Life Raft

She almost looked a little startled at my non sequitur. "You play piano?"

"Yeah, since I was four, banging away on the old upright in the parlor. My mom taught me at first, then got me progressively better teachers as I got older. I eventually got good enough to win a national youth competition.

"When I got to college, I did a double major in Music and Finance. Then my instructor wanted me to do the Master's program at CU Boulder with his old professor. He kept trying to tell me I had the talent to go to the top."

"So why aren't you pursuing it now?"

That was kind of a touchy subject for me. I'd always planned on throwing myself headlong into the world of music, (with Finance serving strictly as a last ditch fallback) but personal obligations had changed all of those plans. What it had come down to was that I needed to get a regular paycheck -- fast.

That whole business was a bit personal, so I just shrugged. "Making it in that racket is a long shot. I knew I could be successful in the finance field. Piano is still my first love, though. I practice every day." Including those three hours right after I'd woken that morning.

Jessica's face said she wanted to delve a little deeper into that, but I could see her restrain herself. Part of me was relieved.

I knew I'd been doing a lot of talking and really wanted to hear more of her story. "So what about you, Jessica? If this was your senior year, you probably graduated last Saturday?"

"Yup. My folks flew home on Monday."

"What was your major?"

"Accounting."

"Hey, that's a hot field. Do you have any offers?"

"Yeah, but I was just interviewing for practice. I'm aiming to be a CPA and the family tradition is to get an MBA on the way. I'm set to start at Dartmouth in a few weeks if I don't go to Colorado Springs to train for the Olympics.

I was glad for her, but I already wanted to have the opportunity to get to know her a lot better. It sucked that she wasn't going to be in town for long.

I noticed that Jessica was looking downstream over my shoulder. "Uh oh, we're catching up to some people," she warned.

I looked and sure enough, there was a clump of tubes along the shore. We were a good quarter mile away, but I could see a couple of people on a rock outcropping about twenty feet up the canyon wall. As I watched, a guy jumped into the river.

I looked over at Jessica. Her arm was across her breasts and that surprised me for a moment. During our conversation, I'd pretty much forgotten that she wasn't wearing anything.

"Sean, I don't want anyone but you to see me naked."

That was an interesting way to put it, but I'd already been thinking about this kind of situation. "I have an idea," I said. I used the oars to put Jessica's back to the tubers, then started to untie the drawstring of my suit.

She put her hand on mine to stop me. "What, do you think it'll make me feel better if you're naked too?"

"Nope, I'm going to use my suit to make you some clothes."

"But then you'll be naked."

"We'll both be naked below the waist, but if we're sitting up and stay near the far bank, they won't know that. The only things we need to cover are your boobs, and seriously, how much fabric could that take?"

She slapped my shoulder with her free hand, but grinned. "Okay, show me what you have in mind."

"Oh, you can't fool me, Jessica. You just want to see my winky."

"Well, it would only be fair."

I sighed. "If I must." I began to slide my shorts down, for once glad that I wasn't going to have to deal with an embarrassing erection. I was right at the point of uncovering the goods when I noticed that Jessica was completely focused on my crotch. I stopped for a moment and she looked up to see me grinning at her. She blushed crimson and turned herself the other direction.

I chuckled and pulled them off, then snagged my multitool out of my backpack. My shipmate still had her back to me. "Jessica, it's okay."

"I was being rude."

"Nah, I actually would have been a bit miffed if you hadn't shown any interest."

"Still."

"Oh, come on. As much as I enjoy looking at the sleek lines of your back, I like ogling your bare breasts even more."

"You're awfully incorrigible for being such a gentleman." She turned back toward me, mostly recovered. She was obviously working hard to keep her eyes focused above my waist, though.

I quickly decided that I didn't like us feeling uncomfortable around each other. "I'm going to return the favor you did me and close my eyes, Jessica. Look all you like." I even put the suit over my face as I counted down from twenty aloud. I hoped she wouldn't realize that I'd done that in case I blushed. Her having gone first made it a little easier to expose myself, but this wasn't something I did every day.

I found that she was still checking me out when I finished my count. "Uh, do you like what you see, Jessica?"

