Hot Sand: Empty Harbor

I'm guessing that on most big lakes in the country, and maybe in the world, there's a place where partying boaters anchor together to blow off some steam, drink some beers and get a little rowdy. For my wife and me, on our favorite lake, that place is Empty Harbor.

Empty is a broad harbor, prone to some serious chop when the winds turn southerly, but in our prevailing north-westerlies it stays nicely calm. Most of the waves on those summer days come from the wakes of other boats and from personal watercraft, those buzzing jet-skis that seem to be everywhere.

My wife, Michelle, and I keep a twenty-one foot Sea Ray on a trailer in our driveway, ready to go, whenever we feel like getting some sun. It's an older boat, almost a classic, you might say, but it's still in beautiful shape and runs like a champ. We don't have children so we never got into water skiing or wake boarding or any of those pull-toy kind of things. We just enjoy the sun, and having a few beers, and being able to crawl into the cuddy cabin to get cuddly once in a while. There's not much room in the cuddy — it's just mattress-style cushions to sprawl out on — but it's perfect when certain urges strike. We call it our little porn palace, because it smells a little musty, like a dirty book store, and the cushions are still upholstered in the original 1981 fabric that's more than a little cheesy looking. A guy with a big mustache, and a woman with a bushy 'bush,' would look right at home.

Michelle and I are generally responsible citizens — we don't boat drunk, we go to work on time every day, that kind of thing. She's an ER nurse, one of the most experienced on her team, and I own and run a lawn equipment company, Paul's Equipment, and yes, I do get kidded about the name sometimes. We sell commercial and residential mowers, snowblowers, chainsaws and other things.

Michelle turned forty-five over the winter, but you might not guess it. Being on her feet all day has kept her slim and kept her legs toned. I kid her and tell her she looks like a dancer, Ann Miller, from the classic movie days. Michelle does look a little like her, but she always scoffs when I say it.

I haven't fared as well with middle age. Less hair, a few extra pounds, although it's well distributed. Michelle says I'm still "handsome," but who knows what that means. Maybe just "slightly better than the next guy."

Truthfully, age isn't something Michelle and I worry about or talk about much. I guess we're not quite to the tipping point yet, when middle age slides into health problems. We eat sensibly, stay active, and get lots of sun on the weekends. That last part isn't considered 'healthy' anymore, but we enjoy being tan in the summertime, and, did I mention Michelle looks good in a bikini?

She had one on when we were out on the lake one Saturday. It's a bikini that she wears quite a bit, two shades of purple with some white mixed in. We happened to see some friends of ours out on the lake that day, in their racier, newer boat. It was late in the day when we had our little get-together in Empty Harbor, and the beer and hard lemonade flowed a little too easily. When daylight was fading I didn't feel comfortable heading back to the marina at high speed, so Michelle and I decided to spend the night on the boat, in our cozy little cuddy cabin. Our friends raced away, even though they shouldn't have, chasing daylight back to the marina where their boat trailer was.

It wasn't the first time Michelle and I had spent the night on the water. Even though we sometimes don't have the proper provisions with us, it's still fun, and always seems to make us at least a little horny. So that evening, as twilight faded and darkness fell, we settled in for our first overnight in Empty Harbor. We hadn't overnighted there before because it's often a bit rowdy during the day and we figured it would be that way at night, too. We were correct in our assumption — the partying rolled on into the darkness and beyond, but we weren't rafted up with the main flotilla, we were anchored on our own, albeit not too far away because the harbor isn't exactly huge.

It was an amazingly warm, beautiful night, so Michelle and I sat and watched the partiers. They were all rafted up together, boats tied together side-by-side and end-to-end, as is the custom, with a few anchors tossed out to hold the whole thing in place. People walk freely across each other's boats to get to and from their own. Lashed to the stern of one of the longer, sleeker speedboats was what I guess you might call a floating trampoline. Well, maybe not a trampoline, more of a gigantic, inflatable air mattress, at least fifteen feet square, but probably bigger. There was lots of jumping and childlike play on it, and lots of lounging around, too.

