Clementine woke up to the sound of water slapping against the hull. She kept her eyes closed for a moment, enjoying the slight rolling motion of the boat. She finally opened her eyes to a darkened stateroom, because all of the draperies had been pulled. Next to her, Johnny slumbered, looking like a curly-haired angel.

Clementine rolled out of bed and went to the drapes which covered the sliding glass doors. She pulled them and the bright light spilled in, flooding the room with sunlight.

"Hello? Someone's trying to sleep over here," Johnny complained from the bed, lifting an arm against the sunshine.

Clementine bounced onto the bed. "Come on, John, the day's a-wastin, let's go outside. I want to see."

"Okay, okay, gimme a mo to get sorted," John acquiesced, laughing. "How about we get dressed first?"

"Oh?" Clem sat up on the bed. "I thought you liked me in this?" She gestured down to the basketball jersey she'd slept in.

"I do, believe me," John replied, lunging on her and bearing her down under his weight. "I just don't want to give the crew a show, you know? You can wear as little as you like in front of me, but I don't want to share you with anyone else."

Clementine almost made a remark about how no one would consider her in a jersey to be any kind of show, but John seemed serious, so she let it go.

John released her after a couple minutes of wrestling fun, and she put on a pair of shorts and a tank top.

John was pulling a T-shirt on over his curly hair.

"Come on, come on, hurry the fuck up," Clem implored.

"Okay, steady on, the ocean's not going anywhere," John teased as he reached for her hand.

Clementine slid the door open and stepped out.

Oh wow.

She was momentarily bereft of speech as she looked around. The ocean in LA was usually darkish blue or green, opaque and familiar.

This ocean, the Caribbean, was nearly fluorescent in its dazzling blues and greens, and clear. Far off, across the horizon, Clem could see some dark, lushly green foliage, which must mean there was land out there, but the boat was in the middle of a day-glow expanse of indigo, aquamarine, and cobalt. The heat from the sun was nearly a physical weight on their skin.

Clementine turned to John. "Johnny, I've never seen anything so gorgeous in all my life. Oh my god!" She turned and ran inside, returning a few seconds later with her sunglasses.

"Good morning," the steward called from the upper deck. "Would you like your breakfast in your room, or out on the deck?"

John glanced at Clementine, who was still staring at all the beauty that surrounded them. "Deck, please," he responded. "Is it this way?"

"Yes sir." The steward nodded and smiled. "Someone will be out with your coffee and tea momentarily."

So Clem and John, with hands still clasped, walked around to the forward section of the boat and found a table and chairs waiting for them.

A woman in white shorts and a shirt showed up mere moments later to pour them coffee and tea. "Breakfast will be served in about five minutes," she said with a charming smile as she turned away.

Clem took a sip of coffee and sighed. "Perfect," she declared. They sat in silence and looked out at the ocean.

"I can't believe I'm here," Clem finally said. "I mean, yesterday at this time I was sitting in class taking notes, and now we're half a world away in the middle of the ocean." She gave an involuntary shiver of delight.

"Ooh, breakfast," she said when the door to the corridor opened. "Yummy."

John smiled. "Can I just say again how lovely it is that you're so easy to please?"

Clem paused, a forkful of fruit half way to her mouth. "Are you saying I'm a cheap date? Hm?" She cocked her eyebrow at him.

"Not at all, not at all," he assured her. "Just that it's so much fun to just be with you because everything makes you happy, that's all."

"Okay," she put the fork in her mouth and chewed for a minute before continuing. "So what are we going to do today?"

Johnny shrugged, hands held wide. "Whatever we want. I think I'd like to swim and sunbathe and read."

"That sounds great," Clem agreed. "Except I want to sketch a little."

"Perfect, sounds like a perfect way to spend the day."

They took their time with breakfast, watching some birds fly over head and seeing some dolphins frolicking a few hundred yards from the boat.

"It's like everything's shown through a filter," Clem said. "No, that's backwards," she answered herself as though John had responded. "It's like in LA everything's seen through a filter, and here the colors are really deep, really saturated, you know?"

"Now you sound like an artist," Johnny teased. "My girl, the artist." He leaned over and ruffled her hair.

Clementine smiled in embarrassment. "Shut up, you know exactly what I'm talking about, Mr. Art Aficionado." She looked at Johnny speculatively. "You know, I'm surprised you don't draw and paint and stuff yourself. You'd probably be good at it."

John shook his head vigorously, curls shaking. "Not me, I'm a consumer of art only. Now, let's get our suits on and hit the water, yeah?"

Clementine nodded, steeling herself for John seeing her in a bathing suit for the first time. She wondered to herself why it should matter, when he'd seen her with nothing on so many times?

She didn't know, it just did.

She quickly pulled her suit on while he was in the bathroom, and surveyed herself in the full-length mirror. Not terrible, she guessed. The little skirt did a decent job of hiding her thighs and stomach, and the rest of her was passable. She thought about Hyacinth, and how she looked in a suit, with her long, tanned legs, flat stomach, and high, pert breasts, and sighed.

"What? Why are you looking at yourself and sighing like that?" John put his arms around her from behind, lining his firm chest against her back and tucking his head over her shoulder.

"Sneaky! Honestly, Johnny, you should wear a bell around your neck or something." Clem was mortified to have been caught looking at herself.

