You told me nothing except that we are going to spend the night at the beach. Normally I like to be in complete control of my life and don't like surprises. But you were determined and had made all the arrangements. It took only an hour to drive to the coast and find the small, beach-side hotel you had booked.
It was four o'clock in the afternoon and the heat was beginning to go out of the sun. I was surprised when you said we were going to go lie on the beach, and that I should put on my bikini. What the hell, I thought, I had let you order me around this far, I might as well play it out.
We walked down the beach and around a point of land. There on the other side was a small cove, and anchored in the cove was an enormous yacht. The water must have been deep because the yacht was only two hundred yards from the shore. It was a brilliant white, at least three stories high at the bow, with a large canopied deck at the stern. I guessed it was over a hundred feet long.
A small group of elegantly dressed people were having a party on the aft deck. There seemed to be two women and about twice as many men. They looked at us with great interest as we appeared on the beach. I could hear their mingled voices, talking and laughing as they faced the shore. One of the women gave an excited little shriek. One of the men raised a pair of binoculars.
Then I noticed something else. There was a one person rubber life raft on the sand near the water. I thin rope led from the raft into the water in the direction of the yacht. My first thought was that someone had come ashore, but no one was visible in any direction. It was like I had walked into another world.
"Come," you said authoritatively, and led me by the hand toward the raft. "Lie down in the raft on your back. It will be very comfortable for sun bathing."
