The Good Kind Of Drowning

By any standard, the date so far was a success. Rainie had anticipated Tom to be a gentleman, and he certainly had been, but once they got away from all their idiot friends, he really opened up and showed a great sense of humor. Rainie was as shy as Tom, and she loved how safe he made her feel. It had meant so much to be able to laugh hard at his witty throw-aways. They'd had a good time, simple and low-key, an elegant evening.

She loved how quiet he was. Rainie's friends thought Tom lacked confidence, but Rainie learned during the dinner conversation that he was incredibly sure of his own abilities, and that was why he never tried to prove himself to others. It certainly answered the question of how the soft-spoken boy had found the courage to ask her out. As to how she had the courage to say yes, that was another matter.

The date started to wind down about 10:30. They'd gone to a movie after the classy dinner, but they both agreed it sucked, and Tom said he didn't mind blowing the money, so they just left.

Tom drove the speed limit down the interstate that ran through the city, headed toward Rainie's apartment but not in a hurry to get there. Rainie held his hand gingerly, something they'd started as they left the theater, and they rode without speaking, listening to a Billy Joel mixed CD Tom had made. Sports cars filled the Friday night highway scene, zipping around Tom dangerously. Rainie cringed at one particularly close shave, but Tom was unfazed. Street lamps flashed by like strobe lights. Rainie thought she'd never seen anything so romantic.

"I'd like to see you again," Tom said with a smile. Yes, he was shy, despite his belief in himself. That was definitely a blush Rainie saw in his cheeks.

"I'd like that, too," Rainie said. They squeezed hands. She continued, "This is the best first date I've ever had. It's the best date in a really long time. I'd almost given up."

Tom chuckled. "I know, me too. It's so much work. But not tonight."

"I know," Rainie said softly.

"I'm thinking..." Tom started, but he cut himself off.

"Go on," she persuaded.

"I'm... god, I don't want to embarrass you."

Instantly Rainie knew what Tom wanted to talk about. In the center of the date, glowing like a warm ember, was that section of the dinner conversation where they traded those wonderful secrets.

Tom had encouraged Rainie to order the special, which was an intense gourmet dish that took an hour to prepare. After thirty minutes of refreshingly honest talk, Tom revealed that the part he missed most about dating was the sex. He immediately apologized, but Rainie admitted she agreed, and that mature adults could discuss the subject without embarrassment. Rainie tried to be mature, but she was also terribly attracted to Tom physically. To hear him mention sex was to imagine him having sex, and Rainie started to get wet. Then, in an even bolder moment of honesty, Rainie confessed that Tom's revelation had turned her on. They stared deeply into each other's eyes, and Rainie grinned like a reverent little girl. But Tom was too much a gentleman to pursue the subject, perhaps because they were in public. Rainie appreciated his manners but regretted the end to the topic. She'd make a point to bring it up again, maybe on the next date.

Please let there be a next date, Rainie silently wished.

"Go on," Rainie said softly. She put her other hand around Tom's, now holding him in both.

"I'm thinking about that thing you said during dinner." He grinned, not devilishly but with true embarrassment. "We've been so honest, I'd thought it wouldn't hurt to keep telling the truth."

Rainie said, "I've been thinking about it, too."

Silence. The street lights vanished behind them. They were headed south, out of the city. Rainie didn't ask where they were going.

"Is that all you were thinking?"

"No Rainie, it certainly wasn't. It's just... nice to think about. To talk about. I really appreciated it. I wouldn't want to be out of line in such matters. But... I don't want to go home yet. The night's going really well, and I thought we could just drive around some more."

Rainie realized she's stopped breathing. How desperately she wanted the date to keep going. Tom was so handsome, and he made her feel so safe. It would be heaven to just keep talking for a few more hours. But if, on the other hand, Tom wanted to make a move, Rainie would certainly not stop her. She wondered how he'd do it... Would he go for it? Maybe ask permission? Damn, he was gorgeous.

"Take me someplace private," Rainie requested. What the hell, they could talk, or they could push it. She'd be thrilled either way.

Tom nodded. "I've got an idea," he said. "You might think... Oh man... It doesn't matter. I'll just surprise you. You can totally change your mind if you want."

