Shane shouldn't have been surprised by Beth's escalation of their relationship happening so quickly. What little shyness seemed to exist in her personality when he found her in Atlanta had burned away after Terminus. It's part of what first engaged his attention where she is concerned, that determination to keep going and improving, as if she needs to live vivaciously to honor those who are no longer here.
Without her, he's not entirely sure what would have happened to him after finding out his family was dead. Logically, he knows he likely never would have known what happened to anyone without Beth's clues to follow, but grief and logic rarely go hand in hand. He knows that his world centers around Beth now, with or without the added dimension of sex.
Resisting a willing woman in his arms had never been a skill he'd learned, although at least he had the sense to remember they couldn't just give into impulse on the beach. Remembering her reaction to him between her thighs, he doesn't think she minded his alteration of her seduction plans. Then she informed him, chipper as always, about a stash of condoms, and he knew he's really beyond the point of no return with her.
He was afraid promising for later would make things different between them all evening, but Beth's relaxed and chatty, as if they didn't fundamentally alter anything between them. Supper is grilled wahoo fresh caught before they'd gone to the beach and stored in the galley fridge after cleaning, along with potatoes and baked squash. They've replenished their food supplies as often as possible, so not going for supplies while sailing along the southern coast of Hispaniola won't hurt them, and they're both getting to be really skilled with making the non-perishables turn into something tasty to go alongside whatever fish they catch.
The little puppy pack is already snoozing in Shane's cabin, bellies full of their own grilled fish. Shane put up the baby gate, although to be honest, it wouldn't keep the four-month-old pups confined if they don't want to stay, but it's a reminder… one that Muffin can clear easily if she decides to exit the room. Biscuit is sprawled near the exterior door, snoring softly.
They're just done eating when Beth gets that curious look he's gotten used to. "What are you plotting?" he asks, smiling to make sure she knows he's teasing.
"I was just wondering… Do you think the Dominican Republic has some safe little island we can stop at like this one? I mean, we're already here, so it'd be fun to say I officially stood on their soil, you know?"
Shane laughs, remembering how she'd taken her camera along today to document actually being in Haiti, even if only on an uninhabited island. She also has pictures of coastline, but he gets her point of things being different to officially walk on dry land. "I'm sure we can find a spot somewhere to let you keep up your world traveler rankings."
She sticks out her tongue at him before grinning and sliding along the galley bench to kiss him instead. It's sweet and lingering, and neither of them push it beyond a kiss right now, even though his body remembers exactly how good it feels like when she touches him. It can wait.
Instead, they go about their night as usual. Shane tackles the dishes while she takes the dogs out, and while she goes to take a shower, he snags her tour books and finds an answer to her question. He can look up islands on the navigation charts, but those don't often help on whether or not they should actually be visited. The answer is easy enough, found in a brochure she's collected from somewhere, so he leaves that one on the table for her to see in the morning. There's a pirate captain's sunken ship there, and it's not so deep they can't swim down if the island's stayed uninhabited and safe.
"Shower's free," Beth calls up to him. She's standing at the bottom of the steps into what is more or less 'her' side of the Iris, with her cabin to her left and the large captain's bathroom and office to her right. Her hair is hidden beneath some microfiber thing she found that she swears by for helping her dry out the long blonde locks, but that's a common enough sight for him.
What makes his mouth run dry is that she's dressed in a green satin chemise that doesn't cover her matching panties completely, so he gets a flash of lightly tanned skin between the garments. He can make out the outline of her breasts under the thin fabric. Remembering how they felt to cup in his hands, he heads down to join her, resisting the urge to do more than run his hands along her bare shoulders and upper arms. "You look perfect," he tells her.
Her smile isn't as impish as before, but the compliment brightens it before she helps herself to a kiss before swatting him in the middle of his chest. "Go shower."
Shane complies, scrubbing down quickly and wrapping a towel around his waist after drying off. They both share this particular bathroom for the most part, because the other two cabins have wet baths, which makes showering a unique experience. It's easier to just share. He has clothing stored in a bin here for after he showers, but he hesitates. He can hear the hair dryer she rarely uses humming away, so he's got a minute or two to think.
Beth is dressed in something pretty, a contrast to her normal oversized t-shirt and shorts she uses for sleepwear, but there's really no equivalent for him. He grabs a pair of boxer briefs anyway, taking them with him. Choosing to stay in the towel was the right decision, because he can see the way her eyes linger intently where it's hitched around his hips.
But she looks hesitant somehow, so he sits down on the bed, watching her carefully where she's standing near the tiny closet, wrapping the cord to store her hair dryer away. Her blonde hair, now bleached to an almost impossible shade of pale gold by sea and sun, frames her shoulders and contrasts with the emerald green of her chemise.
"We don't have to do anything but sleep, Beth," he tells her. As much as what they started on the beach makes him wonder about more with her, he's not crossing that line until she's ready. With his past, he's following her lead here.
His words don't reassure her, though. "I haven't changed my mind," she assures him before coming to sit beside him. Her touch is gentle as she runs a hand across his chest. "You stopped shaving or whatever."
