to swim but immediately after she would put it back on. I would pretend to lie on the rocks and sleep so that I could watch Danté cavort naked in the water

Both of our bodies had gone through some changes since being on the island. Just the gathering of food required strength. She had always been somewhat slim but her body seemed to be getting stronger because of the things that we had to do to stay alive until we were rescued. Both of us probably would be unrecognizable at first to our families. Danté and I were about three shades darker than we had been before reaching the island. I had lost any baby fat that I had and my hair was sun bleached so it was twice as light as it used to be. Danté’s hair was pretty much the same color as it had always been however she wore it either straight down her back or braided in one long plait that reached her waist. Neither of us had bothered to put our hair up since we had been on the island after all there really was no one to be scandalized but each other. And I secretly loved the way Danté looked with her hair flowing free. I would sometimes grab a small wild flower and stick it in her dark hair or make a reef to go around her head. She would smirk and roll her eyes at me but I noticed that each time she would leave the flowers in until we went to sleep that night. I did notice however that even when the island was at its warmest she would still refuse to take her dress off.

Danté lead me back to the area a few paces from the stream. "I was thinking here," she pointed to a fairly flat area that was in the shelter of two of the largest trees in the area. "I figure it is close enough to the stream and the pond that we should have no problem getting to either." She looked at me as if we were looking at prime real estate. I shrugged and said, "This will be fine."

"Ok then," she said quietly. "I am going to go look for some building materials. Why don’t you write, …or draw or something? I should be back soon."

"Well would you like me to go with you?" I asked. "I can carry something’s back as well."

"No," she answered too quickly. "No I should be fine. I’ll be back momentarily." She was gone before I could say anything further.

I sat down under the shade of the nearest large tree and pulled out my memory books to write in. I sat for a moment with a blank page in front of me thinking about the last few months on the island. Danté had never spoken of rescue with me once. In fact if I were to mention something about it she would answer as quickly as she could and change the subject. Even more curious was the habit she had developed of going into the jungle on her own. It wasn’t as if there was really much to be afraid of but she would come back and seem to be calmer and I couldn’t figure out why she needed to get away like she did.

Danté came back into the clearing in about an hour, as I predicted she was much calmer than she had been. She was dragging behind her some small trees to make the frame of our shelter. I jumped up to help her receiving a small grateful smile, which I accepted as a thank you. It took nearly a week but we finally had a fairly strong shelter that would hold against the gusts of wind that sometimes swept over the island. Danté said that based on the lushness of the vegetation she wouldn’t be surprised if it rained a lot in the winter months.

Surely she didn’t think we would be here that long did she? Danté looked at me and said of course not but she didn’t seem convincing. She went back to wrapping the strong vines that she had cut down out of some of the trees.

We had been on the island for five and a half months now and pretty much our routine was set. We would wake up in the morning and swim in the pond washing out our few remaining clothes. Danté would then go out foraging for fruit in the jungle, which she was way better at then I by the way. I remember the first time I saw her climb a tree I was in shock. She simply jumped as high up on the tree as she could get then wrapped her foot around the back of the tree and used her strength to pull her self up the rest the way. She would drop down two or three coconuts and then shimmy down quicker than she had ascended. It was amazing but like everything Danté seemed to take it all in stride.

Danté never ceased to amaze me. One of the many skills that she had was fishing. She had somehow created a net out of some of the many strong vines that hung in the forest. And almost on a nightly basis she would bring back to the hut either a large fish or lobster. Sometimes as a treat she would dive down to grab some of the large oysters that were prevalent on the ocean floor. She always made sure that we had enough to eat and for that I was grateful. It was after one of these fishing trips that Danté came back in what was to become her standard dress.

She had taken what was left of her tattered dress and torn it into two large squares. She had wrapped it around her slender waist in a sarong stile fashion leaving her long legs free. The other piece she wrapped around her chest. And this is how she walked out of the forest carrying a string of fish. God! I thought and looked away quickly. I didn’t know where to put my eyes. She was so beautiful. Her skin like mine had tanned due to the effects of the tropical sun. Causing her blue eyes to stand out even more in her darkened skin. Her hair although usually braided in a ponytail down the center of her back to keep from snagging on the foliage as she walked was now hanging loose almost to her waist. Her flat tummy was sculpted as if in stone. I had to turn away again as I noticed the wrap hung low on her hips just below her belly button. I took a deep calming breath.

"Am I making you uncomfortable?" Her question was so quiet that I almost missed it.

"Huh?" I asked and blinked as I looked into deep blue eyes.

"I asked if I’m making you uncomfortable with the way I’m dressed?"

"Um, no why would you think that Danté? Heck I have been running around here practically in my underwear since the day we got here."

"Yes but that’s because you used your dress for bandages and to pull me to shore." I had told Danté about the ordeal of swimming to shore over dinner one night. She had sat spellbound as I told her the story of how I outsmarted the sea.

"It’s just much easier to fish like this," she explained. "And besides there wasn’t much left of my dress anyway."

"Its ok Danté." I walked up to her and put my hand on her arm and immediately removed it as if burned. "I think you look beautiful," I told her and even managed to give her a little smile. She gave me a little one back and started to prepare the fish for cooking. Danté always cleaned and gutted the fish before she bought it back to the camp. She claimed she used the entrails for bait but I think it is because the first time I cleaned one of her catch I promptly threw up. I promised that that would never happen again but I don’t think she wanted to take the risk.

Danté grabbed the sharp stick that we used to spit the fish on for dinner. She then began to start the fire. It was one of my favorite things to watch her do. She told me that she had read in a book as a child how to do it. I found the whole process simply amazing.

Not too long after we reached the island I started to run out of matches. We had gotten down to the last three when Danté said she had an idea. She asked me if I still had the old tobacco can that I had used to gather rain water with. I for some reason had decided to keep the can and handed it over to her. She exclaimed with joy when she noticed that it had a lid on the bottom. "So what are you going to do with it?" I asked. "We are going to make fire with it." She answered with her cockiest smile.

"Watch and be amazed," she said like a road show Carney to a group of kids. She took my bag from me and pulled out what was left of the matches, some strips of my old dress, the tin can and the knife. I looked at it distastefully. And she told me not to worry that the fact that we had this knife is what would allow us to survive

I watched transfixed as she poked a hole in the lid of the tobacco can. She then took the strips of cloth and cut them into eight equal squares and put them in the bottom of the can and placed the lid on it. She then had me start what very well could be our last fire if whatever she was planning didn’t work. I watched as she placed the can on the edge of the fire until it got fairly hot. When she was satisfied that it was hot enough she removed the can from the fire with two sticks.

"You have to wait until there is no smoke coming out of the top." I nodded absently. I wasn’t sure what the purpose of this little exercise was but Danté was enjoying herself so I tried to pay attention. When the tin was cool Danté opened it and peered inside. She proclaimed the scorched fabric inside to be perfect for our needs.

"What needs," I asked her impatiently.

"Ahh patience little one. We will need a few things first. I need you to gather as much dry grass and little twigs as you can find. I’ll be right back, I need one more thing."