"Look at how gorgeous you look," he murmured, sliding a hand up to cup a breast. "This suit makes your boobs look outstanding."

"Sh, it does not," she protested, feeling weak, just from his hand on her.

"None of that, none of that," he admonished, turning her so they faced each other. "Oh, look, now I can see your beautiful bum in the mirror." And he moved his other hand to squeeze the body part in question.

"Clementine, you can really get me going, you know?" he asked breathlessly before covering her mouth in a scorching kiss. "Now come on, let's go swim before I throw you on the bed and ravage you." He gave her bottom a farewell pat and released her. "Oh, wait, one more thing—" He waved a bottle of sunscreen at her. "No way are you prepared for this tropical sun."

So they lotioned each other up before heading out, turning it into a game which did nearly end with them back in bed. Finally, though, they were ready.

"What about towels?" Clem asked as they stepped out on the deck.

"Oh, they'll give us towels, no worries," John assured her.

Together they walked to the steps that led to the water, and again Clem was surprised when she stepped in. It was warm, a good twenty degrees warmer than the water of the Pacific that she was used to.

"Wow, Johnny, it's like a blanket of water being wrapped around me," Clem marveled as they swam away from the yacht.

She quickly out paced him as she swam, smooth, easy strokes slicing efficiently though the water.

"Hey, wait up!" he called, moving faster to catch up. "You never told me you were such a good swimmer."

"I'm not a good swimmer, it's just that swimming is one of the things I could do without getting all hot and sweaty, so I made a point of learning how, you know?"

"Ever the practical creature, aren't you?" Johnny asked as he caught up to her. "Come here, come here, Clem, my darling." He put his arms around her, pulling her close in the water, which seemed more buoyant than the Pacific Ocean.

"What?" she asked, putting her arms around his neck so they were floating together.

"I love you," Johnny whispered, stroking her wet hair away from her face. "I love you, I love you, I love you."

He kissed her, and Clem could taste the salt water on his lips.

"I love you right back, John Darling-Ezekwesili," she murmured against his mouth.

"Thank you for that, love." He nuzzled against her face before capturing his mouth with his once more. He moaned into the kiss, holding her head by her hair.

"Johnny, you just made me so wet," Clementine said when the kiss finally ended.

"And I'm like granite over here," he replied, rubbing himself against her tummy.

"Let's go back to the boat, hm?"

"Why? We can do this right here, there's no one to see us," John said, gesturing to the wide expanse of ocean which surrounded them.

"I'd be more comfortable back on the boat," Clementine insisted with a laugh.

"Okay, but out on the deck, okay? Not in our room?"

"Really?" Clem looked around uneasily.

"Yeah, really, I want to do it with you outside, in the sunlight." Johnny smiled at her.

"Okay," Clem said with a nervous laugh.

They swam back to the boat and climbed back aboard. Sure enough, a crew member stood at the ready with towels for them, white, fluffy and soft.

"Will there be anything else?" he asked.

John shook his head. "We'll be out on the deck," he informed him.

"Very good."

Johnny smiled wickedly as he pulled Clementine onto the lounge chair. "Come here, you."
Clem let herself be pulled, letting herself get lost in his golden eyes and skin, the heat, the sun, the entire, sublime experience.

"Now then, Ms. O'Dell, let's get this silly little suit off, shall we?" He peeled it off her slowly, kissing her exposed flesh as he went.

"You're so beautiful, Clem, so lovely," he murmured when she was completely nude.

And there in the Caribbean sunshine, Clementine felt beautiful, watching the man she loved look at her.

Johnny grasped her legs and lifted them, causing her to tip back to a supine position.

"And what have we here?" he asked softly, laughing a little. "So pretty, Clem." He bent to kiss her sex, licking into her extravagantly.

Clementine gasped and arched her back, fisting the towel she was lying on.

"God, Clem, that's so sexy," John said in between licking into her. He pressed her legs apart even farther, and Clementine simply abandoned herself to her surroundings, to the bright day and the man between her thighs.

Eventually Johnny stopped and Clem sat up to return the favor, but Johnny gently pushed her back down. "No, I want to fuck you now, okay?"

Clem just nodded, reveling in the first thrust, in feeling his firm body on top of her.

"Feels so good, you always feel so good on me," John gasped. "Christ, Clem—"

"Me too, John, me too," Clementine assured him, rolling her hips to meet him at the apex of his pushes.

He was finished within minutes, too excited to hold on. Clem felt like he was trying to push her off the lounge chair and she just hung on to him, clasping his body to hers, pressing her thighs around him.

"This is really nice, just lying here naked together in the sunshine," Clementine told John after.

"I told you, didn't I?" John responded, delighted.

They showered together in their stateroom before getting dressed and returning to the deck. John brought a book, and Clementine had her pencils and sketchbook. They whiled away the rest of the morning together, speaking seldom. Sometimes John would read Clem a bit of his book, or she'd interrupt him to point out a flock of tropical birds on the horizon.

Eventually they heard the chimes that indicated it was lunch time.

"You know, I could get used to this," Clementine said as they made their way inside to eat.

"Next time we'll go to Italy or Greece," John told her. "When we have more time, yeah?"

Clementine looked at John. "Next time? There's going to be a 'next time'?"

John gave her a squeeze. "Of course."

Clementine stopped in her tracks and hugged John, hard. "Thank you, Johnny, I really mean it. Thank you."