The warm Pacific waters kissed the boat’s sleek bow as is cut through the calm ocean; a soft breeze giving those aboard the yacht, on its maiden voyage, a welcome respite to the unforgiving Polynesian sun high in the sky above.
Languishing forward under the mainsail, and with the jib closed, Nicole sat on the forward deck looking at the approaching tropical island landscape before her, expanding as they slowly drew closer. Dead ahead lay a small island oasis, protected by both a wide coral atoll and blessed with an approachable harbour; with a small ridge of rocky cliffs marking the centre and rising above a narrow line of palm trees. Nicole turned and smiled at her adopted son, Robert, as he deftly manned the helm.
“It really does look like a postcard,” she beamed, “and just as uninhabited as reported.”
They had been looking for just such a quiet oasis, as they intended to sojourn and let pass a bit of a tropical storm that was reported to be descending upon the seas to their north. After a few weeks at sea, the promise of white sand terra firma would be a welcome diversion.
Reducing their speed even further, Robert steered the large vessel through a gap in the atoll towards a small protected inlet not too far from the shoreline. Drawing in the mainsail and dropping anchor, the boat came to a full stop; the gentle, aquamarine waters lapping at the sides of the hull.
Midway along their journey, it was to be the beginning of an extended South Pacific idyll.
—
Two months earlier, the opportunity of a lifetime had dropped into Nicole’s lap. A sailboat owner and avid sailor in her own right, close friends had offered her the chance to deliver their brand new, forty-six-foot yacht to New Zealand. They themselves were about to embark on an extended tour of Europe, so they assured her that she would be doing them a great favour. Even better, she would have the luxury of time, so there would be plenty of opportunity to explore the islands of French Polynesia.
The proposed route would take her from San Diego to Tahiti, Bora Bora, Fiji, then on to Auckland as a final destination. Being at sea made her happy, and the South Pacific had always beckoned, so she jumped at the chance. Her friends imposed just one condition: that, subject to their approval, she brought along another hand with a bit more ‘blue water’ experience. Since she would need help, regardless of her own, not insignificant expertise, she welcomed the request.
As it happened, her own son Robert fit the bill rather nicely. Despite his twenty-six years, his sailing CV was impressive. He had been sailing in one form or another since he was a child; first with Nicole and her now ex-husband, and thereafter on his own and later in the Navy.
Though the two of them had enjoyed a loving, intensely close relationship since Robert was a little boy, the trauma of divorce had caused a bit of a temporary, albeit relatively benign estrangement. Nicole was keen to remedy the emotional gap that had opened between them and was quick to try to enlist him in her exciting new adventure. One phone call and one protracted lunch date later, Robert agreed. Nicole was happy and excited beyond measure, and her friends were equally delighted to have such a skilled supplement to her crew. It was all set.
On the morning of their departure, Nicole awoke with the excitement of a child on Christmas morning, starting her day with an invigorating shower. Afterwards, facing her reflection in the floor-length bathroom mirror in just bra and panties, she soberly self-assessed while gently applying moisturizer to her legs.
With her raven-coloured hair, cantilevered chest, preternatural, womanly hips, and her soft feminine lips, she was still a very handsome, voluptuous woman. At fifty-two, though her hips and derriere were undeniably larger – motherhood and Robert had had something to do with that – her tummy was still relatively trim. Admittedly, there were traces of cellulite she could no longer deny, but good genes and the combination of swimming, sailing, and yoga had kept the worst of gravity’s effects at bay.
Most mercifully of all, considering her bra size, Nicole’s heavy bust remained relatively buoyant. Requiring a size 30D bra by the time she was in her mid-teens, decades removed from pregnancy and now in her early fifties, she had continued to blossom. Specialty lingerie shops carrying bras size 32JJ were a necessary expense.
The two of them met that morning inside the terminal where the yacht was moored; smiling and embracing warmly, Nicole gave her son a sweet kiss on the cheek.
