This is basically an erotic love story and of course all characters are over 21. It will start out as a love story, but as always there may be a few twists and turns. Please vote often (fives are most welcome) and of course please leave constructive comments.
PS — If you have fantasies, ideas, etc. for new stories please let me know, that includes twists on existing stories, and I will see what I can do. Many of my stories have started out that way.
Huge waves were sweeping over the sides of his sailboat and buffeting the boat back and forth. At times he felt like he was in a toy sailboat in the bathtub of a rambunctious toddler. Before the storm hit, he buttoned up the cabin, dropped his sails and knew he could survive the storm. Then his engine quit and while he was working on getting that fixed, his bilge pump stopped.
It was as if God decided it was his time and no matter what he did, God had another problem to throw at him. For a few moments he tried using a bucket to bail the water out of the boat, but he knew that was useless. He tried to fix the bilge pump, but nothing worked, and water broke out of the bilge letting water flow into the cabin.
The storm seemed to be getting worse and once again he frantically renewed his efforts to fix the bilge pump. When that failed, he renewed his work on the engine and got it working again. He quickly studied his nautical charts to find any land close and found some shoals and tiny islands were the closest. He set course for the islands and within thirty minutes the engine quit. As much as he hated to admit it, he may have to abandon ship, but only at the last second.
Before he totally gave up, he sent an SOS over the radio and he even tried his satellite phone, but it couldn’t get a signal. Evan wracked his brain trying to think of a way out, but exhaustion, fear and panic left him without any options. He gathered his life raft from down below and as he exited his hatch a colossal wave bashed his head against the cowling. He dropped the raft, and it was swept overboard.
Evan looked to the heavens and shouted, “What have I done to you Lord to warrant this torment?”
He didn’t expect an answer, but he got one when a boom swung violently and hit him in the head. He went overboard and blacked out for a couple of seconds. Evan came to about ten feet from the boat, groggy and disoriented, but his instincts told him to swim to the boat. He grabbed ahold of a superfluous rope and drifted while his head cleared. The cold water initially woke him up, but the longer he stayed in the water the more hypothermic he became.
Evan gathered his strength and pulled himself into the boat. He lay on the deck, utterly defeated, but he couldn’t let it end like this. He gathered his wits, crawled across the deck and hoisted his main sail. If he could just get to the island, maybe he could find a sheltered anchor and it would give him time to fix his boat. But it seemed the storm had other plans.
A bolt of lightning crackled through the night, hit his mast, with the boom and half of the mast crashing down and through the shell of the boat. With the hull breach his boat began to sink in earnest. Water gushed towards him mixed with debris and he snatched a life preserver as it almost floated away. Evan rapidly strapped on the life preserver and soon his sailboat sank out from under him.
The vacuum of his sinking boat pulled him under the water and continued to pull at him. The buoyancy of the life preserver as well as his struggles broke the vacuum and allowed him to burst through to the surface. He looked around the black sky and driving rain with only the occasional lightning giving him a view of his bleak situation.
Evan bobbed like a cork in the frothy sea, totally at the mercy of the heartless ocean. He had no idea if he would survive the night, but his mind couldn’t give up. He tried to think of a way out, but nothing came to mind, and he continued to drift in the cold black ocean.
The cold began to seep into his body while he bobbed in the cruel sea. While he fought to stay awake, after an hour his head lolled on his chest and soon his body would be shutting down.
~~~~~
Kiera had been swimming deep to avoid the turbulent storm on the surface, when a sinking sailboat almost hit her. Her curiosity got the better of her and she began to rise to the surface. Her mermaid vision allowed her to see a lone human bobbing on the surface and she slowly approached him.
She saw his head hanging low and knew he was dying. Kiera watched him and something lit inside her. Something about this man made her want to save him. He was weathered, but incredibly handsome, strong and muscled in a way that made her want to feel herself in his arms.
Kiera grabbed his life preserver and with her strong tail began the long swim to a deserted island she knew about. It took more than a couple of hours fighting the sea while dragging dead weight, but in the end, she dragged him up onto the sand.
With the storm breaking and the horizon turning gray with the coming sunrise, she had a good view of the man she had just saved, and her heart leapt in her chest. Kiera had many dreams of what her mate should look like, and this man was in her dreams. He was strongly muscled, and his features were chiseled out of her fantasies.
She stared at him remembering how his beefy arms felt wrapped around her in her fantasies. While her eyes swept over his strong muscled body, she remembered how his kisses felt in her dreams and how his hands felt as they intimately caressed her. Poseidon must have been smiling on her as he delivered her dream lover to her.