"Hey wait where are you going?" I asked her exasperated. I hated surprises and she knows it, she was stringing me along to drive me crazy.

"You’ll see when I get back she called over her shoulder."

Grumbling I went off to look for dry grass and twigs which by the way isn’t easy to find on a tropical island. Still fussing when I returned I noticed that Danté had already made it back and was kneeling beside our fire pit. Unfortunately the fire she had started with a match had already gone out and that left us with only two matches’ left. "Bloody hell." I yelled. "I should have added wood to that fire before I left." Danté smirked and told me not to worry about it; if her mind served her correctly we wouldn’t need those last two matches.

She had me put my dry grass and twigs into the impression that we use for our fires and then she added a piece of the charred cloth to the small pile. She called it ‘char’; I just nodded and wondered secretly if she had lost her mind. She explained that as long as we made sure to always make char we would be ok. Danté picked up a piece of flint that she had obviously brought with her from the stream. Then with the knife in the other she began to strike it at an angle against the knife and I watched shocked as sparks flew. Within a few minutes we had a small flame that we fed dry twigs to until it was a full-fledged fire. I looked at my companion with my mouth agape. "How did you do that?"

She gave me one of her patented smirks and answered, "I have many skills."

I don’t remember when I first started feeling sick but It was feeling tired all the time. Danté started teasing me about how late I was getting up or the fact that I got winded so easily while swimming. She would walk up to me and tell me I was getting old and that I had better start working out or I was going to go to pot. She would usually pretend like she was pinching love handles on my sides. Of course there was nothing for her to pinch. Neither of us had an extra ounce of fat on us due to our diets and the hard work needed just to survive. I would usually roll my eyes and tease her about something or other.

I didn’t tell Danté when my body started to really ache I didn’t want to scare her. I felt sure I just had a small virus of some sort. It had been a few days since I had gotten good nights sleep due to my aches and pains and I was really becoming frightened. I was easily winded and I had a constant headache. I lay awake one night contemplating whether to waking Danté to tell her that I was hurting but I found that I couldn’t move. Closing my eyes I drifted in and out of the dreams that had plagued me since we had been on the island. Dreams of my parents worried faces, the men responsible for setting us adrift, Danté’s face, as she lay lifeless in the boat.

At some point I thought I heard a beautiful voice singing to me comforting me and cooling me down. I heard Danté’s voice talking to me begging me to come back and not to leave her. I wanted to tell her that I didn’t want to leave but I couldn’t, I was just so tired.

I was drifting once again. I thought that I must have been dreaming because I could hear Danté talking to me. This was unusual in itself but I thought once that she was crying as well, since we had been shipwrecked she had never cried once. I awoke to find her head on my stomach her hair spread out across my body. I was able to weakly grab a tendril of her hair and give it a gentle tug. She gasped and raised red-rimed eyes to look at me with disbelief.

"Don’t cry." I croaked weakly before exhaustion won out and I dropped back into my dreams.

Slowly I felt myself surfacing once again. My eyes still closed I listened for a moment as she sang to me, I didn’t understand the words but it sounded so sad that I wanted to reach out to comfort her. I almost groaned as a cool cloth was placed first on my hot forehead and neck. Then over my shoulders and circling my breasts and finally trailing down to my flat stomach where it paused for a moment. Even in my weakened state I could feel the tension in Danté’s body as she contemplated giving me a more thorough bath.

Fuzzily I wondered if I should let her know that I was awake. Slowly the towel trailed down my stomach, over my hips and paused. I could hear Danté’s erratic breathing. Finally she took a deep breath and placed the cool cloth to my sex and gently cleaned the area. Danté’s caring ministrations went right to my core. I unconsciously groaned. A quiet sobbing is what finally bought me completely into reality. Opening my eyes I cold see the pained expression on Danté s face as she stared down at my nude body. With stunning clarity I realized how uncomfortable she was. I opened my mouth to speak but before I could she blindly pulled the now tattered shawl up to my shoulders. Still unaware that I was awake she stood and rushed out of the hut. I wanted to call out to her, to tell her that I was ok. But my voice was too raspy to carry. Frustrated tears pricked the back of my lids and I sank once again into my healing oblivion.

The next time I awoke Danté was there. She smiled at me when I opened my eyes pressing the cool cloth to my forehead. This time when she cleaned the sweat from my body she avoided my nether regions all together.

"What’s wrong with me?" I asked in a raspy voice.

"Shh don’t talk." She admonished me gently. "As near as I can tell you got some type of pneumonia. I am not sure but I think we may have complicated things with our diet."

"But we eat good." I rasped.

"What did I say about talking Gabrielle?" Danté asked sternly. She continued to wipe the sweat from my naked body as she explained her thoughts. "You’re right we do eat healthy things but we may not eat everything that we need to stay strong. For one we don’t have red meats. While you were sick I had time to think about the things that could replace some of the stuff that we are missing in our diets. I found some potato like roots and green plants that should help with a lot of it. I boiled the greens in with the potatoes and strained it. I have been feeding it to you since you have been sick and I think it helped." Danté showed me the lush greens and the ugly looking orange roots that she called sweet potatoes. I was amazed that Danté’s concoction had not killed me let alone helped me to recover.

But recover I did and with the added greens and potatoes in our diets both of us confessed to having more energy. During my recovery process Danté was an attentive companion. However the better I got the more of a distance she seemed to need to put between us. I wondered if some of the things that I remembered her doing and saying while I was sick were nothing more then wishful figments of a feverish imagination.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Our days were filled with the endless search for food and better shelter. Danté was an excellent provider. Neither of us ever wanted for anything to eat or drink there was always fresh food in the hut and she had developed an affinity for fishing. Danté was always adding something new to or little hut. It couldn’t really be called a little hut anymore. She had split the hut into three large rooms, two bedrooms and a master living space with a little indoor fire pit, as well as several windows that could be lowered like shutters if it rained. I had been a bit disappointed when she built our rooms because up until then we had slept close together for warmth. I did like the privacy of being able to write with out worrying about her taking a peek, since I mostly wrote about her anyway. Neither Danté nor I ever mentioned rescue anymore it was just too depressing. We have been on this island for 1 year 4 months and 13 days with no sign of rescue in sight.

There is something wrong with Danté. There has been something wrong with her for a while but it seems to be bothering her more now. She has always been somewhat of a loner. And I have always tried to respect her need for solitude when it comes up. One moment we would be laughing and teasing each other and the next she would tell me she was going for a walk and be gone in a flash. I will admit that at first it hurt my feelings but after awhile I didn’t notice it anymore it was just Danté being Danté. And she always came back within an hour or two with something special for me like a pretty flower or a shell or an interesting rock or some honey. I never asked her where she went and she never volunteered the information.

The last five or six months Danté’s excursions have increased in their frequency and length of time. Danté had also started getting quieter and quieter. Not that she was ever the best conversationalist in the world in fact I usually dominated our conversations but she was even more quiet then usual. Oh she still would not pass up a chance to tease me if faced with the opportunity. But there was something that was different; she just seemed distracted. I had pretty much chalked it up to homesickness until recently when her normal once a week excursion increased to two to three.

