Cam Neighbours

Author's Note: All characters over eighteen.

****

I didn't have many expectations for my stay at the cottage. Some rest, some relaxation, some lazing around, maybe some swimming if I was feeling ambitious.

I hadn't even been there in... two years? Three? Something like that. It was a nice place. I'd certainly paid enough for it between buying it and the ensuing upkeep, and I wanted to get my money's worth from it. I just never felt like I could take the time.

Burnout has a funny way of making priorities change for a while. Work... work could wait. It would have to. I just didn't have it in me to care. A week off, or two, or maybe a month, whatever. I really didn't care.

And the cottage was just sitting there, unused, and very conveniently away from anybody's ability to reach me. A select few knew where it was, but short of an utter catastrophe they wouldn't bother me. So long as I didn't check my phone, I was isolated, just where I wanted to be.

It was... well it was boring. In my mood, that was perfect. I laid in bed all morning, shuffled to the back deck for a smoke, then either back to bed, or if I was feeling ambitious, breakfast. If it was still called breakfast after noon had come and gone.

It was purposeless, meaningless, and definitely slothful. It needed to be. I needed to shut out the little voice in my head urging me to just look at a few emails. Just important ones. Just to stave off chaos at the office. But as long as I was spending some time pretending not to be part of humanity, that little voice got pretty quiet. It was so much easier not to worry about that stuff when my life consisted of shlupping between bed and couch, with generous smoke breaks in between.

It was the life of a teenage girl, not the life of the successful woman I was now. Not even me as a teenager. I'd been driven and motivated back then. Well, mostly. There'd been some weekends off at times. Some with as little ambition as I felt at the moment. Some necessary breaks from busy busy and go go go.

That was all the expectations I had for my little vacation. Just to relax and let my work brain shut well off for a time. Those expectations, it hardly needed to be said, didn't include shuffling outside for a dart in the wee early hours of mid-afternoon, only to discover a naked girl in the backyard next door.

I leaned against the rail of my deck, calmly evaluating what I was seeing. I didn't get anywhere with it at first. My hands started the process of lighting up a smoke without any intervention from my brain.

It probably wasn't the correct etiquette for the situation, but I nevertheless just kind of kept staring, kept watching. A secret audience of sorts. But not the only audience.

"It's really nice out, guys," I heard the girl tell the laptop in front of her. "You'd all love it here." She giggled deliberately. "Yes yes, because of the view," she added, shaking her boobs around a little. "The view's pretty good."

She was camming. That much I'd pieced together. What I couldn't figure out was what to do about it. Or, rather, I knew I should simply just go back inside and leave her to it. What I couldn't figure out was why I was just standing and watching her. It was... impolite. Though on the other hand, she was the one naked outside where anyone could see. And by anyone I meant specifically anyone in the yards immediately next to hers. By which I supposed I really meant that I could see. Me. The woman next door who, in all likelihood, this girl didn't know existed.

"Oh shit!" The girl gave a muffled shriek, then covered her mouth, giggling like mad again. "Guys... guys I think I got caught. Shit. Hang on, there's, like, a neighbour totally watching. I think I gotta go see about this. Hang on."

Correction, she hadn't known I existed. She did now.

I was glad I hadn't moved. Being a spectator as this girl unfolded herself from her lounger in the middle of her yard and flounced over to the chest-high fence between us was a joy unto itself. She somehow embodied a mix of sensuality and innocence, that oh so attractive allure that you found only rarely and had to enjoy when you'd stumbled on it.

"Hi," the girl said brightly.

There was no trace of embarrassment about her. As she'd moved up to the fence, the largest part of her body disappeared from direct view behind said fence, but it was still there, and much closer than before.

"Hi," I said back, relying on well-honed instincts in polite conversation to see me through that brief exchange.

The girl glanced back at her laptop, which was facing away from us. "So, uh, I kinda didn't know there was anyone around. I'm doing... a like...."

"Camming?" I suggested.

"Yeah. That. I swear I didn't mean to bother anyone."

I shrugged. "Who's bothered?"

The girl's lips twitched into somewhere between a cheeky grin and a full on smirk. "So you don't mind if I carry on then?"

I took a slow drag of my cigarette. "No problems here."

She nodded. "Ok then."

