David reached across the seat and played with her hair. "Can we kiss and make up?"

"No! I’m still mad at you for doubting me." She folded her arms across her chest.

"It wasn't you I doubted and him I don't trust."

"Same thing. I designed him and he’s a part of me."

David wanted to nibble on her neck. "Okay, since we’re already parked, let's neck. I haven't had a chance to park and neck in the car since college."

"And it isn't about to happen now either, buster. You lay a hand on me and I’ll call Henry."

David knew she was only being testy. "We do tend to get ugly when we're questioned about our friend Henry. Don't we?"

It brought a smile to Karen's face. "Yes we do, but drive me back, buy me a malt, and I might be persuaded to forgive you."

"A malt? You're becoming increasingly expensive. The first time only cost me a pop and a doughnut. Which, I might add, you never repaid me for. However, since I now know you have your price, how about supper? I may need lots of forgiving later on." David thought it strange they could be so mad at one another one minute and such good friends the next. Maybe this was what love was?

"Oh good, I love this make up part. It's too early for supper so take me by the house and let me get ready. You can come by and pick me up soon as you feel like it." Karen had such a wonderful time last time David took her out she knew she wouldn't be disappointed. Even if he didn't take her anywhere, he was nice company to have around.

Karen was smiling at him and David felt a warm glow spread all over. She was easy on the eyes for sure. He started the car, turned it around, and drove back to the highway. "It's too early for getting ready for a night on the town. Instead, let's take our lab coats off and cruise the malls for awhile. What are you wearing under your coat?"

"What do you mean, what am I wearing under my coat? What kind of girl do you think I am? I have a dress on. I’m no pervert." She knew what David meant but she was going to make him pay for the way he asked the question. Besides, he could see the neckline of the dress and the hem when the bottom of the coat swung open.

"What I mean is...,"

She didn't let him finish. "I know what you mean."

Karen opened her lab coat to reveal a deep blue, jersey dress with a sheer lace pattern starting at each shoulder and plunging into a deep vee in the middle. She reached over to hold onto the steering wheel. "David, pay attention to your driving. You’re wandering all over the highway."

David got a fresh grip on the wheel. He didn't dare look at her again. "Wuff. I thought you said you needed to go home and change for the evening if we were going out. I don't go to work dressed like you do. How come you go to work dressed like you do?"

Karen laughed at the thought. "Sounds kind of kinky to me. But if you’re into that sort of thing, come by the house and I’ll loan you some of my clothes. Most of my dresses are stretch fabric. I don't think you would have any trouble wearing them."

David had to laugh along with Karen. She was obviously going to make him pay for talking about her Henry. He wouldn't be able to say anything with a double meaning until she decided he had paid for his mistake.

"Don't get cute. You knew what I was talking about. I don't wear a tux to work everyday, and right now you would put anything less to shame."

"You trying to tell me you would be ashamed to be seen with me?"

David sighed, was she ever going to forgive? "Karen, I wouldn't be ashamed to take you to the presidential palace right now. You would fit in anywhere from shopping in the flea market to the upper crust of a society banquet. You're unique in being able to fit in and look like you have always been there. You’re a human chameleon and it didn't happen the night of your accident either. You have always blended in with your surroundings. You have a knack of making everyone around you feel comfortable discussing any subject brought up."

Karen almost told him she use to blend in too well. No one wanted her around. If they thought of her at all, she was ignored.

David's face lit up. "I have an idea."

Picking up the phone, he made a short call. It only took him a few minutes and he hung up. Finding a cross over, David turned the car around.

"We’re going sailing."

"I can't go sailing like this. I think you found the one thing I’m not dressed for." She knew wearing a dress to work and sailing were two different situations. Her mental picture of sailing was sitting in a small boat, getting soaked to the skin while dodging waves if possible.

"Don't worry, there is a place down by the docks where they sell sweaters, pants, and shoes. We can find something for you to wear when we get there. I promise, you will enjoy it if you relax and let me do the thinking on this one."

Karen did relax and she pulled her left foot up under herself as she leaned back against the door. "Whose boat is it? I didn't know you knew how to sail?"