It's not what he expected, and that makes him laugh. "Well, it would have been a little weird to keep that up and not the rest." He motions to his hair and beard. Both had been a bit of a mess, like some stereotype of a mountain man far from civilization, until the necessity of being around saltwater had driven him to trim the beard and let her cut his hair. But he knows his particular dedication to that level of grooming was popular in his days of sleeping around. "Is that a bad thing?"
"No. I mean, it's not like I haven't seen you shirtless before, but I guess it was just something weird that popped in my head just now." Beth giggles softly. "Probably because you won't run away if I do this." She curls her fingers just a little, catching them in his chest hair. It's not a significant amount, which was actually why he started removing it back in college when he developed extra muscle definition, just a dusting of dark hair along his breastbone and across the tops of his pecs.
She follows it lower, though, to the silky fine trail along his abdomen, causing him to groan just a little as she reaches his navel. That gets her to look up from her exploration, the hesitation gone as she looks at him. "You know, it is Christmas," she says, mischief dancing in her blue eyes. "And now I have a present to unwrap."
The playful banter gets them past the newness of this just enough for her to get his towel free. He eases back on the bed, letting her continue her curious path along his body.
"Let me see you," Shane asks, reveling in the feel of her against him. Beth sheds the chemise as easily as she did her bikini top earlier. He's not surprised this time, and he slides his hands up to stroke along her skin. "God, you're gorgeous."
For some reason that makes her blush. "Yeah? You think so?"
Christ, he's lost his touch if she doesn't understand that. "I do. Gonna show you." Rolling them so that she's the one on her back, he does what he didn't on the beach and lays a trail of kisses along her throat and chest. They have plenty of time, and she's so fucking responsive to his touch that he can't wait to find out everything that makes her ache for him.
-Edited Scene-
"You okay?" Overstimulation he understands, but he has to clarify.
She's smiling up at him, so he probably has his answer there. "Yeah." The hand still on his back stills as she bites her lip. "You aren't mad?"
Shane shakes his head, pressing a chaste kiss to her lips and easing his weight off her. As much as he'd like to stay close, certain things have to be taken care of. Once the condom is in the small trash bin in her cabin, he returns to the bed. The hesitant look from when he first came into the cabin is back, and he doesn't like it one bit.
"No, I'm not mad," he replies, hoping to further soothe her worries with a verbal reply. To emphasize the point, he takes the spot beside her, pulling her into his arms. She relaxes against him almost immediately, and it makes him want to preen a bit that she's so comfortable with him. "But I could have hurt you."
Christ, if he hadn't wanted to tease her, to see if he could bring her to a second climax, he really could have. He knows most of the virginity emphasis is myth, at least from listening to various stories girls told around college, but the one thing that was in every bad story that got told? Impatient guy and not enough foreplay.
"It didn't hurt," she reassures him. "It was just something I wasn't used to yet." Then she yawns against his chest, giggling softly. "And it wasn't boring."
That makes Shane laugh. "Glad you clarified that."
Beth's voice is barely audible when she speaks again. "It wasn't bad for you, was it?"
"Hey, Beth, look at me." She tilts her head up, and he can see the worry even as she tries to hide it. "It was good. It'll be better the next time and even more the next time. It's always different or even awkward at first, even without that as a factor. We just gotta find out what works together."
"Is that a practice makes perfect speech?" she asks, the worry fading completely as she arches a brow. "Because I'm not gonna complain about… practice."
Shane agrees with her, especially as she bribes him with short, teasing kisses. "Let's save that practice for tomorrow. Get some sleep so we can go off on your next big adventure I've found for you."
Content with that, Beth slides the sheet up to cover them, and the rocking of the boat in the water sends her off to sleep quickly. Shane stays awake longer, just enjoying the softness of her tucked against him. He can't remember the last time he slept next to a woman like this, but it had been long before the world turned upside down.
She may not think it was important, what she shared with him, but it is. He's always thought guys being obsessed with virgins was the stupidest thing ever, because a smart man should prefer experience. Part of him still holds that wariness of being someone's first like this, but it's simply uneasy memories that try to compare this with her to the first woman he ever slept with.
But Shane isn't Beth's teacher, and Beth has had years to mature beyond being a naive sixteen year old kid. Even as the guilt tries to sour this for him, he pushes it away. He's not Mrs. Kelly, preying on a string of young football players and getting bored of them once they lost the initial lure of clumsy innocence. If his fuck ups between the quarry and the farm didn't ruin this for him, he sure as hell isn't going to let the teenage ones do it.
Mind more at ease, he lets sleep claim him, too.
Practice is definitely what they do. Beth's insatiably curious about just about everything they can do together, and he almost wonders if he should look for a stash of Cosmopolitan magazines or something similar; those things women always liked with lists of things to try with a lover. But he doesn't, because honestly, if she wants to explore and experiment, he's sure not arguing with how it benefits him.