Now twenty-six and every bit the tall and handsome young man, Nicole’s son had morphed from a shy, gangly boy into a conspicuously attractive and well-spoken former junior naval officer. She was guilty of more than a little motherly pride.
With his dark brown hair, strong jawline, sensuous lips, and blue bedroom eyes, he was clearly going to cause a great number of women to swoon in the years to come. Notwithstanding his manners and quiet charm, his mother could only assume there were more than a few notches on his bedpost.
An hour or so later and having completed most of their preparations and loading of provisions days earlier, they set sail. The new sailboat, with features like a huge bathing platform below deck, a spacious sunbathing platform above, large cockpit, bright saloon, four cabins, and a ‘garage’ for the dinghy, was more lavish and luxurious then either of them had ever had the pleasure of sailing.
With as much as three weeks of sailing allotted for stage one of their voyage to Tahiti, Nicole sat in the cockpit while Robert manned the helm in front of her, reveling in the sea air, sunshine, and exquisite kismet of it all.
—
The following days and nights passed happily and without incident. As promised, the seas along their route were tame and pleasant; nothing more concerning than a few brief, innocuous squalls along the way.
They passed their days spelling off each other behind the wheel; their downtime spent reading, writing, sunbathing, and generally decompressing. The fact that Nicole had her son Robert all to herself added greatly to her sense of contentment. Perhaps it was motherly possessiveness, but she had always been so close to, and so fond of, her son that his nascent attentiveness to the female sex had, when she was honest with herself, always made her feel a little jealous.
Their seafaring camaraderie was playful, occasionally bordering on twinkle-in-the-eye naughty. One afternoon, standing behind Robert at the helm — Robert being then shirtless and wearing only form-fitting white shorts and sneakers – Nicole playfully patted his behind.
“You have a dangerously tight and sexy bum, young man,” she teased. “Ooh, la la.”
“Mom!” he laughed with a self-conscious, bashful smile.
At night, she delighted in cooking his meals and generally spoiling him with attention and affection. Typically, after dinner and feeling cozy together on the spacious sectional sofa in the main saloon, Robert would lay his head in Nicole’s lap while she sipped a glass of wine; softly stroking his hair and peppering his forehead with tender kisses.
As mothers are wont to do, Nicole began making enquiries about his last love interest.
“What was her name again, sweetie?” she asked.
“Sarah,” he replied.
“Oh, yes,” she continued. “She was so sweet and so pretty. What happened?”
Her memory of his teenage romantic endeavours, and his youthful experiences with members of the fairer sex, was that things never seemed to last very long; something that had always baffled her. He was so good-looking, charming, and bright, and so respectful of girls – hardly the type to simply abandon someone for a ‘better prospect’.
Perhaps it was the wine, but the two of them began a long, meandering conversation about love, her divorce from Robert’s father several years ago, and relationships. Eventually, motherly guilt getting the better of her, she leaned forward and once again gently kissed his forehead.
“I’m so sorry for the pain I caused you, my love,” she said softly; her heart wilting a little.
Sensing his mother’s grief, he got up and hugged her tightly, gently kissing her on the cheek.
“It wasn’t your fault,” said Robert. “Please, mom. Please, don’t feel bad about it.”
To lighten the mood, and wiping a tear from her eye, Nicole continued her teasing about former girlfriends and relationships.
“You’re far too hot and eligible to be single,” she opined.
In truth, Robert was slightly chagrinned and blushed at Nicole’s motherly, romantic inquisition, which his mother only found more endearing.
Having endured the affectionate teasing, he finally confessed to having had very little success with women his age, at least beyond the early stages of a relationship. Again, Nicole found this difficult to fathom, but he was clearly being honest, and there was a genuine melancholy in his voice. He claimed not to be able to relate very well to girls when he was younger, and with women now that he had matured, finding them a little immature and shallow.