"The boat belongs to a friend. Her name is Elvonda, and she’s the sailor, not me. She told me I could use her boat anytime I wanted as long as it wasn't already out. I told her we wanted to go sailing for the afternoon and she wanted to know who I had with me. When I said it was Karen Long, she cautioned me to keep my hands to myself and watch what I was doing. She has seen your pictures in the papers and approved of my choice of sailing partners."

"This is a friend of yours?" There was a lot about David she didn't know. But why should she? Except at work, she and David never associated with one another. As soon as they left their labs, they went different directions.

She had driven by David's apartment a few times to see where he lived. She figured he had probably done the same. It was a normal part of the human mentality to be slightly curious about some things. Especially with people one works around for fifteen years. David had never asked her for a date or been more than polite and friendly when they happened to be together. Yet he spent long hard hours of his own time hunting a cure for her migraine headaches when he could have been doing other work. Which brought her to the only two good things she could see because of the accident. David started taking an active interest in her and her headaches were gone. Karen felt she paid a terrible price for the benefits.

David was still talking and Karen missed part of it. ".... and she said she needed another hand to manage the boat. I had dated her several times and I guess she thought I looked stupid enough to go along or something like that. She was right, it was stupid of me to go along. Now she is engaged to some lawyer. He probably thinks if he marries her, he will get the boat in the deal. The only good part of this is, he has to be more stupid than I am. Anyone who believes they could out smart Elvonda has already lost the game."

Karen wished she had been listening from the beginning. "You do know how to sail then?"

David shook his head no. "Like I said, I don't have the faintest idea but don't worry. It has a motor. I believe the name is day sailer. No, that is the description of it. Anyway we will start the engine and cruise out a little ways, and go swimming or something."

"It's the something, which worries me."

David glanced her way. "Karen, I love you. I’m not going to hurt you or place you in a compromising position. I made my choice at the candy counter and I decided on the flavor I want. If and when you decide to marry me, we will work out the date and place. I have loved you for a long time but was too busy or stupid to let marriage get in the way of my work. I kept hoping for a breakthrough so I could stop pushing so hard in my research. I guess I always thought you would wait for me to ask you. Your accident kind of threw me for a little while but, you are still the same Karen I fell in love with a long time ago."

"A lot of women have, in one way or another, suggested marriage to me but I wasn't interested. You were the one who stole my heart fifteen years ago when you were building me a computer and designing the programming for my research. I couldn't believe one person had the right to be so intelligent, kind, and gentle. You were all of those things and more. Like a jerk, I thought things would keep on the same way they always were. I guess I didn't date you because I was afraid it would get serious before I wanted. Now, I probably waited too long. I’m only another face in your crowd of admirers."

David turned the car off the highway towards the bay dock. Karen was stunned and didn't know what to say. She and David devoted fifteen years of their lives to their research waiting for what? Neither one was able to make the first move toward the other. She searched her feelings to the beginning and tried to examine them to see if she loved David then. She knew she liked him from the start, but love? David was as handsome and successful as they come. If she had entertained any vague ideas of love toward David, she repressed the feelings and didn't allow them to surface. No use dreaming the impossible. David could have his choice of women and she was as plain as they came. If only either of them had said something. Fifteen years, what a waste of life. Now they might be too late. Every single day she awoke was her total future. It was all she could plan on.

There was no use involving David in her questionable future right now. They had waited this long, a little longer wouldn't kill them. That was a distasteful thought. "David, I’m still trying to figure out what I am. If you have waited for fifteen years to ask me to marry you, please be patient and wait a little longer. The answer is yes, but we can't set a date nor begin an engagement yet. You have always been there for me to lean on when I needed help, but this time I’m on my own."

"Now change the subject. I can't wear sneakers, flats, loafers, or anything if it doesn't have a high heel to it. If I could I would, but my design wasn't made to be so flexible. It would be like you standing on your toes all day. It can be done but it isn't comfortable and it hurts after a while."

David had been taking short glances at her. "I will wait until the world stops turning for you to become my wife. I love you more than you will ever know, Karen. As for high heels on a boat? Not very practical, but you sure will be the sexiest woman there. You might even start a trend. Every captain of his ship will make it a rule, all girl friends wear high heels."