I watched her skip back to her seat and her audience. It was a good thing I was leaning securely on the railing of my deck because I wouldn't have trusted my legs for a moment.

The body on her, all naked as it was, and her carefree attitude, and that unfairly beautiful smile she'd given me just before turning away....

I vaguely remembered the delight I'd felt when I first figured out I could make boys all flustered and shaky with just the right amount of skin and some very calculated smiles and winks. I couldn't remember ever having the tables quite so thoroughly turned on me.

It might have been on purpose, to some degree. Maybe she thought it was funny. Or maybe it was just part of the whole thing that went along with camming. Anyone good at it who did it for a while almost certainly would have to learn to do some things naturally. Things that turned guys on, and brought them in emotionally, and made them want to hang around her as much as possible. Maybe that had been enough to hook me too.

Or maybe I was being a horny fuck perving on a naked girl ten years younger than me. Maybe focusing on her role was only to salve my own ego.

"Yeah I dunno guys, I think maybe she likes watching me as much as you all do," the girl said, before apparently bursting into laughter at some response she got.

I idly wondered just how many guys were watching her right now. And, related, whether any of them were women, just as entranced as I was currently.

Lost in my own thoughts, the girl had to wave at me a few times before I realized she was talking to me again.

"Hey, lady, chat doesn't believe you're real."

"Um... ok?"

"Can I show them a quick peek?"

"Of me?"

"Yeah."

"Oh god. Really?"

"Yeah. Just cover your face or something. Just give 'em a little wave."

My composure dropped a few notches. I'd been outwardly holding it together pretty well, but now I was properly flustered.

I didn't, however, want to say no. Whatever I was feeling for this girl I'd just met, I didn't want to disappoint that beaming face of hers.

I turned my head away and hid it in my elbow. On cue, I gave a little wave with my other hand.

"There! Told you," the girl said triumphantly. "Everyone saying I was making it up owes me. Pay up, suckers!"

I cautiously looked back over at her. She was back to teasing her audience, and apparently even raking in some tips just from my brief, unsexy appearance. I sighed and raised the small remainder of my cigarette to my lips.

I stayed outside for a while longer, even when I didn't have an excuse anymore. Naked Girl didn't mind, and had leveraged my presence into higher tips for her show, if the way she spoke to her laptop was any indicator.

I had to go inside when she moved beyond showing her naked self off, spanking herself, playing with her boobs, and other such things. When she started actually using a dildo on herself, I felt too much an intruder and a spy to carry on blithely watching. That was just me, though, she gave no sign at all that she minded me still being there.

When was the last time I'd masturbated? Not since I got to the cottage, anyway. I went through cycles of it, at times. Sometimes not much, sometimes kind of a lot. Sometimes I was with someone and could play with them instead of myself. I missed that feeling of being able to crawl into bed with someone I liked when I was horny.

Today it was just me, lying on the couch, panties off, rubbing my pussy. My head, obviously, was full of my newfound naked neighbour. I didn't bother trying to make excuses for my little fantasies. It was just what was happening.

****

There was a knock on my door that evening. I felt it very unlikely that it would be the neighbour girl, but I found it even more unlikely that it was anyone else. The increased beating of my heart confirmed who I wanted it to be as I swung the door open.

"Hi," said the girl, now thankfully with clothes on.

"Hi," I said back.

"Hope you didn't mind about my show."

"Not at all. Do you... want to come in?"

She nodded. "Thanks. I'm Sam, by the way. I don't think that came up earlier."

I shook her extended hand. "It didn't. Victoria."

"Well nice to meet you, Victoria," Sam said, putting a little emphasis on my name that could almost have been mocking, but instead made me feel all floofy inside. Again I had to wonder whether it was calculated on her part, as part of her career and all, or whether I was just being desperate today.

"Can I get you anything?" I asked. "I have... coffee. Tea, I think. Some booze, but I'd have to--"

"No, no. Just wanted to come meet you." Sam was already peering about the place as we moved toward some seating. "I really didn't think anyone was here, you know. I don't try to be a total showoff to the world around me. Just online."

"But you didn't flee back inside, I noticed."

She grinned. "No, I didn't. I notice you didn't yell over at me either, hm?"

I shrugged. "It's your yard."

"My parents' actually. But they aren't using it this summer."

