Midnight's Daughter

"Sort of..."

"Oh, amazing. So do I."

She smiled and leaned in.

"I took you for one of the stuck up, snooty ones from Milan," she continued, conspiratorially. "You know - the Fashion Victims. It's that dress. It is beautiful, and it looks far, far too grand for this place. Well... so do you, to be honest."

"No. No. I'm from here. Very definitely from here," I said, warm from the flattery. "Milan. Hah. I'm sure it's nice. But... to be away from the lake? Impossible!"

"I know," she confessed. "I love it here. It's like living in paradise. I study in Bologna; I can never wait to come back home."

"Good," I said, pleased. "It is good to love your roots. Where we come from has... importance."

"Mm."

She turned, and slid onto the seat beside me, leaning back against the counter and angling herself in towards me. The man behind the bar snorted and rolled his eyes at her. She flicked her chin at him; he laughed and turned away.

"Idiot," she said. "My cousin, Giovanni," she added.

I eyed him for a moment. There was not much resemblance. But he hadn't complained about her coming to talk to me. So clearly he was nice enough.

"Mm," I said, dismissing him. "You're far prettier than he is."

She laughed again, then leaned nearer still.

"So... Isea," she said, softer now. "I have a question that I've been absolutely dying to ask you."

"You may ask it."

"Do you usually sunbathe topless like that?" she said, eyes sparkling.

"Oh, is that all? No."

I smirked.

"No?"

"No. Usually I wear nothing at all," I said, enjoying myself with the direct answer to her likewise direct question.

Her eyes widened; she laughed uncertainly. "Nothing? Really? Here? I'm surprised you haven't been assaulted and dragged to a convent by angry grandmothers."

"It's amazing what you can get away with if you're discrete about... where you do it. And who sees you," I added, lowering my voice.

Her eyes flickered downwards along my body to the curve of my breasts, then back to my face.

"Really?" she repeated, softly.

"Mhmm. I know a place where very few people go."

I sipped my wine and smiled at her, letting my eyes widen ever-so-slightly...

She shivered, took a breath...

The door opened. An older couple walked into the wine bar, the woman in a long, elegant blue gown and the man in a nice, well-cut suit. Giovanni straightened behind the counter, and Daniella shifted beside me.

"Oh, Dio santo, of course it would happen right now," she sighed. "Oh well. Time to work. Sorry."

"See you later," I breathed, and I gently touched her hand.

"I... really hope so," she answered. She gave me one more lingering glance and a wistful smile before she stood. She loped back to the counter and began to help her cousin take the couple's complicated and meandering order.

I slid off the stool and carried my glass outside. I walked carefully across the Piazza to the stone wall that still showed the masons marks if you knew where to look. I leaned on the modern railing and savoured my wine as the stars rotated above me.

And I daydreamed of the warmth and open curiosity in Daniella's eyes.

She was still busy with customers when I returned; our eyes met as I returned the glass to the counter top.

"Ciao, gorgeous," I mouthed.

She flushed and looked away. But the pleased little smile that she couldn't quite hide said everything I so desperately needed to hear.

Dawn.

I stirred on my bed, yawned, stretched my legs and pointed my toes.

A whiff of mist on the air beyond the scent of the Rosemary sprig on my little night stand. Mist at dawn. It would be hot today.

I wondered if Daniella and her friends would come to the water again; I hoped they would.

She'd seemed... wonderfully intense around me.

I wondered if I was reading the signs right. I hoped I was. I could imagine few things better than seeing her again...

Well... a few things would be better, I thought to myself. If I were completely honest; kissing, touching, making love... all of them would be miles better than simply seeing her.

But seeing her would be delightful enough to tide me over. It was so long since I'd had someone to look forward to simply seeing.

I arched backwards, jaw creaking, whimpering softly. Then I flowed to my feet and shuffled sleepily to the entrance of my home. I squinted out into the wafting tendrils of morning fog and scratched absent-mindedly at my thigh.

It was going to be a gorgeous day.

I dawdled out into the cool air and claimed a few cloud-kissed grapes from my vines, more from long habit than any strict need for them. From there I sauntered down the gentle grassy slope to the shore and stood there with my toes in the water, the grape juice still sweet on my tongue.

I thought about how to spend my morning.

And then I smiled. I would go swimming, of course.