Karen turned down the offer to look at deck shoes while she picked out a sweater and stretch pants. It looked like a jogging suit to her but the sales lady kept referring to it as a sailing outfit. Probably a fancy name for a fancy price. She felt a little silly as she stepped out of the closet they called a dressing room and was wearing a jogging suit along with high heels but it couldn't be helped. Not if she was going sailing with David. Again she wondered why she and Henry had to be designing the woman she was stuck with. She thought about it and got to laughing at herself. At least she wasn't a cow. Someday she would have to tell David what Henry had told her.

Much to Karen's consternation David let out a low whistle as she stepped out of the dressing room and of course everyone in the room turned to look.

"Thanks a heap, David. I was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. You aren't much help." She was holding her dress up in front of herself, hoping to stave off the stares of the other customers.

He handed the sales lady a credit card. "Everyone would have noticed anyway, Karen. And those who didn't see you until you were out the door would have been disappointed. You're kind of like the Empire State Building in the middle of the Kansas prairie. The harder you try to hide, the more obvious you become."

She was glad there were only a few people in the little store. She hadn't completely recovered from the episode she had been through in Bob's store. Now David had brought those memories back and she was a little peeved with him.

Handing the credit card back to David, the saleslady looked over at Karen. "I couldn't help overhearing, Miss Long. We don't ever have any celebrities like you come down here. You make my clothes look good when you’re wearing them. I saw some of your models the other day and it’s an honor to meet the lady who does the design work."

"We didn't use to sell but one Sunday paper, and it was passed around the dock and shared until everybody had read it. Then Bob's Intimates began running ads with your pictures and now nobody shares a paper. I have saved every single copy you have been in. I had to keep them under lock and key to keep from losing them. You're even more beautiful than your pictures. I figured they were retouched by some of those people who do artistic work on photographs to make the model look like a movie star. I realize now I was mistaken."

She reached under the counter and brought up some newspaper clippings of the pictures and articles of Karen modeling at the mall. "May I have your autograph on one or two of these?"

She laid a stack of clippings on the counter in front of Karen. Karen autographed more than a dozen articles before she begged off. It was to little avail. Once the other customers found she was willing to give autographs, everyone came up with something for her to autograph. She had to stop and sign more autographs than she thought there could possibly be people as she and David made their way down to the docks. Where do all these people come from?

Karen was laughing at David's awkwardness as he tried to untie the boat and get organized. As they drifted away from the dock he was trying desperately to start the engine. "I thought you were a real sailor the way you were talking to the rest of us in the lab. What happened to anchors away, hoist the sail, put the men in irons, and all that other nautical stuff you were spouting?"

She sat down by the big thing looking like an overgrown steering wheel as she watched David struggling with an apparent lack of skill. He finally managed to get the engine started before they drifted into another boat. The man on the dock had been watching them with growing anxiety. He stopped untying his own boat when he heard the sound of the diesel cough to life. David steered the ship toward open water.

Standing tall and proud in the cockpit, he got a smug look of confidence on his face. "Okay, now to answer your questions. I never said I knew anything about sailing. When I went out with Elvonda I hated every second of it. She always wanted to put the sail up. I swear it meant nothing but hard work and sweat from the moment we left. Relief came when we dropped anchor and I got off the boat. I think the reason she invited me along, was because she couldn't work this big tub all by herself."

Karen didn't like the sound of this. "What do you mean, she couldn't work this big tub by herself? If she was suppose to know what she was doing and you don't, how are you going to sail this ship?"

A smirk curled the corners of his mouth. "Beginners luck?"

She wasn't amused. Then she got a thought that frightened her. She and David were on a boat and neither one knew what they were doing.

"Oh no. You don't expect me to help sail this thing do you? As much as I’m beginning to suspect you don't know anything about what you’re doing, I know even less than you do."

They began moving along at a slow but constant speed. "I know what I’m doing. I didn't say I didn't know anything about boats. I said, I didn't know anything about sailing. It’ll take me a little bit to get use to everything but I can handle it. I can't give you a lot of nautical terms like Elvonda does. It doesn't make any difference, I think she made up most of those things to confuse me. She used funny names like port and starboard for right and left or maybe the other way around. Let's keep it simple. Right is right and left is left. The front is ahead of us and behind us is the back of the boat. There isn't any bow and grim or stern or whatever."