Michelle and I nibbled on the meager snacks that we had with us, sipping on cold beer, talking quietly as the night wore on. The raft-up of partiers slowly dwindled as boat after boat untied and motored away into the darkness. I was contemplating getting Michelle out of her purple bikini when, from what seemed to be the core group of partiers, now much quieter and mellower, we heard a female voice. "You guys want to come over and tie up with us?" the young woman yelled over to us. "We just put some more shrimp on the grill."

Michelle and I waved our thanks, and we debated our options. We knew that, at that hour, it was sensible to just crawl into our little cabin, get a little frisky and get some sleep, but we were both hungry. We gave in to the amazing aroma of grilled shrimp. Michelle pulled up our anchor and I quietly motored us the short distance to the others. We tied up to the side of a sleek yellow Rinker and we hopped across a few other boats to get to the remaining partiers. Besides us, it was just eight people, four couples from four boats, including the one with the giant inflatable float lashed to its stern.

"We didn't know how cool you guys are with things, so we've been kind of taking it easy tonight," the nice young woman named Cailee said.

"Oh, we're completely cool," I said kiddingly, smiling.

"Yeah? So, you don't mind, like, topless?"

Michelle laughed. "You don't understand men, honey, if you think my husband would mind that."

I was a little surprised that Michelle was so laughingly casual about it, and maybe, when she re-thought it, she was surprised, too, because all of a sudden Cailee was bare-breasted. Eye-poppingly, stunningly, bare breasted. We're talking a gorgeous young woman here, blonde with dark eyebrows, a Scarlett Johansson look-alike with well delineated tan-lines that made her big breasts glow like honeyed cream in the bright moonlight.

One of the other three young women was quickly topless, but the other two either didn't normally go there, or were bashful in my presence. All of them are very attractive.

"You guys hungry?" Cailee asked. "Aaron has a seafood business. He brought us tons of shrimp today."

Young people are casual about introductions, so Michelle and I played it that way, too. Cailee and her boyfriend Matt were the first names we put together with faces, and then, as time went on, some others were figured out. The other brave bare-breasted young woman was Nicole, and her young man — her husband, we later found out — is Drew. The other two couples are Becca and Aaron, and Rachel and Jon. Putting them all together as couples wasn't easy at first, because, unlike Michelle and me, none of them clung together the way many couples do.

I call them all young men and women because they're all in their mid to late twenties, I would guess. It's an age I remember as being particularly ripe, and maybe even the best age, when looked back on through the filter of middle age. This group of four couples seemed to bear out my hypothesis — they all seemed to be settled into a nice life, obviously with money, judging by their boats, and yet they still had more than a hint of the carefree attitude of youth. And they sure as hell still had their looks.

Cailee seemed especially free spirited. Her toplessness was the first big hint of it, but then, as she got more used to us, she said some things that came as a shock. Nicole's husband, Drew, got into a friendly argument with Cailee about the memories of a concert some of them had gone to, and, when he got a little wound up, Cailee said to him, "Calm down, baby. You need a blowjob to relax you."

"Go ahead," he said to her, flashing a quick glance at Michelle and me. "I dare you."

"You know I will," Cailee said, smirking, with some sass in her voice.

Drew, glancing at Michelle and me again, didn't follow through with an answer.

There were other sexual innuendos popping up here and there in the group conversation, and I, for one, found it a bit exciting, what with two topless women involved, and all the scantily clad women, Michelle included, looking sexy in the bright moonlight.

The time passed briskly with our new acquaintances, laughing a lot, Michelle and I drinking some more, but not to excess. I wouldn't say the others were drunk either; in fact I'm sure they weren't, but nonetheless, at 2am or thereabouts, after they told us how much they like us and how 'cool' we are, they asked if we liked nighttime swimming and all of a sudden, very casually, as if it was no big deal, they all stripped nude. That was interesting enough, but fast rising sizable erections on two of the guys upped the ante. There was a slow we're-in-no-hurry-to-hide-it casualness to the proceedings that was surprisingly different from what I expected. Oh, sure, there was some jumping into the water — both the aroused young men jumped in right away — but others lingered, making their way out onto the bouncy, trampoline-like inflatable. "You should try it, Michelle!" Cailee shouted, her astonishing breasts flailing as she bounced like a happy, smiling little girl.

"Should I?" Michelle responded. It wasn't a question for me, the loving, longtime husband sitting next to her; it was a question for the naked eyeful who was trying to get more bounce out of the bouncy thing than it was willing to give her.

