Emily and The Temple of Nakedness

To Emily's relief, it was, and before she was three tables away, Felix waved his invitation for her to join them. After offering the empty seat of the man Emily kept seeing, and kept seeing her, they introduced Emily to a short-haired brownish-blonde woman named Harper. Harper was the woman Emily had seen speaking to the reappearing man earlier. She seemed about the same age as Emily, maybe five years younger based on the lack of wrinkles around her eyes, and about twenty pounds lighter, primarily because of her smaller breasts. Emily's mind instantly pictured a younger Harper as a cheerleader or member of a drill team. Harper had a quiet but bubbly personality, which Emily based purely on her closed-lip smile, how her slightly high voice introduced herself, and how quickly she complimented Emily's hat. As she sat down between Francesca and Harper, Emily also noticed faded bikini sun-shadows across Harper's navel-orange-sized breasts that almost matched the rest of her golden brown tan, telling Emily Harper was not always a nudist or didn't sunbathe topless when not here.

The white goateed Felix asked if Emily had been enjoying herself as he motioned at one of the waitresses. While waiting for their server to appear, Emily summarized her afternoon.

"Gigi is so sweet," Francesca's monotone voice commented, "I know her prices are a little high, but I don't think I would trust anyone but her or Gareth to repair my jewelry. He's young but was skilled enough to fix my mother's antique silver necklace when no one else could."

"Her markup has to be pretty high," Harper commented, "The rent we're charging her is not cheap, and Gareth's online custom jewelry service is paying for most of it."

"But," Felix said, "The resort's targeted demographic won't care that her prices or the prices in any of the shops include a hefty markup for the rent. After this month's soft opening, she will be raking in the money... more than what Gareth brings to the table."

"But she needs him to create most of what she sells," Francesca's quiet authoritarian voice commented.

"Gareth?" Emily questioned, "Soft opening?"

The bowtie-wearing naked waitress appeared, leaning down, seemingly dangling her firm pink areolaed tanned breasts and long blonde hair over the table for the guest's entertainment or perhaps aiming her bikini-whitened backside at the foursome behind her as she negotiated Emily's drink order.

When Emily asked for a menu, Felix interrupted, insisting, "No, no... you're joining us for dinner. A special, invitation-only dinner... then, if you're interested, you're welcome to join us in the hot springs."

"If Gabriel can get the pumps working again," Harper interjected.

"Thank you," Emily nodded, then affirmed to the waitress, "Just a glass of wine... the house wine you suggested is fine."

Emily didn't feel as self-conscious as she had about not following the rules of etiquette when she noticed that both Felix and Harper's eyes followed the young woman's pivoting butt when she departed. Francesca's efforts to avoid looking at the naked waitress, staring at the table, or Felix during and after her visit seemed just as inappropriate as her reaching for the double deck of cards before her and ignoring the waitress when she arrived.

"Gareth is Gigi's partner," Harper said, turning her attention back to Emily, "Sole business partner and shared partner in the bedroom," her playful teasing reaffirming Emily's initial impression, sounding like a gossiping cheerleader.

"She, Gareth, and the resort's facilities manager, Gabriel, are part of a throuple," Harper continued, "It's so nice to see three or more people trying to make a polyamorous relationship work."

"What works for you," Felix commented, "Does not work for everyone."

"You're part of a throuple too?" accidentally escaped Emily's filters as she looked at Harper's too-happy-to-be-real sparkling eyes.

"I am," her face glowed, "Seem like Harrison and I have known each other all our lives. We grew up together on a farming commune our families owned in South Africa. He was like a big brother to me then, and I think I've loved him since... since that age when a girl knows more than boys... and now he's one of my lovers."

"I was trying to place your accent," Emily smiled, "Now I know where you're from; it makes sense. Do you know Hamisi? She has the same accent... and just gave me the best massage I've ever had."

All three of Emily's hosts chuckled before Harper confirmed, "She's my other lover, best friend, and sister from another mister, and you're right; she gives the best deep tissue massage I've ever had."

Quieting her voice, leaning closer to the table, and smirking, Harper teased, "And that's not the only kind of massage she's good at giving. Her tongue..."

"Please stop," Francesca grumbled as she shuffled half the deck, then the other half.

