USS James T. Wilson amphibious landing ship
0200h Somewhere in the South Caribbean Sea
The soft tropical breezes offered an unparalleled sensation against her oleander skin while she thought about her lover from whom she'd been separated for almost two months and would still have to wait yet another before seeing her again. Annalisa was the only lesbian aboard the Wilson amphibious vessel. She was one of, if not the most beautiful women on the ship and the attention from her male contemporaries was appreciated in the beginning -- the joy in knowing she was desired across the sexes -- but the luster of which had faded quickly and left her longing after the lover she was to be without.
The heavy footsteps of thick soled boots approached as a young man came onto the deck for a cigarette. He was surprised that anyone else was out there at such an hour, let alone the Sapphic beauty about whom he had heard so much, typically in pejorative senses through the wishes of the other Marines in his unit about how they could "change her" in a single night.
She'd seen this man before and respected his solemnity. He was younger (or at least seemed it) and worked with a Marine Captain and Staff Sergeant as a designated marksman for the small craft company attached to the Wilson.
"Good evening, Petty Officer."
"Good evening, Marine." She replied.
"Cigarette?" He offered. She declined and the two, keeping a space between them of about six feet, stared off into the docile sea, glistening in the autumn moonlight. He took a drag from his cigarette, but a cough had snuck up on him. The cigarette fell out and instinctively he attempted to catch it, burning the fleshy part of his palm, under his thumb.
"Oh shit, are you okay?" She asked.
"I think I burned myself," he said, laughing a little to extinguish any sense of emergency.
"Let me see it." And he extended his open hand to show the small circle of blistered skin.
"Come with me, we'll get it patched up." And he followed her, pleasantly stuck in the aura of her perfume that had been concealed by the sweet, tropical air outside. She knew exactly where to go and the corpsman on duty, a woman, gave her an almost suggestive smile, and before the young man could make a proper introduction, the angelic beauty of the Wilson had vanished.
A week later at dinner, after several members of his unit had gotten up to leave, the unoccupied seat opposite the young man had been filled by the same woman he'd been trying to find since that night. She asked about his hand and he showed her. He thanked her for her help and, in concealing his nervousness, introduced himself with his first name, Fabian. She smiled as she said, "I'm Annalisa". The conversation took a more upbeat turn and suddenly the young Marine had forgotten that he was speaking with this woman of simplistic, yet raw beauty -- shoulder length black hair and rich white skin that bore the tint of the slightest sun kissed color, big brown eyes, round, mesmerizing, piercing all in one -- and the two became lost in talk of movies and music, which evolved into his confession of a passion for acting and her inquiring further about the life of a man of whom she'd only thought in passing.
"I LOVE that movie, you have it on you, here?!" She asked.
"Yeah, it's in my room, did you wanna watch it again?" Fearing he'd said too much, he was ecstatic and relieved at her insistence that they do just that. He was swept up in the fluidity of the succeeding moments and was only able to catch up with himself at the moment after he set up his laptop with the DVD and sat platonically spaced with a woman whose scent would have been enough, let alone anything else.
They watched quietly and about an hour in, the young man got a call to be in his uniform on deck in fifteen minutes. He invited her to stay in his room and excused himself as he switched undershirts. She felt herself strangely attracted to his naked torso and his plum boxer briefs. He felt her watching him and when he looked up at her she was smiling, a degree less than seductively and the two held their gazes until she came over to him and ran her hands over his body, pushing herself onto him as they kissed deeply.
The young Lance Corporal had left high school having never been close to a woman, but knew what he would do when the moment finally did present itself. He was lost in her. He had imagined what it would feel like and the joy that would accompany it and he was right, but he couldn't have anticipated the euphoric spike as their tongues rubbed along one another and the softness of her skin, the light scent of her femininity. His hands travelled up her shirt, across her stomach and around to her back to pull her in even closer. He was indebted to it.
They moved back to the bed and onto the wool blanket. He wanted to do everything and was helpless to his own desires. He felt warmth between her legs as his hand reached down to touch her, palm up, and all he could think about was putting his face there. Then another call.
"I'll be there in five minutes," he said and looked over Annalisa, shirtless on his bed.