A few minutes later, she felt his hands reaching down to drag her, gasping, across his body.
“Oh, God, Kate,” he said, drawing a ragged breath.
“You still complaining?” she whispered.
“Me? No.” He pulled her pants down over her thighs and stroked her until she moaned. She pulled away from him and kicked her pants off, and then eased herself down onto him, straddling his body in the moonlight, crying out a little as he thrust up to meet her. She swayed, and he braced her hips with his hands to keep her erect so he could watch her, and she moved over him until the rocking of the boat against the water blended with the rocking of her against him.
“You’re silver in the moonlight.” He ran his hands across her skin. “I’m going to remember you forever like this. You’re burned in my brain.”
She looked down at him, and she swelled with so much heat and love for him that she was dizzy. I’m going to love him until I die, she thought Who have I been kidding? The hell with a plan. This is all there is.
“Come down here.” His hands were hard on her as he urged her down. “Come down to me before you lose control and hurt yourself.”
She shook her head. “I’m not ready yet.”
“Want to bet?” He shifted his hips, rolling against her, over and over until she gasped as the first wave of her orgasm hit her. He arched up to catch her as she fell against him, holding her tightly to him as the spasms took her, pulsing up into her to keep her moaning his name, until she was finally quiet in his arms.
Then, holding her hips against his, he rolled over and moved into her as if he were part of her, finding the rhythm of her blood, and she felt herself drowning again, felt the tension build and her muscles clench as he moved with deliberate slowness inside her. The pressure made her blood pound, and she moved to ease the need, only to burn with more. He slammed his hips against hers, moving faster and faster, plunging into her until she thought she’d break. “Don’t stop,” she cried, but he was beyond her voice now, and when she writhed under him as she came, he whispered her name and thrust hard into her one last time. From far away she heard a sharp crack, and then he moved against her again and shuddered in her arms, and she wrapped her arms tighter around him and held him as he fought for his breath.
“I’ve never had anything like this, Jake,” she whispered. “Not like this that I have with you.”
He kissed her slowly. “You’re a miracle.” His lips moved over her, tasting her. “You’re going to kill me, but you’re a miracle just the same.”
She laughed weakly, exhausted to the marrow of her bones.
“You’re such a wimp,” she said from beneath him, her voice muffled in his shoulder. He felt so good on top of her that she didn’t want to ever move.
“Tell my mother I thought of her at the end,” Jake said into her hair.
“You thought of your mother just now?”
“I meant at the end of my life. Don’t tell her we were doing this.”
“You’re not dying, you big baby.” She rolled her head back and realized that they weren’t under the willow anymore. Jake hadn’t tied the boat up, and they’d drifted to the middle of the lake.
“This is pretty,” she said. “Look at the moon.”
Gradually she realized there was something wrong.
“Jake, have you noticed the wet spot is bigger than usual?”
“Hmm.”
“Jake, I’m all wet.”
“I don’t care,” he said into her neck. “I’m not making love to you again tonight. I have to be able to walk around tomorrow.”
“Not that kind of wet.” She pushed him off her and sat up. “The boat is leaking.”
“What?” He put his hand between the cushions where her hip had been. The boat was filling with water. “I knew I heard something crack a while back. I thought it was my spine. Thank God, it’s just the boat.”
“Just the boat?” Kate grabbed her tank top and pulled it on over her head.
“I was wrong.” He lay back against the cushions, exhausted and happy. “You’re not going to kill me with sex. You’re going to drown me.”
“Jake, the boat is going down.”
“So did you.” He smiled at her in the moonlight. “Have I mentioned that was great?”
She grabbed the front of his shirt and shook him. “Jake!”
He sat up slowly. “What do you want me to do? Sing ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’?”
“You, fool,” she said and started to laugh. “Where’s my underwear? It cost a fortune.”
There was a good two inches of water in the boat now and it was sinking faster. Jake fished around and handed her underpants and bra to her.
“Here. I don’t know where your skirt is.”
“I can’t swim in it anyway.” Kate grabbed for her vest. “I don’t believe this.”
He reached for his pants. “It was a good old boat. I’m going to miss it.”
“You’re going to go down with it if we don’t get out of here.” Kate rolled over the side of the boat and into the water.
“I found your skirt,” he said.
“Jake!”
“Will you relax?” He rolled over the side to join her, holding a bundle of his pants and her skirt. He still had his cowboy hat on, she noticed.
I’m in love with a lunatic, she thought. Boy, am I in love.
By the time they swam to shore, the boat was gone.
She wondered if that was symbolic of their relationship, and shivered. The timing was definitely right. Because great sex notwithstanding, she could feel a sense of impending doom. It hadn’t been pretty in the bar tonight. And they still hadn’t talked about the future.
Maybe because they didn’t have one.
She looked over at Jake, who was staring out at the lake where his boat had died. She didn’t want to talk about it tonight. She knew it was cowardly of her, but she wanted one more warm night with him before they faced reality.
He glanced over and saw her staring at him. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said and put on her underpants.
“You killed my boat,” Jake said, putting on his. His jeans were wet so he threw them over his shoulder with her skirt.
“I’m not the one who pounded on the boards until they broke,” Kate said. “In fact, I feel a deep kinship with that boat. I know just how it feels.”
“Well, it died in a good cause.” Jake put his arm around her. “Let’s go back to the cabin before somebody catches us out here in our underwear.”
Mark and Penny were sitting on the cabin steps when they got back.
“You’re probably wondering about the underwear,” Jake said.
“Not me,” Mark said, looking at Kate’s legs as she went past him into the cabin.
“I am,” Penny said, and Mark put his hand over her mouth.
“No, she isn’t,” he said.
“You get a raise, kid,” Jake said, and followed Kate inside. “Mark and Penny?” he asked her when the door was closed and they’d stripped off their wet clothing.
“Yes, isn’t it nice?” Kate pulled him down with her and snuggled next to him. “She dumped her fiance for him and they’re getting married. They’re so happy. And Penny says he’s great in bed.”
Jake moved away from her a little. “Yeah, but can he sink a boat?”
“Oh, go to sleep,” she said and pulled him close to her with a little more force than necessary. He kissed her forehead and held her tightly until she finally fell into a restless sleep.
When Jake woke up the next morning, she was gone. He pulled on his jeans and went down to the lake and found her sitting on the stony shore, staring out across the green water.
“You know this lake fetish you have is beginning to worry me. Should I put an aquarium in the bedroom?”