Catch and Release Ch. 02

Author's Disclaimer: All characters depicted are over 18, etc. etc. Enjoy!

Author's Note: This chapter builds to a climax (pun intended) in Chapter 3. Don't expect any actual sex here but I promise there will be a payoff in the next chapter.

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Karen tried to sneak into the room without waking her sister. A soft light came through the window even with the drapes closed. She had already removed her shoes hoping not to make any sound. Just inside on the left was a small table and banquet and a door to a small lavatory on the right. Just beyond was a dresser on one side and a closet on the other. The end of the room was filled with a single queen-sized bed. Her sister's form was barely visible on her side facing toward the wall.

She sat her shoes down on the floor and got undressed nearly silently. Finally, Karen slipped quietly into the bed next to her sister.

"I didn't expect you to come back tonight," came a voice from the other side of the bed. There wasn't even a hint of grogginess. Had she been up this whole time?

"Sorry, V, I didn't mean to wake you."

"I was already awake," Vicki replied. "I was...worried about you."

Vicki turned all the way over to look at her sister.

"Worried about me, why?" Karen asked. "I was with Jo. I couldn't have been safer."

"That's just it, Karen," Vicki answered, a touch of irritation in her voice. "We don't know anything about this woman beyond what she's told us. Who knows how real that is?"

"V, you're overreacting..." Karen started to say but was cut off.

"You're my little sister and I have a right to overreact," Vicki's ire was starting to grow. "You could have been kidnapped!"

"I wish," the brunette said under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, V, I ju..."

"Did you say you wished she would kidnap you? What are you thinking?" Vicki propped herself up on one arm.

"It was a joke, calm down."

Vicki took a deep breath and her face softened.

"I'm sorry, sis," she began. "That woman just feels...dangerous."

"She is," Karen replied, a conspiratorial smile forcing its way to the surface. "But she's also sweet," she added quickly.

Vicki just looked at her skeptically.

"Jo was amazing, V," Karen continued. "She did things to me I'd never felt before."

The younger sister scooted further down in the bed and edged closer to Vicki.

"I don't need you to tell me about it," the older woman said as she laid back down on her pillow face up.

"You used to love it when I told you about my dates," Karen said in her soft, innocent voice, a finger meandering along her sister's arm. "When you'd ask me to show you what they did."

She kissed Vicki's shoulder and pressed a little closer.

"Or when we would play dolly and you would dress me up," Karen went on. That got the barest of smiles from Vicki. "I loved being your dolly."

Karen pushed closer bringing her lips to her sister's cheek and just barely skimming her warm skin. Vicki closed her eyes and her lips parted, then reluctantly opened back up.

"S..stop it, we're not teenagers anymore," Vicki said but there was not a lot of conviction behind those words.

Karen huffed and rolled over onto her back as well.

"That's not what you said last time we were on this trip three years ago," Karen pointed out.

"You know Bob and I were going through a rough spot," Vicki explained. "And I was drunk."

"You weren't drunk, just...relaxed."

"And we promised not to let that happen again," the older woman said.

"You promised," Karen replied emphasizing, 'you'. "I just knew you were feeling ashamed of yourself and didn't argue."

There was a long silence where they both just lay there staring at the ceiling. Then Karen felt one of her sister's knuckles gently touch her hip. She let her hand drop and their fingers intertwined.

Another few seconds passed while the two just held hands.

"She was good?" Vicki finally broke the silence with her question.

Karen squeezed her sister's hand and smiled not that Vicki could see her expression but it came through in her tone.

"O.M.F.G. good, sis," the younger woman exclaimed. "It was...wow."

Then Karen turned onto her side facing away from Vicki and moved back until her butt touched her sister's leg. It had been a long time, but this was a ritual the two had performed countless times and Vicki knew just what her little sister wanted. She turned onto her side as well and spooned against her wrapping her arm over the younger woman's waist.

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That was still the position they were in when light from the window woke Vicki. She raised her head and blew on Karen's ear. On the second attempt, she was rewarded with a groggy hand slapping a non-existent bug away. Chancing getting slapped, the blonde went in for a quick lick to her sister's earlobe. That got a sleepy giggle. One more time should do it. This time Vicki quickly snaked her tongue right into Karen's cute little ear before pulling back out of the way just in case.

