AWAKENING DESIRES

By Stanley Collymore

LOOKING BACK OVER THE ALL TOO FLEETING but highly exciting events of her summer vacation Stephanie tried bravely but unsuccessfully to contain the gnawing pain of regret and fill the aching vacuum caused by desires deep inside her, and which sprang from the new and totally unexpected experience she’d so recently tasted.

In retrospect everything had happened so quickly. Her father, Peter Goldsmith, having consulted with her, had reluctantly decided to send her away to finishing school in Switzerland, to be a lady. She was seventeen and had lived alone with her managing director father, boss of a multinational electronics firm, ever since she was eight years old when her mother was tragically killed in the crash of the light aeroplane she was piloting.

Not unnaturally, the bond between Stephanie and her father was a strong one given the circumstances. And as he watched her grow up into the beautiful young woman she’d become Peter was filled with both happiness and pride - a situation reinforced by the fact that Stephanie as she got older came increasingly to resemble her dead mother.

Even so, it was time to put aside the past and think positively about the future - Stephanie’s future. And although he realised it would be a terrible wrench for both of them to be parted for such a long time, Peter knew that what he was suggesting was the right thing and Stephanie, trusting him implicitly as she always did, agreed.

“I hope you don’t think I’m trying to get rid of you,” Peter joked.
“Of course you are, admit it,” Stephanie replied. “It’s all part of a sinister plot to get me out of the way and bring some other woman in here, isn’t it?”
“You’ve guessed,” Peter said in mock defeat. “Yet here I was thinking that I’d fooled you by being so clever, and that you’d never find out.”

Stephanie laughed: the soft contours of her lips naturally parting to reveal her pearl white teeth, her eyes liquid pools of merriment.

“You’ll never be shot of me that easily,” she announced.
“Oh really?”
“No! ‘Cause I’m stuck to you like glue.”
“One never parts voluntarily with a precious gift anyway,” Peter quipped.
“Maybe not. But what if someone should steal it?”
“Then the owner I would say is honour bound to strive to get it back. That’s providing, of course, he values it as much as I value you.”
“Is that what you’d do, fight for me?” Stephanie asked.
“With my life,” Peter replied. “Until, that is, you want to and then decide to go off of your own free will to lead your own life.”

Stephanie who’d been sitting next to her dad threw her arms in an encircling embrace around his waist and hugged him tightly.

“That isn’t about to happen for a very long time,” she promised. “And even then I’ll still be your darling little girl.”
“I hope you’ll stay that way,” Peter smiled engagingly; adding teasingly: “But when love beckons promises made in one’s carefree moments have a habit of being forgotten just as quickly as they were made.”
“This one won’t be,” Stephanie said seriously.

Peter patted his daughter’s head affectionately.

“I believe you,” he laughed.
“Good,” Stephanie replied cheerfully.
“Changing the subject,” Peter said matter-of-factly, “It seems that I’m going to have to make a trip to the Caribbean - Barbados as it happens...”
“Are you thinking of setting up operations there?” Stephanie interjected.
“I’ve spoken to some of the other directors who think as I do that there could be possibilities there for a business like ours. So I’ve arranged a business trip to meet some of the local chaps that might be of great assistance to us. Want to come along?”
“Yes please!” Stephanie cried enthusiastically. “When do we go?”
“In a week’s time.”
“How long for?”
“I haven’t quite decided yet,” Peter confessed. “But I thought that once I’d got the business end of things out of the way you and I could perhaps make a holiday of the rest of the time available to us. A few weeks in the tropics don’t sound all that bad, and the break would do us both the world of good I think. What do you say?”
“Love the idea!” Stephanie exclaimed.
“Good, it’s settled then.”

