Rising Sun Valley [m] reckoning

She stood, grounded, numb to his touch, ignorant of any hesitation or anticipation he might exhibit. She tasted the wind as it toyed with her whiskers, and searched for some trace of the ocean on its breath; some trace of it remained on her lips, savored as if it were a drug that might wash consciousness from her mind. She had danced with men before- with one who smelled of freshwater, just as this one!- but she cared not, now. It was to the ocean that she pledged her body, the salt she sipped from her own lips was a nectar that she drank now, as if in a wedding toast.

Salt proved to be an insufficient distraction; she was not immune to his touch, as much as she wished to be free of it. He drew from her a note of longing, a plea she could not silence; for as much as she gave her heart to the ocean, her body wished to belong to him.