As Karen settled down in the big chair beside David, she listened to the waves smack against the bow of the boat. Below in the engine room, the steady throb of the little diesel kept a clock like rhythm. David might not know the name of everything, but he wasn't doing badly at handling the boat once he got going. It was hypnotic to listen to the rhythm of the sounds, and be gently rocked by the roll of the boat as it moved across the water. She could close her eyes and let the whole world disappear into a meaningless nothing.

"I thought sailboats were always leaning over into the water? Why aren't we? This boat is almost level with no leaning to speak of. This isn't what I imagined a sailboat to be like." She looked around at the cushioned chairs and few lines going up the mast. In fact, the boat was quite comfortable and plush. She expected less. A lot less.

David laughed as he watched her relaxing in the captain's chair. "It has to do with putting the sail up. The wind has to push on the sail to make the boat move forward. When we use only the engine, the wind isn't trying to push us over on our side. I don't know why sailors even bother with sails. Elvonda liked to tack close to the wind. I swear, she delighted in making me think she was going to turn us over. She would lay this baby right down on its’ side. I never tried it, but I bet I could have walked out to the end of the keel. What an aggressive sailor she tries to be. I think she works out her frustrations and my sweat on the water."

"You would like her. She’s extremely beautiful but I think she would have made a better pirate than she did a woman. She gets out here and doesn't think it’s any fun unless you have to dodge booms, wires, and hang on for dear life to keep from falling overboard. Everything wants to swing around and knock you off the ship or tangle up your feet and break your legs. I came out here with her in a hurricane. Well, maybe only a forty mile an hour wind, but it felt like a hurricane. Can you believe we put up the spinnaker and raced across the water like a couple of idiots? Half the time I was lying flat on the deck hanging on for my life and the other half of the time I was in the air as we bounced from wave to wave."

"I guess she put my attitude in order that day. She told me life was a challenge and we received back only the amount we were willing to bet. You want a lot out of life, you have to be willing to put a lot into living it."

Karen studied David as he gazed across the water looking into the distance. Feet apart braced for the roll of the ship, checking his compass from time to time, he was content.

"Do you love her? Do you wish it were you, instead of the lawyer she is marrying?"

There was extreme fondness in his voice. "Yes, I love her. I love her very deeply."

He turned and looked affectionately at Karen. "But not like I love you. She is a friend, a very dear friend. I love her like a sister. I wish her nothing but the best in her marriage but I think she is making a mistake and told her so. The guy isn't for her. He is full of himself and will always think that way. Elvonda is pleasant, intelligent, and a lot like you. I’ll invite her out to dinner with us sometime so you can meet her. You will like her. She is one foxy lady when she isn't on this ship playing the part of Captain Blyth."

This was a side of David she had never seen. He loved it when he was on this boat with his friend. He was pushed to the limits of his ability and took chances he couldn't afford to take in the lab. Elvonda wasn't the only one who came out here to work out frustrations. David didn't want to admit he had another personality other than the structured, ordered, disposition he exhibited in his lab. Karen knew Elvonda wasn't the only one doing all the pushing to the limits of equipment and human endurance.

He pointed to a speck in the distance. "Look, Crab Island. We always stop there and have a bite of lunch when we get a chance. Elvonda knew the only way she could keep her crew was to give me a break and feed me. This boat isn't as barren as one would believe. She has more toys on this boat than what you and I could ever think of. The sad part is, she knows what all of them are for. You want to hear something even sadder? I don't."

"However there are some radios and a telephone in the cabin. Go call your partner in crime. Tell him where you are so he doesn't call out the FBI on a national manhunt when you don't return when he thinks you should. As you go down the stairs, turn on the radio to your left. It is the national weather alert and they give a forecast across the nation every fifteen minutes. The one above is for the Coast Guard. Turn it on and leave all the other stuff alone. Most of it is for emergency situations or navigational aids which we won't need. We’re running the engine so the generator is also working charging the batteries. Everything will be okay as long as we remember to turn the radios off when we stop the engine."

David looked over at Karen and his eyes were sparkling. "Now, how about those apples? You didn't think this old sea dog knew what he was doing, did you?"

She opened the hatch and looked down the steps. It was a nice looking cabin with electronic gear everywhere. Maybe David did know what he was doing. The idea lasted until she heard him shouting orders to the imaginary crew.