"Sorry," Harper retreated as Francesca merged the two stacks of cards.

"Back to your other question," Felix interjected, changing the subject, shifting his attention from Francesca to Emily as he said, "We thought it would be a good idea to schedule the resort's soft opening the week of National Nude Day. We opened the resort's amenities to family members last week and to guests of the hot springs next door on Monday to help train our staff."

"And," Harper added, "If some areas seem unfinished or the staff is a little slow or inexperienced, it's because some employees are new and new to nudism. We're using a skeleton crew to train the inexperienced staff, but after our license is approved, we'll ramp up to our full staffing model."

"You work here?" Emily asked Harper, then Felix.

"I'm the director of sales and marketing," Harper proudly stated, "Among other things... I also came up with most of the design elements. Do you like the rustic fort in the wilderness theme? I wanted to invoke a sense of being on the frontier... the walls around the berm in the middle of nowhere separating us from them and being alone with nature on the world's edge. I got the idea when we visited Bent's Old Fort... Imagining myself as one of the people living or visiting there, I felt isolated but part of a community and protected, yet out in the open; that's the emotional response I hoped to create."

"I think you nailed it," Emily nodded, looking down at her exposed breasts as she said, "I feel... out in the open," then scanned the naked guests around the pool and restaurant as she added, "And part of a welcoming community."

Harper chuckled as Felix said, "I'm one of the Project Managers."

Nodding over his shoulder, he said, "That's my pool and lazy river, and so is the Cypris Café. I also oversaw the construction of the Mountainview Tavern and Sérénité. My job was to get them built on time and under budget... which I did."

"Now he's working on a secret project on the top floor," Francesca grumbled as she began dealing cards around the table.

"Oh," Emily said, raising her hand, warning, "If we're playing Canasta, I haven't played in years... many years."

"It will come back to you," Francesca's stern teacher-like voice said as she dealt eleven cards to each person, "Jokers and eights are wild. Melds must be at least three cards and have more natural than wilds."

"Did you ask Emily to join us for dinner?" a familiar voice said behind her as a man's tanned, gray-haired arm lowered the drink Emily ordered onto the table before her.

Emily twisted around to find the comforting mustached smile of the man that's been pulling at her attention since she arrived behind her. His fur-nested soft penis almost touched Emily's shoulder as he retracted his arm from the table, resting his hand on the back of her chair.

Emily felt her mouth flood with saliva as she instinctively wanted to lean forward and take his not soft but not hard circumcised penis into her mouth. The same way she would do to Daniel whenever he presented his penis to her or came close enough that she could kiss and suck her lover's manhood awake, giving him pleasure and satisfying herself by extracting his cum using nothing but her mouth, with the occasional assistance of her hands.

Emily stopped herself, mentally resisting a Pavlovian response she had only fought back against when she and Daniel were clothed and in public.

"We did," Harper replied before Felix or Francesca could, helping Emily turn away from the swaying object of her sexual starvation, "Harrison said he would meet us there, and Hamisi will join us after her new employee shows up."

"Great," the man attached to the dark-hair-nested penis Emily wanted to feel in her mouth and around her tongue smiled, "Any word on when dinner will be ready?"

Harper shook her head as Emily twisted in her chair to look up at the mustache man.

"I'm sorry," Emily said, her eyes staring up at the enticing hazel eyes above the friendly grin below the white mustache of the man behind her. A face that reminded her of Daniel in so many ways yet was different in just as many. His flat rounded belt-edged stomach and hairy chest seemed to pull at Emily's face, like a pillow calls to her when she's tired, and she could feel her nipples tugging at her cookie-sized areola as they began to tighten, harden and stretch outward upon gazing up at his comfortably offered nudity.

Emily could also feel her uterus clenching and her vagina self-lubricating. She mentally appreciated the towel she was sitting on as she forced her eyes to remain on his mustache-capped toothy smile, embarrassingly asking, "Do we know each other? I've seen you all around the resort today, and your voice sounds very familiar."

"This is Eddie Earle," Felix introduced, "Our boss... this resort is his baby."

"Edward Earle," Emily cooed more than spoke as she felt her eyes smile and her heart flutters, "We've spoken on the phone... more than a few times."