Karen screamed and shot off the bed landing with a thud on the floor. Vicki peeked over the edge to make sure her sister was okay only to see a very naked and scowling Karen looking right back at her. Vicki tried to keep a surprised face but couldn't hold it and started laughing. After a few moments, Karen smiled and began to laugh with her then grabbed one of Vicki's t-shirts and used it to wipe out her ear.

"Hey!" Vicki called out but couldn't really be angry. "That's my shirt!"

Karen threw it at her playfully then her eyes went wide.

"What time is it?"

Vicki reached for her phone to check.

"9:30. Why? Where have you got to be?" Vicki asked mockingly.

"Oh, shit, we have to be on the dock by ten!" Karen said excitedly.

"What?" Vicki said confused. "Since when do we follow a schedule on a cruise?"

"Since Jo is taking us to a private beach," Karen explained. "Come ON!"

Karen was already pulling out a bikini and slipping into it then went to her sister's clothes drawer. She started rummaging through as Vicki continued to extricate herself from the bed.

"Where is your bikini?" Karen said a touch of panic creeping into her voice.

"I don't have one," Vicki replied only to get a horrified stare from her sister.

"We're going to the Bahamas and you didn't pack a swimsuit?" The brunette was flabbergasted.

"I was going to buy one today," Vicki explained gesticulating with her hands. "There are, like, twelve different stores just on this ship that sell swimwear!"

"Uhg," Karen grunted and went back to her own drawer. She pulled out another suit and tossed it to her sister. "Here, put this on."

Vicki held up a bright blue thong with transparent straps.

"This is a thong!" Karen exclaimed.

Then she held up that matching top.

"And these are sized for you. They'll barely cover me."

"Yeah, your breasts are bigger than mine, I know," Karen replied sardonically. "It'll be fine, trust me."

By ten o'clock, the two had managed to get dressed and swing by one of the breakfast buffets on their way to the gangplank. Morning sunlight was a momentary shock as they exited the ship and made their way onto a huge concrete pier. Across the pier was a spot for another ship along with another pier several hundred yards further. As this was the off-season, there were no other cruise ships in port at that time.

Karen looked around searching for Jo or the other two women. After a bit of scanning, she spotted Toni a good ways further down the pier standing beside what looked like a large golf cart with a small truck bed in the back. Jo was sitting sideways in the driver's seat. It wasn't until they got closer that they saw Cindy's legs poking out from the back laying across the back seats.

The younger sister broke into a jog and put her arms over Jo's shoulders as she leaned in for a kiss. Toni gave the two a knowing smile before turning to watch Vicki approaching more casually. Jo didn't flinch and welcomed the kiss. Then she patted her legs. Karen giggled and sat in her lap interlocking and wrapping her arms around the muscular woman's neck.

Vicki was already feeling left out and they hadn't even left the pier. The five of them squeezed into the vehicle with Cindy, once again, sitting on Toni's lap in the back with Vicki beside them. Jo drove with Karen in the front passenger seat. Well, she was, ostensibly, in the passenger seat but she was so far over that she was pressed tight against Jo's side and frequently laid her head on the taller woman's shoulder. In the bed, behind them, was a large cooler strapped down and an even larger beach umbrella along with their personal bags.

The group drove for a while to get out of the busy downtown area of resorts and attractions, then picked up speed maxing out what the small vehicle could do.

"Where are we going," Vicki leaned forward to ask loud enough to be heard over the wind.

"Jaw's Beach," Jo replied.

"Like, giant shark, Jaws?" Karen piped up.

"Ha, yeah," Jo answered. "I think the locals named it that to keep tourists away. Also, it's about as far as you can get from the main resorts. All the way on the west side of the island."

"This time of year, it should be practically empty," Toni added.

They drove for almost an hour total before finally pulling off the road and driving down a trail barely wide enough for their little vehicle. They came through an opening in a mass of bushes to find a completely deserted beach.

"Nice," Toni exclaimed from the back.

The vehicle stopped just before getting to the sand and the group got out. Jo and Toni grabbed the cooler while the rest of the women grabbed the rest of the bags and gear. Less than five minutes later, they were sitting on towels under the massive umbrella. Despite its size, however, the women had to gather pretty close to avoid direct sunlight.

Toni opened up the cooler and started pulling out red plastic cups and some other bottles.

"Who wants a Mai Tai?" she asked.