"Avast me hearties, mitzen the blitzen, up the sails and drop anchors. Man the chairs and break out the staple guns. The pirates are upon us and it is time to show them our true colors. What's that you say? Our true colors are yellow? I won't stand for cowardly talk coming from my crew. Throw that man overboard. What do you mean, this is a one man crew? Throw yourself overboard. I shall be forced to face the surfboard pirates by myself."

She better call Henry and let him know where she was. Maybe he could get the Coast Guard out to rescue them. She suddenly lost all faith in David getting them back in one piece.

They anchored on the leeward side of the island after David finally figured out how to get the anchor down. He told her there were snorkels and swim fins in the forward locker and she would find a bathing suit, in the locker in the main cabin. There was food in the galley and it took several attempts to explain the head was the bathroom. It took a lot more explaining that the potty didn't hold water until before it was used.

Karen had a lot of fun figuring out the functions of the sail boat, until she noticed it was beginning to get late, and they hadn't started home yet. "Can you make your way home after dark? It looks like the sun will be down before we get back to the dock."

David opened a can of peaches and handed her a fork. "Let's spend the night here. You haven't lived until you hear the sound of the waves lapping against the side of the boat while it’s rocking you to sleep. We’ll go swimming in a little while and you will find out how warm the water feels at night. This is a whole different world Karen. Stop and enjoy it for a little while. Don't rush past it in your effort to get back to the city with all its crowds and traffic."

Karen had taken a bite of peach and was trying to talk around it. "I didn't tell Henry I was going to be out all night, and I have to get the chamber fixed first thing in the morning, and I ..."

David put his hand over her mouth. "It will wait. Remember what I said about no one will miss you after you’re gone? We rush forward into our jobs thinking we’re indispensable. I promise you we aren't. If I died tonight someone would be in my lab tomorrow taking up my work where I left off. I have a jealous feeling you wouldn't be so easily replaced, but sooner or later someone would accomplish it."

"Scientist are trail blazers, Karen. We forge ahead into the unknown leaving a path for others to follow. When we stumble or fall this is also a warning to others. They shouldn't do the same things we did, or take better precautions so they don't make the same mistakes. Workers and scientist around the world have told us to take a break from our work when we get caught up in it. If we don't, we will suffer the fate others ahead of us have and become physically and mentally burned out. I have no idea what has kept you going all these years, I know you put in more hours than anyone else at Comm Tech."

"Now take some advice from your doctor and give it a rest. Call your guardian and tell him where you are and that you won't return until sometime in the morning. I have to set out some lights so they don't run over us in the dark. We will be a lot safer here for the night than me trying to get us back in the dark. I only steer this thing by looking where I want to go. Elvonda could park this baby on the top of a dime, after a thousand mile crossing, in a fog covering the end of your nose. I do good to get this boat moving and stopped."

As Karen relented to his advice, she couldn't help but think how different Karl and David were. Karl didn't believe women had any brains at all, and he was the smartest person in the whole world. David freely admitted he couldn't do some things as well as some women. He had no ego to bruise in saying so. She thought about his self-evaluation as a sailor. He was right, it would be safer to stay where they were for the night, rather than kill them selves trying to get home in the dark. She loved this man who was so self-assured, he had nothing to prove to the rest of the world.

"I'll call Henry and let him know we won't be in tonight. He’ll put in an absentee slip for both of us so Comm Tech won't dock our paycheck. It should make everyone happy. He will get a break and so will we."

The discussion with Karen about her computer had to be more fact than fiction. David didn't let it show but the thought ran through his mind. If Henry was running through payroll files he had a right to be scared of him. If Karen was smart she would be scared too. David promised himself he would pay more attention to the coffee pot gossip when they were discussing Karen's computer. A chill ran down his spine as he thought about it. What had Karen breathed life into, in that lab of hers?

Karen knew Henry would never take a break. He would be running calculations on information he was busy accessing from some data bank somewhere. Henry's idea of relaxing was finding new information he didn't already possess. It suddenly dawned on her. She and Henry were more alike than anyone knew. She programmed a lot of herself into Henry because that was her idea of relaxing.

Karen found a swimming suit in the cabin closet where David said it would be. Elvonda had sensuous taste in swimsuits. Karen felt more naked after she put one on than when she had all her clothes off. Hardly covering anything but the nipples on her breast, it ran over the shoulders and down the back in little more than a G-string where it came around front in thong style.