There it was again, that warm pressure in Rainie's pelvic region. She got wet so easily, and Tom's polite nature had struck a deep chord within her. How did he manage to be chivalrous and manipulative at the same time? Yes, he was using his coyness to entice her and get around her defenses, but he also respected her intelligence enough to let her know that's what he was doing. Every fiber of her being responded to the boy.

He took the exit to a little suburb south of the city. "Are you tired?" Tom asked.

"Oh no, not at all," Rainie answered. "I do a lot of work late at night. Sometimes I stay up until four or five in the morning."

"I hear that," Tom said. "Workaholics unite."

After a few turns through the neighborhoods, Tom pulled into the parking lot of a fitness center. He turned off the car, and the two companions sat in dimly lit silence.

Rainie didn't dare to hope. "So what's the plan?" she asked.

"I'm one of the partners in this place, so I have a key. I come here to be alone quite a bit, just shoot hoops or read a book on the couch in the office. No one on the planet knows about me and this place. I thought we might have some fun."

Rainie laughed, trying to hide her nervousness. "I don't know if I can shoot hoops in these heels."

"I know where all the clean outfits are. You can change into whatever you like. It's... If this is too weird..."

"Tom, it's great," Rainie said happily. "Let's go in."

"Here, let's hide the car," Tom said as he turned the engine over. "I've had cops knock on the door before." He moved his automobile into the alley behind the building.

They got out and went to the back door. The light from the street lamps did not penetrate the alley, and Tom and Rainie stood in the pitch black of the night. Rainie held on tightly to Tom's hand as she heard him fumble with keys. After a minute, the door opened, and they stood in a dark corridor beneath a red "Exit" sign. Tom closed the door but did not turn on the lights.

"Tom, I --" Rainie began to say, but when she heard the echo around her, she realized she wasn't in a corridor but a vast hall of some sort. After her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw the red light of the "Exit" sign reflecting off water. They stood only a few feet from a swimming pool.

"Wanna go for a swim?" Tom said softly. She could hear him easily in acoustics of the hollow space. "There are some swimsuits in the locker rooms."

Emotion surged through the girl. She didn't know how to separate the feelings -- anticipation, gratitude, hunger, with a healthy dose of shyness tossed in -- but she felt good, she knew that, very good. Still, she wanted to find some way to convey to Tom how she felt, even though the words would not come.

Honesty had been a friend so far, and Rainie honestly wanted to kiss Tom. So she stepped into his body, reached out and found his face, leaned in, kissed him gently. She hoped that safe feeling she'd been sensing would remain during a kiss, and it certainly did. But there was more than innocent affection between them. Tom was a man who spoke his mind, and maintained his body, and that meant he acknowledged the carnal within himself. Rainie wanted to find Tom's carnal side, and show him hers.

The kiss was very long, incredibly romantic, but they did not open their mouths and play tonsil hockey like teens do. They simply touched each other with their lips, still holding hands.

"Are we still being honest?" Rainie asked.

"Yes," Tom said.

"How honest?" Rainie asked.

Tom wrapped his hands around Rainie's waist and pulled her forward. Rainie's arms instinctively wrapped around Tom's neck.

"Dangerously honest," Tom answered, whispering in her ear.

She felt his heart beating against hers, felt his breath blowing warm on her shoulder.

"Would you like to go skinny dipping?" Rainie asked.

Tom's voice lowered even further. "Very much," he said.

Yet neither released from the embrace. They stood entwined, listening to the soft lapping of the still water.

"Uh... I... How do we start this?" Tom asked, finally breaking the silence.

"How do you think, silly?" Rainie said. "We both take off our clothes."

Rainie recognized the new sultry quality in her words, even if her date for the evening did not. When she'd dated Vince for the past year, she'd found a way to really open up and let loose around him, to talk sexier, walk sexier, become more vocal behind closed doors about what she wanted and when she was pleased. If only Vince had been more patient -- and hadn't emptied her bank account -- he might be the one standing here. And that would be a real shame, because Tom had been able to draw out in her something it took Vince half-a-year to find.

Committed to the course, Rainie stepped away. The two saw each other very distinctly in the light of the "Exit" sign. Trying not to think too much, Rainie reached behind and unzipped her soft cotton summer dress, then pushed the sleeves down. The dress fluttered to the floor. She was surprised by how comfortable she felt with her body, but not that surprised. Everything was perfect about the moment -- Tom was perfect, the lighting was perfect, the humid air of the swimming hall was just right, and the result was that Rainie liked her body and wanted to show it to Tom. She stood in white cotton panties and bra, smooth fabric without any lacy junk.

