Summer's Eve Pt. 01

"Don't look!" she shouted again, hoping to buy herself some more time and hopefully stop any glances from going her way. Jack seemed to be a honest fellow, however, and she could still see his dark neck when she looked at him."

Being wet she shivered, but she still had trouble deciding. Go home or swim, that was the question. The water still looked very inviting, but she could not help but shake the nervousness of being around a complete stranger than almost saw her naked. Her heart was still strongly pumping in her chest when she made her decision. Helena hung the towel over her shoulders and turned her back on the man in the lake. When pulling on the bikini top her fingers fumbled and they fell from her chest. She had to quickly bend down to catch them before they hit the rock. Before long her ample breasts were safely hidden behind the thin layer of yellow polyester. Helena dropped the towel and then threw herself into the lake, eager to get away from the cold. This time the embrace of the water felt like a relief, and she set a quick course for her unexpected swimming companion. He had turned around when he heard the splash and watched her approach.

"You're a good swimmer." he noted when she came closer. "Good technique."

"You think?" she continued past him, turned and then started treading water again a few metres away from him. She was feeling much more confident now with a bikini on, and the whole awkwardness from earlier was like a distant memory already. "You didn't peak when I dressed, I hope?"

"Of course not." he sounded quite serious as he answered. "But you really do got a good technique."

"Thanks. I used to swim a lot a few years back."

"Professional?"

"No no." Helena gathered up her wet hair into a ponytail again and used the scrunchie to keep it in place. "Recreational, mostly. But I was in a couple of regional tournaments. Even won a bronze medal once."

"Nice. Good work."

"And you?" she nodded at him. "But, I guess if you can swim the whole lake without popping up for air you are pretty good."

"I do my fair share." Jack said. "I like to swim. Recreational, I guess you could call it. But I've been in a few tournaments, both here and in Europe."

"So you're a sportsman?"

He grinned and showed of almost impossibly white teeth. "When I can afford it."

Jack sunk down into the water but appeared almost immediately after a metre away. Helena watched a strong, incredibly muscular arm break the surface and then gracefully descend again as he broke into a slow, lazy crawl. He passed by her and continued towards the distant opposite bank of the lake, leaving her to ponder what to do. She was still not in any hurry, and maybe taking a swim with someone else would not be a such a bad idea after all. Helena only hesitated for a moment before she followed him. Her crawl technique was a little rusty but Jack was taking it slow. She caught up with him without problem and felt comfortable keeping the same speed as him.

"Can I ask where you are from?" she wondered. They kept a low pace enough that it was easy to keep their mouths over the water. "I'm just curious-" she was quick to clarify when he looked at her. "I don't recognize your dialect. Are you from the south of the country?"

"Not really." he answered moments later. "I've lived there for many years, but I was born in Kongo."

"Oh." Helena grew unsure of what to say. She was not really sure how to act in these kinds of situations, and some people were really touchy around the subject of where they were frome. "You speak very good Swedish."

Thankfully Jack did not seem to be a touchy. He just smiled lightly. "I've been living here since I was a kid, so I've had lots of practice."

"Okay then."

Helena focused on her swimming again. But even as she swam she found that it was hard not to look at Jack's arms and shoulders when they appeared out of the water. Like his head and face they were an amazingly dark shade of ebony black. The skin glistened with water and the muscles rippled with strength as they cut through the water. Even now when their movement was slow you could sense the power within them.

"And you?" he asked jokingly. "Born and raised, I suppose."

"As Swedish as you can get." she replied, copying the light-heartedness in his voice.

"Figured."

"What?"

He grinned. "Nothing. Just figured that you probably were."

"My God." she pretended to be surprised. "Is it really that obvious?"

Jack did not answer and only grinned. For some strange reason Helena's heart fluttered briefly in her chest, but she did not pay much attention to it. They were already approaching the shore. On this side of the lake it was muddy and steep, and more or less impossible - or at least very hard - to climb. Helena pushed ahead and was the first to reach it. Jack did not fall far behind.

"You really are a good swimmer." Helena said to him and gave an impressed nod.

"Don't like to brag." he answered with feigned humility. "But I do my best."

The smile on his face amused her. Helena wondered how old he was. He had that type of appearance that hid age very well, one that was both youthful and timeless at the same time. But given that he had been talking about the party earlier she guessed he was in his twenties. Although perhaps the people at the party cottage were a bit older, she did not really known them. It was a curious mystery for her to think about.

"Do you think you can show me that long underwater dive?" she asked. "Across the lake and back to me?"

"Across - not a problem. But back..." he shrugged. "I'm not THAT good."

"But I need to know for sure if you can or can't." she told him. "If you can't show me, how else am I going to know that you weren't peeping at me while I was getting into the water?"

Jack's stare made her laugh.

"I'm just messing with you. But what about this." she pointed to the other side. "We start swimming together, then I continue to the other side while you go underwater, first to there and then back to me. I promise I won't be going too slow."

Jack squinted at the other bank and sucked in his lips. He looked thoughtful. Helena watched him with a curious, even excited smile. For some reason she was really hoping that he would say yes.

"Sure." he said and nodded. "I think I can do that."

"Then let's get going."