"Ah. How...."

"How?" Sam prompted.

"Sorry, nothing."

"Oh give me a hint. I don't mind. How can an innocent young thing like me do camming for a living? Something like that?"

I shook my head. "Not really."

"Oh. Good." Sam considered a moment longer. "How young am I actually?" she hazarded.

I felt my face flush and give me away. "Something like that, perhaps."

"Ha, well no worries. I'm twenty-three. I don't hide it."

I tried not to let my sigh of relief show. She'd struck me as being in her twenties, but there had been the chance of her still being a teen which would have made me feel ever so much older and creepier.

"Relieved about that, are we?" she asked teasingly.

"Stay out of my mind, please."

Sam nodded happily, then flopped herself down in one of my comfy chairs. I sat on the couch.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"That--"

"Bearing in mind you asked me first."

"You... I don't have to answer that."

"No, you don't. But it's only fair."

I frowned and picked at a few crumbs I'd left on the cushion next to me. "I'm thirty."

"And you're embarrassed about that?"

"Not usually."

"Feeling old after watching me?"

"Maybe."

Sam shrugged. "Don't. I know for a fact a lot of guys watching me regularly are way older than that. It's no biggie."

"I mean, you're right," I said. "Just... I don't like feeling like I was perving on you and making things weird. Even though I definitely was."

Sam cocked her head. "You might have been perving on me, but it wasn't weird."

"Some strange older woman just stares at you while you're naked and that's not weird?"

"Hehe, no. I get stared at naked for a living. And I made extra tips off of today thanks to you."

"I heard."

"The guys like the idea of some sexy lady watching me while they're watching me while... well they like it, anyway. That's the point."

I examined Sam carefully. "And what do you think about it?"

"Oh, that. Well... so here's the thing. One of the trickiest parts of camming, and there are a few tricky parts to it."

"I believe it."

"One of the trickiest parts is that, like, it's impossible to always be horny. I don't always have the right mood to, like, play with myself, and stick things in me, and make myself cum, and all that. I spend a lot of time showing off in other ways when I can get away with it. But I do need to do horny things. Gotta give the fans their payoff and all."

"I don't think I see your point," I said.

"My point is that you were quite helpful with that today."

"... what?"

"Do you even know how intense it is to all of a sudden realize there's this woman standing there watching me? Not even doing anything. Just standing, smoking, and staring intently."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to be intent."

"It happens. I might have been more upset if it wasn't intent, honestly. If you didn't care at all. But like, I don't know, this whole aura of like you'd found something you liked looking at, and were just enjoying it. Like a nice sunset or something. Do you know how hot that was?"

"I do not."

Sam threw her feet up over the arm of her chair, adopting an ever more carefree pose. Thank fuck she had clothes on, or I'd be in serious trouble again.

"It's like meeting someone at a party. You ever eye-fuck someone across a room, knowing you both want each other, and that eye fucking is better than anything that happens once you actually hook up?"

I considered the question. "I think I kind of understand what you mean."

"Right. Well it's like that. This whole thing of like, 'who is this woman and what is she thinking, and she definitely is into me right now, but also is she though, and is she thinking of doing stuff to me right now, or is she just like thinking about what she's gonna have for supper and I'm just a pleasant backdrop to that'."

I blinked at the sudden stream of words. "I--"

"I've never had someone domme the fuck out of me while eye fucking across a room," Sam said. "It was... it was kind of fun."

"That was not my intent and you know it."

"How would I know it? We just met." She grinned. "Were you actually thinking about supper? Or like... business stuff? You look like a serious, businessy person in your real life."

I sighed heavily. "I know I do. I've... cultivated certain mannerisms. I've had to."

"Hey, you think I haven't? I feel like half my personality these days is just stuff I started to doing to bring in the tips."

"Fair."

"Anyway," Sam said, abruptly sitting up straight. "I really didn't mean to come over and pry into your life. I really just wanted to introduce myself."

"Boy do I feel introduced."

"Ha, yeah, sorry about that. I also... you don't mind if I do some more shows out in the yard, do you? When the weather's nice?"

I gave Sam a look. "What do you think?"

Her look was teasing, if not downright insolent. "I think you don't mind," she said.

****

I tried not to act like I cared one way or the other whether Sam got naked in the backyard again. It wasn't much of an act though. It didn't fool either of us.

