Chapter 26
Corals, Mangroves, and Honey

I

I ran off the campus half dressed-half and wet, jumped into my car and drove after Martha the fastest I could. Just a few blocks ahead in downtown, I spotted the black convertible. Feeling relieved, I sighed when I found out she was taking the main road that lead to our neighborhood. She wasn't going anywhere but home.

Once in front of her house, the woman climbed out her car in a hurry as it came obvious she was trying to get inside before being intercepted by her hideous neighbor. Me.

"Martha! Please Martha! Wait! Allow me to explain", I sprinted after the beautiful blonde, but shy didn't reply and just kept walking, ignoring me without even looking back.

I wasn't going let her escape, not this time. Hustling, I made it first to the porch and standing in front of the door, I blocked her path.

"Excuse me Mr. Grau, I'm pretending to get into my house", Martha tried to push me asides, but I wasn't moving. And there we were, doing some sort of a weird dance moving from here to there. Martha moving forward, me blocking her way.

"Martha, please, just give me a second. I think I deserve some fair time to explain."

"I don't want to hear any explanations from you! You are a liar! Argh! I'm going somewhere else so I don't ever see your face!" Fuming, Martha turned away from me in aims to leave again, but a group of curious neighbors gathering on the sidewalk nade her think things twice. Fortuitously for me. Giving a quick spin, Martha turned on her heels, grabbed my arm and spoke grinding teeth. "Thank to the gossipers in the sidewalk. Let's go inside... You lucky man!" After opening the door and closing it behind us with a loud bang, she child in front of me, arms crossed. "You have five minutes Antonio and not a second more."

"Martha. I'm sorry."

"You are sorry for what?", Martha retorted.

"Paula told me she needed to talk with me after I finished the swimming class. Totally absentminded, I stayed in the pool to swim a few more laps and forgot she wanted to talk to me. Then you arrived and I was so blown away that I forgot to warn you."

"That's a nice one! Do you know another story? Perhaps... a witches one."

"I'm telling the truth! Martha you have to believe me... Paula..."

"Paula is the woman you love! She's exotic, young, pompous, flamboyant and Brazilian! Of course you love her! I've been playing a fool! And thinking that I went to see you to apologize." Her blue eyes accused me.

"To apologize? You?"

"I'm old enough to accept when I do wrong... But seeing things this way, I'm glad your Paula was there to interrupt me."

"She's no my Paula! It's you! You are my Martha!" Unable to hold myself longer, I pulled the woman towards me and kissed her with vehement passion. As I wrapped my arms around her waist and shoulders I pressed her against my body passionately. There was only one way to convince Martha that I wasn't lying and words weren't sufficient... even more, words weren't meaningful. So I let the kisses rendered to speak for me.

With gentleness I removed my lips from hers. While her eyes still closed, she gasped, letting escape a moan that told me she felt the way I did and that proved an action, a simple and pure action moved by love spoke more than a thousand words.

Entirely satisfied, I smiled, as I watched with delightfulness the spark of joy in her eyes, and the way, she opened halfway her swollen and reddened lips after we kissed.

"I..." We chuckled after talking at the same time.

"Ladies first." I said.

"Antonio, look. I'm the one here that must say I'm sorry. I know that as I've been so hermetically closed to people that nobody ever dared to come this near, in the way you did. I don't blame you. It was all my fault... I... I felt the necessity to apologize. This morning I only wished to run away from you, but deep inside I know it's by you who I want to be. I returned and waited for you in front of your house and then I realized it was Monday, so I decided to go to the school... Don't look at me in that way. I've been acting in a childish manner ever since I noticed you spied on me. It began like a hide and seek game to me, but hey, I'm not a girl anymore. Sure I can admit my errors... And if you still don't get it, yes... I want you to forgive me... Can you forgive me?" Martha put her hands together mimicking a plea.

"How could I not forgive you? You are the best thing that has ever happened to me Martha." I was about to kiss her sealing the reconciliation, but she stopped me to speak again.

"Wait my dear Professor Antonio Grau. Even though I die for your kisses right now, and maybe everything else from you, let's do things right this time. I will introduce myself. My name is Martha Sophia Higgins. I was born in Germany and I am 35 years old. I paint for a living. I'm not a witch, although I wish I could be one... I am not a widower, for I've never got married. My fiancée died in a car accident the same day of our wedding. I suffered a lot for that so I decided to move to the Great Manor, a property that belongs to my family. My parents are death. My only family is my brother, Ralph. People don't like me and I don't like people... except for you... Antonio... because I not only like you... I love you." Clinging her arms around my neck, this time Martha sealed her declaration with a tender kiss.

II

"Oh, I've never thought this place could be this beautiful!" Flabbergasted, Martha admired the breathtaking view, beyond horizon, to the sea shore and underwater, as we rowed slowly over the acrylic transparent kayaks. Below us, the crystal clear waters revealed underneath, swaying with the waves algae and playful fish meandering amidst the colorful coral formations. To the distance, the ocean acquired different shades of blue and turquoise as it opened its vastness to the horizon. While behind us, on the beach, a golden line of sand delimited the space that separated the lush green forest from the sea. Everything was as I wanted to be, a paradise for us which made that moment ethereal. Definitely Flamingo Beach was the best place I could ever take Martha for our honey moon. She was fascinated by everything and the way I was fascinated by her.

We jumped down the kayaks and dived into the warm waters. With tenderness I grabbed her waist only to kiss her, the way Ive kissed her now a thousand times and the way I wished to kiss her for ever.

"It has been a wonderful week in this paradise. Surely when we go back to the States, I'm going to paint some of these alluring sceneries of Puerto Rico." She pointed to the open sea, to the beach and to some green heels peeping above the line of palm trees.

"I knew you would love this place." Whispering to her ear, I embraced Martha.

"I not only love this place, I love you too my dear... here or back home, I only want to spend the rest of my life with you, Antonio Grau.

"I love you too, Martha Grau, and I do want us to be together, forever." Pulling her closer to me, I kissed my wife once more. The sweetness of her palate mixing with the salt in the sea water on her moistened lips.

"I think is time to go back to the villa, or I'll make love to you right here" My hands moved down her spine, fingers lingering lustfully all over her skin beneath her bikini bottom.

I sensed on her the same urgency I had to make her mine one more time and over and over again.

"If kayaks weren't clear, I'll take it on here, right now." She replied in a sultry tone as she bit her lower lip.

"Oh woman, you drive me crazy... don't tease me, or else..." I pressed her tightly against my body, our hips brushing, moving with sensuality as our bodies were about to explode.

"How about those canals formed between the mangroves... that could be a way to start." She bit my earlobe, moaning with excitement.

"Say no more! Let's go." I lifted her up and helped her get up into the kayak. She was like a goddess to me, so alluring in her red bikini. I wanted to admire her beauty once more, but my body claimed to have her in that instant. Wasting no time, I climbed onto my kayak and together we rowed into the mangrove's shallow water channels, where no one could see us.

Above, the skies painted in oranges and yellows while the sun made its way down. The turquoise turned into purple beyond the placid ocean while me and my wife got lost into paradise. Our naked bodies, subdued to a spellbinding passion, danced to the cadential and primeval rhythm of love.

The End