“Feel the air!” Emmy said as we disembarked from the plane. “It is so thick! It feels like swimming!”

She wasn’t wrong- compared to the low humidity we were used to in California, just moving through the air in Southern Florida did feel a bit like swimming. At eight in the morning it was already warm, too. Not hot yet, but I could feel it was going to get that way before long.

Emmy skipped across the tarmac to the private plane terminal, her excitement too much to contain. Me, I just watched Emmy, her antics bringing a smile to my face. This was the Emmy that had captured my heart, lighthearted and in love with the world. This was the Emmy that I wanted to never lose again. This was the Emmy I would do anything to protect from life’s troubles, even if it meant twice the load on me.

Impatient at my slow progress, she dropped back to where I was walking and took my hand to pull me forward. “Come on!” she demanded.

“There’s no hurry,” I replied. “We’re on our honeymoon. That means vacation. That means nothing to do but relax and enjoy ourselves.”

“But why would you want to spend even one extra minute in an airport?” she asked, and I had to admit I could see her point.

Before we even got to the terminal doors, a middle-aged lady approached. “Leah Farmer?” she asked. “I’m Barbara Davis, with Miami Luxury Auto Rentals. The Land Rover you reserved is over this way,” she said, indicating the small parking lot adjacent to the terminal.

I signaled to the Lascaux jet’s steward to follow us with the luggage, and we all veered to go directly to the car. No reason to spend any longer in an airport than necessary, right?

As the steward loaded our bags into the back of the car, I signed the paperwork the lady handed me. In just a few minutes we were done, and with a quick goodbye to Henri we took off.

We’d flown in to Miami instead of the Key West airport because I’d always wanted to see the Overseas Highway from the tip of the mainland down through the Keys, and Emmy had another stop she wanted to make in South Florida- a place I’d never heard of called the Coral Castle. Thankfully it turned out to be right off the highway to the Keys anyhow, so it wasn’t going to be much of a detour.

Driving in Florida was a bizarre experience. Ninety percent of the drivers on the freeway were just fine, but roughly ten percent used some sort of random internal guideline as to what was the appropriate speed. It could be forty miles an hour, ninety-five miles an hour, whatever- just as long as it wasn’t the speed everybody else was going. I just couldn’t understand it.

It was pretty nerve-wracking for a while, but I just took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and tried to accept it for what it was. The little Evoque we rented was a good choice for the drive, I’m glad to say. It was reasonably quiet inside, the air conditioner worked extremely well, and the car had good road manners. All this mattered more than you might expect because the drive was a lot longer than I’d realized. We didn’t spend any time in Miami, just got on the road and headed south, the morning warming up quickly. Even still, the GPS said it was going to be almost five hours to our destination. Add in a few stops here and there and it was going to be late afternoon by the time we got to the bed and breakfast we’d booked.

Soon enough we were out of the heavy traffic of the Miami area and seeing signs for the Everglades and the Keys. Emmy had set the GPS for the Coral Castle, which really wasn’t all that far away.

The parking lot for the castle wasn’t all that promising, but this was something Emmy really wanted to see so I didn’t grumble. I’m glad I didn’t put up any sort of fight, either, because the place was amazing. Sad, when you hear the story, but amazing.

Emmy and I took the guided tour and when that was done spent a while just wandering around. I was a bit worried for Emmy, since it was a sunny morning and she was wearing a lightweight sleeveless sun dress with sandals. Sure, she had on her big sun hat- you know the kind. Made of straw, with a big black ribbon tied into a bow for the hat band. The ensemble was freaking adorable on her, but except for the hat and sunglasses left her pretty well exposed to the sun. Yeah, I’d sprayed her down liberally with Coppertone SPF 100 on top of the special sunblock she applied every morning, but still…

There just wasn’t a lot of shade. Calling the place a castle was a bit of a stretch, but it did have big stone walls around the outside, so I guess that’s all it takes.

Emmy was completely in love with the place, and the story of its creation and the guy who built it captured her imagination. She was bouncing from carving to staircase, rocking chair to pivoting door to standing stone. She was buzzing with enthusiasm, and all I could do was watch and enjoy her joy.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one who was following her around like a puppy- at least a half dozen other tourists asked to take her picture, or for her autograph and so on. None of that bothered Emmy in the slightest. If anything it only improved her mood, which still continued to amaze me.

