Sacrificed to the Beast

My heart whips into a dance. “Ike…” I murmur, going up on my tiptoes.

“Diana. My Diana.” He meets me halfway and our mouths slide together, his tongue entering my mouth and sampling me once, before plunging back in with unrestrained hunger. His big, right hand settles on my butt and squeezes, sending a shock of heat straight down to my toes. I want him inside me. It only takes seconds to turn me into a shameless fiend, rubbing my belly against his hardness and mewling into his mouth. Who knew I was such a temptress?

I’m momentarily distracted when something brushes against my leg in the water and I break the kiss, worried it might be an eel or something equally slimy. When I see it’s a fish, I’m not sure what comes over me. A tingling intuition causes me to angle my body and hold my breath, searching for the right timing to…

Reach into the water and catch it!

I’ve caught a fish!

I stare dumbfounded at the wriggling, silver creature in my fist, transferring my attention to Ike, who is bursting with pride. “Well done, tiny person!”

“I can’t believe I did that.”

“Even I cannot fish without a spear or a rock, Diana. And I have been fishing in this stream my entire life.” He raises an eyebrow. “This is a…what did you call it? A marketable skill?”

I suck in a breath. “Oh my gosh. You’re right!”

In my excitement, I drop the squirming fish back into the gurgling current in favor of throwing my arms around Ike’s thick waist. He rubs circles into my back, chuckling into the space above my head. “I do not know the proper names for the fish. Was that a sex fish, Diana?”

Trying to subdue my giggle, I look up into his earnest face. “Oh, Ike. I think we need to have a chat.” My face burns a little bit over having to talk about such an intimate subject in the daylight when I’ve never spoken about it—period. “Sex is what we did this morning in your cave. When you were on top of me. That was sex.”

Ike strokes his chin. “I see.” He glances toward the waterfall, his gaze distant. “I only learned some things from my father before he passed. Once my mother died from the snake bite, he…he couldn’t bear to be without her.”

I’m able to piece together the fact that his father took his own life without Ike having to say it out loud. How awful. To lose both parents in such quick succession…it’s unimaginable. I lay a hand on his arm. “How long have you been living alone in these hills, Ike?”

“It’s hard to keep track of the years, but my mother used to make me a special meal and sing the birthday song. She’d learned it from my grandmother,” he says. “The last time she sang it, she told me I was eleven.”

“Eleven,” I whisper, throwing my arms around him again. “I’m so sorry.”

He scrubs a hand down my back. “There is no need to be sad for me, Diana. I have you now.”

I’m never leaving him. I know that now. I woke with peace inside me this morning, and deep in my bones, there is a certainty that I will never experience this sense of belonging with anyone else. Anywhere else. Perhaps my means of arriving here were wrong and borne of ugliness, but there is nothing but beauty between me and Ike. He is beautiful, inside and out. How can I do anything but cling to what I’ve found? This man who values me and is inherently, authentically good?

I’m about to tell him I want to stay forever with him in these woods, but he tips my chin up and distracts me with a penetrating look.

“Are there other things you can tell me about sex, Diana?”

Remembering what he did between my legs with his tongue, I shake my head. “I’m pretty sure you don’t need any further instructions.”

He gives me a lopsided smile and it’s a good thing he’s holding me up, because otherwise I’d be melting down into the water. “How did you know it was called sex?” he asks suddenly, a thundercloud passing over his face. “No man has spoken to you about these things, right?”

“Not directly. But you can’t really live down in the real world without hearing about sex. Almost every song is about it.” Ike still doesn’t look happy that I had knowledge of sex before I knew him. “I’ve never been touched by anyone. I’ve never wanted to be touched. Not until you.”

His shoulders relax somewhat. “I call this a cock,” he says, reaching down to grasp his erection. “Do your girl parts have a name?”

My cheeks flame. “You want me to say it out loud?”

He nods firmly. “Yes.”

Maybe I’m being silly, but I crook my finger, signaling Ike to lean down. “Um. The technical term is vagina,” I whisper in his ear. “But…like, I think most people say pussy.”