She stood inside the cabin door looking at the woman in the mirror. She was trying to convince herself it was a swimsuit. "David, I can't wear this. I don't think I can go swimming in this."

David was already changed and waiting for her up on the deck. He knew what she was talking about. None of Elvonda’s swimsuits covered a whole lot. "Sure you can. I know what you have. I have seen you with a lot less than that. Remember?"

Karen stepped out with uncertainty. "I didn't think you were the kind of man who would remind a lady when she was improperly dressed. Besides, that wasn't me that morning. That was still the other woman."

David was watching the last rays of the sun in the evening sky as Karen tiptoed up the steps to the deck. He turned around to see if she changed back to her deck suit rather than wearing the swimsuit. It was the swimsuit. He stood there not saying a word as he admired her courage, among other things.

Finally he broke the silence. "Nice, very nice. God creates a lot of beautiful things in this world. Not all of them are in the sky like the last sparkle from the days sun or the rainbow after a rain."

They went swimming after dark and David was right. The water did feel warmer than it did during the daytime. They swam to the island which Karen estimated to be about one hundred fifty feet from the boat. It surprised her how exhausted she was when she reached the beach. She didn't know if she would have made it had it been any farther.

Karen sat down on the sand and picked up a small empty mussel shell. Wiping out the sand with her fingers she examined the ridges inside as she glanced back toward the boat. "Everyday I walk five times the distance we just swam and I was close to exhaustion. I didn't know if I would make it to the beach or not. I was beginning to think you would have to call the Coast Guard to come drag the bottom for me."

David took the shell away from her and rinsed it off in the water. "Swimming uses a completely different set of muscles and a whole lot more energy than walking. You could run ten miles a day and still not be a good swimmer. Just because you’re in shape from one type of exercise doesn't automatically qualify you to be in good shape for a different exercise."

He held up the shell for her to see and ran his finger around the inside. "This is called 'the mother of pearl'. Any time you buy jewelry made from mother, this is what you’re buying, the insides of a mussel or oyster shell."

"Let me see that." Karen leaped to her feet, snatching the shell from his hand.

"I didn't say you could have it back." David lunged for her and fell flat on his face as she jumped backwards.

She kept running backwards as she taunted him. "I never realized how clumsy you were. You're a real klutz, aren't you?"

David was back on his feet in less than a second. "A clumsy klutz? This is mutiny and calls for severe punishment."

Karen was completely taken by surprise at how quickly David sprang back to his feet. He was already coming after her at a full run before she had a chance to turn and flee. She turned to run and hadn't taken two steps before David tackled her from behind while wrapping his arms around her. Letting his momentum carry him past her, he twisted her around and landed flat on his back. Karen was lying on top of him.

Karen tried squirming out of his embrace but David had his arms around her body with her arms pinned to her sides. It felt like steel bands around her, he was so unyielding. She knew David could hold a wild stallion if he put his mind to it. He was a lot stronger than she thought he should be for a doctor or research scientist. He had to be out on Elvonda's boat or in a gym working out a lot more than she imagined. Knowing it was no contest as to who would win this test of strength, she stopped struggling.

As soon as Karen stopped struggling, David rolled out from under her. Laying on top of her, he still held her captive. Running his fingers through her hair, he brushed it out of her face.

"Now for the punishment." Softly he kissed her neck and shoulders.

She tilted her head back exposing her long slender neck to his caresses. Running his fingers into her hair, David locked her head in place as he clinched a fist full of hair. Ever so lightly he kissed her full lips and ran his tongue across them.

Karen's emotions hit overdrive. It was exhilarating and daring. Biting lightly on his lip she put her hands around his back. Ever so gently she pressed the tips of those long sharp fingernails into the small of his back. Gently she raked up his back and out to his shoulders. David's mind exploded. Kissing her harder, he ran his tongue inside her mouth in a French kiss.

Things were getting out of hand as she and David played a sexually and emotionally dangerous game. Karen put her hands under his chest and pushed him back. Nothing had been said but David knew she was right. She was trying to control their emotions. Rolling over to the side he played with her hair, then leaning back over, he kissed her again.