"You've got a nice package, Sean. Unlike my boobs, I'd say it's more than proportional to your height." She finally looked up at me. "Sorry. I just decided that we should be past the point of any shame around each other."

"My thoughts exactly. Now let's get you dressed." I began to slice the fabric of my suit.

"What are you doing?" Jessica asked, evidently concerned that I was destroying the only piece of clothing we had between us.

"You'll see in a second. I'm not exactly Oscar de la Renta, but I'm thinking I can come up with something serviceable."

A minute later I was ready. I'd slit the inseam from leg to leg and what I had left was more of a skirt than shorts. "Here, let's try this," I said, handing it to her. "I'm thinking you'll want to pull it up from the bottom, drawstring to the back."

"Okay," she said doubtfully. She oriented it and slid her legs through it one at a time, then wiggled it upward. Jessica's hips had just enough flare that they were really tight there.

"Damn, my ass must be getting fat," she murmured as she worked them past the obstruction.

"Are you kidding? You've got really firm butt cheeks. Believe me, I've felt them."

"Pervert."

She slid the suit up over her breasts (alas) where it was now a bit loose.

"Here, turn around for a sec." She did and I tied off the drawstring behind her. The suit hung to her waist, not a good look as far as I was concerned. I went about tucking the fabric up underneath, but realized that it wasn't going to stay, so I pulled it right up under the drawstring and then let it drape down over the top, effectively folding the length of the suit into thirds. I would have expected her to take over the process when she realized what I was doing, but she seemed content to let me finish the job. Naturally, the tucking process involved my hands brushing across her breasts under the fabric. I couldn't help but notice that her nipples had gone rock hard again.

At last we were done. Jessica was now wearing a poofy black and red tube top and I was wearing my birthday suit. It was none too soon, as we were getting close to our fellow river runners. There were three jumpers up on the outcropping now, one male and two female. One of the girls jumped and executed a perfect cannonball.

"Sean," the guy on the ledge yelled, "I see you've made a new friend."

"Hey, Ethan," I yelled back. "You've met Jessica." He probably hadn't recognized her without her long suit.

"Hi, Jessica," they all yelled.

"Hi, guys," she returned.

"You folks having a good time?" I yelled.

There was a chorus of whoops in response. We were drifting right out in front of them now, but closer to the far shore, so even the two up on the outcropping couldn't see that we were letting it all hang out.

"Maybe we'll see you guys at the last jump spot," Ethan said, stepping up to the edge of the cliff.

"You just might," I said, feeling a little guilty because I actually had no intention of making any stops the rest of the way. Sunblock or not, we needed to get Jessica indoors.

Ethan braced himself to jump, but just as he was committed, the girl up there with him slapped him on the butt. Hard. The sound echoed off the canyon walls.

He yelped on the way down, but the perp was bent over laughing, as were three of the four others.

"Lisa!" the first jumper yelled as she waded up onto shore, "you keep your hands off my husband's ass."

Lisa grinned down at her evilly. "Sorry, Fiona, but he had it coming for pretending to pantz me in front of Jessica's friends when they went by."

"How long ago was that?" Jessica asked.

"Maybe half an hour," Lisa said. "I asked 'em where the girl in the long swimsuit was and they said you two paired off."

We were far enough away again that she was having to yell.

"See you guys," I called out.

They yelled their goodbyes and moments later we were around a bend in the river and all alone again. "Thanks Sean. That worked brilliantly. Do you want your suit back?"

I shook my head. "You're welcome to keep wearing it, if you like. I don't need to wear it again unless you really want me to."

"Oh, that's okay. I figure we might as well keep the playing field even." Jessica spun the suit around and untied it, then neatly slid it up over her shoulders and handed it to me. I laid the suit across the bow. I thought she looked a lot better without it.

"What are we going to do when we get to the landing area?" she asked.

"If no one's there, we just make a beeline for my car. If there are still people at the landing area, I'll beach us a little ways up the river, don the suit, and snag the beach towel out of my car for you."

"Sounds like a plan."

"And of course I hope you'll ride back to town with me."