"I prefer Eddie," he replied, his hazel eyes beaming past Emily's, kissing her soul as he tenderly added, "But I like how you say the name my mother gave me... like I'm a British lord or something."

"Sir Edward Earle," Harper snickered, "Lord of Earle and Earl of Lords," she teased with a poor imitation of an upper-crust British accent.

"Without your help getting our load permits approved," Edward said to Emily, "We would not have been able to open this resort on time."

"I've seen you before, too," Emily realized, "In the office."

"I've stopped by a few times," Edward nodded, "Yours is not the only bureaucracy in your building whose wheels I need to grease to keep this project moving forward. And I tried to introduce myself a few times, but the timing never seemed quite right. I'm glad you took advantage of your prize package to visit us this weekend."

"You didn't send that to me as a gift, did you?" Emily challenged, "I can't accept gifts from businesses I approve permits for."

"No," Francesca answered, "You were not the only contestant nor the only winner. It was a fair and legal raffle with five winners from a pool of three hundred state and local officials. Our legal counsel reviewed the contest rules and our methods and said we were within the boundaries of state regulations."

"We just didn't tell anyone who was part of the raffle until after you won," Harper smirked.

"You rigged the contest so I would win?" Emily asked Harper.

"Rigged is such an inflammatory term," Felix smirked, reaching for a card from the stack in the center of the table, quietly emulating an old TV show as he faked a German accent declaring, "I know nothing, nothing!"

"The selection was random," Francesca declared, inhaling, then slowly and in a very Vulcan manner, said, "It was simply a matter of running the random number generator repeatedly until your number came up. The odds of winning depended upon the number of eligible contestants... which was determined by publicly available city and state employee listings, and the number of prizes the owner decided to award... in this case, five."

"See those two men over there," Harper discretely nodded, "The ones on the lounge chairs holding hands. The darker one won as you did, and he works for the tax commissioner's office."

"The other three contest winners have deferred their weekend until later in the summer," Edward asked, "Didn't they?

"Yeah, and fortunately," Harper replied to Edward, "It only took five tries before you told us when to stop. I was worried you would make us give away hundreds of free weekends."

"Five must be someone's lucky number," Felix smirked at Edward.

"Do you always get what you want?" Emily questioned the comforting permanent smile on Edward's face.

"No," he replied, "But a good project manager ensures he has contingencies in place for every risk."

"Ha," Felix huffed, "Project Manager... right."

"I'm older than you, so that makes me Senior Project Manager," Edward stated, his persistent smile sealing shut while glaring at Felix, "Right?"

Felix nodded as Harper's face-down phone played a sweet, bubbly notification sound.

"Dinner's ready," the short-haired dark-rooted blonde announced after she replaced the cards in her hand with her phone. While thumb-typing on her phone's screen, she stood up, revealing a hairless tight-lipped outer labia that squeezed a nub of her inner labia out, making it look like her vagina was sticking the tip of a tongue out between her lower lips as she informed the table, "I'm texting the group to let everyone know, and I'll let our other VIPs know they're welcome to join us."

-- Extraordinary Invitation --

"Nice hat," Edward complemented as Emily stood, "I'm glad you could visit us this weekend. Did they tell you this is the first week of our soft opening?"

"Yes, and you could have just asked," Emily replied as the hair on her arms rose and her spine hummed, wanting her bare flesh to make contact with his. But, despite Emily's subtle efforts, Edward carefully kept his distance without making it obvious he was avoiding skin-to-skin contact.

"Not many women would accept a weekend at a hedonist resort from someone they have only spoken to over the phone," Edward replied, "And winning a contest, getting something for free is hard for most people to resist... and I'm sure at least one of the other three winners will show up for no other reason than to satisfy their curiosity."

"I see your point," Emily nodded as Edward walked beside her, adding, "Thank you for the... extraordinary invitation."

"And, you're right," Emily commented, "If you had asked me out to dinner, I would have probably said yes, but going on a blind date where nothing is unseen, no. Then again, being naked makes it more difficult to hide who we are. Takes away at least some of the unknowns."

"I don't like not knowing," Edward replied, reaching out to hold one of the glass doors leading inside open for Emily, "A good project manager will make as many unknowns as possible known before starting a project."