I made the mistake of asking Danté about where she went on these occasions and she immediately jumped down my throat. She said that I was too touchy and clingy, and that I talked too much for my own good and it was no wonder a body would need a break from me every blue moon. The outburst was so unexpected and so unwarranted that I immediately got teary eyed. Now I will not lie and say that Danté and I have not argued before. In fact we argue quite regularly sometimes just to have a change of pace. But Danté has never come out and attacked me verbally like she did on this particular day.

I nodded and turned away from her and headed towards my side of the hut before Danté could see me burst into tears.

"Gab…rie…lle I’m sorry. Please let me explain." She called from behind me as I quickened my step. I walked into my side of the hut and closed my door. The door was made off bamboo bound together with vines. I remember watching Danté build the doors. I had watched as the muscles in her upper body flexed as she tugged and pulled the vines weaving them in and out of the bamboo to get a tight fitting door. Although the doors would not hold up against someone if they really wanted to get in, they gave us both privacy whenever either of us wanted it.

I heard her stifle a curse in French as she reached my closed door. "Gabrielle please let me talk to you. I want to apologize."

"No. Why don’t you go on your walk? In fact," I opened the door and told her angrily, "If you want to be alone so much why don’t I move out and build my own hut? That way you don’t have to listen to me talk all the time. How is that?" I asked her snidely as I moved around my room collecting my meager belongings; which took all of a few seconds. All too soon I was ready to go. "Move please." I ordered angrily.

"No," she said flatly, her expression blank.

"What do you mean, no?" I asked her angrily.

"No," she answered again just as flatly.

I decided that if she wouldn’t move then I would go right over her. Mind you Danté had a good 15.4 centimeters (7 inches) in height on me but at that moment I was too angry to care. I attempted to get by her but she continued to stand stubbornly in the doorway blocking my exit.

"MOVE!" I yelled at her angrily pushing at her shoulder. I was livid at this point and all I wanted to do was to get her out of my way. All I wanted was to get out of there so that I could lick my wounds in private. A tear slid down my cheek and I angrily brushed it away. "Look you big dumb ass I am giving you what you want so why don’t you get your stupid ass out of my way. I don’t even want to be around you." I knew I was being childish and mean but I was to angry to care.

I was nearing the end of my rope. I decided that I was going to run into Danté with everything that I had. I even went so far as to put my shoulder down like a policeman going through a door. I hit her solidly in the chest but it barely moved her. She wrapped her long arms around my body and picked me up. We both went crashing to the floor. She landed on top of me with a thump. "LET ME GO!" I screamed on the brink of loosing it all together. I knew that if I didn’t get away soon I would embarrass myself by breaking down and crying.

"No." She said quietly into my hair and I lost it as she held me captive in her arms. I was so incredibly angry with her that I was almost glad that she was holding my arms I wanted to strangle her for hurting me, and making me humiliate myself in front of her by crying.

"Damn you. Why can’t you let me go?" I sobbed into her shoulder. Her answer was barely audible because her face was buried in the crook of my neck.

"Because I can’t." Her voice was filled with so much sadness and pain that I felt bad about what I said to her. I continued to sob for what seemed like ages before I fell into an exhausted, uneasy sleep in Danté’s comforting arms.

The next time I opened my heavy sticky eyes it was nighttime. The mat beside me was still warm from where Danté had been laying. She couldn’t have been gone for very long. I got awkwardly to my feet trying to shake off the headache that I had gotten from all of the crying I had done.

I started walking in the direction that I thought she had headed in and pretty soon I had picked up her trail. She was headed to a part of the island that I had never gone to. She told me that there was another pond there just like the one near us but that was about it. I followed her for nearly a half-hour. Surprisingly she didn’t seem to know I was behind her.

Her mind was elsewhere on this night. You see Danté and I played a game in which we would try to sneak up on each other secretly. It was a silly game but there wasn’t much else to do on the island but play, eat and sleep. I was never able to sneak up on Danté although she caught me rather regularly and when she did she would tickle me until I thought I would wet myself. Those days would have me cursing at HER in French as I ran into the bush to relieve myself. She would lie there cackling at me from her position on the ground.

Tonight her mind obviously was on something else because I could tell by the set of her shoulders that she didn’t know I was behind her and I wanted to keep it that way.

Water was cascading from somewhere. I watched in amazement as Danté peeled off of the wrap that covered her breasts. The one covering her hips followed soon after. The whole time Danté kept walking straight ahead dropping her clothing on the ground as she went. I watched as she neared the edge of what appeared to be a cliff, she stood there for a moment then to my utter horror she dove over the edge.

I inhaled and stood there horror stricken, it was a few seconds before I could get my feet to move. "Oh god, oh god Danté no!" I tore after her. Just as I reached the edge Danté’s head popped up from the pond below. I stared down at her in awe as she pushed her wet her hair straight back on her head and dove down into the water again.

I moved away from the edge of the cliff. I didn’t want her to know that I had followed her. So I lay down on my stomach and peered over the edge as Danté dove and played in the water. There was a small waterfall that cascaded into the pool below. The loud crashing of the waterfall had probably kept Danté from hearing me scream out to her when she dove off of the cliff.

‘This is where you go Danté?’ I thought. ‘But why, why here? It doesn’t make sense; you can swim in the pond near the hut. Why would you walk this far just to swim?’ I scoot back over the cliff so that only my eyes where peering over the side. Danté appeared to be done with her swim. I watched as she moved to a shallow end of the pool. I couldn’t see what she was doing but she stumbled about waste deep in the water and stopped. She paused there for what seemed like forever her head down and from the way her shoulders were moving I could tell she was either breathing hard or crying.

I wondered if she had somehow hurt herself. She all of sudden threw her head back and I was given a partial view of her body. Her left hand was squeezing and rubbing her breast while her right was underneath the water apparently doing the same thing to her nether regions. I watched with my mouth hanging open as she rubbed and twisted her own nipples and did god knows what else to herself under the water.

Now I was not so naïve that I didn’t know what she was doing. Most of my sex education had come from my grandmother who after a few hot toddies was only too willing to discuss several inappropriate topics with a 14-year-old girl. I would also sneak into my father’s study and read some of his medical books on human anatomy. Well I didn’t exactly read them so much as look at the pictures. I remembered I liked the pictures of the female breasts the best. And how for the first time in my young life I didn’t mind so much if I got them. Danté’s breasts were even better than the pictures in my father’s books. They were twice as big as my own with dark brown nipples. I watched as she rubbed her breast and I couldn’t help wonder what it would feel like to have my own hands touching her.

I was shocked by what I was seeing, feeling, and thinking. I watched slack jawed as Danté Courtier who in my mind was the most beautiful woman in the world stood in a pond… and well… touched herself. This was something that my grandmother said was for the lower class. Sex was something that happened between a man and woman that were married and then only when they were trying to conceive children. One must never touch ones own private parts in this way. At least that’s what my grandmother told me. My grandmother also told me that there were people that wanted to be with the same sex as themselves. She said they were sick people and although not to be hated they needed to be put in to hospitals where they could be helped. My mother said that my grandmother was getting senile in her old age but I couldn’t help but wonder if I was in need of a hospital. Right now I was wanting with all my might too not only touch myself, but also Danté Courtier.