Thankfully we were not surrounded by fans when we went to the upper floor of the little ‘tower’, because Emmy, in her playful mood, flipped up the skirt of her little sundress as I followed her up the stone stairs, giving me a quick eyeful of her lovely little bubble butt and the tiny little thong (not) covering it. The small room at the top was deserted, so I seized the opportunity and took her into my arms, sliding one hand up under her skirt to squeeze the body part in question.

“Oh, you beast!” she squealed in mock dismay as I bent down and nuzzled her neck.

I just growled in response and slid my fingers a bit farther in between her legs, rubbing the smooth silk barely covering her slit. A soft moan is all she replied as she lifted her leg and wrapped it around my hips. Needless to say, this did nothing to discourage me, so I continued kissing her, and sliding my fingertips past the flimsy barrier of her tiny little panties. I stroked and rubbed her little nub with my pinkie, slid my fingertips up and down her folds, and eased the tip of my middle finger gently in and out, enjoying the sensation of her body reacting to my touch. Her little gasps of pleasure as I nibbled her earlobe were enough to drive me mad, too, I have to admit. Emmy was so damned sexy it hurt and right then I couldn't stop for anything.

I could feel it building, and when Emmy’s entire body went tense with her orgasm I felt my own hit me as well. Mine was nothing near Emmy’s, but it was satisfying in its own way. I knew that I was going to get very, very laid that night at the bed and breakfast, so this was just a bit of a teaser- foreplay, very before.

Emmy unwrapped her leg from around me, readjusted her panties, and gave me a shy smile. “Thank you, Leah. That was wonderful,” she said, then picked up her sun hat from where it had fallen. I gave her butt a quick squeeze as she did so, causing her to straighten up quickly and give me a light slap on the chest.

“Beast!” she laughed, her face all lit up with the afterglow.

Back on the road, Emmy thumbed through one of the books about the Coral Castle that she’d bought in the gift shop, but her attention soon focused on the scenery as water started appearing on both sides of the highway.

“Is this the Everglades?” she asked. “Can we see alligators?”

“Um, we’ve been passing the Everglades for a while now,” I told her. “I think this is sea water. I think we are actually heading out to the Keys right now.”

“This does not look how I imagined,” she said, sounding disappointed.

“I’m pretty sure it will soon enough,” I said, negotiating the first bend in the road in quite a while. As it turns out, there was a fair bit of unlovely on the drive, but there were plenty of sections that were just amazing. The road, when it passed through each individual Key, was mostly touristy restaurants, dive shops, store fronts for sport fishing marinas and so on- not really attractive at all. Between the Keys, though, when the road was actually a bridge over the water, it was stunningly beautiful and it made me glad we’d opted to do it this way instead of just flying in to Key West itself.

One of the prettiest spots was Bahia Honda Key, where Emmy insisted we pull off the highway and into the state park. We walked along the beach, then out onto the old train bridge that ran parallel to the modern highway. The water was a collection of blues and greens, and so clear you could clearly see the fish swimming down below. We snapped some pictures with our phones, but they could never have done any real justice to the scenery.

Again, I was a bit concerned with Emmy’s exposure to the sun, so I’d made sure to hose her down again with sunblock before we started our walk. She’d protested a little bit, but I didn’t want her to get burned. As it turned out, she did O.K., but she did spend most of the walk out onto the bridge holding her hat in place to prevent the breeze from blowing it away.

We finally got to our bed and breakfast in the heart of Key West at about five in the afternoon, which wasn’t a moment too soon for Emmy. She wanted to take a nap as soon as we checked in, and I can’t say that I blamed her one bit. The place was nice- it was an old Southern-style Victorian mansion, with a big wrap-around porch and lush tropical foliage.

Our room was on the second floor, facing the back of the property. My favorite part of the room was the big veranda, with a really comfy seating area and a hammock off to the side.

I unpacked our stuff as Emmy showered to get clean before snoozing for a little bit. I felt pretty sticky from sweating in the warm, humid air but I figured I’d shower later, before bed. No point in cleaning off when we were going to be back outside soon enough where it was still kinda hot and muggy.

Dinner that night was at a local restaurant near where we were staying, but I can’t say it was all that memorable. We went straight back to the bed and breakfast afterwards- Emmy wanted to spend some time in their little pool before heading to bed, and that sounded good to me.