Tom took off his sports jacket and dropped it, then began to undo his shirt buttons. Rainie stepped out of her heels, and suddenly she was two-and-a-half inches shorter than Tom rather than just one. Tom lifted his dress shirt and t-shirt off in one tug. He laughed a little as he hopped on one foot to take off his shoe and sock, then hopped to get the other foot.

Filled with courage and longing, Rainie unhooked her bra in the front and pulled it back. She let it drop, then put her fingers in the sides of her pretty white panties. As she pushed them down over her hips, she watched Tom unbuckle his pants and push them down as well. He removed the slacks and underpants together.

At last they were naked. Tom made no effort to hide himself, but in the dimness of the room, Rainie could not distinguish Tom's tuft of pubic hair from the unit dangling within. There was something there, though, at least enough to dangle. She knew Tom couldn't see her neatly trimmed pubic hair, but he could definitely tell how hard her nipples were.

"Is it cold?" Tom asked.

"Duh," Rainie answered.

Tom laughed. "On the count of three."

"Okay. One..."

"Two..." Tom continued.

"Three!" they shouted together. Rainie took a step and leapt blindly into the darkness. Gravity yanked her down into the relatively frigid water with a loud splash. She instantly sank below the surface into the intense embrace of the deep end. When her feet hit the bottom, she pushed and rocketed up. The feeling of her breasts flying freely about in a swimming pool was something she'd always wanted to experience, and the sensation was as liberating and sexy as she'd known it would be. Rainie pushed her brown hair -- formerly bouncy and curly -- back against her skull in a smooth, silky sheet.

"You okay?" Tom asked, speaking loudly to be heard above the new waves echoing around the room. He was not within arm's reach, but he wasn't exactly at the other end of the pool, either.

"I feel fantastic!" Rainie shouted. "Whoo-hoo!" she squealed. She backstroked in what she thought was the direction away from the wall. Each stroke caused the cool water to rush around her body in a minor crash, and it rocked her naked torso in the most delicious way. This was a dream come true.

"Tom," Rainie said, "have you ever skinny-dipped in here?"

Tom laughed. "Nope, not here or anywhere."

"Oh wow, how could you NOT?"

"I've thought about it several times. I just chickened out."

Rainie floated on her back. The water crashed against her ears. "You don't strike me as the chickening-out type."

"Well, yeah, I'm not really, I suppose. There just was never a right time, you know? I was always reading or watching TV or practicing on the court."

"Have you ever brought a woman here before?"

Again that sexy laugh of his. "Yeah, my girlfriend Sarah. We dated for two years, she loved it in here. We'd just have sex on the wrestling mats, then get dressed and leave so she could be in bed by ten. She had to be at work by six every morning, because she was a self-absorbed bitch who billed by the hour."

"So you dumped her?"

"Well, it never would have gone that far if she hadn't gone completely insane."

Rainie laughed.

"Oh, you know," Tom continued, "we just weren't a good fit. She thought I was too fragile, because she didn't like my quiet personality and didn't bother to find out why I was like that. I thought she was an airhead, and that was that. She moved back to California in February."

"Her loss," Rainie said. She expected Tom to tell more of the story, but he didn't, so her minor flirt was the last thing left hanging out there. She rolled her eyes for no one to see.

"This is nice," Tom said. He was in the shallow end of the pool as Rainie was, which meant he was standing on his feet. Rainie floated languidly with her arms moving back and forth across the surface.

"It's better than nice," Rainie said in that sultry tone. She had never felt so sexy in her life. "I thought you were too shy a person for something like this."

"I thought the same thing about you."

"I am!" Rainie said. "But not tonight. It's good to let your defenses down sometimes, you know?"

"Yeah..." Tom trailed off. Rainie thought she heard a hint of smile in his voice. Then he asked, "You've never swam naked before, either?"

"No. It's always been a fantasy of mine."

"To skinny-dip?"

"Well," Rainie began apprehensively, "if we're being completely honest..."

"I'm intrigued. Do tell me your fantasy, please."

Before she spoke again, Rainie took a long moment to really soak in how brilliantly the moment had been constructed. To be so open with a boy she hardly knew, to be so physically and spiritually happy here in the slowly warming water, it was a true gift.