Danté’s movements were now becoming more and more frantic. I could see that her eyes were closed and her lips were moving. I cursed the waterfall that kept me from hearing what she was saying.

From my vantagepoint above her I watched as Danté’s whole body shook then slumped forward. She stood there in the water for almost five minutes as her breathing calmed. I watched her slowly as if in a haze bathe herself before stepping out of the water.

She moved as if walking through a fog, almost as if she wasn’t feeling very well. I suppressed the urge to go to her. I knew to go to her now would be disastrous. Danté would hate the fact that I had not only followed her, but also I had witnessed what she had been doing.

She sat down next to the pond staring into the water with her arms wrapped around her long legs. She was obviously thinking hard about something. I watched as the emotionless face suddenly crumbled before my eyes. Danté’s body shook in a sob that I could not hear. She laid her head down on her knees, her body continuing to rack with the force of her powerful sobs. I hated to see Danté cry. She was in a great deal of pain now and I didn’t think it was because of our little argument earlier. I wanted so badly to go to her but to do so would probably destroy the trust that we had built. I needed to trust that she would come to me if she needed to talk. I backed carefully away from the edge of the cliff and turned back the way I had come.

I made it back to the hut with no trouble. I lay down and closed my eyes and practiced pretending to be asleep, making sure that I had left the door open in the hopes that Danté would return to sleep beside me. I turned on my side and waited for her. About an hour later I felt rather than heard her enter the hut. She stopped at the entryway of my room and just stare at my back for a few minutes. I wanted so badly to speak to her but I wanted to give her space if she needed it. She stood in my doorway for what seemed like forever before finally moving away and entering her own space. ‘Danté why can’t you talk to me?’ I wondered.

I lay there, deep in thought for hours about my dark haired friend and what I had witnessed. Whatever was eating away at Danté was causing her a great deal of pain and unless she talked to me there was nothing I could do to help her. I heard Danté’s breathing even out and so I too tried to get some sleep. Sleep was a long time in coming however; when it finally did it was filled with disjointed dreams of Danté crying out for me to help her.

The next morning I had a hard time getting up. Ok, I will admit that I always have a hard time getting up, but today was worse than normal. I finally dragged myself up off of my mat and grabbed two bananas off of the bushel that Danté had evidently hung on the wall of the hut while I was sleeping. She was always doing things like that. I stopped suddenly already half way through my second banana. I realized then that I had never thanked her for taking such good care of us. It wasn’t just the way she would always forage for plenty of food for us but she would do thoughtful things like digging up clams and turtle eggs for special treats when I wasn’t expecting them.

She would also sometimes climb up this monstrous tree so that she could bring me honey from a huge beehive that resided there as a treat. I had watched her get ready to climb the tree once amazed that she was actually going to do it. Danté tied a strong vine around one of her ankles and then after looping it around the tree’s trunk she tied it to the other ankle. She did the same with her hands. Then she jumped, and with sheer force alone, I watched her drag her body up the tree. Her feet wrapping around the tree with every pull her thighs gripping the trees rough bark as she went. Her thighs must be really strong I thought innocently then felt myself turn red from embarrassment. The heat seemed to pool in my own thighs. By the time I got myself under control Danté was back with the piece of honeycomb. I scolded her as I devoured my treat for being so careless. "What if you fall? Or get stung by those bees Danté?" Her answer was a cocky smirk and a shrug. I would of course offer her some of the honey. She would always decline any of it since she new it was my favorite.

I always thought that we were equals here on the island, although Danté did most of the hunting for food now. It was more because she enjoyed it than anything else. For our first few weeks on the island it had been my job to not only forage for us but also cook and take care of Danté’s wound. After Danté got better she enjoyed exploring the island. By the time we had been there for six months she knew the island inside and out. It was a fairly small place you could walk from one end to the other in less than three hours.

I sat on my grass mat pretending to write as I thought about what I would say to her when she returned. I knew that even attempting to bring up what I had witnessed was completely out of the question. My concern was for why she had been crying and if something other than us being stuck on this island was bothering her. It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps I was doing something to make Danté unhappy. Perhaps she was tired of my being around. I enjoyed Danté’s company and conversation, as sparse as it may be, immensely and had naturally assumed that she felt the same about me.

Was I getting on her nerves maybe? She had said that I was too clingy and touchy. Was I? I thought about when we would talk. I could not help but put my arm on her leg or on her arm when I talked to her. I mean she was so darned quiet I wanted to make sure she was paying attention. I would often be telling Danté a story or talking to her about something or other and I would notice that she would be sitting stiffly. I would then continue what I was talking about but I would rub her back or massage her shoulders.

‘Oh gods’ I thought to myself. ‘I am touchy and clingy.’ I sat there with my mouth open trying not to cry. I already knew that I talked too much, Mother always said that was the reason I let my mouth hang open. Just in case I wanted to run my mouth about something, I already had a head start.

I tossed my memory book aside. Putting these thoughts in my memory books was painful to say the least. I walked outside the hut contemplating whether or not I should go and try to find Danté. Something told me that she needed to be alone for a while.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning our hut and weaving new floor mats for Danté and myself to sleep on. Towards the evening I went to Danté’s favorite fishing spots to catch some dinner. I caught enough for a both of us and picked up some fruit as well. I waited for Danté but she did not return. I cooked the fish and ate it. I placed the fruit in the corner of the hut for Danté if she should come in later and cried myself to sleep.

The next morning there was still no sign of Danté. It didn’t look like she had even been near the hut. I thought about going back to the waterfall to make sure that she was ok but I decided against it, already foreseeing a confrontation. I began to get angry with Danté for not coming home. We had always been able to forgive each other before. How could we move on from this if she refused to speak to me? The day wore on with me doing my chores and trying to stay as close to the camp as possible in case Danté returned. She never did. The next morning I decided to build a shelter on the other side of the stream. It was only fair that Danté have this one since she practically built this hut on her own.

It took the whole day to build a small hut in a suitable clearing on the other side of the stream from Danté. If we were careful we would not have to see each other much. The thought that Danté never wanted to see me again hurt. I missed her quiet strong presence immensely and I wasn’t angry with her. I just wished she would tell me what I had done to upset her so much that she would not come home.

It was getting dark on the island and Danté still had not returned. I finally had all of my things moved into my new accommodations. I decided I would go to the beach to see if Danté was there, I wanted to tell her that I understood and that she could go home now that I had moved out. I also wanted to make sure she was ok.

I spotted a very naked Danté with her back to me on a group of rocks that ran along the beach before disappeared into the ocean. Her back was almost ramrod straight as her eyes focused on something far out in the ocean that I could not see. I figured I would give up my career of spying on Danté and let her know that I was there.

"Danté?"