Kiera’s mind drifted to the dreams that seemed to include his man and goosebumps erupted on her skin as she thought back to his touches, caresses and kisses. For several minutes she basked in the memories of her fantasy lover and truly hoped this was the man. She shook her head to clear her mind as she stared at him and then made a decision.
She drew her knife and put it next to her man. She stood and took several steps backwards and muttered, “If he was her dream man, then he should prove his abilities. If he can survive with just a knife, then and only then, would he be worthy.”
Chapter 2
Evan woke when the morning was full and brilliant. His mind was in a muddle as he remembered the storm and losing his boat. He remembered going into the water as his boat sank out from under him and floating in the cold water. He fought the hyperthermia but didn’t remember much after that.
As he wracked his brain, he had vague memories or maybe dreams, of being pulled through the water by the most gorgeous mermaid he could have ever dreamed of. He also had fleeting thoughts of this stunningly beautiful woman staring at him. He couldn’t remember where he had seen her, but her elfin face was diminutive in its features, and she was shrouded in long golden hair.
However, it was her eyes that his mostly remembered. She stared at him with the most brilliant green eyes, and he had never seen a color so beautiful or captivating. As she looked at him, he could see passion and desire, as well as curiosity and she seemed to know him. Where did he know her from? He definitely would have remembered a woman that enchanting, but he couldn’t place her.
Evan shook his head to clear his thoughts of this woman and took stock of his surroundings. He stripped off his life jacket, shirt and used the knife to cut off the bottom part of his trousers. Now his was a lot cooler and he was ready to face his problems head-on.
The beach seemed to go on forever and behind him was a palm treed forest and a mountain rising behind that. Okay, first thing was survival and he needed shelter, water, and food. The ground around him was littered with coconuts, so for the time being he could eat and drink the coconuts.
So, shelter was the first order of business. He found a clear, fairly level spot about fifteen feet into the trees, but couldn’t seem to find any decent wood for a frame. He wandered down to the beach looking for driftwood and found four decent logs that he hauled back to the clearing. Vines that he used for lashing the logs together were no problem. As any gardener can tell you, vines are the predominant plant species. Half of a gardener’s time is spent cleaning out vines.
Evan took a break and with a lot of work, broke open two coconuts to quench his thirst and stop the rumbling in his belly. While he was eating, that incredibly beautiful woman’s face intruded into his thoughts. He couldn’t recall ever seeing her and kept wondering where he had seen her and why he had never done anything about talking to her. Her eyes drew her into his heart, and it was the most incredible feeling. He promised himself that if he ever saw her again, he would never let her go.
He shook his head and continued his work on the shelter. Evan began gathering a base layer of palm fronds and then added three more layers on top. He stood back looking at his lean-to and at eight feet long he would have plenty of room. He lashed together several palm fronds to make a curtain in the front to hopefully, as least slow down any mosquitoes. He added a couple of layers of fronds for his mattress and he was done.
Evan celebrated with another couple of coconuts and his mystery woman crept back into his thoughts. She had captured his heart but marooned on an island he knew the chances of seeing her again were almost nil. None-the-less her face and especially her eyes continued to haunt him. Only work seemed to banish her face from his mind, and he had lots of that to do.
Evan decided now was the time to explore his island and find other sources of water and food, so he started inland towards the mountain. The beginning was fairly easy, but the deeper he went into forest, the harder the climb became. He reached a vertical cliff that led to the top of the mountain and began to rotate around the base trying to locate an easier place to climb.
At one point he found a trickling waterfall. It did not have a torrent of water, but it was enough for him. He continued around the cliff base until he found a slot that promised an easier climb to the top and began his ascent. As he eased over the top of the mountain, he took a breather and wished he had some of that water he saw earlier. He reminded himself to find or make a container to hold water.
He shaded his eyes and surveyed the surrounding landscape. The top of the mountain had a huge catchment in the middle that collected water and fed the waterfall, so that information may come in handy. First, he needed to orient himself. He glanced at the sun and saw that it was roughly three or four o’clock, which gave him a good idea where west was. He mentally figured out all the points of the compass, then began looking around.
He was looking for anything that might help make his castaway life a little easier. As he circumnavigated the mountain top, he saw several areas that looked like they had promising areas where things had washed ashore. One area seemed to be where all the currents would deposit ocean born trash and the other seemed to be a long crashed and torn apart ship. Both these areas held promise for things he could use, and he made mental notes of where they were on his compass.