Vicki was the first one to speak up.

"Yes, please!"

Eventually, she was going to have to remove the swim dress she was wearing over the borrowed bikini and she wanted a little liquid encouragement. Karen had been right that she looked hot in it but the blonde wasn't sure what message her suit was going to send.

Cindy and Karen were both just wearing a wrap and quickly threw those to the side. As Jo pulled her shirt over her head, Vicki couldn't help but notice the tattoos covering the pilot's left side both front and back. The faces of the women there seeming to all make eye contact as Vicki's eyes swept over Jo's skin. Realizing she was staring, Vicki averted her eyes and made sure that the towels were extra flat and straight.

Toni pulled out one of several bottles of unidentified liquids from the cooler and began filling five cups with the libation. In a couple of minutes, she started handing them out. They were moderately strong but pretty good.

Regardless of how skimpy the bikinis of the other women were and, Vicki noted while trying not to look like she was ogling the others, they were all pretty small, she still felt like she might as well be stripping naked if she took off her own covering.

"Jo," Karen started. "Would you help me put some sunscreen on?"

"Sure, babygirl. Come lay down right here," Jo said indicating the towel in front of her.

Vicki raised an eyebrow but no one was looking at her. 'Babygirl'? She sighed, though, when she realized that Karen would love that kind of pet name.

Now down to just a bikini, Jo was statuesque. It was a decidedly feminine form with muscles that took some serious work. Toni, on the other hand, had a more stocky build that showed power but was hidden under a facade that might have been mistaken for being overweight if she had been wearing anything but a bikini. Cindy was the classic petite woman and was wearing the most revealing of the swim suites. Whereas the others all had standard bikinis, Cindy's looked like she was wearing a pair of suspenders attached to the tiny bikini bottom except that it was all the same material. The fact that the suspender straps covered her nipples seemed coincidental rather than planned.

Vicki watched as her little sister lay down in front of Jo's muscular form like she was presenting herself on some kind of altar. Then Vicki caught herself; was she jealous? No, what she was feeling was the protective big sister coming to the surface. She suppressed it, however, knowing that she had no right to interfere in whatever it was that Karen and Jo had started. If her sister wanted to let some muscled butch woman she just met treat her like some special prize, then...well, Vicki could kind of see the appeal in that. She blushed at the thought.

Then she took another big drink. She picked a moment when she felt like no one would really notice and pulled her swimdress over her head. Immediately, she got a 'woo' from Toni and a 'yeah girl' from Cindy. Karen turned her head where she had just laid down on her stomach and gave her sister a big smile. Vicki couldn't tell if that was encouragement or laughing at her. Jo looked over as well.

"Now that's a swimsuit," she said admiringly.

"It's mine," Karen quickly piped up without moving on the towel.

"I didn't have a chance to buy a new one and had to...borrow Karen's," Vicki explained. "Stop staring!"

"Sorry, hun, but you look fantastic," Jo exclaimed.

In spite of herself, Vicki's ego got a pretty good boost from that and she blushed unable to hide the hint of a smile.

"W..well, thank you," she replied looking down at herself and standing a little straighter.

"You should see the back," Toni added.

"Really?" Jo started. "Well, then, turn around. Let's see it."

Without thinking about what she was doing, Vicki turned a hundred and eighty degrees and brought a knee up. Because of the transparent straps and g-string, the suit was all but nonexistent from the back. It wasn't until she was standing there doing a little pose that it occurred to her just how easy it had been to follow this woman's instructions. Was that from her time in the military or did the military just make use of what was already there?

"That is...quite a view," Jo said. "Girl, you got the ass of a twenty-year-old."

Vicki's ego went up another notch or two.

"Hey," Karen called out. "What about my ass?" she asked while wiggling her butt.

"Do I hear a little jealousy there, baby?" Jo teased then lightly slapped Karen's rear. "Behave yourself."

Karen pouted sweetly but didn't respond. Vicki took that opportunity to get out of the spotlight and sit down. Nevertheless, she was distinctly aware when the eyes of the other women were taking her in. She took another big gulp of her drink.

Just a foot away, Karen closed her eyes as Jo's strong hands began to rub sunscreen into her skin. She started at her arms and shoulders moving lower with a steady, slow progression. It was more of a massage than just covering with lotion but Karen wasn't complaining. There was something so sensual about having your muscles slowly worked by a beautiful woman. Karen didn't think anything of Jo's hands sliding under her suit bottoms and giving her buttocks a thorough kneading. It felt wonderful and was over too soon for the brunette. Jo finished on her legs and sat up.

