Chapter 4
When morning came, it was better. She'd had time to think and to reason her reaction to Valerie through and to sleep on it. Evelyn sat up in her bed and saw through the window that it was late again. The sun was high in the sky shining down on the boat and the serenity of the blue river. Her thoughts came easily to her, without the hysteria she'd felt last night.
She'd called Valerie a witch, ascribing the girl with power to cast a spell. Evelyn smiled to herself. That sounded ridiculous in the light of day. Valerie couldn't fascinate unless she had Evelyn's cooperation. Which meant that there was something in Evelyn's personality or past that had reacted in the right way to the girl.
Evelyn sighed deeply, refusing to believe that she'd ever had Lesbian tendencies. She knew it had to be something else--another manifestation of her powerful sexual urges, perhaps, the same volcanic passion that had made her go wild the first time.
The idea made sense to her. A heavy weight seemed to lift from her, and her spirits buoyed, because now she felt she had a weapon to fight back with. If she could keep her passion under rigid control, then she could control her reaction to Valerie's sensuality and open challenges in exactly the same way.
She came back from the window, laughing with a shaky sound, and reinforced the thought in her mind. She dressed calmly, planning how she would confront Valerie the next time, standing there in front of her, immune from the girl's attempts to fascinate her again. She would be stern. She would have to exert her maternal authority the moment Valerie tried to display herself again or make any suggestive remark. The girl was a spoiled brat. She would have to be treated like one. There was no other way. Perhaps through force some measure of respect might come.
She reached for the door knob and went down the short hall with a confident stride. She hesitated at the head of the stairs when she heard a feminine voice coming up from one of the rooms below. A worm of fear wriggled through her for a moment, and then she forced herself to go down. It was only Mary, talking on the telephone. The woman looked up and cupped the mouthpiece with her hand.
"Good morning, ma'am," she said. "It's for you."
"For me?"
"It's Captain Bates." Evelyn hesitated, then took the receiver. "Yes?" "Captain Bates, Mrs. Crenshaw," he said in his strong, energetic voice. "The mister always has me check in to see if he'll be using the boat."
"Well, I don't know, Captain," she said hesitantly. "Did you ask Mary?"
"Didn't get a chance to. Anyway, I thought you'd be the one to ask now, instead of her or Valerie. Especially the girl. She's put me on a few times. Not that I mind so much, since I'm getting paid for it, but it makes me feel kind-of stupid to show up when Mr. Crenshaw doesn't want me there."
"Of course, I can't blame you. Just a minute." She turned to Mary. "Did Mr. Crenshaw leave any word with you about the boat, Mary?"
"No, ma'am, but I don't see how ...
"Hi, everybody," Keith said, coming into the room. "What's the big conference?" His eyes smiled as they touched Evelyn's. Then they caressed her body knowingly. Her breasts tingled.
"Do you know if your father intended to use the boat today?" Evelyn asked quickly to disguise the sudden savage pounding of her heart. She was thankful that the boy didn't know how she felt.
"Are you kidding? Now would I--hey, is that the captain?" Keith grinned eagerly. "Let me talk to him a minute, will you?" He fairly grabbed the receiver from her. "Hi, Captain, how's the treasure holding out? Have you left any down there for me?" Keith talked excitedly, laughing often, leaving no doubt that he and Captain Bates were good pals.
"Mrs. Crenshaw," Mary said softly, gesturing for her to step aside with her. "Ma'am, he won't be using, the boat today. He told me he was flying to Tallahassee and wouldn't be back until tomorrow."
Evelyn looked at her as if stunned. "He what?"
"Didn't he tell you?" The old eyes searched her face.
"I ... yes, perhaps he did, and I'd forgotten," Evelyn said quickly, knowing she hadn't fooled Mary. She heard Keith laugh into the phone again and make excited plans. A metallic taste came to her mouth, and she swallowed it down. "Well, he certainly won't be needing the captain, then, will he?"
"I'll get some breakfast for you and Mr. Keith, Mrs. Crenshaw."
"Mary ... remember what I asked you to call me?"