"Yeah, come bounce with me!" Cailee hollered. "You know you want to."

"I'm too old to bounce," Michelle yelled. "Maybe we'll swim."

They were three words that were both a statement and a question. Michelle looked at me as I was watching Cailee bounce gleefully naked into the water, right into the middle of her joyous friends.

"This is...interesting," Michelle said to me, her voice hushed. "You're getting an eyeful."

"Hey, she's your friend," I said kiddingly. "Are we swimming?"

Michelle shrugged, which was as good as a yes for me. I hadn't skinny dipped since I was a kid, so I stripped quickly, before Michelle could say much of anything, not that she did, and I jumped into the lake. When I surfaced, looking up at Michelle, her breasts were bare, her bikini bottom was the last piece of clothing on anyone, and then, surprising my happy eyes, she took it off and jumped in next to me.

She giggled when her head surfaced. The water was a little over four feet deep and sandy bottomed, perfect for swimming or standing around. Michelle and I stood, getting a feel for the water, holding hands as we instinctually do. Some of the others were goofing around, just friendly play, or so we thought. But then we noticed kissing, and the non-couple couplings confused us at first. Soon all of the others were kissing, in four groups of two.

Michelle pushed off of the lake bottom with her feet and floated onto her back, tugging at my hand when she did it, signaling me to join her. We didn't go far — it was still shallow enough to stand, and when we did we realized that, apparently, there were some horny people in the group, of the we-can't-wait variety.

Becka and Rachel had hauled themselves up onto the floating mattress, their legs dangling off the edge in the dark water, and young men's heads were there, right in tight between their thighs, giving them oral sex. Cunnilingus, I think is the proper term.

Michelle squeezed my hand but didn't say anything. I could see her in my peripheral vision, watching the fantastical scene the same as I was. We weren't close to the action, but it didn't matter — in the quiet of the night, sound travels effortlessly. Becka and Rachel made lovely soft noises, and my cock hardened. I worried about the embarrassment of climbing back aboard with an erection, but I hoped it might subside. I didn't mention it to Michelle.

We both stood silently in the water, in the dark, hoping nobody was noticing us staring. And we were in fact staring, because the nature of the proceedings was continuing to unfold — another male head took the place of one of the first ones, eliciting more happy sounds from the young woman, and then Nicole climbed aboard the float and dangled her legs, and then Cailee did, and the quiet night was soon alive with the soft sounds of nicely pleasured women.

It still surprises me that Michelle didn't say anything. She quietly dipped her head underwater once, rubbing the wetness out of her eyes when she surfaced, as if to try and determine if she was awake or dreaming. She was awake. We both were, watching a group of eight freely sexual people doing their thing, with a fluidity of sharing that should have been shocking but instead was strangely beautiful.

Or maybe it was just our mood that made it seem that way. Maybe it was one of those 'the stars aligned' moments. It surely may have been. But, aligned or not, it was an awkward situation for us interlopers. Michelle and I quietly swam to our boat and climbed up the ladder on the stern. My erection was still with me. Michelle smirked, said, "You're dirty minded," sat me down and proceeded to give me a blowjob, right there, very nearly visible to everybody. It was a first for us, that kind of 'near exhibitionism.'

Of course, due to the nature of a blowjob, I was the lucky one who was able to continue watching the others. It was a lovely sight, I must say, all four young women on their backs with their legs still in the water, their heaving breasts lit by the bright full moon. The men were changing places between their legs every once in a while, the changes often eliciting lovely gasping moans from the women when a new mouth made contact in a new way.

Michelle was moaning, too, probably astonished by the ferocity of my erection. A new kind of feminine noise, coming from the group, caused Michelle to raise her head for a look-see. It was the sound of Nicole's husband Drew lifting himself out of the water, and the sound of Cailee gasping beautifully when he started to fuck her, she on her hands and knees, right in the center of the bouncy floating mattress.

That's when Michelle took my hand and pulled me into our cuddy cabin. "Oh my God!" she whispered, clearly astonished. "Who are these people? Nicole and Drew are married! I've heard about...this kind of thing."

"You have?" I said. "Where?"

"I don't know. Maybe on television. You never have?"

"Oh yeah, I've heard about it. I wonder if it's still called swinging."