So I thought for a moment, and remembered, and the translucent chemise I'd worn to bed shimmered and flowed and became a deep blue one-piece of the sort I'd seen a woman wearing on the deck of an enormous boat the prior summer.

I calmed a circle of my surface so that I could stare down at my reflection.

I was still beautiful. Even now.

I prayed she'd like me like this.

I began to make my way slowly along the shore, staring at the stones and the ripple-drawn whorls of sand, feeling the awareness of these parts of my domain grow and ebb as I moved over them. And as slow, mighty Helios climbed above the eastern horizon, the last of the haze burned away and my waters flamed blue.

I bowed my head to him - no raised arms, no homage, no fealty though, not even for the sun.

That devotion I gave to my mother Selene alone.

The morning breeze waxed, then waned again. The blue vault of the heavens was mirrored once more on the surface of the lake, bisected in places by the ever-present watercraft that skittered hither and thither.

I reached the man-made beach and stepped out slowly through the gently lapping wavelets at its edge. Footprints of men, women and children were everywhere. The locals loved to swim in this place. They loved it here.

I smiled, pleased.

Then I turned and walked out into the water, stopping when the interface kissed my navel. A school of perch came to greet me before dispersing again; a gull dipped his wings and sang his mournful salute before easing off towards the town in hopes of stealing something more filling than an immature fish.

I stood, closed my eyes in bliss, and let the sunlight fall on my face as I waited. I ran my fingers gently over the surface; I could be patient as the mountains if needed. But it took only an hour, or at most two, before the rusty white Fiat bounced and whined its way down the rough track to the clearing in the scrub. Only one of the men was present, this time, but the two other woman and the woman I adored had all come too.

They emerged through the low waterside bushes, following the sandy path, laughing breathlessly at one another.

And Daniella, leading them all, stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me.

The blonde bumped into her.

"Daniella? What is it?" she asked; then she peered around her friend and saw me.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, her eyes widening. She shared a knowing smile with the brunette, while the lone man just stared at me as if struck dumb.

I left the water and advanced to them, but I had eyes only for Midnight's daughter.

She flushed, shifted, fiddled with her hair and the hem of her shirt.

"Hello... Dani," I said, softly, when I stopped within an arm's reach of her.

"Hello," she squeaked.

Her friends shared amused glances; the blonde gave me a warm, approving grin. "Marco," she said. "Bettina. Come on - andiamo. We'll be over there, Dani," she told her friend, and Daniella nodded abruptly. She seemed about to say something more; but the others simply eased past us, clearly abandoning her to me.

Her foot shuffled in the sand, and I realised just how nervous she was.

"I wondered if you would be here today," I said softly, taking pity on her and saving her from the burden of being first to speak.

"We're here every day in summer," she answered, as if on automatic.

Her friends splashed down into the water behind us and started talking softly, laughing - obviously at us.

Daniella took a deep breath.

"What is this, Isea?" she said. "Why are you here?"

"You... intrigued me," I answered. "And... I live in the moment. I took a chance. I hoped you would come, and I'm so glad to see that you did."

She sighed. "So. Now I'm here. Now you've ensnared me," she added, wryly.

"Ensnared?" I protested. "Me?"

"Yes, you! My friends are never going to let me live down the day the gorgeous Milanese blonde in the designer swimsuit that costs more than a small car walked up out of the waters of lake Iseo purely to speak to me."

I stared at her.

"But I'm not Milanese," I protested, amused.

"Yes, but they don't know that!" she said. She tucked her hair back out of her face and shifted closer; high colour had coloured her cheeks. "My God, Isea. You... you could have stepped from the pages of Grazia or Vogue. Unbelievable. You are incredible. I should feel flattered, I suppose, that you find me interesting enough to wait here for me."

I turned partly away; I was thoroughly pleased by her reaction.

"And so you flatter me in return, and so early in the day?" I teased her.

"It seems that it's my fate, yes."

Her eyes were bright; her cheeks pink...

"Mm. I'll be gentle, then. So," I added, "now you have a choice - either you have to introduce me to your friends, or you have to come and swim with me."

"That's an easy choice - I will swim with you," she answered. She smiled. "It will drive them crazy to have to wait for me."

"I like that choice," I breathed; her flush deepened.