She whipped around startled. "What are you doing here?" Her voice was even deeper than usual and rough from disuse. My stomach clenched with the realization that she had been crying again.

"Looking for you." I told her truthfully. I climbed over the little rock formation and sat beside her. She immediately tied the sarong that she had been sitting on around her waist. I guess she had decided to forgo the top because she went back to staring at the ocean. Like the mermaid on board the Statendam, Danté’s long hair hid her assets from my prying eyes. It had started to rain lightly; she didn’t even seem to notice.

"Where have you been?" I asked her tentatively.

"I have been here on this damn island, where the hell else would I be Gabrielle?"

I sat there with her for a few moments trying to figure out a way to get Danté to talk to me without getting any angrier. Her long dark hair obscured her face and her back was still ramrod straight.

"Why are you here Gabrielle?" She asked again tiredly.

"I was worried about you Danté. I wanted to make sure you were ok." By habit my hand went to Danté’s naked back to emphasize my point. Danté’s body jerked as if I had hurt her. She jumped up.

"Don’t touch me," she yelled. "Why the hell can’t you keep your damned hands to yourself?"

I felt a tangible pain in my chest at Danté’s words. My mouth opened and closed a few times; I couldn’t breathe. "Fine!" I yelled right back at her. "I just wanted to tell you that I can’t live like this. You don’t talk to me anymore, you haven’t been coming home, you have been yelling at me and saying things…." Tears were welling up in my eyes, "… you have been saying some hurtful things. I’m leaving Danté." I told her resignedly. "I built shelter on the other side of the stream. You have been so unhappy lately and you have been taking it out on me. I don’t want to be around you when you’re like this …it hurts too much." I finished truthfully.

I waited for her to say something, anything, but she just looked back out to sea. So I rose from the rocks grateful for the rain that hopefully was disguising the tears that I couldn’t hold back. "I’ll see you Danté, ok?" I said softly not expecting an answer and not receiving one. I jumped down off of the rocks and started walking up the beach determined not to look back as the warm tropical rain pelted down on my head.

I let the sob that had been threatening to come out back at the rocks go. I felt like my heart was broken. I cared about her so much and it was as if she couldn’t stand to be around me anymore. I felt as if someone had stuffed my chest and throat with cotton; this was unbearable.

I continued to walk up the dimly lit beach hoping the soft rain could somehow cleanse this pain.

"Gab...rie…lle!" The scream was almost primal, demanding that I turn around.

Danté had apparently come after me. She looked like a force of nature with her hair flying around her head like it had been given a life of it’s own. With only the sarong tied around her waist she looked positively…scary.

I turned and ran. I’m not sure if I ran because I was afraid to let her see me cry or because I was afraid of the wild woman behind me. I just knew that if she caught me I would not be strong enough to leave her. I also knew that it was time to admit some truths to myself if to no one else.

I was in love with her. I have been since the day of the mixer. It was part of the reason that I felt that I should live away from her; if she somehow figured it out she would hate me. ‘My god perhaps she already has. Maybe that is the reason she has been acting the way she has.’

I was suddenly tackled to the sand from behind. "Please." Danté rasped.

I sobbed I couldn’t hold it in this time as I lay there limply with Danté’s strong arms holding me prisoner for the second time in so many days. She let go of my legs and I tried to scoot backwards away from her. I just needed to put a little space between us. Danté must have thought that I was trying to get away from her again because she lunged forward again tackling me flat to my back.

I struggled with her for a moment but she quickly had me subdued holding my hand rigidly above my head.

"Please," she sobbed.

I froze. Danté was laying full on top of me, her hair hanging down over me. I could feel the muscled stomach pressing into mine moving erratically as Danté sobbed and tried to catch her breath all at the same time. I felt her heart slamming against her ribcage.

"I’m…so…sorry…please." She whispered. Her eyes begging me to understand what she couldn’t seem to say.

I lay beneath her quietly sobbing.

"Don’t cry, I’m so sorry," she whispered pushing my hair back out of my face. "I’m so sorry that I hurt you. Please don’t leave me." She begged broken heartedly, and then she lowered her head and kissed me desperately but gently on the lips. The kiss was so soft that I was afraid to move for fear that it would go away. I lay there beneath her stunned. Awareness slammed into me …hard.

Danté’s long toned legs were in between mine. My threadbare slip was not only pushed up around my waist but it was completely soaked. Danté’s pelvis and hips were pressed firmly against my most intimate parts. It felt wonderful. Danté was murmuring in French softly. The only words that I could make out were my name and please. Although, I had an extensive French profanity vocabulary, at this point I had never heard these words being breathed into my neck followed by the gentlest of kisses.

The hands that had only moments before held me captive were now gently caressing my wrist. Danté’s lips finally covered my mouth again ever so gently. Allowing me to push her away if I wanted to. I didn’t want to. I couldn’t help the moan that left my throat as Danté continued to kiss me gently and caress my wrist with her hands. Her body jerked against mine as she released my mouth with a gasp.

Danté pushed her wet hair back and for the first time I could see her face. She looked heartbroken. Her eyes held the same expression of longing and hunger that I remember from the dance. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

I stared into those hungry eyes for what seemed like an eternity before she took my mouth with hers again. This time she opened my mouth with hers; her tongue was doing wonderful things with mine. I couldn’t help it I moaned again deep in my throat.

This got the same reaction from Danté as before, her body jerked and she gasped into my mouth. The hands that held mine above my head released me and traveled gently down the sides of my torso pausing to caress hard erect nipples through the now nearly transparent material of my cotton slip. I shuddered with pleasure as her hot fingers gently grazed my nipples.

Her hands continued down my torso until she reached my naked hips. She paused there caressing my hips gently urging me to press closer to her. I gave into my own desires and pressed up into her waiting mound. She stopped kissing me and gasped into my neck as a hard shudder racked her body once again. The hand that massaged and caressed my left hip went to the knot that held her rain soaked sarong closed.

I reached to help her with the knot my hand covering hers causing her to still all movements with an inhaled breath. Thinking I had perhaps done something wrong I froze my own movement leaving my small hand covering her much larger one. I closed my eyes, afraid that I had unknowingly committed some faux pas. She was suspended above me, one arm rigid next to my shoulder, while the other gripped the knot of the sarong. She stayed like that frozen for a moment before I heard her voice speak. "Please Gabby…. Please…" Her voice broke and I realized that she had misunderstood when I tried to help her remove her clothing.

I removed my hand from hers and caressed the side of her face and then her wet silky black hair. I pulled her down to me for another kiss that left us both shaky and out of breathe. Danté rested her head next to mine on the wet packed sand. Her gasping breath warmly caressed my ear.

"Please…." She unashamedly begged again.

The plea was so soft that I almost didn’t hear it over the crashing surf and the gentle pelting of rain on the hardened packed sand.

I reach down for her right hand and give it a gentle squeeze and placed it over the knot. I then brought my hand up to her soft rain soaked back and finally to the back of her neck where I gently rubbed the tense corded muscle that I found there. I turned my head and whispered in her ear. "I…it’s ok …it’s ok love."