“Have you ever been in love?” she asked with maternal softness.
Robert seemed reluctant to respond, then answered that there had indeed been someone last year, but that it hadn’t worked out. Nicole pressed for more details about this rare and mysterious young woman who’d stolen her son’s virginal heart and was understandably shocked when he revealed that it had been a woman of fifty-three, only a year older than herself!
Stunned, Nicole felt compelled to press. Indeed, who was this woman?? Robert clearly didn’t want to say.
“Robert, who was she??” she asked.
After a series of hesitations and obfuscations, he finally confessed.
“Your friend Helen,” he said quietly.
Nicole nearly fell off the sofa.
“Helen? Helen Forsythe!” she gasped, hand to mouth in shock and disbelief. Not only her friend, but a married woman with three children no less. Robert nodded in the affirmative.
“How long did this go on?” she asked, incredulous.
“Several months,” he replied, adding, “She broke my heart.”
Robert’s face became quite forlorn. Still shocked and dismayed, Nicole, sensing his genuine hurt, tenderly stroked his hair and kissed him on the forehead.
“Oh, darling, I’m so very sorry,” she said, still reeling from the revelation.
She had one last question, which she expected she already knew the answer to: namely, had they been intimate?
“Yes,” he answered. “It was difficult at first, but then we had sex constantly.”
“Difficult?” she asked, not understanding what he meant.
Her son was clearly reluctant to say more and averted his eyes. Nicole took his hand in hers, leaned forward, and looked down into his downcast eyes.
“You can tell me, darling. I’m your mother,” she said tenderly. “Please… don’t be shy.”
“My… penis… ” he said quietly.
Nicole felt her own cheeks flush.
“Yes?
Again, he seemed reluctant to say more.
“Oh, sweetie, don’t be shy, please” she continued. “I’m your mother, you can tell me. What’s wrong? Is it… a little small?”
Robert shook his head no, and Nicole suppressed an unanticipated and quite inappropriate sigh of excitement when she realized what it was that he had been so reluctant to reveal. “Is it… um… quite… big?” she asked, trying to affect a casual tone.
He nodded yes; his head still in her lap, eyes closed.
“Oh, darling. You needn’t be ashamed or embarrassed about that.”
Once again, she forced him to look into her eyes. “Sweetie, when two people love each other, they make adjustments and find ways to pleasure each other. I promise you everything will be okay. You needn’t worry about that. Besides, and I realize Helen is my age, but… usually… as young women get a little older, they begin to understand their bodies better, and by the time they’re grown women… like me for instance… they, well, they often find a large penis very, very exciting and pleasurable.”
Robert looked up at her, hopefully.
“Really?”
“Oh yes, darling. You mustn’t worry,” she replied.
“Even when it doesn’t fit?” he added.
“What do you mean?” she asked quizzically.
“It never fits… inside… inside the woman, I mean,” he answered earnestly, albeit with some exasperation for having to search for the right words to explain something so awkward to his own mother.
“Helen was… she was the first woman… the first woman I could fit quite a bit of it inside. Not at first, but with lots of lubrication and if we took it very slowly. But even then, I still had to… push it,” he sighed. “I really didn’t like hurting her, but she kept asking me to push it deeper.”
Nicole was truly taken aback and feeling more than a little light-headed. Her son, engaged in a sexual affair, with Helen, her friend of many years? She was truly having a difficult time processing the information. What was worse, and this was a realization she dared not even contemplate, it excited her. She felt flush.
“Oh, please don’t be embarrassed,” she said sweetly, stroking his hair.
“It scares women when they see it,” he added, “although Helen got really excited when she first saw it… she said… she said that it made her wet to look at it and when she… kissed it.”
Sensing an absolute absence of macho ego on his part, and truly wanting to reassure her troubled and sexually-frustrated son, she explained to him that despite being so well equipped, in time things would improve, and lovers would become better and better able to accommodate him. “It’s a good thing I’m your mom!” she said with a playful smile. “Otherwise, it would be a very dangerous thing for you to tell me what you’ve told me.”