"Absolutely, but in the meantime, you'd probably better get some sunscreen on your newly exposed areas."

"Oops, I forgot about that." I pulled the bottle out of my backpack, but Jessica snagged it from my hands. I looked at her questioningly.

"Time for me to return the favor," she said with a sly grin.

"Uh, okay. How do you want to do this?"

She motioned for me to spin around. "On your knees, Mister."

So I turned and knelt with my elbows on the bow, pointing my bare backside at her. I felt the breeze from downriver as my package swung beneath me, completely exposed. I was experiencing a strange combination of thrill and embarrassment, mixed in with the dread of Jessica finding out the brutal truth about me.

I heard the top pop off of the bottle and moments later, I felt Jessica's soft, smooth hands begin to caress my hips. I hadn't been touched by a woman in a long time and it felt really, really good.

"That okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, you have all day to stop doing that."

Her hands went away for a moment, then I felt a warm line of lotion being squirted from the back of one thigh, up across my butt, then down the other. Her hands were quick and firm. She worked the lotion in, all the way around my legs, from the knees up to my hip bone, only just avoiding my most erogenous areas.

"Up straight," she said, "so I can get your back."

"I already got that part."

"Did you miss the fine print on the bottle that says you should reapply every two hours?"

"Well, yeah, they always say that, but nobody actually does it."

"I do, and with your light skin, you should too."

"Yes, dear."

She giggled. "Sorry, but us accountants are sticklers when it comes to documentation." She was already most of the way up my back and was soon rubbing my shoulders, her hands moving quickly and efficiently.

"You're really good at this," I said.

"I took an elective in therapeutic touch and I did a lot of massages for the other girls on the volleyball team."

"That would explain it."

"None of them had shoulders like yours, though." She moved on to my arms. They didn't take but a minute. "Okay, turn around."

Staying on my knees, I carefully turned to her. She had me sit back on my heels, then gently and thoroughly coated my face. Like when I'd done that for her, it was an amazingly intimate act.

Then she hosed down my chest and stomach with the bottle, taking her time rubbing it in. It felt amazing and I gloried in the sensation of her hands on me. I didn't fail to notice that she spent more time than strictly necessary on my uncharacteristically hard nipples. My body was responding to her touch in every way that it was still capable of.

Her hands paused for a moment as they worked the lotion into my abs. "Wow, you've got some nice development here. Come on, give me a full flex."

So I firmed up my stomach muscles and let her run her hands across the ridges. I wasn't a bodybuilder and my muscles weren't huge, but I had very little fat and my six-pack really showed.

"Very nice," she said, "now lie back."

So I laid down in the bow with my legs spread out to either side of her. The raft was long enough that my head and feet just barely touched the ends. She took one leg, and then the other, applying the sunblock. Now there was only one place left.

I was willing to take care of that part myself, but her expression said she'd been looking forward to it. Her face asked for permission; mine granted it.

Her smooth, moist hands on my abdomen and inner thighs were exquisite, but when she hesitantly took my cock in her hands, she finally let her puzzlement show. It really was time to confess, but I couldn't help teasing her just a little first. "Come on girl, I need to see some results. I paid for this."

Her face lit up with mock outrage. "How dare you!" she said, letting go of me like a hot potato and squeezing up against the stern.

"Well, since I..." I came to a stop, realizing that there was no 'mock' to her outrage. I'd really managed to upset her. "Whoa, Jessica, I'm sorry if I-"

"I'm nobody's whore," she said, nearly choking on the words. Then she broke into deep, sobbing tears.

Human compassion made me instinctively want to take her in my arms and comfort her, but I figured being grabbed by the perpetrator probably wasn't what she'd want at the moment. I stayed where I was.

"Jessica, I was joking. I guess it was a pretty rude joke and I'm sorry, but I think you know I wouldn't intentionally hurt you."

She turned her head to look at me with wounded eyes, but I could see in them that she'd heard the honesty in my voice. I moved forward until I was kneeling right behind her and wrapped her in my arms. She stiffened at first, but then relaxed and leaned back against me. I took her with me as I lay back into the raft, then she turned and lay down across me, her head on my shoulder. I soothingly caressed her back. Our naked bodies were pressed together, gloriously, from head to toe. I marveled that it felt so natural.