"The fantasy isn't just the pool. I like to be wet. I like feeling my skin when it's slick."

"Hmmmmmmm," Ron affirmed. "Don't stop there. Tell me everything."

And she wanted to. "I... ha... I like to stand in the shower for an hour and rub the soap over my body, up and down my legs, over my tummy, across my lower back, all over my arms. I like the way my hands slide and slip over my flesh when I'm all soapy. Sometimes when my roommate isn't home, I get into the tub without turning the water on and I..." How on earth was she telling all this to Tom? "...I cover myself in baby oil and just slip around in the tub."

"And that's all you do in the tub?" Tom asked. Okay, so he did have a devilish side.

"No," she answered, scolding. "Of course not. I'm a grown-up, after all."

"Aren't we all," Tom said. He had moved silently to within four or five feet of Rainie. This excited her even more. There was no denying the deep warmth in her pussy at this point. Even below water, or maybe especially below water, she felt the thick cream starting to build. When she pressed her legs together, her labia squished and squirted in that satisfyingly lubricated way. She wanted to touch herself so badly. She wanted Tom to touch her even worse.

"If your fantasy," Tom offered, "is to be wet and slick, you've come to right place."

"I know it. This is amazing, thank you so much."

"Not just the pool," Tom said. "I have surprises for you while we're at the gym. Wet surprises."

Mother fucker, Rainie thought, how she did love the way he said "wet surprises." She liked to curse, especially when she talked dirty during sex, but she did it so infrequently that she didn't think she was any good at it. Vince had encouraged her; he had the mouth of a sailor to begin with.

"Tell me about the surprises," Rainie pleaded.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise." Tom had moved close, and Rainie sensed he meant to come closer. In a moment of sheer ecstasy, Rainie felt Tom's hands against her collar bones. After he had found her in the dark, he moved his hands across her shoulders, down to her biceps. Tom's leg brushed against hers under the water, and the it felt so wonderful that Rainie wanted to scream. She reached out and touched him in return. She'd been wanting to feel those chest muscles since he arrived to pick her up for the evening. She felt his legs pressing gently against the outside of her thighs. They slid up and down one another, rocking pleasantly in the water.

"Is this what you were missing from dating?" Rainie said. She tried to sound seductive, but there was nothing but exposed longing in her voice. She reached up and put her palms on Tom's shoulders.

Tom grabbed her, kissed her, wrapped all his limbs around her. This time their tongues met, and Rainie tasted the chlorine on Tom's lips. She felt his hands caressing her wet hair, and she ran her fingers through his also. The novelty of the sensations, and the sheer volume of them, was overwhelming to Rainie. Water everywhere, the smell of the pool, the pressure of the fluid, the feeling of slippery skin, both hers and his. She wanted to cry from the pleasure. Tom possessed her body with his arms, moving his hands all over her, underneath to her ass and thighs, up to her ribs and tits, like a raving lunatic trying to touch ever inch of her body at once with only two hands. Rainie lashed her tongue against Tom's neck, and Tom moaned.

"Rainie," Tom whispered hotly in her ear, "do you want me to get protection?"

"I'm on the pill," Rainie said. "My ex demanded it. I've kept it up."

"Let's not talk about him again," Tom said. Rainie was content to take him at his word and not mention the bastard again.

Now that her body had acclimated to the temperature of the pool, she was quite comfortable, able to enjoy the sensations without the feeling of cold. She felt a complete absence of tension. Tom kissed her on the lips. His penis pressed firmly between her legs like a log that she was straddling. For the first time, her lubricated pussy rubbed against Tom's cock. Her pelvis shivered so strongly that she tossed her head back. Tom's hardness against her slippery hole had almost sent her out-of-body. The sex would be easy underwater, she'd always known it would.

Tom held Rainie with his strong arms as he pulled her up, positioning her to take his penis into her vagina. Its head found her hot hole, and the rest was very simple. He entered her smoothly and with so little friction, Rainie imagined they were both creatures made of water, poured together into a glass to mingle and combine. But when the head of the penis thumped against her uterus, she knew the creature inside certainly wasn't made of water.

"Oh my god," she said clearly. She hadn't orgasmed, but something strong definitely surged within her. Passion compelled her, but toward what she couldn't tell. The thought formed that she wanted to go deeper into the water, as though it would help her to feel more of Tom. The idea made no sense, but she believed it was true.