Karen flipped over.

"Are you going to get my front too?" she asked in her sweetest voice.

"How could I not," Jo chuckled then swung a leg over Karen's body to straddle her hips.

"Oooo," Karen hummed and put her hands on the taller woman's thighs.

"You know we're right here," Vicki scolded.

Neither of the other two seemed to be paying attention. Instead, Jo squeezed a stream of sunscreen on Karen's chest. The sudden cold made her scream and jerk but she wasn't going anywhere with the pilot sitting on top of her. Jo's hands came quickly to start rubbing in the cream pushing the brunette back down to the towel and laughing at Karen's reaction.

"Oh, you bitch," Karen said jokingly.

"Hush up and let me do my work," Jo retorted.

As the woman began to rub the substance into Karen's skin, Vicki looked back to Toni and Cindy hoping for some fellowship in her exasperation. Instead, the two sat facing each other with Cindy's legs wrapped around Toni's midsection as they were making out.

Vicki sighed and stood up. It was one thing to be a fifth wheel it was another to be the spoke of the wheel while everyone else was having sex around you. She started walking toward the ocean and the remains of a pier that had collapsed long ago leaving mostly just old posts sticking out of the water along with a few remaining boards. The remains of an embankment where the pier had connected made a decent place to sit and look out at the sea.

The sun was pretty high in the sky and Vicki was quite aware that there was a limit to how long she could sit there without getting some sunscreen on. Just as she was about to head back, Cindy came up and sat next to her.

"Hey, sorry about that," she started. "We don't usually have a fifth person, you know, so we weren't thinking about what that would be like for you."

"No, it's fine," Vicki began then caught some implication in Cindy's words. "Wait, 'usually'? You three do this a lot?"

"I mean, not this specifically," Cindy stated. "We go on trips like this once or twice a year."

When the girl didn't continue, Vicki prompted for more.

"And Jo picks up women like this all the time?"

"One at every location," Cindy confirmed. "But she doesn't lead them on. She won't break your sister's heart if that's what you're worried about."

Vicki wasn't sure how to take that. She wasn't sure what that even meant given that it was clear that there wasn't going to be a long-term relationship.

"How is that possible if she's just going to leave when the cruise is over?"

"Look," Cindy turned to her. "Karen knows what she's getting with Jo, I promise. They're both having fun for the trip and that will be it, most likely."

"Most likely?" Vicki's head swiveled to look at the younger girl.

"Well, I mean, you never know, right?" Cindy hesitated and looked back at the crystal clear ocean. "Jo has met up with past flings on occasion but only for an overnight thing." Cindy turned back to Vicki quickly. "But only if the other woman wants it."

There was a long silence as the two women just watched the gentle waves and Vicki pondered what she had just learned.

"If you want to keep a closer eye on your sister," Cindy finally added, "you could loosen up a bit and join the fun. Jo likes you, you know."

Was Cindy suggesting what Vicki thought she was? The older woman just looked at Cindy like she was crazy.

Cindy shrugged and stood up.

"You should at least come back to the group and get on some sunscreen before your roast."

That was very much true. Vicki could already feel the heat building on her skin. She too got up and the pair returned to the relative cool of the umbrella.

Vicki was a little surprised that she didn't find Jo and her sister going at it by now. Instead, they just sat, well, Jo sat and Karen lay on her back with her head in the pilot's lap. They both just seemed to be relaxing.

Vicki grabbed the bottle of sunscreen next to where Jo was sitting and slathered on some of the cream. When she was done with her front and back of her legs she sat down with her back toward Jo. Thinking she needed to at least try to show that she wasn't mad or, worse, going to spoil their day, Vicki held the sunscreen toward the muscular woman behind her.

"W..would you, uh, do my back...please?" she asked.

"Of course, hun," Jo replied after only a moment's hesitation.

Vicki could feel the confidence in her hands. Steady, precise, and strong. She took a deep breath and relaxed as those hands traced her back. The woman was thorough but efficient. She didn't linger but didn't rush either. After what felt like only a few seconds but was more like a couple of minutes, Jo announced that she was done.