Naked House

"The bouncer. I had three drinks, maybe more, on an empty stomach. He wouldn't let me leave alone. That's when I called the house. I needed you to save me from myself." She stroked my leg. "That's all I could think of. You should give me your cell number."

I had a big question left to ask, but I wanted Camille back under Naked House rules when I asked it. We watched the customers bent over the shabby counter under bright lights, and sat back when the waitress brought our plates.

"Dodie got away OK?" Camille talked with her mouth full.

"I guess. She wanted me out of her sight, so I watched from the parking lot." I checked the time on my phone. "She should be landing about now."

"She'll find some way to forgive me." Camille said. "Eventually, anyway. We're family. I imagine you'll be the goat forever. You might have a dry spell if she spreads her story around to your friends."

"Guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." I threw a tip on the table, helped Camille out of the booth, and paid for dinner. She was steadier when I walked her to my car, and she seemed almost sober when I locked the beach house door.

Camille went to the kitchen, and I dropped into a chair at the dining table while she got a glass of tea. She stopped in front of me with her drink in hand, and I said, "Take your clothes off."

"I suppose you've earned anything I can give you." Camille wasn't wearing much, so it didn't take long. She reached past me to set her glass on a coaster then handed me her top. She made a little show for me of unzipping her shorts, pushed her shorts and her underwear to the floor and stepped out of her pumps.

Camille knelt between my knees and tugged up on my shirt. "You too," she said. "This is Naked House." I pulled my shirt over my head while Camille opened my jeans, and she sat down across from me with our clothes around us.

I rested my elbows on the table and watched Camille turn her glass between her hands. "No secrets. You told me 'what' back in the café. Now I want to know 'why.'"

Camille bit her lip without looking up. "Thought you might," she said.

"I hurt my daughter, and once you were gone I was overwhelmed by how that felt." She looked up at me, and her eyes searched my face. "What I did was hard for me to understand, and it's hard for me to explain. It was for Dodie. That's what I told myself from the beginning. We talked that first night when we stayed up, and I knew what she wanted. I was going to save her from the wrong relationship, and she'd thank me."

None of that told me why she went to Clyde's, but I wasn't going to stop her.

"Dodie didn't thank me, and I started doubting my reasons. I thought maybe I came here needing sex so much that I hurt my daughter to get it. Then worse—I thought that maybe I wanted you so much that I hurt my daughter to have you."

"I went to the bar to prove to myself that I just needed the sex, and I proved that I needed you."

"Your turn," Camille pushed her glass away. "Why were you so interested in me? What did you want?"

I hadn't thought enough to answer right away. I stood and walked to the glass door, and I watched fireworks outside before I knew what to say. "I've never known anyone like you." I sat down across from her again. "The closest would have been some of my dad's girlfriends, but I hardly ever liked them very much. You're experienced and sophisticated—usually. Not so much tonight. You're stylish and attractive, and you were naked. I liked that part a lot.

"I think I wanted to experience you, whatever that meant—learn from you, I guess. I didn't really understand, but it got pretty clear this afternoon. This afternoon, before Dory came back, I was getting exactly what I wanted."

"Poor Dodie," Camille said. "She was the only one who wasn't getting what she wanted. I hope she understands someday that if I hadn't hurt her, then you would have."

"I could have found a better way to tell her." I pushed back from the table and stood. "It's too late now."

Camille's cellphone chimed, and she dug it out of her clothes on the floor. I left the door to the deck open behind me and dropped onto the lounge. A gibbous moon low in the east silhouetted the distant pier. It lit the beach below, and smoke from the fireworks drifted slowly toward the lagoon on the dying sea breeze.

Camille followed me to the deck. She watched the noisy scene below us and talked without looking at me. "That was a text from Dodie. She's home." She left the rail and pushed my leg aside. "Make room," she said and sat on the lounge beside me.

I sat up close to Camille and settled my arm around her waist. I leaned close and whispered in her ear, "Do you still want me?"

A flash of light over the beach lit her face for an instant, and she waited for the boom to pass. "Do I still fascinate you?"

"Everything about you," I cupped her breast in my hand and squeezed her nipple between my fingers. "Naked House rules? I want the prize you were going to give away at Clyde's. I want to fuck you."

"Don't mince words." Camille spoke with a soft laugh that I stifled with my tongue. She tipped her head, and I explored her open mouth. Her breast filled my hand, and I tugged her hardening nipple.

Camille's breath grew fast and shallow. She turned her head to break our kiss and gasped against my shoulder. I pushed my lips under her jaw to the sensitive spot below her ear, and I laid her down on the lounge. Her body was already tense with excitement when climbed on my knees between her thighs.

