For the two weeks after Sheila’s death, I existed in a twilight land of grief. I was numb, devoid of emotion. I slept all day, coming out of my tent only to draw water and to fish, since the girls couldn’t catch a fish unless it was on a supermarket shelf. I chopped up coconut logs for the fires, and that was about it. The world could go on without me, as far as I was concerned.

Every night, one or other of the girls crept into my tent to cheer me up. None could interest me in the slightest. I would listen to their chatter with deaf ears, and their kisses and endearments left me cold. Mary and Jenna now came with Denise, a lesbian, in tow for safety. I would just lie there, insensate, as they talked about their day, the latest radio broadcast, or what the Major and the sergeant were up to. They would try to get me interested in sex, but fail, no matter how outlandish their conduct. I would look at their bare chests and as thoughts of Sheila flooded my mind, unbidden, I would turn away and weep.

The Major and the sergeant made the trek to the beach to rouse me. The Major tried to stir me with a call to duty. The girls were finding it very difficult to carry out all the physical labor, she said. They needed my help. I apologized but told her I wasn’t interested. Sergeant Dianne recalled the fun of our night together, and how she’d like to do it again. I told her sure, maybe in a week or two, when I felt better. They gave up.

It took Sally and a change in the weather to snap me back to reality, to acknowledge that life was not over, even though Sheila no longer had a place in it. It was dinner time, and I was sitting sullenly on a stump by the fire, grilling a fish and some coconut. Sally, whom I had not seen for a few days, pulled up a stump beside me.

‘Hey, Mark, you gotta get a hold of yourself, buddy. We need you. There’s a storm coming, and we must get ready for it.”

I looked at Sally with dead eyes. “Let the storm come and wash me away,” I said. “I’m done. Fuck it.”

Sally could see that rational arguments were not going to cut it. She decided to take a radical approach. She leaned over, took my hand, and looked straight into my eyes.

“C’mon, let’s go into the tent for a little while. We’ve got to sort this out.”

I nodded, not really thinking about what she might have in mind. I really did not know, but if she wanted to go into the tent, fine. I could lie down and just ignore her. I honestly hoped the storm would come soon and put an end to my misery. With Sheila gone, what did I have to live for? Sally was about to give me an answer.

I flopped down on top of the Ranger blanket, laying on my back. Sally sat in front of me, silent. She had recently had one of the girls cut her brown hair short, but that simply accentuated her long neck and handsome face. She had not let me see her without her t-shirt for the last few weeks, but now she removed it in brisk gesture. Her fabulous tits lay exposed to my gaze, and for the first time in a long while, a felt a spark of desire ignite deep within. Sally saw the flash of interest in my eyes and smiled.

“You like, this, Mark? Do you want this? You’ve asked for it often enough.”

I blinked again and gawked at Sally’s breasts. “Uh, mostly kidding, you know. You’re like a sister to me.”

Sally laughed. “Hmm, sister, eh? That makes me kind of naughty, then. A naughty sister, that’s kind of hot!” Sally reached a slender hand up my thigh, under my shorts, and smacked her lips.

“Hmm, you’ve always acted like a big dick. Now I know what’s behind that attitude.”

I was hardening rapidly, and my mind was whirling looking for a way out. Sally’s hand closed around my cock and squeezed hard, almost painfully.

“Ouch,” I said. “Gentle.”

My cock was now tenting my shorts, and Sally’s hand moved it around as she explored with her searching fingers. Her breasts swayed as she crawled up beside me, and she reached up with her free hand and twisted my nipple, hard.

“Ouch!” I was pissed off now, so I reached out and grabbed one of Sally’s brown nipples between my thumb and forefinger and twisted back. Sally grimaced but said nothing. Instead, she squeezed my cock again, painfully.

This was not how I liked to play the game! I loved the gentle touch, the sensual feel of flesh, the softness of a woman’s skin, the luxury of a warm body next to mine. But Sally’s aggressive approach, and indeed, the pain, combined with the sexual stimulation upon seeing what she had denied me, her breasts, and the arousal of her touch, began clearing my mind from its fog of grief. For weeks I had hidden in the world of the dead, in the land of memories. Here was life! Here was a demand for my attention! Here was someone with a need that only I could fill.

