John Clayton - Practice does it

"We're off."

Kay was facing him in the tiny boat as with sure strokes he moved them away from the dockside and into the deeper, darker water. He made the craft move easily and smoothly, and Kay was impressed with his deft handling of the fragile craft. He dipped the paddle silently and quickly from side to side, and as if by magic, the canoe went forward in a straight line. The shoreline was receding rapidly.

Roger smiled at her and asked, "Where would you like to go?"

"I really don't care, I just thought the water and the quiet would be restful. Oh, I don't mean I wouldn't enjoy talking, it's just the strain of getting ready for my wedding got me all uptight, and I just wanted to get away from it all for a few hours."

Roger's face fell at the word "wedding". So she was engaged, not much chance of laying her then. He was disappointed, he liked the line of her body. He could almost taste her lips, they were so juicy. Damn it, he thought, now I'm stuck spending my dinner hour paddling this broad around and I'm not going to even get a feel.

Roger was so wrong. Kay found herself talking as if to a confidant as he gracefully dipped the paddle to guide the canoe over the still surface of the lake. She tried to enumerate the comical aspects of the wedding: the overpriced gown, the trauma of not knowing if her matron of honor was going to show up or not, the misspelled invitations, all the details which had sent her out driving with no destination.

Roger seemed most sympathetic and made all the appropriate grimaces and "uhhhs" and "ahhhs" while she spoke. His charming smile and perfect carriage did much to impress her and she found herself opening herself to him more and more. She was suddenly talking about Davey and her effort to acquire knowledge as fast as possible.

She didn't realize it, but while the sun was setting and she confessed to her willful seeking out of partners his paddling became faster and faster. He was so excited by what he was hearing that he unconsciously moved his body faster. The canoe was fairly skimming over the water.

Without asking her permission he steered the canoe into an inlet hidden by two jutting points of rock and timber. This side of the lake was a state park which had no camping facilities so it was empty by this time of night. Roger had been watching Kay's face in animated movement while she talked. He could tell from her speech pattern that she was relaxing, and as he guided the slender canoe around the point and into the quiet cove she slipped her hand over the side and let her fingertips trail in the glass-smooth water.

"Oh, this is a lovely spot."

"I thought you'd like it. There're picnic sites over there, but the park is closed by now."

"I remember we used to come here for picnics when my Grandpa Ruby was alive. He used to take us walking in the woods to look for arrowheads. We never found any though."

"There is an Indian burial ground up that hill."

"I don't think we ever went up there."

"When they acquisitioned the land the surveyors were bribed by the landowner to exclude the burial site from the park because he thought there might be something valuable buried there. The whole idea of the park was to preserve the Indian grounds so he got hauled into court and I think he went to jail."

"Isn't it funny that the poor Indians are still getting ripped off, even after they're dead?"

Kay noticed that he had pulled the dripping paddle into the canoe and that they were drifting noiselessly.

"We should stay away from the shoreline because there're gnats and mosquitoes and stuff. But I need a rest."

"You make rowing look so easy I didn't realize you've been working hard all this time! Here I have been talking a blue streak while you sweat."

"I just want to rest a little bit."

"Come take this seat, you can lean back."

"I think I'll stretch out flat."

Carefully he lay down in the bottom of the canoe. The ribs were about half an inch high but they formed an organized series of ridges so he could lie on his back and be perfectly comfortable.

"Are you comfortable?"

"Perfectly. Try it."

"Is there room for both of us?"

"Sure. Just balance yourself and move slowly."

With the faintly disguised enthusiasm of a Campfire Girl enjoying a new adventure, Kay moved out of her seat and stretched out on the canoe's bottom. They were both on their backs, lying head to toe, staring up at the first stars to appear.

"See?"

"This neat."

Conversation drifted back to her anxieties because they weren't far from the surface of her mind. He made encouraging noises. By the time the sky was dotted with twinkly lights his leg and hand were touching hers unashamedly. She could tell there was pressure against her body which was deliberate. She returned it. The hardness of the big muscles in his legs excited her. Her heart beat faster and she hoped he'd make a direct pass.

His consideration and sympathy made her like him. His good looks and sexy good health warmed her and the sense of sex about him and the unknown quality of his love-making increased her desire. When he finally hinted at a little physical contact she started getting practical and she asked, "Here? In a canoe?"

"Why not? We wouldn't be the first, you know."

"I just don't want to get dumped in the lake and have to go home wet which would mean I'd get a cold and probably have to walk down the aisle with a bright red runny nose."

"I promise you the only thing that will get wet will be your pussy, and I'll lick that dry."

That did it. She was hot, officially hot, at that remark. He had won his objective.

She was silent and he interpreted her silence as the go ahead. He gingerly turned himself around and lay next to her. His hand moved across her chest and his calloused hands rested on her slender neck. He thought she was purring. He stroked her neck several times before he moved his hand elsewhere. Kay sighed deeply and warmed to his touch.

"You're sensational – my God! I don't know your name?"

"It's Kay Ruby, for another couple of days."

"Do you mind if I call you Ruby?"

"In high school they called me that so much that a lot of kids didn't know my first name was really Kay. When the principal called me up for my diploma he stumbled on the name because I had been a cheerleader and was well known as Ruby so he got all flustered. Go ahead, call me Scarlett, if you want, that's a nickname Davey sometimes uses. Davey is my fiance."

"Ah, under the circumstances I think I'll call you Ruby."

Kay smiled and understood. It did seem a little irreverent to let him call her by the intimate names the man she loved used to her, particularly considering how close she was to approaching Hymen's altar.

"Ruby, I want to make love to you right here, right now. I know you knew I had that in mind all the time. I wanted to make it with you the minute you came around the corner of the hut. I don't like to misrepresent myself; I'm not in love with you. I don't want to be in love with you, and I absolutely, positively guaranteed, do not want to get married I'm just old-fashioned horny. This is what I guess you'd call a proposition. I haven't got any diseases. All I've got is a cut on my hand which is healing."

Kay laughed good-naturedly at his complete honesty.

"I thank you for your direct approach. It kind of makes a girl feel good to know that someone she's just met who doesn't know her from Eve and who has no intentions of changing her name just simply wants to fuck with her. I hope you don't think me disloyal or unfaithful or selfish or foolish, but I want to be a good wife. My fiance thinks I've been around. I think he's scared of a virgin, and so I told him I wasn't one. That was about ten days ago. He expects an experienced bride on his wedding night and I'm just not that experienced. That was why I was out driving tonight I'm scared he'll realize I know next to nothing about getting fucked. Am I talking, too crudely? Ever since we had out little talk, I've been panic-stricken he'll find out. In other words, Roger, if you can teach me something that will make him happy, I'll be so grateful. Is that wanton?"