We’d packed our same old swim suits, which was O.K. for Emmy, but my gold suit didn’t fit me very well any more. “Good enough for now,” I said when Emmy suggested we should buy another. “I’m sure I’ll need one before we go to the beach, but for tonight this’ll do.”

Wrapping ourselves in the fluffy robes that were provided, we soon found ourselves passing through the back screened-in porch, which had a little wet bar on one side. “Hello, ladies,” said the middle-aged woman behind the bar. “Can I get you anything?”

“I’d like something tropical,” Emmy replied. “What is good?”

Laughing, the woman started grabbing bottles. “You’ve come to the right town for that,” she said. “If there is anything Key West is famous for, it’s rum drinks.”

“I’ll take one, too,” I said, even though I don’t normally drink. Hey, our honeymoon, vacation, and a town famous for tiki drinks, right? What choice was there?

Taking our vivid orange and red drinks out to the back patio, we found the tiny little pool was empty, just waiting for us. It was nice for dipping and relaxing, but trying to swim a lap would only work if you were less than three feet tall. Thankfully there was a separate hot tub, so we could alternate between bathtub-warm water in the little pool and really hot water in the jacuzzi.

We were just relaxing in the jacuzzi, sipping our drinks, Emmy on my lap when an older couple showed up. They weren’t particularly rude, but he couldn't keep his eyes off us and she glared daggers in our direction. Unfortunately, this made for an uncomfortable situation, so Emmy and I finished our drinks and went back up to our room.

“Why do you think she seemed to dislike us so much?” asked Emmy, but I’m sure she had as much or more of an idea than I did.

Making light of it, I said “It wasn’t you she resented,” I said. “It was me.”

“What? Why is that?”

“She was just jealous. She knew I was going to get the hottest babe in the universe naked tonight, but all she had was her fat old husband who stopped satisfying her twenty years ago.”

“Oh! You are so mean!” Emmy laughed. “But, is it true?”

“Absolutely,” I replied. “I am going to get you naked.”

Emmy’s eyes widened in mock surprise. “You truly are a beast! You had me earlier today- was that not enough?”

“Are you kidding? That was just a sneak preview of coming attractions!” I said as I lowered the robe off her shoulders, dropping it to the ground.

“Oh? And what is the main feature?” she asked, playing along as I reached around and untied the strap of her bikini top.

“Well, it features a lot of action,” I said as I pulled her top off completely, then knelt down in front of her and tugged the high waist of her thong bottom off her hips.

“Just action?” asked Emmy.

“No, there will be romance, too,” I said as her bikini bottom fell to the floor and I leaned in and kissed her on the belly button, playing with the little stud with my tongue.

“Anything else?”

“Well, of course, there will be humor, too,” I said, then quickly picked her up and tossed her bodily onto the big, soft bed.

Shrieking with surprise, Emmy laughed and said “I think I will enjoy this film!”

I threw off my own robe and shucked my bikini in a flash, wanting to waste no time getting to the action. I climbed onto the bed, kneeling but otherwise upright. I reached down and caressed Emmy’s feet, which were on either side of my knees. In another sudden move, I lifted her feet up in the air, pulling her close to me, her feet now resting on my shoulders.

“Oh, no!” Emmy squealed. “What are you going to do to me, you beast?”

Rubbing my cheek on her instep, I slid my hands down the front of her shins, then past her knees. “I am going to eat you up, my pretty little morsel!” I growled I'm my deepest, gravelliest voice. I’m sure any bystander would have laughed, but hey- it was our game. Kissing my way down the inside of her leg, I continued to make growly animal noises as I lowered myself down.

“Sacre bleu! Vous êtes une monstre!” Emmy sighed, surrendering to my animal urges.

I scooped my hands up under her hips and lifted them up, and she obliged by spreading her slender legs even wider to give me better access. I’d been wanting this all afternoon- the smell of her on my fingers during the drive had been driving me nuts, and now I was going to feast like a starving animal. I didn’t want to take it slow and easy this time, so I started by running my tongue up from the bottom of her slit straight to the little pearl hiding at the top, my tongue wide and flat.