"Yes, ma'am, but I just can't do that. I'm sorry."
Evelyn felt as if her legs were being chopped from under her in a swift series of machete strokes. Now she had lost Mary, too. She stiffened and mustered the small bit of decorum left to her.
"All right, Mary," she said. "You may get our breakfast now."
She watched the woman turn quickly toward the kitchen. She felt like running back upstairs in melodramatic fashion and crying her eyes out. She felt at that instant as if there were no use whatever in continuing to torture herself. Her life here was spiraling downward into the muck of masochistic hopelessness. Only Captain Bates accorded her any authority now, but she knew Artemus would see to that as soon as he returned.
"Evelyn?" Keith said. "What did you find out from Mary--he still has to know."
"We won't be needing him."
"Great! Hey, Captain, let's go," he blurted excitedly into the phone. "All right, I gotta eat something first. I'll be there in an hour."
Keith hung up quickly, his eyes dancing with excitement. Evelyn watched him and envied his powers of bouncing back.
"What was that all about?" she asked.
"The captain says he's got a friend's boat lined up, and he was going up the coast toward Sebastian to do some diving. Some kid found a Spanish coin on the beach again. The captain's convinced there's a wreck offshore there somewhere. He said I could go along and help him."
"That's fine, Keith," she said.
He looked at her oddly. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing."
"You sounded funny just then."
"Did I?"
"You're not sorry, are you--about last night?" She turned away from him quickly. "I said we would forget that, Keith, remember?"
He took hold of her arm. His wrist brushed Evelyn's breast, starting hot flashes through her body, then let go immediately when Mary came in with a serving tray and set their breakfast on the table.
"Count me out for dinner tonight, Mary," he said, smiling at her. "The captain and I are going treasure hunting."
Mary laughed at him good-naturedly. "You two are the biggest dreamers I ever met," she said.
"You can't find it if you don't dream about it, Mary. Who knows--maybe we'll find an old galleon full, of treasure and never have to come back. Would you miss me?" he joked.
"You know I would, you rascal. It'll be lonely enough tonight without you or your father here for dinner." She glanced at Evelyn and went back into the kitchen quickly.
"Huh?" Keith grunted, watching Evelyn sit down. "Dad won't be here?"
"That's what I'm told."
He looked at her. "Just you and Valerie?"
"Not if you hurry back."
"The hell with that," he said, lowering his voice. "Listen, Evelyn, you come with us."
"I ... I shouldn't, Keith."
"Why the hell not? What are you going to do around here all day, play games with Valerie? No, sir. I promised to protect you from her, remember? Who do you know around here?"
"No one."
"Then that settles it. Have you met Captain Bates?"
"Yes, yesterday."
"He's great, isn't he? Kind of dumb, maybe, but a good man. Give me the shirt off his back any time, which is more than Dad would do. Look, there's going to be him and me and a friend of his. We can fish or something while they're diving; go swimming. Bring your suit along."
"Keith, it'll look funny," she said quickly. But she was thinking about the heat of Keith's body pressed against her, the savage thrust of his penis between her thighs.
"No, it won't. The captain wouldn't give a damn. I'll tell him you were left alone here. It's the truth, isn't it? Come on, eat your breakfast so we can get going!"
She smiled happily for the first time that morning. "All right," she said.
Captain Warner gunned the boat up along the shallow coastal waters and shouted back to them over his shoulder. "Be there in another ten minutes."
Fresh air whipped across the afterdeck through Evelyn's hair and brought a flush to her cheeks. She sat in one of the swivel chairs and listened to Captain Bates' animated conversation.
"Ken says it happens to him every summer about this time. The tourists are gone, and he can't make enough charter fishing to see him through, so he rents out for cruises. That's why his boat's bigger than most fishers. He's got a cruise scheduled for next week over to Bimini, so I talked him into killing time with me looking for treasure. Keith, here, he's enough to drive me crazy on the subject, aren't you, old buddy." He laughed heartily and slapped Keith's knees solidly. "You gotta keep your eye on this boy, Mrs. Crenshaw, or he'll twist your arm off trying to talk you into something. Mine gets sore every summer."