The Boeing 747 British Airways flight from Gatwick was routine, touching down at Grantley Adams International Airport eight hours later. For Stephanie, by no means a newcomer to air travel having flown on numerous occasions abroad with her father, the thrill of coming to Barbados, a country that she’d never before visited but one she’d nevertheless heard so much about, was total. And as the giant aircraft banked on its final approach to landing and made its perfect descent with the island’s south coast in full view, she leaned heavily against the side of her seat and peering unblinkingly through the widow beside her watched in fascination as the panoramic landscape beneath her unfolded gloriously before her very eyes.

After clearing customs Peter and Stephanie were met as arranged by Colin, a representative of the group Peter would be having talks with, and in the chauffeur-driven car provided for their use were taken to a residence on the west coast of the island.

It was love at first sight for Stephanie - the sights and sounds of Barbados. And on reaching the villa that would be home for her and Peter during their stay on the island her very first act after being introduced to the maid who would look after her and her dad and then shown where her room was, was to take a casual stroll along the silver-white sands of the expansive beach immediately outside the villa.

There as the gentle, rolling waves of the Caribbean Sea washed her feet and skittishly erased those footprints which carelessly strayed too near their grasp she knew instinctively that she’d found her paradise; that she would love it in Barbados. And as her thoughts started to roam freely in the idyllic setting that was everywhere around her, softly and involuntarily she heard herself humming the Harry Belafonte Calypso Island in the Sun, and vowed there and then that Barbados would for her be indeed just that.

The following morning Peter had a business meeting to attend and knowing that he would be tied up for most of the working day had asked Colin to take care of Stephanie. Colin agreed. And having first made sure that Peter got to his meeting on time he dutifully returned to carry out his obligations to Stephanie.

Dressed in casual summer wear that gracefully highlighted her classic, English beauty Stephanie was on the veranda of her temporary tropical home when Colin’s car pulled into the driveway; and as it came to a halt she watched him get out, her eyes closely following him as he made his way towards her.

“Hi,” Colin greeted her affably, as he climbed the first of the steps leading to the veranda and the object of his attention.
“Hi,” Stephanie replied breezily. “Dad got there okay?”

Colin had reached the veranda and was now standing facing Stephanie.

“Yes,” he replied. “Now it’s your turn to be served. What do you want to do?”
“Enjoy myself, what else?” Stephanie said playfully.
“But of course,” Colin replied amused. “Any suggestions?”
“Plenty, as it happens. Although I have a feeling that the ones which I have in mind might not meet with your approval,” Stephanie teased.
“Try me,” Colin encouraged.
“Very well then. Now you’ve asked I’d like very much to get myself an all-over tan,” Stephanie announced. “But since it’s virtually impossible to go topless in Barbados without courting trouble from the authorities it seems that I’m saddled with an intractable problem right from the start unless, that is, you can fix it for me. And if you can’t, then I’m afraid my other suggestions are unfortunately all going to be way out of line.”
“That was just your first suggestion,” Colin began before Stephanie interrupted him.
“Yes. But how do you know the others aren’t just as provocative?”
“Are they?”
“What if they were? What would you say?”
“That you’re plucky.”
“For making outlandish suggestions or for wanting to carry them out?”
“For being candid,” Colin replied. “Anyway, I already took it for granted that you weren’t just saying what you did for effect - you don’t strike me as that kind of person. So anything that you do say I would imagine you actually mean.”
“Is that so?”
“Mmm-huh,” Colin cooed soothingly.

Stephanie smiled embarrassedly briefly lost for words, her cheeks reddening in the process as Colin had looked her straight in the eye as he spoke.

“Are you always that direct?” she asked on regaining her composure.
“There’s no other way to be,” Colin answered. “Besides, it gets results.”
“Always?”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“How determined I am.”
“I see,” Stephanie replied. “And how determined are you now?”
“Do you really want to know?”

Stephanie smiled and gave a relaxed shrug of her shoulders.

“Perhaps not,” she said evasively though not altogether convincingly so; but as she spoke a hint of disappointment had creased Colin’s face.

