Chapter 2
The air was hot, and the chunky houseboat moved slowly in the smooth river current. The slight breeze did little to help the effect of the craft's motion on cooling the two occupants, but neither were overly concerned about the heavy humid air. It was a new thing, an adventure, and they were each of them preoccupied with different thoughts.
Closing her eyes against the bright yellow sun, Gail Hall rolled onto her back, the constant whirring of the small engine seemed to come up through the cabin roof-deck like a vibrator. She would have continued lying on her stomach, but she was afraid that her back was already burned too much by the hot sun. Wiggling her full rounded buttocks, she adjusted her position until she was comfortable again, then screening her eyes with her arm, she opened them to look out at the slowly passing terrain.
She had no idea how far North of Sacramento they had traveled, but she was surprised to see no signs of civilization as she knew it. The land beyond the banks of the river was flat, with no visible structures to break up the monotony. Away in the distance she could barely make out the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains through a dancing haze of heat waves. The sight made her feel glad to be on the river where it was cooler, although she had to put up with the added discomfort of the humidity. The yellow farm lands seemed hardly the ideal vacation spot, but for her it was at least different from the routine of her and her husband's daily life.
She closed her eyes and dropped her arm to her side as she again thought about the vacation. At that moment she was unsure if it was going to be worth the sacrifices she and Jack had made to save up the money for such a trip. It had been her husband's idea from the beginning. He had called it a chance to get away from it all, a cliché statement if ever there was one, and it had taken some doing to get her to go along with him. She couldn't remember how many times he talked about the comfort a houseboat would provide, without any of the so-called inconveniences of a telephone and television. He had said it would be the ideal way for them to communicate again, mostly because they would have no distractions that routinely interfered with their everyday life. Gail wasn't so sure that such circumstances would solve all of the problems in their marriage, but she had eventually given in to his logic in spite of her reservations.
Three weeks on a houseboat, left to entertain themselves, seemed patently absurd to her, actually, and in the back of her mind, she knew what Jack was really trying to do. He had made several attempts throughout the first year of their marriage to get her to "loosen up," and the trip had to be just another one of those plans.
Shading her eyes again, Gail glanced around the flat roof-deck wondering if her husband could check on her without completely abandoning the controls of the boat. She decided that he could not, so, arching her buttocks up from the deck, she pushed the lower-half of her swim suit down a couple of inches, exposing more of her satiny white skin to the blazing sun. The material bunched around her hips, but it still covered the private most parts down between her thighs from chance on-lookers.
She was proud of her body, although she didn't like to be seen naked by anyone other than herself. She felt that it was necessary for a proper woman to remain modest around others, but in the privacy of the roof-deck in a virtually deserted area, she took advantage of the moment to work on a tan.
She made herself comfortable again, spreading her long, lithe legs slightly apart, her feet resting on the deck just beyond the edge of the big towel. The swim suit she was wearing was not a bikini, but it was the next best thing to it, considering the amount of flesh it covered. The pink material almost matched the color of her skin perfectly, and from a short distance she would have looked naked, stretched out on top of the small houseboat, languishing and lovely in the brilliant sun. Gail Hall was three months past her twenty-third birthday, and she was classically beautiful in appearance.
Her face looked uncluttered, the oval-shape a perfect frame for her large, blue eyes and full pouting lips. Her skin was smooth and seemed to blend magically with the long golden strands of her hair. The shoulder length of her blonde hair suited her, as her neck was narrow and long, tapering down to feminine shoulders that were not quite broad enough for the proportions of her breasts. The rounded twin mounds stood off of her chest like two ripe overgrown peaches, the deep valley between staying narrow even when she was naked. Though large, her breasts were youthfully firm and requiring no support to stand straight out, pointed and proud. Her waist was narrow and her belly was flat, the smooth flesh topped by the lightest fuzziness just below her navel which pointed to the curving mound of her inner thigh. She looked sensual yet innocent, but her sexuality was only visible on the surface.