He laughed again, and Keith punched him back. Evelyn closed her eyes against the sun and wind and smiled contentedly. It was just the kind of nonsense fun she'd hoped to have. Even Ken Warner was fun, though he was quieter than Captain Bates. He was close to fifty, with sandy hair and bleached eyebrows and a tough, leathery look to his tanned face. He cut the engines and began heading inshore slightly.
"Sure you don't want to try my idea, Bates?" he asked. "There's the cut."
"Doesn't matter to me, Ken. We aren't gonna find it anyway, but the fun's in the looking. I don't care where we look."
"What's his idea, Captain?" Keith asked.
"He thinks the treasure washes out to sea through the cut and then gets beached. I've heard stories the pirates went up in there to hide out from warships. There's plenty of places--shot through with little islands. But I don't know. Been lots of people looking over the reef here, and they haven't found anything. Maybe he's right. Sure, take her in, Ken, what the hell. I'll get the beers." He chuckled and ducked down into the cabin. They heard him banging around. He came back with four. "How about it, Mrs. Crenshaw--cold beer?"
"I'd love one," she laughed. "But only if you'll call me Evelyn. This formality can be carried too far, you know."
"Hell, Evelyn, I'm not formal. I'm just a dumb Florida cracker with a yen for the water," he grinned, obviously pleased. "You look more like Keith's girl than a missus anyway, so I'll call you whatever you want." He guffawed heartily and spilled beer on her thigh, turning back to talk to Captain Warner.
The water turned from green to indigo as the boat went through the cut and met the flow of fresh water that drained from the coastal areas. Islands with strands of pine and palmetto trees appeared. The boat chugged with a serene sound between them over the still water and then slowed to an idle. Evelyn watched Captain Bates prowl forward along the catwalk and dump the anchor over the side of the bow. The engines stopped, and there seemed to be total silence. Then birds sang from the trees around them, making her seem insulated from the rest of the world.
"Well, who's going in with us?" Captain Warner asked. "Want to try your luck, Evelyn?"
"I've never done anything but snorkel," she said.
"I've got a mask down there."
Captain Bates thumped onto the deck. "I'll get the gear, Pete," he said boisterously. "Look out, treasure, here we come!" He ducked into the cabin again and stripped off his pants and shoes, sporting an orange pair of swimming trunks. The air cylinders clanged as he brought them up. "You gonna dive, Keith?"
"I think I'll just swim around with Evelyn, Captain. I'd hate to get you mad by finding your treasure for you."
"Aaaah!" Bates growled, rumpling Keith's hair. He and Captain Warner strapped the tanks and masks on and went over the side, using a ladder. They hooted at each other a moment, and then left a track of bubbles rippling along the still surface.
"Well?" Keith asked, standing up. "Shall we?"
"Absolutely. But ... well, my suit's in my purse."
"Get into it, then," he grinned. "I'll watch."
"Now, Keith," she said sternly.
"Oh, all right. Lock yourself in the forward cabin, then. I hope you roast. It's like an oven."
Evelyn went into the cabin. She closed the small door and immediately began to sweat. The slap-suck sound of the riding hull was loud. She took her bikini from her purse and began stripping out of her shorts and blouse, rolling her panties away from her buttocks. She felt terribly conscious of the fact that Keith was only a few paces away. A shiver went down her and settled between the lips of her pussy. She put her hand over herself and remembered that the desire he'd built in her last night had never been released. Valerie had contributed to the intensity of it, as well.
She looked at the small doorknob and knew that it would be a very simple matter for her to get her release. One word, and Keith would be inside her, fucking his prick into her depths with tender eagerness.
The memory of his touch swam through her and made her, body tingle. She cupped her wet breasts, and her hands slid over them, making her nipples swell. One word ... and after what she had seen her husband do with his daughter, who would blame her? Could she even blame herself? She opened the door a crack.
"Keith?"
He appeared in the hatchway immediately, his body smooth and tight, his trunks unable to hide the bulge of genitals at his crotch. "What?"