Stephanie saw this and instantaneously recognised the negative effect that her words were having on him, which was wholly different from the effect she really wanted them to have. Quickly she decided to do something about this.

“But I’m not averse to surprises,” she added encouragingly.

This timely intervention worked magnificently. And although she didn’t glean this immediately from the subsequent conversation she had with Colin the look in his eyes nevertheless said it all.
Finally it was reciprocally agreed that they would go for a drive to the Scotland District and along that region’s East Coast Road, and in the car on their way there Colin gave Stephanie a potted history of this enchanting area. He also commented on how beautiful it was, emphasising the fact that it was quite different from the rest of Barbados.

Sitting beside him and quite relaxed in the open-top convertible, sun glasses on and her long, blonde hair blowing wildly in the wind Stephanie listened intently to what Colin was saying, secretly happy that her genuine interest in him and what he had to say was really pleasing him.
Then in the light-hearted mood that immediately followed they advanced their journey eastwards, the densely populated and urban west coast area quickly giving way to a conspicuously rural and scenic landscape that consisted of green fields of sugar cane and open countryside.

At Farley Hill, and with the surrounding terrain tapering off to the summit that marked the boundary between the parishes of St. Peter and St. Andrew, Stephanie found herself gripped with an overpowering excitement she was unable to restrain as she marvelled at the remarkable sight that exploded before her.

For down below and particularly from this vantage point, and as far as the eye could see, Nature’s exquisite craftsmanship and skilfully manifested at its very best was universally at large; evident in the lush, green valleys and the majestic hills that criss-crossed them; the neat, brightly coloured homesteads made readily accessible by a cornucopia of arteries of assorted roads that fanned out across the countryside; and the expansive and unbroken Lakes Beach which stretched out for miles into the distance towards the traditional fishing village of Bathsheba - itself bordered on the leeward side by a series of undulating sand dunes, and on the windward side by the sapphire blue waters and white-crested waves of the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

“Oh, just look at that!” Stephanie exclaimed in utter delight, deeply impressed by the fabulous landscape exquisitely served up in front of her eyes. “It’s beautiful, absolutely beautiful!”
Colin concurred, delighted by her response. And as he drove on, taking them through the hamlets of Shorey, Walkers and Belleplaine, stopping periodically on the way to point out significant landmarks like the historic St. Andrew’s Parish Church and the then 211 year old Alleyne Grammar School, Stephanie’s happiness, fully evident as it was infectious, rapidly increased by leaps and bounds.

So that by the time she and Colin had detoured through the picturesque Lakes Village nestling peacefully at the foot of the chalk white cliffs of Chalky Mount and had reached the East Coast where they finally stopped she was already in the kind of receptive mood where deep-seated emotions stirred by sexual fantasies take over and reason falls sharply behind.

East of Barclays’ Park and sitting atop the sand dunes there are dense clusters of tropical grape trees sculptured into perfect canopies by generations of prevailing Trade Winds blowing in from across the expansive Atlantic. And nearby are several rock pools where it’s quite safe to pleasurably bathe and gratifyingly indulge one’s self for hours at any given time out of the hazardous reach of the many treacherous currents that routinely stalk this coastline; and it was to one of these that Colin, who knew the area well, took Stephanie.

Earlier and now decidedly motivated by the exciting time she’d anticipated for both herself and Colin, Stephanie had rather temptingly and quite enthusiastically changed into a visibly striking, semi-transparent bikini that simultaneously hugged and accentuated her curvaceous figure. Colin had also donned his swim shorts. And as they both walked along the beach their voices locked in animated conversation Stephanie, blissfully intoxicated by the truly magical world of wonderment around her, that she was delighted to be in and which she was determined to utilize further and consume even more liberally from Nature’s bounteous offerings to her, threw herself unreservedly into the spirit of the occasion. And in league with this new but highly stimulating and thoroughly infectious spirit of tropical adventure which had agreeably seized her she quite suddenly and with girlish enthusiasm broke into a run and raced excitedly along the beach.