I walked out into the water; she stripped off her tee shirt and dropped it on the sand. The maroon bikini top was even better up close, lifting and cupping her small but perfectly-shaped breasts as if presenting them to me. And the bikini bottom was really nothing more than an an abbreviated triangle of dark cloth that clung to and barely obscured the sublime curves of her mons and lips.

I looked away, forced myself to behave when almost all I could think of was how much I wanted to touch her, part her... taste her...

A soft sigh, a desperate reach for patience, and a forceful attempt to ignore the sudden heat between my legs.

So I stood and waited, hiding my frustration, as her friends called questions and she answered them. Various gestures were made back and forth. Their clear affection for one another pleased me and spoke well of all of them as people.

At last she turned away; she shook her head and gave me a rueful grin.

"Sorry," she said. "The children needed calming."

I shrugged, amused, then walked out into the waters. I lowered myself into the lake and pretended to gently paddle towards the Six Sisters, some forty metres out across an out-thrust arm of the deep-blue depths. Daniella joined me, her powerful freestyle throwing up waves around us. But I cheated, reached the rocks before her, and stepped up onto them with little effort while she clung to one and stared upwards at me.

"How did you do that?" she demanded. "It... you looked like you just... walked up there!"

"Years of practice," I said. "And I know all the footholds. Here."

I reached down and took her hand, then helped her up beside me.

"You are so strange," she said. "You are stronger than you look." She shot me an admiring glance. "And you're an excellent swimmer, though you'd never know for looking at you. Strong, fast, beautiful... what else are you?"

"I am many things," I said, adopting a mysterious tone - she snorted. Then she stretched; I watched in delight as droplets of water ran down her arms and over the exposed skin of her flanks and back.

She lowered herself to the rock; I followed her and sat, close to her but not touching, not yet. I ran my hands through my wet hair and cast it out over my shoulders, and smiled back at her own, uncertain smile.

"So," I said.

She shivered as I put my hand on her leg, but made no effort to remove it as I curled the fingers over and spaced them along her warm thigh.

"So," she said, her voice trembling. "Um... what... what happens now?"

"Now... I seduce you," I whispered.

Her eyes widened slightly. "What?"

"Now I seduce you," I repeated. I moved my fingers slowly on her damp, smooth skin. "I whisper gentle words into your ears, and worship you with my eyes and my voice. Your stubborn, cautious heart melts bit by bit and soon... soon, you will take my hand and hold it. We will both smile shyly at one another. My cheeks will flush, yours will burn. You will tell me a secret, I will tell you one in return. Perhaps we'll kiss, perhaps not - I'll leave that up to you, this time. Then we'll swim back to your friends, who will be besides themselves with curiosity as to what we've been doing and why I'm holding your hand. Tonight I will come to your place of work, and I will flirt with you some more, but much more intently and intensely; I will be staking my claim, you see - I will be making my desire and intent towards you... known. You will take a sip of my wine, and tell me I'm the prettiest woman you've ever seen. I will touch you, you will, I hope, touch me in return."

I took a breath, listened to her own soft, shivery breathing.

"And that, Daniella," I said, mournfully, "is the point at which I will begin to lose my heart to you forever."

She stared at me, mouth slightly open. She took a deep, slow breath.

"Is... is that how you usually get your way with women?" she managed. "Spinning those silvery webs of honeyed words?"

She was amused. But also, I knew, disturbed and excited by how much what I'd just said had... aroused her. I could tell I had pleased her, from the increase in her heart rate to the way she'd first clenched her thighs tightly together and then pressed one outwards against mine.

I shivered. I wanted her more than I could ever remember wanting any other girl.

I moved my hand slowly up towards her crotch, but withdrew it before I reached it; she made a soft noise of regret. I released her leg and shifted, raising a knee so that I could lean my head on it. My hair trailed into the water and I closed my eyes.

She shuddered once. Her nipples were hard under the soaking fabric of her swimsuit top, her pupils dilated. Arousal was always delightful and easy to see. I knew she was wet. Perhaps even as wet as I was.

"I like you," I whispered. "You're beautiful and you have a beautiful smile. And... you seem... well, you seem like me."

"Like... you?" she said, voice shaking.

"You know what I mean. You like women. You like them like I do. To love. To... make love to. To... hold. To treasure."

