They found a deep, clear rock pool in a far and secret place. The
sunlight off the water dappled her body, exploding silently upon it like
the reflections of light from a gigantic diamond, as she cast aside the
two green wisps of her bikini, let down the thick rope of her hair and
stepped into the pool, turning, knee-deep, to look back at him. Her
hair hung almost to her waist, springing and thick and trying to curl in
the salt and wind, it cloaked her shoulders and her breasts peeped
through the thick curtains of it.
Her breasts, untouched by the sun, were rich as cream and tipped in
rose, so big and full and exuberant that he wondered that he had ever
thought her a child; they bounced and swung as she moved, and she pulled
back her shoulders and laughed at him shamelessly when she saw the
direction of his eyes.
She turned back to the pool and her buttocks were white with the pinkish
sheen of a deep-sea pearl, round and tight and deeply divided, and, as
she bent forward to dive, a tiny twist of copper gold curls peeped
briefly and coyly from the wedge where the deep cleft split into her
tanned smooth thighs.
Through the cool water, her body was warm as bread fresh from the oven,
cold and heat together, and when he told her this, she entwined her arms
around his neck, I'm Sam the baked Alaska, eat me! she laughed, and the
droplets clung to her eyelashes like diamond chips in the sunlight.
Even in the presence of others, they walked alone; for them, nobody else
really existed. Among those who had come from all over the world to
ride the long sea at Cape St Francis were many who knew Samantha, from
Florida and California, from Australia and Hawaii, where her field trips
and her preoccupation with the sea and the life of the sea had taken
her.
Hey, Sam! they shouted, dropping their boards in the sand and running
to her, tall muscular men, burned dark as chestnuts in the sun.
She smiled at them vaguely, holding Nicholas hand a little tighter, and
replied to their chatter absentmindedly, drifting away at the first
opportunity.
Who was that! It's terrible, but I can't remember - I'm not even sure
where I met him or when., And it was true, she could concentrate on
nothing but Nicholas, and the others sensed it swiftly and left them
alone.
Nicholas had not been in the sun for over a year, his body was the
colour of old ivory, in sharp contrast to the thick dark body hair which
covered his chest and belly. At the end of that first day in the sun,
the ivory colour had turned to a dull angry red.
You'll suffer/ she told him, but the next morning his body and limbs had
gone the colour of mahogany and she drew back the sheets and marvelled
at it, touching him exploringly with the tip of her fingers.
I'm lucky, I've got a hide like a buffalo/he told her.
Each day he turned darker, until he was the weathered bronze of an
American Indian, and his high cheek-bones heightened the resemblance.
You must have Indian blood, she told him, tracing his nose with her
finger-tip.
I only know two generations back/ he smiled at her.