“The last one into the water is a mongoose!” she cried.
“Why a mongoose?” Colin shouted after her, quickly following her example.
“It’s the only Barbadian animal that I can think of right now,” Stephanie called back.

Colin laughed and quickened his pace. But despite his determined efforts to reduce the distance between them and overtake Stephanie at the same time, she was much too fast for him, for the advantage she’d given herself easily paid off and she effortlessly reached the ocean first where, giving gravity a liberal helping hand, she fell precipitously into its embrace, letting the refreshing and crystal clear water, so compelling irresistible, fully envelop her body.

“I wouldn’t call that fair,” Colin complained weakly before immersing himself too in the pure, limpid water which Stephanie was already making the most of.
“Tell me something that is,” Stephanie laughed.
“Oh there’re lots of things,” Colin countered jovially.
“Yet you can’t name me one,” Stephanie teased, at the same time devilishly scooping up a double handful of water which she directed and skilfully succeeded in landing squarely on her target’s face - the recipient of this pleasurable assault being only a few feet away from her at the time.

Anticipating Colin’s response and to effect a chase Stephanie then started to swim away but was soon caught. However in the light-hearted tussle that promptly followed she quickly broke free and laughingly ran on to the beach with Colin in hot pursuit. There after a playful exercise of catch-me-if-you-can that lasted for a couple of minutes Stephanie finally allowed Colin to do just that, without making her submission too obvious of course.

What followed next was as welcomed as it was predictable, so natural was its progression; so gratifying the opportunity it offered. A joint sun rising unstoppably, heralding for Stephanie and Colin a new dawn in the process.

Afterwards with the absorbing interlude of fast-moving intimacy between them and which served as a harbinger to their hearts most cherished desires reciprocally negotiated Stephanie - her own awakening long triggered by Colin’s presence but begun in earnest the moment he pressed his lips firmly against hers - slowly, almost involuntarily closed her eyes as she felt and accommodated the intensity of his lips’ passion, and with her emotions fully charged willingly surrendered herself to him.

It was a proffered invitation which Colin manfully accepted, his dexterous and intimate exploration of Stephanie’s breasts and every other part of her that he could reach feeding the enervating sexual hunger generated by him and which now raged uncontrollably inside her, forcing her to abandon what inhibitions she still had left and, in the lusty exchange of carnal intent that followed, respond in like manner as himself.

“Oh I do so much want you Colin,” Stephanie breathed passionately. “Want you so much. You’re driving me crazy - ever so crazy for you!”

Then glancing down at herself amidst the throes of carnal ecstasy that furiously rocked her young, vibrant and virginal body noticed that Colin had fully bared her left breast: its succulent, white nakedness conspicuously swollen, erect and in sharp contrast to his dark-brown complexion, standing out prominently, a direct result of the continuous and detailed attention it was being lovingly given.

Without a word but simply responding to the burning fever that threatened to consume her Stephanie instinctively reached back and helpfully unclasped the hook of her bikini top, letting the garment fall unhindered to the ground.

“Take me,” she pleaded urgently, grabbing hold of Colin’s hand and directing it to the waistband of her bikini bottom. “Make love to me.”

Rarely are expectations of an entirely new experience realised in the pursuance of the act. And for Stephanie and Colin their combined, gentle fall mattressed on the surf-washed sand beneath their crumbling feet huge expectations did arise and of such a magnitude and strength that nothing short of a super-human effort on both their parts could possible have fulfilled theirs.
In the end though everything worked out just fine. The shrill, triumphant cry of lost maidenhood emitted by Stephanie that punctuated the air with its unblemished clarity and immediately afterwards was followed by repeated and vocal expressions of unrestrained joy, underscoring what was already an undeniable fact: that for her the crossing of her personal Rubicon had indeed been an unqualified success.