I felt Danté fumble with the loose knot that held her sarong and then lift up quickly to drag the cloth from between us. She paused rigidly above me looking down into my eyes. I looked up into her wild slightly dazed eyes and repeated "Its ok." I watched as her eyes closed and she lowered herself between my legs. Danté brought herself up my body until both of our sexes were pressed intimately against each other…. This felt so good…. We both uttered a simultaneous, "Mmmmm." And were still. I lay beneath Danté my arms and legs wrapped around her body pulling her as close to my body as I could get her. She shivered continuously as if cold. She lifted up and placed her hand between our two bodies. She adjusted the lips of her sex and came back down on top of me. I could feel her clitoris as it rubbed against mine.

I was acutely aware of the warm churning of my lower stomach as well as the silky wetness that was seeping between our bodies.

Danté began to slowly move her hips; nothing existed except the pleasure that she was bringing me. Each time she pressed into me I felt her hips quiver, I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. I didn’t want this feeling to end. I was vaguely aware of my own hoarse moans and whimpers but I didn’t care. There was no one else here to hear me and besides, I couldn’t stop myself if I wanted to.

I began to grind against Danté as she pushed herself against my wetness. I felt the hair covering our sexes tangle and the feeling of skin against skin as I opened my legs wider to allow her better access to me. She moaned loudly as her hips continued to tremble before each thrust almost as if she was trying to control the amount of pressure that she put on me. My hands that had been rubbing her back began to trail downward toward her backside. I grabbed Danté’s firm buttocks in both my hands and squeezed and massaged as she continued her gentle thrusts against me. It felt wonderful but I could tell that Danté was holding herself back, I wasn’t sure if she was afraid for me or herself but I wanted no part of it. I fell in love with the quiet strength and passion that was Danté Courtier and that is what I wanted. I gasped as I felt myself reaching the top of a peak that I didn’t know I was climbing. I instinctually gripped hard on Danté’s buttock’s with both of my hands and with all of my strength I pulled her roughly into me just as I pressed roughly up into her. She jerked her head back and screamed my name. We both went over the edge together and descended into a world of pulsing pleasure. I closed my eyes intending to only rest for a few moments.

I woke up reaching for Danté, only to find nothing but my empty grass mat. I jerked awake and looked around confused. I was lying naked in my side of the hut …alone; the privacy door was shut. I lay my head back allowing tears to pour down my face. Was it a dream? It seemed so real. I could still hear Danté screaming my name, as she collapsed on top of me after her orgasm. It seemed so real.

"Gab…rie…lle, what is wrong? Why do you cry… did I hurt you last night?" I was so distraught that I didn’t notice Danté opening the privacy door.

I looked into the concerned ice blue eyes of my beautiful lover as she knelt beside me. Danté was carrying a large hand made platter filled with nearly every fruit that the island had to offer as well as three different types of fish. The delicacies were arranged neatly on a thick piece of bark that Danté had cleaned and smoothed. In her other hand she held three of the large beautifully colored tropical flowers whose fragrant odor had been partially responsible for leading us to this island.

"I…I…" I stared at her helplessly. She was totally, unapologetically, and gloriously naked. She had obviously taken a bath for her long freshly washed hair shined as it hung to her waist.

"Gabrielle did I hurt you?" She asked again sitting the food and flowers down hurriedly and kneeling over me.

I shook my head no. "How did I get here?" I asked her still fearful.

"I carried you here. It was still raining when I woke up and even though it was warm I thought we would be more comfortable at home." Her voice was still filled with concerned so I thought I owed her an explanation.

"When I woke up I thought it was all a dream." I told her tentatively.

She smiled understandingly at me, and then she shyly looked at my naked body and said teasingly, "When I woke up this morning I wondered if some of it had been a dream too but then I smelled you on my body and I knew it was real." I blushed profusely at this and looked away.

"Are you hungry," she asked. The shy smile was still present.

"Yes I am." I answered her with a small smile of my own.

"This is beautiful Danté you didn’t have to do all of this". I told her as I sat up losing all modesty when food is put in front of me.

Danté’s eyes instantly moved to my breasts and she cleared her throat and said, "My pleasure," appreciatively.

"Want some?" I asked her teasingly putting some of the fruit up to her lips.

"Umm," she took it then shook her head. "You have the rest though I got it for you."

I nodded and happily devoured the whole plate of food while she watched and teased me about how she hoped it was enough. I told her haughtily that it would do for now. She got a good laugh over that. As we laughed and teased each other I marveled at the smile that kept spreading over Danté’s face. It was as if she was a different person. I had seen evidence of this Danté back on the ship. It was as if this happy go lucky person had slowly disappeared when we became shipwrecked. I vowed to ask her about it at another time. Right now I just wanted to enjoy this while I could.

After popping the last piece of fruit in my mouth I lend forward and gave Danté a soft kiss on the lips. I shyly whispered, "Thank you for being so sweet."

She smiled at me and I swear she blushed but I can’t be sure because her skin is so dark. She ducked her head, her fingers picking at pieces of loose twine in my mat. "Your welcome," she said quietly a small smile still present on her lips.

I decided to let her off of the hook as I stood to stretch. "I am going to go wash up." I looked down at my friend who was unabashedly looking at my body from the floor. "Want to come keep me company?"

She nodded and I helped her up. Not for the first time I cursed my short legs as I pulled Danté up to tower over me. She looked down at me as she caressed the side of my shoulders and well-muscled arms. "You don’t know how much of a torment your body has become over the last year," she whispered as she grasped my chin and tilted it up for a kiss.

"I could say the same of you my sweet." I gave her a slow once over thinking I was behaving like a wonton hussy and loving it. "I noticed your body as well; I think life here has been good for us."

She nodded and leaned in for another kiss. It was a few minutes before we came up for breath. "Oh god sweetheart we need to stop. I need to get a bath."

She just smiled and led me out of our home and towards the pond. I slipped into the cool water and she settled down on a rock to chat with me as I bathed. This was something we had done numerous times since we had been here on the island. I realized then that it had always been me on that very same rock trying real hard not to stare as Danté washed her l body. I would talk to her about anything and everything under the sun and she would always answer me with as few words as possible.

"Gabby," I was so busy talking that I almost didn’t hear her.

"Yes Danté?" I turned in the water to face her and noticed that she had a very serious look on her face.

"I… we need to talk." She said seriously.

She has changed her mind screamed my brain.

"Ok Danté I’m just about done here."

I walked out of the pond ringing the water from my own waist length blond hair. The island was always really warm so Danté and I pretty much always air-dried especially since we didn’t have towels.

She watched me emerge from the water. Her eyes taking in my whole body as the water ran off of it. My stomach lurch as she quickly looked away from me when I had reached her.

"Danté is something wrong?" I asked her. I heard the fear in my own voice and apparently she did too because she quickly stood up and engulfed me in a warm hug.

"No sweetheart, everything is perfect it’s just that if I keep looking at you I won’t get out what I need to say to you. You’re so beautiful." She told me again and kissed me softly on the mouth the whole time pressing my body into hers.

It was so heated that when we finally broke away from the kiss I was out of breath.