Gail had been a virgin when she first met Jack, and throughout his courtship she had remained as such. It was a condition she believed imperative to marriage. And from the time she had first understood what sex was all about, she had worked diligently to keep it out of her mind.
Through her teens and into her twenties she had often had feelings, feelings that she knew she had to ignore if she was to stay the chaste person her parents had taught her to be. At first it had been difficult, but as time went on, she found it much easier to put the thoughts of sex out of her mind, and it had even earned her a reputation as an untouchable girl.
Yet as she matured the reputation seemed unreal, as she began to look like a goddess of love... a goddess made for love. Her strong will helped to prevent her from becoming the woman to match her looks, and it also helped to made her first year of marriage with Jack extremely difficult.
Her husband had been too understanding during the few months they went together before the marriage, and he had been extremely frustrated by the time the wedding took place. Gail had worked in an architect's office as a secretary, and it was there that she met Jack Hall for the first time. He had joined the firm, a young but talented architect, in search of the means to strike out on his own. The bulk of his work for the firm was routine, and that constantly frustrated him. It was perhaps his position that had brought Gail close to him, as she knew of his talent and felt sorry that it was not being used. They had started having lunch together, and gradually their dating became more and more serious. They had been dating evenings only two months when he proposed to her, and Gail had readily accepted.
During that brief time, she had been able to impress upon him that she was innocent, and he had not tried to get her beyond heavy petting as a result. On their wedding night, Jack was more than ready to finally have the beautiful girl he'd married, and Gail had fantasized some sort of miracle union which never took place.
She had left her job with the architectural firm a week before the wedding, and she'd had the opportunity to do nothing but think about her future life as housewife. She was so nervous about pleasing Jack that she wanted to believe everything would be ideal simply by wishing it so. The first year of their marriage hadn't turned out that way at all, however, and the houseboat vacation was actually intended to be the catalyst for much improved relations between them. They both were fully aware that the basis of their problems stemmed from the very first night they spent together as man and wife.
There had been no money for a honeymoon, nor for a traditional wedding. They had gotten the necessary license and papers, and three days later went to a justice of the peace for the ceremony. They felt they couldn't invite any of their friends without inviting all of them, they ended up with two strangers for witnesses. So, after the brief ceremony, they went out to dinner together and then returned to Jack's small apartment, the dwelling which was to be their future home.
After toasting each other with a glass of champagne, Gail asked Jack to wait in the bathroom while she prepared herself for him. She had bought a new negligee, both to enhance her appearance and to cover her body, and after undressing and putting it on, she got into the double bed before calling for her new husband to come out and join her. He came out stark naked, his long, thick penis already half-hard in anticipation, and the sight so rattled her that she was tensed beyond belief for the rest of the evening.
In the darkness, he had been gentle and understanding of her condition, her virginity, kissing and fondling her lush young body to warm her for his first entry. Yet, when he moved between her outspread legs, she was only prepared to feel pain from the ordeal not pleasure. She never cried out, as she was determined to please him, but the only emotion she had was that of fear and humiliation. Her memory of his entry was that it took forever, her body being painfully stretched apart slowly, until she was convinced she would split in half, and then the rest of it seeming to take only seconds until he was finished with her. It had been quick, as he'd been waiting too long for that one moment, and the net result was an excited and explosive climax that came upon him almost instantly.
When it had been over, Jack felt he should start again for her, but she had lied, telling him that she enjoyed it fully. He knew she was lying when later, and from then on, Gail never responded to anything except the standard "missionary" position no matter what he said!
Their first year of marriage had turned into a continuing argument about what was acceptable in sexual relations. Although he didn't want to believe it, Jack finally concluded that his wife was frigid. Gail simply believed that some women responded one way to sex, and that others responded differently. She was sure that her attitude was perfectly normal, and she was always ready for her husband to have sex with her, as long as it was done in the prescribed and proper manner. The fact that her mental attitude was incongruous with her physical appearance was all that had kept the marriage together, but although she wasn't aware of it, Jack had planned the houseboat trip as a last ditch effort to get through to her. He had made up his mind that if he couldn't get her to respond the way he expected, he would dissolve the marriage and be finished with it.
