A light trickling of water against the side of the canoe wakes James from his deep sleep. There's a moment before he regains consciousness and realizes where he is, feeling the gentle rocking of the river. He opens his eyes, looking up at blue sky, a thin scattering of clouds casually drift by. The can of nearly full beer still clutched in his hands feels piss warm.
He hears Olivia's voice but it's distant. Much further than the tether cord tying them together should have allowed. Her casual tone reassures him of her safety before panic even gets a chance to set in. The river around him is unfamiliar, nothing like where they were before he had dozed off.
"Jesus. How long was I out for?" He wonders.
Searching for the source of his wife's voice he sees a cluster of canoes which looks to be a couple of hundred feet away floating nearer to the rocky shoreline. With a sigh of relief he sees that her tube is floating alongside one of the canoes and begins paddling in their direction.
As he gets closer he notices that it's the eight young men that they had seen at the lodge and that they must have caught up with he and Olivia while they floated on the current.
As he approaches a little closer he notices that she has replaced her bikini top.
"Of course she has. She's not THAT wild." He mutters under his breath.
Still too far to make out their conversation he notices that her shapely, tanned leg is hanging over the edge and inside one of the canoes to keep her and her tube from floating away. The young man she's chatting with, a topless, tanned and fit looking guy in sunglasses and backwards ball cap has his hand on the inner thigh of the leg in his canoe seemingly to "help keep her in place." His hand slowly rubs up and down across her oiled skin.
James suddenly feels that familiar mix of feelings flash through him. That strange bouquet of emotions that struck when he watched his wife accepting the attention of another man flirting with her. A curious twinge of jealousy, anger, primal lust and excitement that drove him wild and demanded his complete engagement and attention. It drove him wild. He craved it.
He freezes in place, gently resting his paddle on the canoe's edge and silently gliding through the cool water in hopes of not being noticed as he wanted to see just how far up his wife's thigh the stranger's hand would wander. Would she shoo him away? Would she let him explore further? Would she pull her bikini aside and allow access to her sweet pussy which would surely be dripping wet?
James is disappointed when his presence is detected by one of the group.
"Oh there he is!" Olivia exclaims. "My knight in shining armour has finally awakened to rescue me!"
The stranger quickly removes his hand from Olivia's inner thigh.
"How's it going sleeping beauty? I thought you were never going to wake up." Olivia teases.
"I guess your knot must have untied eh babe?" James asks half accusingly.
"You know how bad I am at tying knots." She replies with a wink. "Everyone this is my husband James, James...everyone."
James greets the group and they chat for a few minutes. He asks if they're doing the entire river and staying the night at the halfway point or being picked up there at the end of the day.
"They're doing the full run and camping overnight at the halfway point with us!" Olivia pipes in excitedly.
James's gut does a somersault when he notices the twinkle in Olivia's eye and hears the excitement in her voice as he considers the possibilities of what the day might bring.