He continued around the mountain top, but nothing else seemed to hold any promise. When he was almost around the mountain top, he saw a large fish slap its tail and begin to swim away. It was not like any fish he had ever seen. It had a huge aquamarine back fin that seemed to glow in the ocean water, no dorsal fin or any other fins he could see. But what was really weird is it seemed to have a long streamer of blonde hair that hid the rest of the fish’s body. He had no idea what kind of fish it was, but it showed that there were fish in the ocean around the island and that meant food.
He started back down the slot and his first action was to drink his fill of water. He hoped that the cascade may clean the water a little, but he really had no way to purify the water until he found some kind of container and of course built a fire. After his drink he wanted to explore the two areas he noted and maybe find the containers he was looking for.
~~~~~
Kiera watched her dream man from the minute he woke up and watched as he stripped off his shirt and built his lean-to. He was very industrious and worked hard in the tropical heat. She marveled at his rippling muscles, his lean athletic body and his intense focus. So far, he was living up to the man she had always seen in her dreams.
She watched his face as he took a break and drank some of the coconut water. He seemed to be thinking of something that made him very happy. He had a smile on his face and what he was thinking about cast a brilliant glow on his face. She hoped that someday it could be her and she knew she would have the same look on her face.
He shook his head dispelling his daydream fantasy, stood and began hiking into the forest. She watched him as far as she could, but knew he was looking for a water source and that would lead him to the mountain top. She swam lazily towards the reef continuing to watch as he appeared on the mountain top.
Kiera watched as he surveyed his surroundings, but then his eyes found her, and she panicked. She flipped her tail and dove deep, hoping he didn’t see her, but she knew he did. She stayed underwater for a few minutes and chanced a glance towards the mountain. He was gone, or at least she couldn’t see him.
About twenty minutes later she saw him out on the beach scavenging through the remains of a wrecked ship. She saw him create a pile of items on the beach and eventually carry them all back to his camp site. She saw him glance at the sky and realized the normal afternoon rain was about to begin. He gathered lots of his items including wood under a plastic tarp he salvaged from the ship and made sure nothing would get wet.
Next, he spread out another tarp and when the rain came, he quickly scrubbed the tarp, dumped the water and then propped the ends with little sticks and made a small water catchment area. Kiera was impressed, not only was this man ruggedly handsome, but he was also very smart.
Something about him made her insides all fluttery. Yes, he was robustly attractive, but not like the movie stars she saw in magazines, it was something else. As he worked, she got all gooey watching his rippling muscles under his skin. She had no idea what these feelings were all about, but her nipples ached, and her private parts got all slick and wet. She had read about desire and maybe this was it felt like. She just hoped that her hideous looks wouldn’t chase him away.
Growing up, all the other mermaids would gawk or stare at her. Even by mermaid standards, Kiera was exceptionally beautiful, and her mother couldn’t stand the stares her daughter’s beauty received. Her mother always told her that the stares were because she was so revoltingly ugly. Her whole life Kiera had been told she was so ugly no man would ever want her. Every once in a while, another mermaid would tell her she was so beautiful. But after a lifetime of being told she was ugly, she didn’t believe them and thought they were just trying to be kind.
Her mother was so jealous of her stunning beauty that she mentally and physically abused her daughter. Any perceived missteps would result in her mother punishing her. One of her favorite punishments was the sting of a Man-O-War across her butt and eventually she began to scar on her lower back and butt. One time her mother threw a conch shell at her and gave her a scar on her chin. Secretly, her mother was overjoyed that she ruined her daughter’s perfectly devastating beauty with a scar.
Kiera became very shy about her looks and actively avoided other mermaids. She was not part of the group and even at a young age became something of a recluse. She migrated away from other mermaids and began to watch the humans. Kiera, dressed in a tiny bikini, roamed the human cities enjoying the freedom they seemed to have, but people still ogled her, and she knew that it was because of her hideous looks. Eventually the stares got too much for her and she watched all the human interactions from afar.
She stayed away from everyone, and this eventually got her into more trouble. One day a fisherman spotted her perched on a rock and tried to catch her, but she got away. However, the fishing fleet went into overdrive trying to catch a gorgeous mermaid. The entire clan had to hide and eventually move to another area to avoid capture. Because of her carelessness, the leaders of the clan exiled Kiera to a small island far away. Her mother was overjoyed, and she no longer had any more competition. Her mother was now the most beautiful mermaid in the clan.
Now that she had found the man she wanted and knew she was in love with him, would her hideous face and figure make him turn away, or would he love her back? Kiera wasn’t sure she wanted to try, after all, rejection from the man she loved would be worse than never trying.