"Um …I see what you mean." I told her.

She looked at me for a minute and threw back her head and laughed. I loved to see her do that. That is my new goal in life is to make Danté Courtier howl with laughter at least once a day for the rest of our lives.

"Here do you want to wear this while your slip is drying?" she asked. She handed me the cloth that she usually wraps around her chest.

"Why Danté will we be going topless today?" I asked her cheekily.

And she grinned and gave me a wicked look. "I usually do when I’m not in camp anyway."

"I knew I was missing something in those excursions of yours." She looked down at me with a grin and I blushed as I remembered what had happened the one time that I did decide to follow her. She was looking down at me with a curious little smirk.

"Come on let me help you get this tied on little one and then I would like you to come somewhere with me."

I decided that I liked the feel of the cloth around my waist and my breasts free. Danté and I walked slowly through the forest. I was thrilled with the fact that she held my hand. Before it was I who always had to initiate contact with her. She seemed to be more then willing to hold my hand as we walked now. I was so wrapped up in this simple pleasure that I didn’t notice where she was leading me. It was only when I heard the sound of the waterfall that I finally stopped. "Danté I need to…."

"Shhh please. I want to share some things with you. I am not much of a talker. I would like to tell you what I feel now." She shook her head and closed her eyes. "What I meant to say is I want to tell you what I’m feeling. What I have been feeling for a while now. I need to explain to you why I am the way I am."

"Danté you don’t have to…." She shushed me again with a finger on my lips.

"Please little one I would like to do this my way." She looked at me until I nodded that I understood and then she led me to the edge of the cliff where we both dropped our sarongs. "Ready?" she asked. I nodded and we both leaped with a yell over the edge.

I surfaced with a gasp, "Aaaaaggggggg. This water is cold Danté."

Danté grabbed me around the waist and lifted me into the air. She had the biggest grin on her face. We swam for about an hour. Mostly we just played who can get who aroused the fastest before Danté called a halt to that particular game.

She led me out of the water and we both collapsed on the ground to rest. This area was covered with wildflowers creating a wonderful aroma. I must have dosed for a moment, because when I awoke I noticed that Danté was now sitting up. All I could see was her strong back as she faced the water in a similar pose as to when I had found her on the beach last night. I reached my hand out to touch her but I stopped myself. She inhaled and began to speak as if sensing my hand hovering over her back.

"I am not much of a talker little one so this is hard for me but there are some things I want you to know."

"My father died when I was 16 years old. He was an artist so we never had much money but we were always happy. After he died his parents asked my mother if she would bring us to London to live with them. My mother had to work two jobs and I had to watch my brothers while she was gone. She worried that we would get into trouble so she agreed and moved us all to my grandparent’s English countryside estate. As much as I enjoyed the beauty of the estate I soon became board. In fact the area was so rural that we rarely saw anyone else. We had been there for only a week or so when one of the upstairs servants Callinda asked me if I wanted to go for a walk with her. My brothers thought she was a looker so I felt flattered that she wanted to get to know me better."

"And get to know me she did. It wasn’t long before she started to hold my hand and kiss me and give me all sorts of compliments about how pretty I was." I interrupted her here.

"Surely you knew that already?"

"No I didn’t know Gabrielle. I was so tall and awkward. I was so busy helping my mother with my brothers that I didn’t have much of a social life. And Callinda knew that. One day on one of our walks she kissed me with such passion that it took my breath away. She told me that she needed me and was in love with me. So I let her touch me and do other things. It always felt good but there was always something missing. She wouldn’t let me take her maidenhood the way…the way that…umm she took mine." Danté fell quiet as I stifled a gasp. I looked at her broad back horrified as I realized the outcome of this story before she had even told me.

"It wasn’t long before I started to get suspicious so finally after one of our ‘walks’ I asked her about it and she told me that she couldn’t because a poor servant girl had to be a virgin if she ever expected to marry well."

"Oh Danté I am so sorry." This time I did touch her warm back and she jumped a little as my cool hand touched her but she continued the story.

"I was so stupid that I forgave her. I tried to understand, I even told myself that she was right. I didn’t even think at the time about the fact that she had taken my virginity with out a thought." Danté paused here and sighed resignedly. "Two weeks after that, I walked in on Calli and one of the stable hands having sex in the barn."

I let a tear slip down for the pain that Danté must have felt at the betrayal. "I’m afraid that I beat them both until they confessed that they had intentions on blackmailing me into giving them money. If I didn’t they would tell my grandparents and mother what I had been doing with the poor servant girl."

"I told them myself before Calli could get her talons into them. They were angry at first but they came to the conclusion that she had somehow seduced me against my will. So my grandparents gave them a large sum of money and kicked them off of the estate. They tried to comeback for more within a few months and when my grandfather refused they spread rumors about me being unnatural and that I had forced myself on Calli."

I leaped up and grabbed Danté from behind and pulled her into me. Her hot back sank into my chest as she cried her heart out to me. I waited as she released a pain that she had held inside for a long time.

When she had calmed down she continued her story. "Mother loved me and always would. My grandparents took the rumors hard. That is when my mother decided to take us to America. I don’t think my brothers ever knew what went on but within the year we were on our way. My grandparents had given my mother enough money to live well if we were careful."

"This is where you come in," she said softly. She turned her head to give me a small smile, her beautiful red-rimmed eyes looked into mine. I couldn’t help but lean forward and give her a gentle kiss. She smiled at me and in that moment I vowed that it would be the last time that I wanted to see Danté cry.

Danté turned back to face the water leaning more fully into me and continued her story. "I fell in love with you the moment you ran into me."

I gasped and she placed her hand over mine but she continued to tell her story. "I thought you were so beautiful and such a little spit fire. I enjoyed baiting you so that I could see those eyes crackle at me. I was in so much shock when Edward started to talk about you to Mother. When he started to talk about talking to your father about courting you I thought I would die. I had pretty much gotten used to the fact that I would never have you. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to take having to see you with Edward if you were to marry."

"I didn’t even know Danté. I would have refused anyway."

"Edward said… he said that you had drawn a picture of him in your memory book. I saw the picture too." She said it so hesitantly that it took a moment for me to make the connection

"OH NO." I said loudly. "No Danté the picture was of you." She looked at me with that eyebrow thing that she does. "It wasn’t even finished when either of you saw it, he must have assumed because of the eyes and the shape of the face. I hadn’t even seen Edward when I started to draw it. I finished it since we have been here. You can see it if you want. I have some others of you and I, that I would love for you to see as well."

Danté pulled me into her arms and whispered, "I would love to see them Gabrielle."

She turned around again. She seemed to have an easier time of talking if she didn’t have to look at me. That was ok for now; we would work on her communication skills later. I engulfed her in my strong arms and she pulled her legs up and seemed to just enjoy our contact for a moment.

"When we got shipwrecked here I was able to put most of my feelings for you on the backburner. We both had to concentrate on staying alive. Between me being hurt and us needing to find food and shelter. I was able to push the feelings to the back of my mind."