I braced myself with one hand on the lounge above Camille's shoulder and watched her smile. "You look happy," I said.

"I'm anticipating." Camille lifted her legs around me. She reached between us to stroke my hard cock, and I touched her pussy with my fingertips. We were already moving together with that instinctive rhythm.

Camille's breath warmed my throat. Her taste and her scent filled my mind. I swirled my fingers over her sensitive folds and creases, and I wet the hood over her trigger with her own salty nectar. Her breath came ragged and hot while I worked my fingers into her, and she tightened her grip on my shaft.

"Now," Camille said with her lips close by my ear. I thrust into her, and her pussy stretched tight around my cock. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, and I thrust deeper. Her body engulfed my shaft. Every fiber in my body demanded more, and I thrust again until I'd joined our bodies together.

My cock throbbed inside Camille, and she arched her back under me. I held her close, listened to the excited sounds she made, and our bodies slapped together, faster and harder.

"Say my name." I wanted to hear her to scream it. "Say my name."

"Seth." Camille panted in my ear. She caught her breath and tightened her legs around me. "Oh, Seth!"

Camille twisted under me. She threw her head back and lost control. She dug her fingers into my ribs. "Ah, fuck me!" Her voice rang in my ears and carried over the sand dunes.

I took Camille to the edge, and we plummeted into the abyss. If you could see our doubts and questions, then you would have seen them scattered around us on the lounge and on the deck. We were at last completely naked in Naked House.

Camille dug her fingers into my back and sunk her teeth into my shoulder until I twisted away. Her arms fell back on the lounge; her fingers curled, and she groaned through clenched teeth.

I bellowed into the cushions when I came. I stopped deep inside Camille, and I let myself go—once, twice—and I collapsed in her arms, tired, empty, and slick with sweat.

We caught our breath, and Camille let her thighs slip down my hips. She spread herself under me on the lounge and said, "It's hot out here."

The sea breeze was gone, and the last of the smoke from the fireworks hung over the beach. I pushed myself up on my hands and collapsed on the lounge beside Camille. She rolled to me so we were nose-to-nose, and she asked, "Do you need to leave early tomorrow?"

"I can sleep late. That'll give Dory more time to get her things out of my apartment. When do you need to leave?"

"Flight's at three." She slipped her hand down between us. I stroked her side and her back, and she slipped her fingers under my balls and along my cock. "You're already getting hard again. Let's go inside where it's cooler." She laughed against my shoulder. "And where I won't be singing obscenities to the neighbors."

***

Naked House already seemed empty. Camille wheeled her bag out of the bedroom while I looked around. She found her cell phone in her purse and said, "Give me your number?"

We traded numbers then I wiped the crumbs from breakfast into my hand and brushed them into the trash. "Don't worry about that," she said. "The house cleaners will take care of it—and the fridge, and the linens."

The sun sails were back in the storeroom under the stairs, and our cars both waited on the driveway. We were almost ready to go when I spotted the kite and the string in the corner, out of the way and forgotten. It was still just a roll of sticks and colored paper.

"Do you have time?" I asked. "Your flight's at three?"

Camille's eyes followed mine, and she smiled. "I have some time."

It didn't take long to unfold the sticks and fit them to the paper. Camille watched while I bowed the kite just enough, rigged the line, and attached the tail, and then I led her down to the beach.

Camille tied a scarf over her hair so only her bangs moved in the breeze, and we walked on firm sand toward that pier far down the beach. We stopped where we were alone. Gulls soared and dipped above us while Camille made a seat beside a stand of grass that was nearly buried in a little dune, and I held my kite up in the breeze.

The kite caught eddies in the air boiling above the sand; it lifted and dodged. I fed it line, and it rose higher above the rough air and steadied there, serenely alone against the blue sky.

"A successful roll-out," Camille said. She pulled her cat's-eye sunglasses down and watched the sun glinting off breaking waves. "That flying time you need for your pilot's license—I might be able to help you with it."

"Really?" I took my eyes off the kite to watch Camille. Her focus was distant. Her expression was unreadable. "Why?"

She gave me a little smile. "It would be a loan, and there's a catch. When you have your license, the first place you fly has to be to me."

The kite's line tugged. I gave it my attention and watched the kite's tail flutter on the breeze. We'd never talked about where we would be after Naked House. "So I can save you from yourself again?"

"I hope once was enough," Camille said. Her eyes followed the string from my hand, and she watched the kite bobbing on air. "Why do kites fly?"

"Different kites fly for different reasons. What they all have in common is that they can't fly without a string. They just blow away."

Camille stood from her seat and brushed sand off her legs. She climbed the dune and put her arm around my hips. "Then come to me so you can be my kite."

I watched Camille for a moment then answered, "If you'll be my string."