In that moment of clarity, as Sally pinched my cock head with her fingers, and I twisted her nipples roughly, I realized that sex was the only true currency on this island. Food was abundant, fresh water in the nearby well, shelter in the shacks at the edge of the bush, and companionship provided by the group. But, as the only man among six remaining women, I had something that most of them wanted and needed. I could control them by granting or withholding my favors. Or, if someone else controlled me, they would have the same power by proxy over the others. That’s why the Major had arranged for me to fuck Dianne, to control who I fucked, and when. I was to be her tool, in more ways than one. And as Sally tugged down my shorts, pulling them off and tossing them aside, I knew she had been ordered by the Major to do whatever it took to get me out of my tent and back into action. But this realization of my true power meant that I was no longer just a pawn in the Major’s game. I was a King! And if the Major was the Queen on this chessboard, then we would have to battle it out for dominance. I grabbed Sally’s head suddenly and drew her down onto my cock, which she mouthed with greedy lips. Game on!

As Sally’s head bobbed up and down on my cock, I sat there, watching her breasts move in rhythm with her head, letting the visuals augment the pleasure I felt from being sucked. I hadn’t come in weeks, so my balls began to ache for release, and in the mistaken belief that Sally was just going through the motions, that she was not really invested in the physical act of sex with a man, I spoke out of turn.

“Mmm, that’s good bitch! Get ready to swallow my load, you cocksucker!”

Not for the first, or the last, time, I had totally misread a woman’s intent. Sally raised her head and dropped my cock. She fixed me with a furious stare, and tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘Woman’s weapons,’ as Shakespeare called them! They were like daggers to my heart!

“You really are a prick!” she said, with a snuffle. “I’m doing this because I love you, not in the way that a woman loves a man, but because we’ve been a crew, through thick and thin, and I can’t sit and watch while one half of the best team I’ve ever been part of destroys himself by wallowing in grief. Knowing who you are, I thought I could bring you out of it by getting physical. And I want to bond with you physically, in every way, even though it’s against my nature. And now you talk to me like I’m some kind of back-street slut!” Sally sat there, her breasts heaving with emotion, panting, not quite sobbing, but teary-eyed as she glared at me. The thought that I had hurt her, my best friend on this island, made me sick to my stomach.

Sitting up, I reached out and embraced her, drawing her head onto my shoulder. I rubbed her back gently and whispered in her ear.

“I’m so sorry, Sally! So sorry! You’ve been my one true friend on this island. I’ve not valued you the way you deserve. I love you like a sister, and I always will.”

Sally drew her head back from my shoulder and put her nose against mine. I could feel the wet tears on her cheek. The warmth of her breath was upon my lips. We kissed gently. Then, the floodgates of passion opened. After all, Sally wasn’t my sister. She wasn’t taboo. She was an immensely attractive woman whom I had wanted to fuck for a long time. And from her response, she very much wanted to fuck me too. I resolved to open the gift she had offered, reverently, slowly, and deliberately.

As we kissed, I laid her down gently onto the blanket. We abandoned ourselves to gentle touching, caressing breasts, and skin, letting the feel of flesh generate little messages of pleasure in our brains. Where before she had been squeezing my cock harshly, now her fingers danced around the edges, making brief forays onto the most sensitive parts, and then withdrawing suddenly to brush my cheeks or thighs. My excitement built as she alternately touched or denied, and the passion it created went beyond my experience. We continued to kiss deeply, almost fiercely, and I explored the provinces of her body with willing hands, delighting at new discoveries: a bristle of hair, a valley of softness, a delightful moistness in terrain that had always been hidden from view. Having received the message that new lands were open for exploration, I let my tongue become a brave adventurer, and traced a route through the valley of her breasts, down her tummy to the bristly forest that guarded her seat of pleasure. Sally adjusted her legs to ease the way and spread her lips with her fingers.

“Ah, slowly, gently, please,” she said. “I want this to last a long time.”

My cheeks were on fire as my stubble rubbed against her silken thighs as my tongue sought out her moist pussy. Sally moaned as I tongued her, lapping up her delicious juice, letting the message of her softness travel to the pleasure center of my brain. I pushed my tongue into her pussy, thrusting and licking, listening to her moans, feeling her thighs tense and relax against my cheeks. Moving up to her clit, I began a gentle tonguing, while inserting my middle finger inside her silky tunnel. Sally’s moans increased, and her hands let go of her pussy lips and moved to the back of my head, so she could push my bristly face up against her sensitive cunt. I tried to draw it out, to make it last longer, but Sally took control, crying out as I sucked her clit, bucking her hips up against my face and demanding more.

“Oh, harder, harder!” she cried. “Oh, that’s good, ugh, ugh, oh god!”

Suddenly her thighs were like a vise and her hands pulled me hard against her mound as I sucked her clit and stroked her pussy with my finger. Sally came, relaxed slightly, and then came again, relaxed, and then came a third time. She then pushed me away from her.

I sat up and wiped my face with my arm. Sally laughed and reached for my cock, stroking the tip gently.