"I guess I came on kind of strong there, huh?" she murmured.

"You had every right to. I implied a nasty thing."

I felt her shake her head slightly. "No, you weren't out of bounds. Under normal circumstances it would have been funny. It's just that something happened to me that makes me a bit sensitive about that kind of thing."

"I'm willing to listen if you'd like to tell me about it."

She sighed. "Okay, I guess it kind of started in middle school. The other girls started getting boobs and periods while all I did was get freakishly tall. By high school, I was half a head higher than anyone else in my freshman class, but my chest was just as flat as when I was ten. I started to get just the first hint of breast development about the time I got my driver's license, but I didn't get my first period until I was seventeen. I didn't go out on a date even once in high school."

"I'd have asked you."

"You say that, but even as boyish as I look now, I'm positively lush compared to back then. Still, when I arrived at the dorms and I'd actually managed to grow a set of A-cups over the summer, I hoped my love life would change. Unfortunately, the pool of guys that want to date a painfully shy, six foot three accounting geek with a very plain face was actually pretty limited. I still didn't date."

I had no idea what I could say to something like that, so I just held her and let her continue.

"But then, last fall, at the beginning of my senior year, I became friends with this guy named Kevin. He sat next to me in one of my accounting classes. He was my height and we actually hit it off. He was cute and I knew from overhearing him talk to his friends that he hooked up a lot, but he also seemed to like me and I figured he was my only real shot at a little romance. I guess I was worried that I was the only actual virgin left on campus, and I didn't want that distinction anymore.

"He never asked me out, so finally I worked up the courage to ask him what he was doing after class. It was just a week after Randi had gotten cut from the team and I was still living in the house with her, Kim and Trish. He said he was free, so I asked him if he'd like to come over for a while. He looked a little uncertain about it, but then agreed.

"Because of how many hookups he'd had, I knew better than to expect any sort of romantic relationship. Still, I was determined to have sex for the first time and I figured he'd know how to deflower me.

"I was really nervous by the time we got to my place, but I had him come to my room with me. We sat on my bed, had a couple of beers and watched TV while we talked for like an hour. He didn't make any moves, so I figured he didn't think of me that way, but I decided to be a little bold and asked him if he wanted to fool around a little.

"To my amazement, that seemed to catch his fancy and he said 'how do you want it?' That seemed a bit abrupt to me and I had no idea, so I told him he could do whatever he wanted. Just like that, he had me bend over my desk.

"I guess I was thinking there might be some kissing and touching first, but he just reached around and undid my pants then slid them down to my knees. I'd worn some lacy panties, but he just pulled them to the side and tried to push into me. I wasn't ready by any means and I could sense his frustration. I looked behind me and saw that he was about as big as anything I'd seen in the porno clips that Randi sometimes watched on the living room TV, but he wasn't very hard. He was trying, but it just bent instead of going in. I was dry, and I'm sure I must have been clenched pretty tight, which wasn't helping at all.

"Then he saw me looking and got all embarrassed. He whipped his pants back up and turned to leave. I was sure we could make it work if we took our time at it, and I was about to beg him to stay, but then he said, 'Sorry, you just don't do anything for me.' I was about to cry when he grabbed his backpack and walked out. The next day he sat on the other side of the classroom and wouldn't even meet my eyes."

"What a jerk."

"Yeah, but that's not the part that set me off when I got mad at you just now."

"There's more?"

"Yeah, it was a couple of days later. I was in the library and saw Kevin sitting around a table with a few of his frat brothers. They were supposedly studying, but I heard them talking about the girls they'd been with. I was really curious, so I got on the other side of a stack to listen in.

"They were bragging about their conquests like it was some kind of game. From the sound of it, all of them had counts in the double digits at the very least. Then they started to talk about the kind of girls they figured they'd eventually settle down with. The consensus was that none of them would marry one who had been with more than two guys."

"What a bunch of hypocrites."

"Yeah, especially since my girlfriends who slept with guys like that said they always claimed they were ultimately looking for a girl who had lots of experience."