The First Summer of Forever

Chapter 16 - Venus is an Evening Star

Belly

We had been on the water for a couple of hours, our route now established, and the sun was beginning to set. After all the work had died down, Conrad walked over to a yeti cooler that was sitting on the deck. "Come with me." He said, grabbing my hand and leading me over to the cooler, where we sat down on the bench next to it. He opened the cooler, and lifted out a bottle of champagne and two glasses that had been chilling on ice. He handed me the bottle and glasses to hold, and started digging in the cooler again. He lifted a seafoam green Tupperware container out of the cooler, and cracked the lid, showing me the contents.

"You brought champagne and chocolate covered strawberries!? Where did you get these?!" "Yeah" he said smiling that big Conrad smile. "This lady my mom knew from helping at the women's shelter makes them to help raise money for the shelter. She makes all kinds of other stuff too, but my mom always talked about how good these were. I called the shelter to see if she was still making them, and they gave me her number."

"That's awesome! My man is so romantic." I doted. And the truth is, he was. Conrad had an old soul, and had always done things like this for me. From buying me the glass unicorn and winning me Jr. Mint, to watching the stars and drinking hot cocoa. He always had something sweet up his sleeve, leaving my heart in a puddle.

"Let's pop the champagne." I said. "Should we shake it a little so it explodes like in the movies?" He laughed. He was only being half serious, but I knew he would if I wanted him to.

"No, that's okay, just open it for us.I'm terrible at it." And I handed him the wine opener. I always messed the cork up beyond repair if I tried to do it. Conrad took the bottle and placed it in between his knees, screwing the opener into the cork and popping it out a few seconds later. "You make that look so easy." I said, giggling in amazement. "I promise it's not that hard, if you know how to do it, Belly." He cut his eyes over to me and grinned.

I held the glasses while he poured champagne in both of them. "What should we toast to?" I asked, sheepishly. "How about.... The first summer of our infinity. Yeah." "That's perfect", I said, gazing into his eyes, starstruck. "To the first summer of our infinity." I said as I clinked my glass to his and leaned into him for a kiss. We crossed our arms like the bride and groom, and drank from the glasses, trying our best not to spill champagne. We both laughed and then Conrad held up a strawberry to my lips. "See how they taste, Mrs. Fisher." I took a bite, and then chewing the strawberry, I said, "I'll never get tired of hearing you say that."

"What? Mrs. Fisher?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Isabel Fisher." He said as he kissed me, and chills ran down my spine.

"My Belly, Belly Fisher." He said, more casually this time, kissing me again, and deepening the kiss. He pulled back and looked at me for a few seconds with heavy lids, but it seemed like minutes, his eyes appraising me. "Do I have something on my face?" "Actually, you do have a little chocolate right.... here." And he kissed the edge of my lips, slow, wet, and passionate, sucking the chocolate off my lips. I'm not sure if I actually had chocolate there or not, but I didn't care. My head was spinning and I was almost feeling dizzy, but not from the champagne.

How lucky am I that my husband makes me feel like this? I know we're newlyweds, but he makes me feel 16 again. He pulled back, my eyes were still closed and my body was frozen there, stunned from the electricity flowing through my veins. "I have something for you." He whispered into my lips as he pulled away. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a Tiffany blue box with a white ribbon. He placed it in my hands and then said "Go on, open it, I can't wait for you to see." "What? Conrad, you didn't have to..." I trailed off. I quickly and excitedly pulled the ribbon and opened the box. Inside, laid on a bed of soft white cotton, was a small infinity symbol on a thin chain. Gold, and encrusted with teeny tiny little diamonds. It was beautiful, and took my breath away. "I thought it was time you had a new infinity necklace." Conrad mused. "This one is a little bit of an upgrade. And it matches your wedding band."

I was speechless for a moment. "Thank you." I said, grinning from ear to ear and gazing into his gray-blue ocean eyes. "How did I get so lucky?" I said quietly as a single tear leaked from my eyes and down my cheek. "I'm the lucky one." Conrad said as he kissed me. Then, he carefully took it out of the box, and ever so gently unlatched the clasp, placing it around my neck while I held my hair up. "We'll always be infinite.", he said looking into my eyes. Just then, he unexpectedly leaned over and kissed my neck-the sweet spot. His mouth was warm and wet, and melted me instantly. The sun had been steadily going down and it was a little past dusk now, the sky a light purple and the light really low. A few twinkling stars began popping out around a full moon. "Venus is an evening star." I said, as he deepened his kiss on my neck, sucking softly at first, and then growing in strength. A little too strong. "Conrad", I resisted a little, scrunching up my shoulders. When he released his lips, his mouth made a suctioning sound as they popped off my skin. "We're not going to see a soul for days, it's just me and you Belly." He whispered into my ear, his breath hot and heavy in the air. "If you've never had a hickey, now's the time to get one.", he said against my skin. I pulled back to look at him and he was raising one eyebrow at me. Like -'I dare you'.

Conrad was never one to dare when it was his turn in truth or dare, he always chose truth. So this was a little foreign to me. Maybe it was the champagne, or maybe it was the fact that we were now miles away from anyone else, not a soul in sight, but he had a point. And he was right-I had never had a hickey. In the several months I had dated Conrad, and the two years I had dated Jeremiah, I had never gotten a hickey before. They were both always so respectful; Susannah raised them right. Even when I was seeing that guy in Spain I didn't get one.

Wasn't a hickey like a right of passage or something? Even though I wouldn't have to hide it from my mom, or cover it with a scarf or makeup, it still sounded rebellious and exciting to me. And besides the rebellion part, wearing my newly wedded husband's tattoo of love for me on my neck sounded hella sexy.

"Okay." I said. "Since we're basically playing truth or dare, and you gave me a dare, I'll tell you a secret... I've never had a hickey." "See, I knew it! Well then, maybe it's time you got one, Isabel. We can pretend we're teenagers again." His lip curled up in that little smirk he had, and then he made a beeline for my neck. Not a second wasted. After a few moments of feeling him on my skin, I quietly said to him, "make love to me, Conrad."

"What, here? Right now?" He said quizzically, his eyes appraising mine for the truth. "Yes. You said it yourself. No one is around for miles and miles, and we won't see anyone in days." His eyes flashed with excitement and I could see them glitter in the darkness. There was a smirk on his lips when I kissed them and got up to straddle his lap on the bench. " I want you to kiss every inch of me... and put a hickey anywhere you'd like." I whispered into his ear low and raspy. I had both hands gripping the collar of his boating shirt, and my knees were spread on each side of his lap. "Belly... you're gonna give me a stroke or something talking like that." And then I giggled. "By the way, where did you learn to talk like that?" "It just comes naturally when I'm with you." I whispered to him breathlessly between kisses. I put my hands under his shirt now, running my hands up over his abs and chest. That's when he reached behind him and pulled off his shirt. I started unbuttoning his shorts in a frenzy, and they fell to the deck seconds later. Conrad hitched up my sundress, and worked it off with an alarming ease. Then he carefully pulled my sundress over my head and threw it on the deck too. Here we were, absolutely bare on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Everything was completely dark now, an unending abyss of blackness surrounding us. Only the moonlight was illuminating our skin, highlighting every curve.