Tingles went everywhere over her.
Her hands went everywhere over Dar.
As she felt warm breath heat the skin over her navel, the rest of the world could have separated and spun off into its own orbit and she wouldn't have given one little spit.
"SO, WHAT DO you think?" Kerry was glad the clouds had finally cleared out, exposing a half circle of brilliant stars for her appreciation. "Bear?"
"Hmm." Dar gazed up at the sky speculatively. "More like a pig."
"Pig? C'mon." A wave rippled under them, and they rode it atop the rugged canvas float tied off to the dock. It rested at water level and let the ocean wash over them, but prevented them from being tugged out to sea at night, which could ruin the day of even the most avid of ocean lovers.
The sea was warm and only lightly choppy, bucking them up and down every few minutes in a pleasant rhythm. Dar was lying on her back with her ankles crossed, and Kerry had chosen a spot at right angles to her, using Dar?s belly as an opportune pillow.
"How can that be a pig? It's standing up on its hind legs. Describe to me the last time you saw a pig do that."
Dar sighed. "Well, it's a really fat bear then. Look at its belly." She described an arc. "Must have eaten all the pigs."
"Hmm." Now it was Kerry's turn to ponder. "Maybe it's getting ready to hibernate."
"Eh." Dar pointed at a different set of stars. "I think that looks like a horse," she paused, "with a cart behind it."
Kerry looked. Then she rotated her head to look again. Then she turned and pressed her cheek against Dar's stomach, peering up at her partner. "When was that optometrist's appointment, again?"
Dar solemnly stuck her tongue out. She flexed her body, making the raft ripple and bringing a wash of seawater over them complete with a floating chunk of fragrant seaweed. Dar batted the weed overboard, and exhaled, closing her eyes for a moment.
It was extremely peaceful, Kerry acknowledged, if you could block out from your mind the knowledge that they were floating over thirty or forty feet of water filled with all kinds of critters. Most harmless, a few not, and the truth was she'd never grown to be as comfortable as Dar was at night in the sea.
But the raft helped a lot, and having Dar there made up the difference, so she was able to relax after their swim, and enjoy the pretty sky overhead. "I'm glad it rained today, but I'm even gladder it cleared up," Kerry said. "It's so pretty to look up at the sky like this."
Dar draped an arm over Kerry's body, the edge of her thumb rubbing gently across the fabric over her ribcage. "It is." She agreed. "I could do this every night."
Kerry's eyes flickered briefly closed, then opened again. "Me too."
But not in Miami, she silently added. While their condo was most certainly right on the water, the thought of floating in the sea that close to the port made her grimace.
Dar cleared her throat gently, and took a breath to speak, but then hesitated when the sound of an approaching boat engine caught their ears.
They lifted their heads and looked north, spotting running lights not that far offshore and heading in more or less their direction.
"Would it be outstandingly paranoid of me to wonder who's out there?" Kerry said.
"Mm."
Dar patted Kerry on the stomach and slid out from under her as she sat up. Shading her eyes, she studied the oncoming boat with a frown. It was small, about half the size of theirs, and appeared to be a low profile model without the flying bridge a fishing vessel would have.
Sport boat, at night, wandering around in the Florida Straits. Either he was lost, or...Dar rolled over and off the raft, entering the water without much noise and taking hold of the edge of the float. "Ker..."
"Yeah, yeah." Kerry slid over the side and joined her, peering at the boat over the pontoons that ringed the canvas surface. The water, though warm, was not as warm as the air, and after the long swim and the fact that she'd half dried out made her feel more than a little chilled. "It could just be a party boat."
"Sure." Dar agreed. "Even better reason for us not to be up their lounging in our swim suits." She remarked dryly. "I'm not in the mood to be yelling kiss my ass in three languages tonight."
Kerry edged closer to her, pressing her shoulder against her partner?s as they floated there side by side. The boat meandered around in a circle for a few minutes then approached the shore again, heading directly for their dock. They got close enough for her to see there were three people on board, but it was too dark to see any details beyond that.
Since that meant it was also too dark for the people on the boat to see them, it was a workable trade off. Kerry let her chin rest against the pontoon, the scent of seawater and plastic coming strongly to her nose. "Doesn't sound like a party." She murmured under her breath.
"Nu uh." Dar agreed sinking lower in the water until it just covered her mouth. She tugged Kerry down a little, her partner's pale head far more visible in the low light than her own. "Sure doesn't."
Kerry slid an arm around Dar's torso, glad of the warmth as she pressed against the taller woman. "What in the hell are they looking for?" She whispered into a now conveniently close ear.
"Trouble."
"You really think so?"
Kerry was answered when a bright spotlight erupted from the small boat, throwing a powerful beam of light to explore the dock and the approach up to their cabin. She drew in a breath in a mixture of shock and anger, releasing the air in a stream of bubbles as she ducked lower in the water.
Dar moved lower as well, only her pale blue eyes now showing above the surface, narrowed and glinting in the faint light. The boat moved closer, circling around the raft--its inhabitants paying the floating canvas little attention.
"Ahh, for a spear gun." Dar lifted her mouth clear of the water for a brief moment.
"Ahh, for a bazooka borrowed from your father with live rounds." Kerry uttered back. "Jesus Christ, Dar... who in the heck do these jerks think they are?"
"More to the point, do they realize they're about to trespass?"
They watched the boat approach the dock and pull alongside, one of the figures jumping out to tie a rope to one of the stanchions.
"C'mon." Dar released the raft and started toward them, using a stealthy breast stroke to move herself through the water.
"Wh..." Kerry looked around, then shook her head and followed trying to make as little noise as possible. She wasn't as efficient a swimmer as Dar was, but all the practice she'd gotten since moving to Florida stood her in good stead as she kept up in the mild surf.
A mask and snorkel would have made her life easier. Errant little waves tended to end up splashing her in the mouth, and she kept spitting out sea water, but after a few minutes they were approaching the dock. The other two people had gotten out, and all three were now creeping up the wooden gangway toward the cabin.
Bastards. Kerry felt a flush of anger sweep through her, taking the chill away and replacing it with a fierce heat. The outlines of the three didn't, though, look familiar to her, though she could see two were men, and one was a woman. "Think it's the reporters?" She caught up to Dar as they reached the outer edge of the dock and grabbed on.
"Dunno." Dar pulled herself along the dock until she was just across from the boat, craning her head to see where they intruders were. "Not sure I care."
The tone in her partner's voice alerted Kerry at once. "What are we going to do? Confront them?"
For an answer, Dar swam over to the boat and reached up to grasp the railing, pulling herself up and over the side in a brief moment of starlit muscularity.
"Uh oh." Kerry grabbed hold of the wooden ladder fastened to the side of the dock and got up on the bottom rung, peering over the edge of the boat to see what her partner was doing. "Dar!" She whispered urgently.