"How... how did you know?" she breathed. "We'd never met before yesterday. What gave me away to you like this? I try so hard to... hide it."

"It wasn't you. It was your friend. The brunette one, yesterday. Bettina? She called me your type. That was what gave you away. She needs to be more... careful... with your secrets."

"You have phenomenally good ears," she said, after a breath or two. "And Bettina is impossible. She could never keep a secret, she must tell the world or she will burst. She doesn't have a wicked bone in her body, though, and sometimes she forgets the rest of the world is... not like her."

"Water carries the sound well," I said. "Nobody else but your friends would have heard. So... was she right?"

"Yes," she said. She met my gaze for a moment, then shrugged. "She was right. I like women. To love and to make love to; to hold and to treasure. But... it's not something that I'd like to advertise to others. Not everyone is... kind."

Her answer was soft and secretive. I lowered my voice as well.

"I keep many of my own secrets. I don't give them up easily. And I am very... discreet."

She stared at me for several breaths, then sighed.

"Isea... what do you want? From me, I mean? I am only here for summer. I study in Bologna. I will return there in August. I must. I... I cannot offer very much to someone like you. Not that I'm not delighted and flattered that you want me! Please, don't... don't take this the wrong way. But... I would never be anything but something nice for summer. No matter what I might want to be," she added, softly.

"Perhaps that's all I want," I answered. "Someone... nice... for summer."

"You're lying. I can tell."

"Yes, I am, a bit. But... something nice for summer would still be lovely, even if there was nothing else to... hope for. Women like you are rare, Dani. Women as beautiful as you are rarer still. And even rarer still are those who smile at me like you do. So... I hope. Silly, perhaps... but then, that's just how it is, sometimes, isn't it?"

"You shouldn't hope, Isea," she whispered. "You shouldn't. Hope is unfair, hope makes us liars to ourselves. You are stunning, and gentle, and I... I like you. A lot. You're right - it is silly, but it's true. Your smile... it warmed me. Nobody ever smiles at me like that. So... you won me over right then - the moment I saw you."

"The moment you saw my breasts, you mean?" I teased.

"Those too," she admitted with a shy grin. "They are very nice as far as these things go. Very... distracting. Your bum is very nice as well. So are your lips, and your eyes," she whispered dreamily. "Oh, God, Isea - it's been so long since I could be this... open to a stranger. But it's strange... you don't feel like a stranger to me. I feel... safe. Here, with you, I mean. It's nice. Feeling... safe, like this. I wish it would last."

I shivered as she reached out and cautiously took my hand.

"See?" I said. "I told you this would happen."

"It was an easy prediction, it didn't need Nostradamus to make it," she said. She shifted, squeezed her leg out against mine again. "And now I guess I have to tell you a secret, and here it is - I dreamed of you last night. I dreamed you pinned me down and kissed me and made love to me. I dreamed that you made me come so hard that I cried. It... hurt... when you weren't there when I woke this morning."

"Oh," I breathed.

She turned slightly to face me. Her smile was wistful.

"There. Now you know how silly I am. A silly little girl who just wants to not always be so very alone in this world. Oh well. At least I told you. Now you have to tell me a secret as well," she said. "You said that that is what happens now."

"I dreamed of you. We were swimming and you put your hands on me. You touched my breasts. And my thighs, and my belly... and my lips, and inside me. You kissed me. It was perfect. And then I woke, alone. I'm used to waking alone. It would be... nice... not to do so. It has been a long time since I last woke up in someone's arms. I would love to wake in your arms."

She shivered, licked her lips with the tip of her tongue.

"So..." I breathed, entranced. "So those are the secrets dealt with, then. I suppose the next thing is..."

And she leaned in, and kissed me, and when she at last pulled back I was panting.

It had never felt like this before. Never.

"Wow. Oh... oh, wow..." I gasped, struggling. "Oh wow, oh wow..."

She put an arm around me and pulled me in against her; my belly spasmed and I let out a soft grunting gasp.

"Say it," she whispered, her voice warm and fluttery. "You are dying to say it. Get it over with."

"No. Oh, no. It doesn't need to be said. But... oh wow... but this definitely took... less time than I thought it might."

"I am impulsive. It's a character flaw. Oh well. I suppose we had better swim back, though I think you are going to owe me favours forever over the teasing I'm about to receive from my ingrate friends."