This seemed to be the right approach, as I got one of her rare moans of pleasure for my efforts. Encouraged, I did it all- the alphabet thing, the fast flicking, the long, slow dives, all of it, including a gentle scrape of my teeth on her little bud, which got another moan and a full-body spasm from her. It was the first time I’d ever tried that with Emmy, but it had been something Steph really liked to do to me, so I figured I’d give it a try. It seemed to be a winner, but not something I’d do very often. I could feel Emmy getting close, her body writhing, legs trembling, breathing ragged.

I eased off, kissing her labia, nuzzling her thighs, breathing my hot breath on her perfectly smooth mound. Emmy could only tolerate this for just so long, before she reached up and grabbed the sides of my head and pulled me back into place. “Leah- no teasing! I need it!” she gasped, so I got back to work, smashing my face into her perfect little pussy, driving my tongue as deep as I possibly could. This was all it took, and she gave herself into an enormous orgasm, clamping my head between her thighs as her whole body shook and quivered. Emmy finally lost all muscle control and fell down boneless on the bed, panting with the effort.

I sat back on my heels, enjoying the view. Emmy’s skin had a light sheen of perspiration, but the air conditioning was drying it quickly. Her breathing was slowing down, but I still enjoyed the rapid rise and fall of her chest. Best of all, though, was the look she was giving me. It was a mix of utter contentment, love, and if I wasn’t mistaken, triumph.

“You’re looking pretty self-satisfied there,” I said, stroking her legs.

“I am very satisfied with myself,” Emmy agreed. “Why should I not be? I have everything I ever wanted right here, right now.”

“So do I, Em, so do I,” I said as I settled down on my side next to her. Running my fingertips up and down from her hip to her collarbone, I enjoyed watching her shiver from my touch. She was just so perfectly sexy, glowing with the moment, that I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Not that I wanted to, mind you. I wanted to see this moment with my eyes, hear this moment with my ears, smell this moment with my nose, feel this moment with my fingertips, and savor this moment on my mouth.

My freshly sexed-up lover, my beautiful wife. Mine, to have and to hold, even if it wasn’t going to be forever.

Emmy was sensitive to my mood, as always. “Do not be sad, Leah,” she whispered. “Do not think of anything but this moment.”

Amazed how she could read me like a book, I kissed her shoulder and said “I wish this could last forever.”

“But then it would not be special,” Emmy replied.

There was nothing I could say to that- this was an argument I didn’t want to have just then, and knew that it wasn’t one I’d ever win, anyhow. All I could do was hold her close and feel her heartbeat under my hand, listen to her breathing, and not lose myself in my own thoughts of loss.

Emmy was fast asleep when I left to go for a nice run around the northeastern two thirds of the island. Roosevelt Boulevard had a big, smooth pedestrian walkway the entire length, making for a great place to stretch my legs, especially since it was pretty much deserted that early in the morning.

Hearing the shower running when I got back to the room I wasted no time shucking my clothes and slipping into the bathroom. “May I join you?” I asked.

Emmy peeked out through the curtains, her eyes widening when she saw me “Oh, no! It is the hungry beast!” she wailed, but her wide grin told me that she was just as in the mood as I was for some soapy time.

Unfortunately, a two-up shower in that big old iron claw-footed tub turned out to not be as good an idea as we’d thought. It was awkward and borderline dangerous, so we kept our shenanigans to a minimum. Really. Nothing more than Emmy helping to clean my hard-to-reach nooks and crannies, nothing more.

After breakfast, we went out for a stroll around the neighborhood. Emmy wanted to take a photo of us at the famous ‘Southernmost Point’ pylon, and I just wanted to spend time with her doing whatever. Of course, before we set out I made sure to load her up with the SPF 100 sunblock again, and this time I sprayed myself as well.

At some point in the day we had a little bit of shopping to do. I needed a new swim suit, and it seemed quite likely that we would see a bikini shop somewhere in town. We also needed to get some mosquito repellent- Emmy had gotten a few bites the night before. For whatever reason I hadn’t gotten bitten, but I figured that wasn’t going to last.

Of course, we needed souvenirs to take home, too, and I absolutely knew we would see plenty of places willing to take our money in exchange for T shirts or snow globes or whatever, and let me say- I was not wrong.

By now I’d gotten used to people recognizing Emmy and wanting to talk to her, take her picture, get autographs- that kind of thing. Of course I knew that walking around town like all the other tourists was going to increase the opportunities for such encounters, too- but the encounter that I did not expect at all was for a blast from the past to bring his car to a screeching halt right next to us.