"Keith, don't look. I can't stand it in here--the heat --I don't know how to open the hatch."
"I'll show you."
"No!" she cried. "Just go away, and don't look."
He grinned and backed off. Evelyn stepped out of the sweat box into the relative chill of the covered cockpit. She pumped water out of the faucet and splashed it over her nude body. She had one leg in her bikini bottoms when Keith's figure shadowed the hatchway and he came slowly down the stairs, his eyes bright with admiration.
"Keith, I asked you not to come in," Evelyn gasped, having no way to hide herself. She turned her back and stepped quickly into the bikinis, nearly unable to pull them over her damp flesh. She felt his hands fold around her and cup her full, pointed breasts and hold them gently.
"Evelyn," he whispered. "God, Evelyn, you're beautiful. So full, so ripe, so young for him."
Evelyn's passion bubbled and soared. Keith's touch was driving her mad. She gasped and closed her eyes and leaned against him for a moment, feeling the stiffness inside his trunks press into the damp, naked cleft of her cheeks. The bikinis stayed stuck across her thighs. She felt his hand rove down her belly and cup her mound. His fingers curled tenderly through her auburn pubes and sought the silken slit of her pussy.
"No, Keith, no," she whispered shakily.
"I have to touch you again, Evelyn," he choked. "You did it for me. Now I'll do it for you."
"You can't, Keith--they might come back. Oh God, stop."
His fingertip slid up and down, tickling her clit, nosing into the warm, satiny depths of her pussy. She shivered and pressed back against his stiff prick, feeling that the tip of it was stretched above the waistband of his trunks. Her buttocks tightened about the shaft reflexively, and she felt his answering pressure as he moved against her. His breath quickened, and his fingers tortured her pussy with whetting touches until she knew she was going over the brink. She revolved her buttocks and accepted his finger fully with a ragged moan. Her tits swelled into his cupping hands. She leaned her head back, and her mouth went slack.
"Evelyn--oh, Evelyn," Keith gasped. "This is so childish. Turn around. There--we can lie on the bunk. God, I'm ready to come again! Stop moving."
He turned her around. They looked into each other's eyes. It had been a distant thing before, the way she'd been facing away from him. Now that she could see him and know who he was, her heart pounded, and she felt shame clog her throat.
"Keith, we can't!" she cried.
"We're ready--both of us. It wouldn't last long. Just one ... oh, God."
Keith stripped his trunks down quickly, letting his cock spring free. It pointed toward her belly and shone at the tip. He put her hand on it and worked at the tight bikini bottoms around her thighs, pushing them down, sucking the ends of her breasts into his mouth while he did it, licking the salty taste from them.
Evelyn's head spun with desire. She felt his throbbing prick in her hand, and she couldn't stop herself from squeezing it tightly, as if hanging onto her sanity to try to prevent this from happening. It didn't work. She moaned raggedly and went down onto the bunk under him, spreading her thighs for his hips, lifting- up, cupping his body with hers, yearning to kiss him, straining to feel his penis enter her body and bring her sweet fulfillment.
He slid forward. His prick touched her pussy and entered the slippery portal, sliding readily all the way back, as far as it would reach.
"Keith?" she whispered. "Keith, don't?"
"Evelyn, we're doing it. I'm in you and you're all around me. I love you, Evelyn. I know I do. Give in, Darling, and let it be good. Let it be the way we both know it should be. Oh, your pussy's so soft and warm and beautiful to my cock, Evelyn."
"Oh! Oh!" she cried in a small voice. She felt his lips cover hers and his tongue go into her mouth. She breathed harshly for a moment's more resistance, then sucked eagerly on his tongue. She lifted her hips to him and rolled her buttocks over the rough covering of the bunk, screwing her pussy tightly around his hard driving staff.
"Oh, Evelyn, fuck me," he cried heatedly. "Lift your legs and take my prick all the way into you."