For Gail, their marital problems were simple. She felt her husband demanded abnormal practices, things he had hinted about through the past year, in their lovemaking, and she was not willing to have any part of it. He was getting satisfaction as far as she was concerned, and her feelings, she believed, should be left out of it. She couldn't see that it made that much difference how she acted when he was seducing her, even though there were times that she felt she was missing something. From what she had been taught, she was doing it right by not enjoying sex herself, and the times when she did feel pleasure made her nervous and irritable, as she didn't want to accept such immoral enjoyment. Her mother had told her that sex was for man's pleasure, not for women, and Gail knew of no reason why not to believe what her mother said. "You please a man by giving in to him, and you keep him by not giving in too much!" They were words that Gail lived by, and she had no idea that such an attitude was on the verge of destroying her marriage.
Sitting up suddenly, Gail realized that she had been dozing, and the sun was low in the sky. It had to be getting late, and she looked around, half-expecting to find they'd stopped for the day. But the boat was still moving. The terrain around the river had changed somewhat, and Gail wondered if Jack had turned onto a different river while she had been day dreaming. There were thick forests of trees lining both sides of the river, and she didn't think it possible for the scenery to have changed so dramatically so quickly.
Picking up her towel, she walked across the roof-deck toward the ladder that connected it with the main deck of the houseboat, and she almost descended it without remembering that her swim-suit bottom was still bunched around her hips. Pulling the elastic top up to her waist, she then turned to climb down the ladder and join Jack.
To Gail, the houseboat was nothing more than a house trailer set on a boat, one that floated on whatever water was available. And this one they had rented for their vacation, as far as she was concerned, was quite small. The cabin was about twenty feet long and consisted of a living room area, a galley, bath and bedroom. There was a small narrow walkway along the side of the cabin, and at the front and rear the decks opened up a little wider. The rear deck provided access to the motor powering the boat as well as the ladder to the top of the cabin. In the front, the roof of the cabin extended over the deck providing a sheltered area with room enough to set up a table and chairs. There was also a door leading into the cabin, and just inside were the controls of the boat with a view to the front over the deck. When Gail rounded the cabin to the front deck, she saw that the door was open, and her husband was standing just inside, staring out at the river ahead.
"Hi! I was beginning to think you fell overboard," he said as his wife walked inside the living area. He was a full head taller than Gail, and standing next to her looked much bigger than he actually was. Unlike Gail, his hair was dark and wavy, and its contrast with his light blue eyes made his features sharply stand out. It was also that which made him attractive on sight to women, but his strong muscular build considerably helped. Gail always figured that she had fallen in love with him the first time he looked her in the eyes, and it was true that this transmitted a sympathetic part of his character. His looks made her feel very secure, as if his eyes told her that he was very understanding, and what she saw in them was correct. But, like most men, his patience was easily worn thin.
"I fell asleep..." she answered, smiling at her quip. "I must look like a lobster," she added feeling her slightly reddened skin. She wasn't really concerned about sun-burn as her skin always tended to tan quickly, but the initial exposure seemed to make it tingle nonetheless. Jack looked back out toward the river, his eyes narrowing as if searching for something, and Linda remembered the question in her mind: "Where are we?"
"Well, I'm not a navigator, but if my guess is correct we are a few miles south of Meridian, and that over there on the right is the Sutter Natural Wildlife Refuge." He pointed toward a wooded area that seemed to stretch for miles up the river. "I've been looking for a place to tie up for the night, but I haven't seen anything interesting yet!"
Setting her towel down on a chair, Gail walked up to stand beside her husband as he steered the boat in closer to the right bank of the river. "You want to stop for the night at a wildlife refuge? I hope that doesn't mean we'll have lions and tigers running over the boat in the morning," she said half seriously.