"But that only lasted for a few months. I knew the island like the back of my hand. It no longer was such hard work to find food and the hut was pretty much done. I was no longer nearly passing out from exhaustion and my thoughts started to get away from me again."

She paused then suddenly turned to me. "Has anyone ever told you that you’re a very touchy person?" she asked with a grin on her face.

"Um yes. I do believe that someone has mentioned that recently." I answered with an equally wide grin and a peck on the lips so that she knew that the incident no longer hurt me. Her grin widened and she turned around again.

"Aaannnywayyy…" She paused, "It was starting to get to me so I tried to stay away. I would explore the island so that I could be away from you for a while when I needed to. I thought that you would figure it out and hate me or be afraid of me so I tried to hide how I felt about you. It was on one of those trips that I found this place."

"Um Gabby…I would come here and…. Umm...."

"Danté I have to tell you something." It was time to confess about following her.

"No love let me finish please. I wanted you so bad that I was coming here two and three times a week," she said. I could tell she was embarrassed to tell me this even though I couldn’t see her face. I rubbed her back to show my support to her. "Anyway that day when we fought and I comforted you …I mean when I slept with you…I, you, …Um you cuddle in your sleep little one, did you know that?"

I shook my head no. And she continued her story, "Yes well you do. I…I had to lay there while you practically laid on top of me with your hands on my breasts. I just had to get away so I crept out of the hut and got here as fast as I could. I… released myself and was about to comeback to the hut when I saw your footprints near my clothes."

I inhaled, "You saw…"

"Yes," she answered with out me needing to continue. "I was so afraid Gab…rie…lle. I thought you would be disgusted, or worse scared of me after you saw that. So I stayed away I just needed to come up with some type of plan to make you understand. I had just come up with a solution when you found me."

"What was the solution?" I asked her quietly.

She turned and kneeled in front of me with her head down and when she looked up at me there was so much joy and hope in her eyes that I knew that I would be with this woman for the rest of my life.

"I would beg…" she answered with a tremulous smile. "I would beg you not to leave me then I would beg you to let me be with you." I watched her struggle not to tear up again. "I didn’t want to lose you Gabrielle and I would do anything to keep you from shutting me out. I am so sorry for everything. I wanted to tell you the whole story because I wanted you to understand that I never meant to hurt you. I thought I was protecting you …from me."

"Is that all of it?" I asked her. "May I speak now?"

She nodded her head slowly. I had to lift her chin so that I could look into her vulnerable eyes. " I love you too." She looked at me for a moment waiting for the rest but that was all that I had to say for once.

She looked at me in disbelief as I smirked back at her. The realization that our roles had changed dawned on use both at the same time and we burst out laughing. Danté had been talking for thirty minutes in order to tell me that she loved me. It took me two seconds to tell her the same. It was poetic justice and I considered that the debt for her incessant teasing of me had finally been paid.

"Come here," I pulled her on top of me. She kissed my lips as she covered me with her much larger body. We lay there in the sun with the rush of the waterfall and the sounds of the birds above us. It wasn’t long before both of our breathing had increased two fold. I gasped as Danté circled my nipples with her tongue. My back arched causing her to suck harder. She was pressing her thigh into me as she kissed and licked both of my hard nipples. Twice I neared orgasm and both times she would stop and whisper into my ear in French and English. "Not yet sweetheart," and she would still her movements until both of our heartbeats could calm down before she would pick up her licking sucking and gentle grinding. She was driving me crazy. Danté took both of my breasts into the palms of her hands and began to nuzzle my neck and ear. I was about to scream for her to get on with it when I felt her hand resting on the knot at my hip. She paused for a moment. I began to undo the knot to her sarong hurriedly and she did the same to mine. She raised her body above mine to remove my sarong and I did the same to her. This time instead of coming back down on me, as I desperately wanted she held herself suspended above me as if she was going to do a push up, her muscles in her biceps and triceps bulging with the effort of holding herself above me. She kissed my lips then moved to my ear. "If I do something you don’t like or are uncomfortable with...please promise you will let me know."

"I promise Danté."

She proceeded to kiss every inch of my upper body with soft little kisses that drove me crazy. When she reached the area right below my navel I began to get a little nervous. I was about to stop her when she said the one word that was to be my downfall for many years to come. "Please…" That word sent my heart into overdrive. I allowed her to continue to kiss my navel and hips and then finally my thighs. I looked down at the dark head between my legs and nearly fainted with arousal. I screamed when she finally touched me with her tongue. The first touch was very tentative. She tasted every part of me gently sucking and nibbling until I was almost in tears. Each time I thought I was going to go over the edge she would grip my hips to keep me from moving and stop what she was doing. It was me who was begging at this point. She rose up from between my legs and kissed me fiercely on the mouth. I could taste myself on her lips and I moaned.

"What do you want Gab…rie…lle?" she asked me huskily. As her hand continued to slowly torment me the way her tongue had been only moments before.

"I want …."

"What do you want my love?" Danté asked almost desperately. I understood she needed me to tell her what I wanted from her.

"I want to be yours…Please."

Danté was laying half on me and half off of me. I could feel her grinding her hot center against the muscle of my thigh. She quickened her pace and began kissing my sensitive neck and ears.

"Oh…god please Danté…I can’t …I can’t take much more …please!" I screamed and as I felt myself begin to fall over the edge into an abyss of pleasure Danté pushed her finger into me up to the first knuckle stopping at the barrier that was my maidenhood.

Wildly I attempted to make her go in further by trying to pull her forcefully inside of me but she was too strong and refused to be forced to go any further or faster.

In a moment of desperation I reached in between her legs and found the hot center that had been grinding against me She was so ready I knew she must have been aching. I opened her swollen lips and circled her little aroused nodule.

She continued to pump gently into me the pleasure was starting to become too much. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to concentrate on giving her pleasure. Her hips were moving desperately against my hand. I put my two fingers at her opening and pushed strongly into her. She screamed and jerked which caused her to push hard into me. My maidenhood was no more. I closed my eyes as tears slid down the side of my face from the pain. I had stopped my thrusting when she had entered me and we both lay there for a moment to catch our breath. The pain began to fade and I started to move against the fullness inside of me. I also began to thrust strongly into her. The pain was gone now replaced by pure pleasure. . I felt my orgasm start slowly at first as my muscles gripped around the fingers inside of me. Almost in answer to my own I felt the walls of Danté’s sex shiver she squeezed her eyes shut and deepened her thrust. When it finally hit I felt myself go numb. "Oh, oh, oh," was all I could say. I felt Danté totter over the edge as well and I followed her example by continuing to thrust into her even as she to succumbed to her orgasm.

We removed the boat and the obvious signs of our inhabitants from the beach years ago. Danté says that she thinks we have been here for about seven years but it’s hard to say because we stopped keeping count the day we made love for the first time. We decided that if not for this island we might not have ever found each other. This small patch of green land had become our world. Perhaps in the future the other world will be able to handle relationships such as ours. We hope so for the sake of others like us. I will spend the remainder of my life loving and being loved by the keeper of my soul. She is my island and I am hers.

©2000GabGold

Finis

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