She couldn't stop herself. She spread her thighs wide and wrapped them around his pumping hips, locking her ankles above his buttocks. She rolled her chest under his and made her tits mush out softly and slip sensitively in the fluid of their mingling sweat. His hands explored the sides of her hips and curled under to cup her taut, vibrating buttocks. He dug into her crack with delicate fingers, teasing her anus. She remembered how long they were and shivered uncontrollably at the thought that one of them would run far up into her asshole and make her explode wildly.
"Keith-- Keith!" she choked. "Do it, Darling--make me come! Oh God, make me come hard and then don't stop fucking me!"
"Evelyn!" he gasped. "What ... oh, Jesus, I can't hold it. Damn it, damn it!"
Her hands clamped around his buttocks and pulled his prick fully into her. She hunched up and down and squeezed his shaft with her cunt muscles, milking him wildly.
"Come, Darling, come--squirt me full. I'm there. I'll be with you. Everything's right--just right... oh! Oh, God!"
Her senses seemed to explode in a white, swirling burst. She heard herself growling and squealing, and she clamped her teeth down on his shoulder to still her passion. Her pussy spasmed as the first orgasm banged through her and made his prick a wildly vibrant animal bucking and spewing thickly inside her cunt, filling her with slipperiness and warmth.
She clung tightly to him and felt the next one coming fast. He was glued to her pussy, his prick still jerking violently inside her when it hit, and she nearly doubled up from the intense waves of joy spreading out in big bubbles from under her lid of control. She babbled and moaned and sucked the side of his neck, raking his buttocks with her fingernails in an attempt to get closer to him.
"Oh, Evelyn--Evelyn, I had no idea," he cried. "Darling, you're starved for it." He pumped some more, trying to give her total fulfillment, no matter how many times it took.
"Keith, stop," she gasped finally, trying to hold his buttocks still. "Stop, now."
"Are you finished?"
"No--yes. I don't want to come any more."
"Could you?"
She hugged him tightly, afraid of herself. "Yes!" she admitted.
"Then let me...
"No, you mustn't! Please--oh, please, don't make me. Not now. Not here."
"Again? Tonight? He won't be home. You can come to my room. I can come to yours. Evelyn--oh God, I can't believe how warm and wonderful you are."
At her insistence, Keith pulled his penis out. It was still bloated and thick, and it shone from the mixture of their juices.
"Quick, get dressed," she said, forcing herself upright. She reached for her bikini bottoms and nearly tore them in her haste to get them on and cover the shamefulness of what she'd done. She didn't look at him until he forced her head around gently with his hand.
"Evelyn, what's the matter?"
"We shouldn't have done that. I promised myself we wouldn't. Oh, Keith, I feel rotten now."
"No, Evelyn!" he said urgently, sitting beside her, holding her. "You can't feel that way, I won't let you. I love you. I told you that. I want you to be mine--completely mine. You have too much inside you for him. He doesn't deserve anyone as wonderful as you, not after the way he's been treating you. I don't have to tell you all the things he's done already. They're dirty things, cruel ones. And he's let Valerie do them, too. God, Evelyn, leave him!"
"And do what, Keith?" she asked forcefully. "Marry you?"
"I ... well, I ... well, why not?"
She stood up and looked down at him. "We'd better go swimming, now, or they'll know."
"Evelyn, listen. ... "
But she was hurrying toward the hatchway, needing to get into the water to cool her fever. She felt as if her knees were rubbery, and her hands shook as they held the side of the boat. Thoughts tumbled through her mind, but, before she could straighten them out, Captain Bates burst through the surface of the quiet water like an alien monster, snorting and blowing violently.
He removed his mask and grinned. "Come on in," he shouted. ~
Without hesitating, Evelyn dove over the side. The cool water rushed along her body and sucked the heat from it. She heard Keith splash behind her, and he struggled over with two snorkling masks, grinning as if nothing had happened.
"You forgot yours," he said.
She looked at him, at his handsome smile. She smiled back after a long moment. "Thanks, Keith," she said finally.
"Any time," he answered.
They swam for a long time. Then, without intending to, she found herself alone with Keith again, in shallow water. A small sandy area reached into the river from one of the islands.