Jack smiled back at his young wife, then turned his attention back to the river bank. "I'd like to find a place out of the main current... It would be safer," he said, adding emphasis on his last word. "Some cul-de-sac would be nice... but I haven't seen one yet!"
Gail moved forward, looking out toward the shore, and she raised her arm up quickly, pointing at a narrow inlet barely visible between a thick stand of trees.
"There!" she excitedly yelled, her moving arm nearly hitting Jack in the chest.
"Huh? Where?" He looked in the direction his wife was pointing, but he couldn't see what she was referring to with her hand.
"Back there... we've passed it!" she hollered. She felt elated at having seen an opening in the shore that ordinarily would have been easily missed. The narrow inlet pointed opposite the direction they were heading, and even looking down river it was hard to spot.
Jack reacted, steering the slow houseboat in a hundred and eighty degree turn, then pointing the craft still closer to the shore. "Baby, you've got me! I still don't see what you're pointing at!" His eyes scanned the thick trees along the bank.
"You're headed straight for it!" she replied. The inlet was grown over with long branches, but there was just enough clearance for the houseboat to move on through.
"Got it! Wow! I wouldn't have spotted it in a million years," he remarked, a tone of astonishment in his voice. Studying the narrow opening carefully as he steered the houseboat closer, he realized that the stand of trees on the right were growing on a peninsula-like stretch of land, and beyond the inlet, he was sure there had to be a water-filled cul-de-sac.
"Can we make it?" Gail asked excitedly. She could feel the tension her husband was radiating, and she began to doubt what she saw was real.
"Think so," he answered, his hand quickly moving to the throttle control. The current was powering the boat down the river faster than he'd anticipated, and he added automatic power to counteract the drift. He knew if he didn't judge it just right, they would certainly end up "beached" on the downriver finger of the land. The houseboat sluggishly responded, but the power of the motor was sufficient to push the craft into the channel, the branches of the trees only a few feet to either side.
"Nice going, captain! A real river pilot couldn't have done much better," his wife exclaimed breathing a sigh of relief. She had remained absolutely still as Jack made the difficult maneuver, but once the houseboat was passing through the inlet, she walked outside to the forward deck. Once past the initial opening the channel widened out considerably, the leaf laden trees dipping their branches down to the quiet waters of the small slough.
"Is the water very clear?" Jack called from inside.
"Fairly..." she answered, leaning out to look over the front of the boat. The further in they went, the less mud seemed to be in the water, and after only a few minutes, Gail thought she could see the bottom.
"Oh, Jack, it's a private lake," she exclaimed, joining her husband at the controls of the boat.
"Sure is," he said. "You did a nice job spotting this inlet, honey." He was pleased, both because the area was nice, and also because it was so very private. It was an ideal setting in which to carry out his plans and he headed the houseboat for the farthest point, figuring he could tie up to some of the overhanging branches. He pointed the front end of the boat toward the beach area and the setting sun, beginning to feel anxious about their first evening on the boat together. Letting the boat drift sideways toward a large branch that hung out over the water a good distance, he left the controls to tie up.
"Can I help?" asked Gail, admiring the water and its profound calm.
"All's under control," he answered, and he grunted as he grabbed the branch and then pulled to move the houseboat closer in. "I'm going to tie up here... How do you like it?"
"I was just thinking how nice it would be to go swimming. Too bad it's getting so dark so soon."
"Well, there ought to be some sort of big full moon out here tonight, darling. Skinny dipping in the moonlight! How about that?!"
Gail turned and walked inside the cabin, pretending that she didn't hear what he said. In the excitement of finding the private river lagoon she had forgotten about the disturbing aspects of the trip. While Jack was busy with making the boat secure, Gail walked past the living and galley areas to the bedroom to put on something that covered more of her body than the swim suit. She was determined to be careful in avoiding any sex related conversation with Jack. She felt sure that he had something in mind that she wasn't going to like.