"I can't believe we met...swingers," Michelle whispered.

That's when I fucked my dear wife. We were naked, I was as hard as I've ever been, so yes, we did it. We did it with some vigor. I thought she'd want me to shut the little door to the cuddy, but she never said anything, so I left it open. It made it a little more comfortable, actually, with our legs protruding though, into the moonlight. I'm sure the sounds of our pleasure could be heard, if anyone cared to listen, and I know the thought of it made me extra horny. Michelle, too, seemed to have her randy switch set on high. Taking the very nice blowjob into account, it was one of the most exciting bouts of sexuality she and I had experienced in quite a while.

Afterward, Michelle lay with her head on my chest, with my arm around her. Our little cuddy cabin was almost pitch dark, with just a little moonlight coming in through the open door. Rafted up with the others, as our boat was, we could hear things, muffled but pretty clearly. We both listened to the sounds of sex for a while — a real, live, eight person orgy of some sort, somewhat quieter than I thought one might be. Maybe that was because of us, the older interlopers. Maybe they thought we were put off by what was happening, or that we were trying to sleep. For whatever reason, they were quietish, but it just made it all the more mysterious and sexy.

-

I don't remember falling asleep, but I remember waking up, naked, with muted, misty morning light filtering into the cuddy. Michelle was already up. She heard me stir and she crawled in, clothed in the shorts and shirt she'd worn on our drive to the lake the day before. She kissed me, said, "Morning loverboy. What got into you last night, as if I didn't know."

"Mmmm," I moaned. "That was fun, wasn't it."

"I'll say," Michelle said, kissing me again.

"What time is it?"

"The sun isn't even up," she said. "I want to get our bathing suits before the others wake up," Michelle said. "They're...different...huh?"

"They are that," I said. "It seems to work for them. They're nice. I like them."

Michelle gave me a quick kiss again and said, "I'll be right back."

I knew getting dressed and leaving was the plan, but I felt hungover and groggy, and no one else was up and around, so I ambled my naked body to the boarding ladder on the stern of our boat and I eased myself quietly into the lake. It was just what the doctor ordered.

I watched Michelle make her way, like a silent, soft-footed cat, across the other boats to the spot where we'd discarded our bathing suits. She was picking them up when Cailee wandered out to say hello, her stunning young body still fully nude. She smiled and waved when she saw me treading water not far away, causing Michelle to give me a wifely look that was somewhat unhappy. Cailee picked up her own bikini and put it on as she and Michelle had a quiet conversation, one that I could just barely overhear.

Cailee said, "You guys wanted to be alone I guess, huh? We thought maybe you'd party with us."

"Oh you didn't really want us old folks around did you?"

"Sure, it would have been fun," Cailee said. "The guys all liked you, and Paul's really nice. Maybe you could come back next week? We all try to be here, but...sometimes it's not so...perfect. It depends on what other boats might be around."

"Oh, overnight, you mean?" Michelle said.

"Yeah. You guys were cool about it, but sometimes, if other people are around...we gotta be less...open."

"Oh. Right," Michelle said. "So you've been...doing this awhile?"

"Yeah, at least some of us are here most weekends, if the weather's nice. Maybe we'll see you guys? Another time?"

"Maybe," Michelle said. "Thanks for the shrimp. We were starving last night."

"Oh, sure. Yeah, no problem."

I silently tread water closer and closer to our boarding ladder as Michelle made her way, just as quietly, back across the boats to ours. The sun was rising through the mist at the far end of the lake when I climbed out, my cock thick and spongy, halfway to a woody from seeing Cailee looking so uncombed and lovely.

"I better get you out of here before you start expecting me to look like her," Michelle said, smirking, when she saw my phallic condition.

I said, "Why would I want to do that when you look so beautiful?"

She took hold of my swollen low-hanging penis, gave me a passionate but short-lived kiss on the lips. "Get dressed," she said. "Lets go."

I picked up a towel, dried, and pulled on my bathing trunks. Michelle took off her shirt, put on her bikini top, put on her shirt, took off her shorts, put on her bikini bottom, and put her shorts back on, all of it in the great outdoors. Yes, it was very early morning, but, still tied to the neighbor's boats as we were, it was very out of character for her to be that open with her body.