“Mmm, I want this,” she said, smiling. “You’ve got a condom, I hope?”

Indeed, I still had a couple left. I opened the package and Sally rolled it on over my hard on. It barely fit.

“Oh, you are big,” she said. “Cripes, I haven’t had a cock since high school. Go easy on me, please!”

I answered by pushing her back down to the blanket, gently. She spread her legs and I settled in between her thighs. I stayed up on my arms, so I could glory in the sight of her lovely face and generous breasts. Sally reached down and guided my tip into her pussy. I began a slow, gentle stroke and was rewarded with a groan from Sally’s beautiful lips. I kept this up for a few minutes, feeling her pussy pulsing against my cock as it slid in and out. Sally looked me in the eyes, blew me a kiss, and spoke.

“Go, baby, go! Give it to me! Hard!”

The effect was electric. I thrust to my entire depth, and Sally gasped as I plunged into her over and over and over. She moaned and grunted, closing her eyes, and rolling her head from side to side. I closed my eyes and concentrated on fucking her, feeling my own pressure building. I cried out, and knew I was close. Suddenly, I felt Sally’s nails on my cheek, digging in, and forcing me to look at her.

“Don’t come in me,” she begged. “Pull out, pull out!”

I withdrew suddenly and sat up. My cock was spasming, flexing up and down. I was a nano-second from cumming. Sally reached over and pulled the condom off, sitting in front of me. She stroked my cock hard, and my cum began to shoot out over her lovely tits. She stroked and stroked, and between the weeks of denial and the slow buildup to orgasm, I shot out an incredible amount of cum onto her breasts, chest and neck.

“Oh, oh, my goodness!” she said. “I’d forgot about this part!” Sally laughed.

I reached out and gently smoothed the cum shots over the silky skin of her tits. Sally purred softly as I did so, but after a minute pushed my hand away. Grabbing a nearby towel, she cleaned up. I just sat there, stunned, overcome by our sudden intimacy. Sarah reached out and drew me down onto the blanket. We cuddled, and I heard the soft sound of her gentle breathing in my ear, felt the rise and fall of her chest as it nestled next to mine.

After a few minutes, Sarah sat up. The sun was streaming through the tent fabric, creating a kind of halo around her lovely face. She spoke.

“Mark, that was great. But it’s time to get serious. There is a big storm coming, and we have to get you and the helicopter up off of this beach.”

I shook myself out of my post-coital fog. Sally now had her business face on, and I needed to pay attention.

“A storm? How do we know that? The weather looks fine to me.”

“Denise built a barometer. She’d done a simple one as a science project in high school, using tin cans, plastic wrap and a straw. She found the stuff here to make something similar, and it’s telling us that the pressure is falling, fast. That means a tropical depression is on its way, and if it hits us hard, we are going to lose a lot. The helicopter is a treasure trove of resources, even if we never fly it again. It’s got fuel, wire, metal, fabric – lots of stuff we can’t get a hold of on this island. We can’t just sit here and let it get swept into the sea by a storm surge.”

“Ok, I get that. But we haven’t started it in almost two months. The digital fuel control is fried. And the battery must be flat. I’d have to start in manual control, and the battery won’t crank enough to reach starting rpm.”

“I cleared it with the Major to pull the battery and charge it with the diesel generator. We’ve still got a barrel of diesel left, enough to charge it so we have enough juice to start.”

I drew in my breath. A flight would be risky, but what choice did we have? A big storm would destroy the machine regardless, and then we’d have nothing.

“Right, you’re on,” I said. “Let’s pull the battery and get a charge on it. But I have another question.”

Sarah cocked her head and looked at me quizzically.

“I know,” she said. “What about us? Mark, this was fabulous. Better than I could have imagined, in fact. The girls were right about your skills! But the intensity came from the energy it took to re-establish our bond, a bond that your grief broke.” Sarah reached out and took my hand. It felt warm and comfortable. “We’ve repaired the bond, and maybe we should leave it there. What I am at my sexual core hasn’t changed. This happened because I needed Mark back in my life, not because I needed a man. I won’t be crawling back into your bed at night. I’ll be with someone else. And I won’t mind if others keep you company, because I have no claim on you that way. We’re a team! And what I did was help my teammate get his game shirt back on to take his place in the line up. I’d do it again, if I had to, and wouldn’t mind a bit. But I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

I squeezed Sally’s hand. “Thanks!” I said. “I hear what you’re saying. I don’t like it, but I respect it. Brother and sister from now on, a team. Now, let’s get dressed and pull that battery! We’ve got a lot to do before the storm hits.”

Stay Tuned for Part 6