the road. The sand glared at her through her sunglasses. She must buy some of those brown-lensed ones, she thought. They keep out the glare.
'Here we are,' Darleen announced. 'It's the brown house out there,' pointing toward a large beachhouse on stilts, separated from the other summer homes by fifty yards of sand. 'We bought all the land around the place, keeping our neighbors at more than arm's length. It gives us a lot of privacy, even though there are so many other people living nearby. Most of them are old and nearly ready to retire. We don't have much in common with them.'
Martin slowed the car to turn into the drive. He cursed to several bearded surfers standing near the entranceway, their thumbs out. 'I don't know how the hell they expect to get a ride carrying those boards with them,' he said.
The two boys waved the 'V' sign at them and smiled. They had no need for white convertibles, except for transportation's sake. No one in the car returned the greeting. Martin and Darleen didn't care and the other couple were too worried about their own plight.
'Come on,' Martin said after he stopped the car in the driveway. 'I'll show you two the boat.'
'I had better unload the car,' Greg replied.
'Okay. Darleen, you help him and I'll show Janet our little Kon Tiki,' he said, taking her hand forcefully and leading her down the stone path to the boathouse sixty feet from the cabin.
Janet held back as much as she dared. She was afraid to go anywhere alone with Martin, under the circumstances and kept looking back at her husband, hoping he would come with them. But he only watched her for a moment, then opened the trunk and began lifting out suitcases and groceries. Oh, well, Martin wouldn't dare do anything so soon, she thought. Not with her husband so close by.
She stood behind him as he unlocked the padlock that fastened the boathouse door. Another key opened the door on the lock, and he opened it, stepping aside for her to enter first.
For a moment she forgot her fears. A beautiful, thirty-foot sailboat lay in shallow water before her. The mast stood tall in the boathouse, its top thrust through a hole in the roof. She could see the canvas that would be folded back in order to let the tall spire slide out of its prison whenever it was ready to sail.
Martin watched her as she scanned the sleek lines of the sloop. 'It sleeps four comfortably,' he said. 'We might even give it a try while we're here. Darleen and I readied her for sailing last weekend. It's an experience you won't forget as long as you live.'
Janet didn't hear anything he said. She was picturing herself and Greg sailing away from Los Angeles, away from the entire civilized world on the boat, escaping from every problem that plagued them, particularly his embezzlement and her obscene affair with Martin that was threatening to destroy her.
Putting his arm around her waist, he pulled her to him for a second, 'Come on, I'll show you the inside. You'll like the cabin. Darleen decorated it.'
She held his hand as she walked down the small gangway to the shining mahogany deck. 'Eighty thousand dollars,' she heard him say. 'My wife's father was a reasonably wealthy man. He left her enough money to keep me from working the rest of my life, but I enjoy being active. It keeps me young.'
Her hand rubbed the smooth finish on the dark rail and cupped the shiny brass cover of one of the running lights. The boat seemed alive to her, ready to take off and fly across the mysterious sea. It rocked slightly as they walked across the deck and she was scared for a moment. It was nearly dark in the boathouse, the only light coming from a single window and a hole in the roof, which beamed a shaft of light dimly onto the deck.
She marveled at the simplicity of the lines that rose to the mast. Each had a job to do. She could easily imagine the sails set, full and billowing with the wind pushing them to their maximum as they pulled the boat through the ocean. She could feel the salt spray splashing at her sunburned skin as she tugged at the helm, trying to keep on course.
Then her dream broke as Martin lifted the cover that secured the hatch and opened the entrance to the ladderway. She didn't want to go below with him, but her love at first sight for the boat led her on. She wanted to see more and she strangely felt almost at home here in its grand simplicity.
The ladderwell was dark and the light from outside cast eerie shadows on the bulkhead as she descended. She was careful not to lose her footing and be embarrassed before the eyes of the beautiful boat, which she felt was her friend. Carefully she reached the bottom and stood still in the darkness.
'Wait here,' Martin said and walked across the cabin, his head slightly bent, to turn on the light. 'The other switch is temporarily out. It could get hairy at night trying to find this switch. A heavy sea could wreck an inexperienced sailor just trying to walk across the cabin in the dark.'
He continued talking, showing her the particulars of the living accommodations, but she did not hear him. Her eyes searched every corner of the cabin, devouring all of it. Though Darleen had designed the insides, it was entirely a masculine ship. Janet thought that this boat could never be called a she, it was all man; all strong, powerful man.
The woodwork seemed heavy in its darkness. The brass shined as only a man could have polished it. The boat had been given loving care by the Kellys and she found herself wondering how two people who loved a thing so much could be so cruel to other people.
A moment later, the answer became obvious to her.
She tried to stop thinking, when she watched Martin draw one of the bunks from the wall. It unfolded into a five by six foot double bed, complete with sheets and pillows. Oh, no, she thought, her mind recoiling as she watched him work. Not here, not now, with Greg and Darleen outside. He wouldn't dare!
Martin said nothing and made no move towards her as he completed his task and stepped forward to the bow and closed the door. Janet still did not move. She just could not let him take her like this as though she were just someone he had picked up moments before off the streets. She had to put him off some way until the others came. Her heart was beating like a drum and she breathed a short sigh of relief as he disappeared momentarily into the small closet-like toilet. It would give her time to collect her suddenly disorganized thoughts.
But then, after what seemed only an instant in time, she heard the toilet flush and saw the door open, Martin stood before her naked and then she knew there would be no escape. He was demanding her body now even thought he must know Greg would come looking for them in a few minutes.
Why? she thought desperately. Why does he want to do this. 'Martin,' she suddenly pleaded with him. 'We can't. Greg and Darleen will be down here soon. What if they caught us?'
'Don't worry about him. Darleen will see to it that he doesn't bother us.' He grinned obscenely at her from his nakedness in the dim light, his eyes cruel and unyielding.
Janet did not believe him, but felt powerless. She looked at his naked body and his organ hanging limply down from loins. She could see that it was starting to fill with blood, inflating itself with desire. She wanted to run but knew better. He would only make things worse for both she and Greg later on if she did not bow to his demands now.
Turning, she started slowly up the ladderway. Martin watched her, not moving, not saying a word. He knew what would happen. She reached the top, and stood still for a moment, thinking of the swelling penis that awaited her below. It wasn't right, but he had the upper hand she tried to rationalize, but knew even as she fought within herself, that she was lying to herself. She wanted him and nothing could change that. She took another step up and heard him laugh softly behind her as she mechanically pulled the cover over the hatch.
Slowly she turned around after securing the hatch with a hook, to keep intruders out. She descended the ladder back to the cabin where Martin still stood where she had left him. He was smiling arrogantly, his body silhouetted by the single light behind him. She wished he would turn it off but knew that it would be left on. It was one of his prices that he watch her succumbing to him, that he actually see her repulsion turning slowly to lust as he played upon her naked body. With instructions she began to unbutton her blouse. He stared at her fingers awaiting the moment when her breasts would fall free from their constricting cover and breath hungrily at the fresh salt air.
She hung the blouse on a hook by her head and removed her shorts and silk panties quickly at the same time. Then, hanging them beside her blouse, she stood silently for his inspection, knowing that he wanted to see her before he took her.
There would be no Greg to save her now and no way out. This was the man who had taken her in the most horrible, unthinkable ways and made her like it. He had humiliated her beyond all recall by simply telling her what to do, and making her blindly follow his instructions without protest. She had even stood before him in her own