“What do you mean?” he asked innocently, despite the clear inappropriateness of what she’d confessed.
“Well…” she continued, smiling. “It’s just that I happen to… um… adore… a very large penis on a man. I hope I’m not embarrassing you by saying so, but it’s true. Your father, no disrespect, was not especially well endowed. I dated a man for a short time after our divorce who was… well, ‘gifted’, and I honestly couldn’t get enough. Too much information, I know. But if you were thirty years older and not my son, I would be trying my very best to seduce you!”
The next morning, Nicole emerged from her cabin still buzzing from her conversation with her son the night before.
Trying to fall asleep that night, she couldn’t stop thinking about Helen Forsythe and her son, with a mixture of disbelief and anger. Anger, for having broken her son’s gentle heart, and possibly for having treated him as some sort of sexual conquest.
She recalled a moment years ago, when Robert was still a teenager, about seventeen. Helen had offered to take Robert and her own son to the beach for the day. It was still the era of speedo swimwear, and upon their return, Helen had gushed at how fantastic Robert filled out his swimsuit. At the time, she’d put it down to a horny older woman’s playfulness, but in recall, she remembered that Helen had said that despite his young age, he’d caused more than a few older women and girls to drop their jaws.
Several weeks out, and by the time they reached an area slightly northwest of Tahiti, they were radioed and alerted to a lower-ranked tropical storm due to hit north of the Cook Islands to the west. Learning of a series of islands nearby in the Marquesas group, a number of them uninhabited, they decided to play it safe by seeking refuge and waiting for the storm to pass. It was reported that it would be at least four days until the danger passed completely.
While Robert was called on to invoke his superior navigational skills, Nicole seized the opportunity to do a little sunbathing… in a bikini slightly more daring than the last.
—
Robert navigated their way inside the atoll to the small protected inlet close to shore; drawing in the mainsail, dropping anchor, and bringing the boat to a full stop.
The two of them prepared the dingy and set off to explore their temporary home.
Nicole decided to go braless, opting for a snug, long-sleeve t-shirt, cotton Capri pants, and sneakers. Robert looked rugged and sexy in his baggy rolled up trousers, untucked white shirt, and windswept locks.
It was a short ride in the dinghy before they slid gently into the white sandy shore. Disembarking, they explored a bit of the island. Given its small size and remoteness, it was clear that the island really was uninhabited. They would be alone together in their tropical paradise.
They began walking inland through the palm trees, meandering this way and that. The air was sweet and floral; the intense sun streaking through the lush canopy of palms and foliage. Stopping to listen, the tranquility and peacefulness of their surroundings was quite calming.
At one point, the pair of them became momentarily separated. Robert eventually circled back to find his mother. Taking her by the hand, he led her to a nearby clearing, pointing to a heavy, low-lying branch. Nicole spotted a number of large, magnificently-coloured parrots, all perched in a tidy row.
“Oh, my goodness!” she exclaimed excitedly; smiling brightly and wrapping her arms around her son’s chest. “They’re so beautiful!”
Perhaps it was the fantastical, idyllic setting, or the emotional closeness that had developed between them these past few weeks, but for whatever reason, it felt natural and right when Robert slipped his hand back into his mother’s as they continued their hike. Nicole felt a warm, luxurious tingling in her tummy, and smiled.
That first afternoon, they walked to the other side of the island and back; holding hands and stopping along the way to point out fascinating flora and fauna and wild birds. They both felt a little fatigued when they got back to the beach and decided to head back to the boat.
That evening, after dinner, they once again settled into their cozy twosome on the sectional. They reminisced about Robert’s childhood and the fun they had together when he was a little boy.
“You were such a delightful little boy,” said Nicole. “And such a perfect little baby. I wish I’d been…