With her emotions picking up again, she put her hand behind his head and kissed him back as he slid the swimming suit off her breasts and fondled them. It didn't surprise Karen how easily he did it. What amazed her was, with the skimpy little suit she was wearing, she didn't fall out of it before now. Gently running the tip of his fingers over the end of her nipple, David kissed her around the ear and nibbled on her ear lobe. Leaning down he ran his tongue around her nipple while holding her other breast.

Her heart began pounding inside her chest as her mind raced off into oblivion. She felt they had gone too far to quit until David put his hand between her thighs and was exploring upward. It was the realization she needed to know now was the time to call off this petting game before things got out of hand.

Karen pushed David away and stood up. She slid the swimsuit back over her breasts. Now, more than ever, she realized how little this bathing suit really did cover. "It's getting late. Time to go back to the boat."

He kissed her and took her hand to lead her into the water for the swim back. It surprised him he wasn't disappointed by the way things turned out. She told him the rules on their first date and he knew she was right. David would love her forever if she would let him.

They reached the deck of the boat and David pointed her toward the main cabin. "Take a shower first. There are plenty of blankets. Be sure to get them out even if you don't put them on your bed now. You’ll want them before morning. With water all around you, it gets cold on a boat before the sun comes up in the morning to start warming things up."

He stood on the deck watching her disappear down the steps. Halfway down Karen turned and looked back up at him. "David...,"

"Let it go, Karen. Tomorrow is a brand new day." He felt her still watching as he turned to check the lights and anchor for the night. He would do everything he could to persuade her to marry him. All she had to do was say yes.

Much later in the night, Karen finally fell asleep. Between her emotions still slowing down and the unfamiliar lap of the waves against the sides of the rocking boat, her mind wouldn't stop thinking.

She could smell the eggs and bacon cooking before her eyes opened. Looking out the porthole, she saw the morning was well along into the day. Dressing and making the bed only took a few minutes. She took a few more seconds to splash some water on her face before she made the galley.

"What a funny looking stove." It hung on a hook of some kind and rocked from side to side with the rhythm of the boat. She watched as David expertly chased the eggs across the skillet.

Never turning to look at her, he slid the eggs onto a plate along with the bacon. "Morning, sleepy head. Glad you could make it. You up to breakfast?"

He put a plate down in front of her as he picked up another and again cornered the eggs in the skillet. "This is a galley stove. It was designed to swing with the boat so it will always be level. When the boat is under full sail and leaning over nothing will fall off the burners."

Sliding his plate onto the table he sat down beside her. "You don't get a choice of how you get your eggs out here. I hope you like your eggs out of a can? You either take them as is, or not at all."

She never heard of such a thing. David must be joking? "Eggs in a can? I suppose the bacon came out of a can too?"

He spread some butter on a biscuit. "You bet. Everything comes out of a can when you’re on a boat. That is, unless you plan ahead and bring groceries with you. It isn't the best food you ever tasted but it is passable and it does fill the empty spot between your ribs."

Karen took a small bite to see how it tasted. It tasted great. "I’m famished. I hardly ever eat breakfast but this morning I feel like I could eat a horse. If you don't hurry I might finish mine off and yours too."

"Go ahead. I know how you feel. It seems when you're out on the water you're always twice as hungry as when you're home."

David was wrong about it not being the best food she ever tasted. It wasn't quite what she expected when eggs and bacon were mentioned, but it was good. Karen wasn't kidding when she said she was starving. She polished off the last bite on her plate as David put his in the sink.

"You take care of the dishes, and I’ll get us started home. We both slept late and it’s getting close to ten. If you wait a little while after I get the engine running, you will have hot water for the scullery. Otherwise, you will have to wash with cold water."

Karen was looking to see if anything looked like what he was talking about. "What am I suppose to wait on hot water to wash in where?"

"There I go, using my old sea dog language on you landlubbers again. I forgot you don't know anything about a ship." He was smiling as he turned to go up the stairs.

"Look who’s talking. For an old sea dog you don't inspire much confidence in your crew. You’re lucky you don't have another mutiny on your hands this morning." Karen stood up and put her fists on her hips in defiance.

David didn't think his heart could stand another mutiny so early in the day. He wasn't over the one from last night..., yet. "I have to get us going or we aren't ever going to get home. One more word about mutiny and I’ll have you walk the deck."

David was up the steps and clear of the hatch when he heard her shout at him. "That’s walk the plank, you old sea dog you."