"I'm for taking a rest," he puffed, standing up and slipping off his mask. "College got me out of shape, I can see that."
"All right," she said. She glanced back toward the boat. The men were still diving. She stretched out on the warm sand and watched the droplets glisten on her thighs.
"Evelyn, tell me why," Keith said finally, leaning on his elbow beside her.
"Why, what?"
"Why did you marry him?"
"That isn't your business, Keith."
"I think it is now."
She looked across the water. Something about the peacefulness, the coziness of the island, the pleasant physical feeling of tiredness from the swimming made her feel open and want to be honest. There had been too much secrecy and deviousness the past few days.
"All right," she said finally. "I'd promised myself that what happened on the boat wasn't going to happen, and the promise didn't work. I should say that it won't happen again, but I won't believe it myself--not the way things are in that house." She looked at him. "But I don't want it to happen again, Keith."
"I can't promise anything either, Evelyn. But that's because I do want it to happen again. And again. I could make it happen right now. I've never felt so much for a girl in my life as I do for you right now."
"Then I should tell you why I married your father. I did it for sex--not for his money, the way his so-called friends surely suspect, but for sex."
"I can't believe it!" he cried. "From him?"
"Not in the way you think, Keith. I married him because of his age, because I thought his drive would be gone and he would leave me alone."
His brow wrinkled. "You mean so you wouldn't get screwed? Evelyn, that doesn't make sense."
"You saw me in there. You felt me. You thought I was starved. It isn't that at all. I could do it every half hour and stiff act that way. It's the way I'm built. It frightens me. That's... that's why I made you stop. I could feel myself getting out of control."
"But why--I mean, what's wrong with that?"
"I ... I did something once to a boy. I attacked him, I guess. It wasn't good. I've never allowed it to happen again. I don't want it to happen again."
"But it nearly did with me?"
"Yes. You could make me do it. Your father can't. I thought it would be different with him--dutiful and easy. But he ... he didn't turn out that way. Keith, there's something violent and wrong with your father. It has to do with Valerie. He's obsessed with her, and she knows it. She plays on him, and he lets her. It's beginning to frighten me."
"Evelyn, I've given hard thought to what you said in the boat--about our getting married. I didn't mean to hesitate then except that it was such a surprise to me to think in those terms. I've decided I like the idea. I can do it. I've some money and some stocks. When I'm twenty-one, Grandfather's inheritance will ... "
"But what about me, Keith?" she interrupted. "I just told you about myself. What if--what if I get used to lots of sex from you, and then one day when you're not around... no, Keith. No, we mustn't talk about that any more."
"Has that happened yet? Tell me the truth, Evelyn, I can stand it."
"No. But it might."
"I'll understand. I'll still love you. Darling, nothing like that will matter in another twenty years or so anyway, because well have it all then."
She looked at him oddly. "What are you talking about?"
"My father. He'll be dead, the bastard. Then it'll be mine--and yours, all of it. The boat, the house, his stocks and money. Think of it, Evelyn, think of it. You and me! Maybe--maybe if he... "
"Keith!" she barked sharply. "You stop right there!" She looked fearfully at the intense blue of his eyes and knew that his next thought was of death . "I'm not even going to let you say it, do you understand?"
His face changed. "I didn't mean ...
"I said to stop. Like it or not, you're talking about my husband, and I won't listen to such talk, is that clear?"
There was some shouting from the boat. They looked over and saw Captain Bates waving his arm, then gesturing with hand to mouth that it was time to eat. Evelyn waved back, then stood, looking down at him.
"This has gone too far now, Keith," she said. "I'm going to solve things my own way. If I leave your father, it'll be because I couldn't work anything out with him. It won't be to marry you. That might happen later, I don't know. But it won't be the reason I leave him."
"But, Evelyn, it doesn't have to be that way."
"I have to try, Keith," she snapped. "Aren't you man enough to understand that?" She watched his face go sullen. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. Come on, let's eat. We can talk about it some more." She went to the water and dove in, swimming in easy strokes toward the boat. He came abreast of her, and they swam together.