"Is that what I am?" Emily asked as Edward followed her across the threshold into the hotel, "A project?"

"No," his genuine smile replied, "Never. We are what we do, and looking ahead, planning, understanding the risks, and creating contingencies... that's how I think... it's part of who I am... as is my nudism. It's a part of who I am, and, sorry if this sounds like a play on words, but this lifestyle is something one has to see and experience to understand."

Emily nodded, then kept him in the corner of her eye, following beside him into the nature-themed resort as the bees and butterflies in her stomach returned. The butterflies dusted her heart with hopeful anticipation, and the bees stung the inside of her empty stomach, warning her that she was falling too fast for a man she barely knew and just met.

"Love at first sight is how I knew I would marry Daniel, and I did," Emily thought to herself as Francesca's stiff leg set the people train's pace, even though Emily could tell Harper, as the engine wanted to walk faster.

"I can't help myself," Emily thought, admiring the proud glow on Edward's face as he played tour guide, pointing out the shops Emily had already visited and the plans for the dark or boarded-up spaces, "Everything he's said and done, and how his eyes smile at me, reminds me of Daniel.And," Emily thought as she deeply inhaled, "He smells good too."

At least two restaurants lay beyond the hallway Emily had chosen not to venture down earlier, and one of them was the last stop of the train's journey. Above a grapevine-laced dark wood trestle hung an unlit, ornately engraved marque announcing the dark restaurant's name, Sérénité. Below the restaurant's wood-carved name stood an easel at its unattended entrance stating, "Closed for a Private Event."

Harper passed the sign as if it were not there, as did the slower, hand-holding couple of Felix and Francesca. Beyond the dark and empty waiting area, flickering faux candles from sconces on the walls and matching chandelier fixtures cast a calming golden glow throughout the dining area. Empty booths lined the walls, and a collection of folded tables, round and rectangular, leaned against the far wall next to several columns of plastic-covered stacked chairs. In the middle of the oddly open restaurant lay a single long, double-wide table with at least sixteen place settings, each with a water-filled glass next to an empty stemless wine goblet. Emily counted eight silver cloches and four bread baskets under tall battery-powered electric candles down the center of the table.

Emily heard others entering the restaurant behind her as she looked around Francesca to see the short dark-rooted blonde-haired Harper embracing an older, silver glasses-wearing man, sporting a less thick and grayer, less white mustache than Edward's. His white hairless hefty, but firm chest made the glossy-black Hamisi embracing his hip appear radiant. Hamisi wore a silver necklace that sparkled against her black skin, and the pendant dangling at the end of her necklace almost reached the separation of her breast. Further below, a thicker but matching silver chain encircled her naked waist and pulled Emily's eyes down to her hairless dark pubic region.

"Harrison," Harper introduced, looking around Felix and Francesca, "That's Emily... Eddie's contest winner."

Harper then introduced the somewhat older "Harrison" as "their lover," for which Emily assumed she was referring to herself and Hamisi, based on how both women embraced his lower back and pulled their hips to his. Harrison's hairless chest extended to his stomach, groin, and average-sized testicles below a generic circumcised penis. Whispy gray hairs faded into existence above his knees and continued to his sandaled feet.

"The indoor hot springs will be ready for guest use tomorrow morning," a Hispanic-sounding man's voice said from behind Emily, "As you suggested, bleeding some air from the pressure tank did the trick. Once the air bubbles cleared, the flow rate peaked and stabilized," the same stubble-haired man Emily saw with Edward earlier said as Emily turned around.

Gigi, still wearing the pubic fur revealing pink panties and following her tiny hard nipples in front of her firm but supple small breasts, appeared behind the man with massive bald testicles talking to Edward. Next to her was a fit but not an overly muscular curly blond young man that reminded Emily of the statue of David caressing Gigi's lower back or maybe her butt. Both made a hurried bee-line approach to the new arrival. Gigi kissed the short-haired man first, then watched as the two men kissed before Edward re-introduced Gigi, her business partner and jeweler extraordinaire, Gareth, and the hotel's Facility Manager and miracle worker, Gabriel.

"Is everyone here?" a new, feisty woman's voice asked.