I spent way too much time over the next few days wandering to the back window, peering out to see if she was there yet, and once she was, forcing myself to wait a while longer so it didn't seem like I was scheduling myself based on her presence.

At least I had smoking as an excuse to step out on the deck. I didn't strictly need it, but it felt a tiny bit less embarrassing than just standing on the deck gaping into the next yard.

It helped tremendously after the first day or two of this game when I realized Sam would glance over at my house every now and then, waiting for me to appear. It made me feel a lot less like sketchy about what we were doing.

Which, honestly, I really didn't know what we were doing. On a basic level, it was pretty clear. I was watching Sam, and she was performing for her online audience as well as me. But deeper than that... were we sort of friends now? Or... or was this some weird sexual relationship that didn't involve actual sex? Perhaps more importantly, what did I want it to be? I didn't have a good answer for that.

Our interactions were limited. Sam carried on using my presence to titillate her audience, and I got a little less shy about flashing a wave to her webcam. I often brought a pair of big sunglasses outside with me so I could hide half my face, enough to feel comfortable.

She'd yell things to me sometimes, asking me about my day, getting me to tie-break some playful arguments her chat was having, inviting me over to join her, that sort of thing. I didn't think joining her show was a super serious offer, but I had a feeling she wouldn't have kicked me out if I'd wandered over with no clothes on.

I broke the ice in my own subtler way. I knocked on her door after one of her shows with a bottle of wine. A good bottle, even, without knowing whether she would appreciate it, or even if she drank wine.

"Victoria!"

"Sam."

"You're too slow. I got my clothes back on already."

I lifted an eyebrow, not rising more to the bait than that. "Care for a drink?"

"Absolutely. Let me guess, that bottle is something fancy and expensive, but you wouldn't say so unless I asked?"

At her beckon, I stepped inside. "Did camming make you jaded, or were you always that way?"

"A little of both. Am I right?"

"You're basically right."

"Then I shall be dutifully impressed. And also... I'm going to absolutely scandalize you by informing you that I don't have any wine glasses around."

"I can get some from--"

"We'll drink out of regular glasses."

I mimed extreme shock and tried to swoon, but Sam rescued the bottle rather than me. I couldn't pull off a good swoon anyway.

We ended up in Sam's backyard, a new and different perspective for me, sitting close to each other and sipping expensive, fancy wine from ordinary, clearly well used glasses.

"The problem is, you see," Sam said, "is this is good. Like I don't know wine, I don't drink it much, but I can tell this is supposed to be good."

"That's a problem?"

"Yes. Because now you've ruined cheap wine for me. I can tell. I'll drink some, and I'll think, well this isn't Victoria's wine."

"I see. What if I told you this is a ten dollar, cheap-ass bottle?"

"I don't drink much wine, but I drink some. This is not, by any means, ten dollar wine."

"Ah."

Sam sipped a little more. "Besides, you don't strike me as a woman who'd try to woo a girl with cheap booze."

"I don't woo girls at all."

"Ah? Pity. You'd be good at it."

I took a larger drink of my wine. Maybe I could blame the redness of my cheeks on the alcohol.

"Sam?"

"Hm?"

"Are we flirting?"

"A little, yeah."

"I thought we might be."

"Does that bother you?"

"No. Yes. It confuses me."

Sam nodded sagely. "Because I'm a girl?"

"Because you're young."

"Not that young."

"No. I was afraid you'd turn out to be, like, nineteen or something."

Sam laughed and nearly spit out a mouthful of wine in the process. "You're so afraid of being a cradle-robber, aren't you?"

"Not!"

"You are. You so are."

"I'm... I'm conscious of the possibility."

"That's different how?"

I stared at my glass, twirling it back and forth in my hands. "Do you know what it's like being a girl first starting in an office full of men? I mean, plenty of women, sure, but like eighty-twenty split, something like that. And most of those men are older. You know, thirties, forties, fifties."

Sam's usual vaguely amused expression faded. "Oh."

"I mean, it could have been a lot worse. I'm smart and I'm cunning, and probably most important I'm lucky. It never got beyond constant appraising looks, and the occasional subtle offer." I snorted. "From married men as often as not."

"Hey, V, you don't have to--"