The little hedonistic delays mean it takes them ten days to reach Isla de Mona, because he'd also been right that Beth would enjoy the Quedagh Merchant shipwreck off the Dominican Republic coast. They spend a week exploring the sanctuary on Isla de Mona, mostly because Beth finds turtle nests there. She can't resist trying to see if any hatch.
"It'll be easier for them now, won't it?" she asks Shane when their waiting finally gets lucky. "Most of the danger is from people and their things." The tiny turtles stream toward the water, awkwardly poetic in their movements.
"I would think so. I'm guessing our pollution will be around a while, especially in the water, but at least nothing more is being added." The grounded tanker comes to mind, and who knows if offshore drilling rigs were shut down properly or those safety measures will hold.
Beth stands from where she's been checking the sand for any remaining eggs, dusting off the knees of her pants. "Want to go hunting again? The dogs really liked the pork."
The wild pig they'd hunted to give Beth actual experience versus target shooting had been a nice change from fish, seafood, and whatever canned products they have, so Shane agrees easily. He suspects without a hunting season, the pigs, goats, and wild cats will probably overrun the place before dying off themselves. The island's terrain is challenging, and he's enjoyed following Beth around as if she was part goat, chasing iguanas and exploring caves as far as she dares. It also makes a wonderful training ground for a novice hunter, and he wishes they could store meat, since hunting for sport seems too wasteful.
They sail for the main island of Puerto Rico on the twelfth, making the crossing to the British Virgin Islands four days later. It's probably the toughest sail they've ever attempted, the trade winds determined to return them to Puerto Rico. Beth jokes the wind knows they're Americans without passports after the weather sends them back a third time to wait to try again. They'd even risked a deserted marina to see if it had safe diesel and topped off their tanks. But finally, everything aligns as best as it can, and they put the extra fuel to use to help their sails. They're exhausted when they drop anchor in the Bight at Norman Island.
Beth flops onto the trampoline after letting the dogs out. All five of them are distinctly peeved at their people, probably remembering the tropical storm all too well. She giggles when even Biscuit won't come cuddle with her. "Now I know why the logs say be as far east as possible by Christmas," she declares. "This was almost as bad as the storm."
"I'm guessing we aren't headed out to go snorkeling in the caves just yet," Shane teases. He's scanning with the binoculars, but so far, he's seen nothing moving that doesn't classify as wildlife. The island isn't officially inhabited, but it did have a few restaurants to cater to sailors such as themselves. Beth picked it because it's supposed to be one of the inspirations for the novel, Treasure Island.
He's hoping the workers for the restaurants headed to wherever they call home when the virus hit, or if they're lurking, they're at least friendly. The floating restaurant seems deserted, although there's a walker tangled in something on the deck. Only small movements show it's still potentially mobile, he makes a mental note that if everything stays quiet, they might check the place for supplies and put the poor bastard down.
Beth's hand closes around his ankle, stroking the bare skin above his sock. Her wandering fingers find the lower edge of the fresh scar on his calf as she eases her hand up the pant leg. The scarring there and on his left forearm seem to fascinate her. "See anything?"
"A few loose goats. I swear, someone turned loose goats everywhere down here once upon a time, didn't they?" Shane drops the binoculars to his chest and kneels down to join her when she tugs on his pants. As tired as she seems, the kiss she initiates is borderline frisky, as her hands explore under his shirt lazily. Just when he's starting to think it's going somewhere, she giggles and rolls to her feet.
Stripping her sailing clothes away piece by piece, she's nude on the deck, standing glorious in the late afternoon sunshine as she backs away. At first, he thinks she's headed toward the cabin, but then once she's halfway there, she changes directions, running to cannonball off the Iris into the crystal clear blue waters of the Bight. There's enough splash to send water onto the deck, scattering the dogs. Laughing, he looks over the side to see her treading water, grinning up at him.
"C'mon. Water's nice. Birthday suit preferred."
That's not an invitation Shane needs to be given twice. Whatever higher power sent him to that specific veterinarian's office in Atlanta that specific day, he can only thank them as he strips down to bare skin and dives into the warm, tropical water to join his joyful, happy lady. Everything about his life is better with Beth in it.
A/N: I'm going to be honest, this chapter was pretty impossible to edit to the FFnet rating requirements *and* not lose a significant moment. If it really rattles wrong for you, try the Ao3 version, because I had to delete a conversation in the midst of sex to keep things within the rules here.
The shipwreck mentioned actually exists, although how widely known it would have been in 2010 when the ZA happens, I don't know. It was released from being studied in 2011 after being discovered in 2007, off the coast of Catalina Island in the DR. Nowadays, it is a living museum that is open for tourists to scuba dive through.
Isla de Mona is in the middle of one of the trickier sea passages, where boats either sail easily or complain it was windy hell. It is a sanctuary for hawksbill sea turtles and home to some flora species only found in Puerto Rico.
I couldn't resist choosing Norman Island for their BVI destination, for obvious reasons. There really is a floating bar/restaurant called Willy T's there, where it's a tradition for patrons to jump from restaurant into the water.
Future chapters will skim over some of the islands to reach a specific destination. If you like hints: Beth wants to see a volcano... up close. A major change approaches for our travelers...