Helena realized that maybe she sounded a little bit too excited, but it did not seem like Jack noticed it. And if he did notice he did not care to show it in any way.

"If you want to." he said, swam closer to the steep bank and then pushed himself away to get some extra speed.

Helena sat course after him. Now he was keeping a higher pace, and she had to put a bit of energy into keeping up with him. She could see the soles of his feet kicking just beneath the surface and create small waves, but what really drew her eyes was his arms and back. Helena had fallen slightly behind, but from where she was she had an excellent view of him. His thick, muscular arms rose and fell as he crawled. The shoulders were just as refined, with the muscles looking as if cut from stone beneath the black skin. The same could be said for the upper parts of the back and the shoulderblades. It took her a moment to realize she was staring. As soon as the thought entered her mind she forced herself to look away. Everything in moderation - appreciating handsome muscular guys is one thing, but staring and practically drooling over them was a step too far.

When they were about a third of the way to the other side he glanced over his shoulder at her. Without slowing down for even a second he took a deep breath, raised his arms in the air in front of him and then descended into the dark water. Helena saw his head, shoulders and back arch and disappear down, and...

Oh god.

For a split second she thought she had got something in her eyes, or just imagined it. Jack's feet splashed one final time above the surface and then the pale soles disappeared into the darkness as well. Helena involuntarily slowed down, staring at the rings of water left by him. Her heart was once more beating in her chest. Was that... a naked butt she had seen? Helena gathered herself and started swimming again with quick but still easy strokes. Her mind was still in a state of confusion, but the more she thought about it the more sure she became. When Jack's arched back disappeared into the water she had seen - only for a split second, but still - his ass peek up above the surface. The image of it was plastered in her head. As she swam there was two conflicting feelings filling her mind. One was that of appreciation - the black man-ass she had seen had looked (even though she only caught a brief glimpse of it) very toned, muscular and tight. All and all - a nice butt. But the second feeling was much more disturbing to her. Why was he naked, and why had he not even tried to tell her about it? She had been completely naked just a few metres away from an equally naked stranger, who might or might not have glimpsed her naked body. These conflicting emotions bothered her, made her heart beat harder than usual and even had her stomach flutter. It was strange, really.

Helena was still swimming, and the other shore - almost completely hidden by tall reeds - was coming closer. But where was Jack? She looked over her shoulder, but he was nowhere to be seen. No bubbles, no waves, no rings of disturbed water. She was sure she had not heard him surface anywhere. Helena looked to the forest of reeds, figuring that he might have surfaced there to watch her from cover, but as far as she could see there was nothing out of the ordinary there either.

Now she was starting to actually get worried. She stopped and started treading water, looking around with an increasingly concerned wrinkle written over her forehead. Had something gone wrong? He had been away for a while now, and surely no regular person could hold his breath for that long and keep swimming? The thought made her entire body go cold and goosebumps cover her skin. Vivid images of how she would start diving and looking for Jack in the dark water filled her head. A second later they were closely followed by how she would have to call the police, tell them the entire story and then, in the light of floodlights in the dark of night they would have to use divers to search the murky bottom for Jack's cold, dead body. Suddenly the darkening waters of the lake and the settling sun terrified her.

Something brushed against her feet and she cried out in surprise and fear.

"Aah!" she turned and started kicking for dear life, but in the next moment the surface was broken by something large and dark. Splashes flew everywhere, and this time she was close enough to get drenched by them.

Jack was drawing big gulps of air and Helena could see his broad chest heave like a pair of bellows. Her heart was still hammering against her ribs when she herself drew a deep sigh of relief.

"My God." she blurted. "You scared the ever living crap out of me. "Damn my heart."

"Sorry." Jack answered, but she was not sure that he was being honest this time around. His big white grin certainly suggested otherwise. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"But you certainly did." Helena shook her head and took another deep breath to calm her nerves. "Wow, you can kill someone by doing that. I was starting to think you had drowned."

"Too early to call the cops though. Still alive, as you can see." he said, and she rolled her eyes at the smart-ass comment. "And I thought you had a pretty strong heart."

"Well, what if you were wrong? Maybe I have some sort of fatal heart condition and you just manage to kill me." she snapped her fingers in the air. "Just like that."

"Then I would be in a world of trouble." he nonchalantly responded. "But I got lucky."

"You certainly did. So did you swim all the way, or were you just spying at me going crazy from the reeds?"

"All the way. From you to the shore and then back here. That's even more than a hundred metres, I think."

Helena could not help but be impressed. Such a distance, underwater and with limited visibility was something she could never see herself doing. She measured the distance swum in her head, but then that thought from before came back to her. The image of his naked ass entered Helena's mind and she felt her cheeks grow hot. She could only pray that Jack did not notice, or that the cold water kept them pale. Helena opened her mouth to say something but hesitated, and quickly closed it again.

"Look, if I really scared you that much - I'm sorry."

Now he actually sounded apologetic. Helena flashed him an annoyed grimace, but she could not keep up her sullen demeanour for long.

"It's okay." she said. "I'll survive, somehow."

They swam lazily towards the shore. By now Helena had got completely used to the water and was enjoying herself. Humans are more adapted to water than they might think. She had even seen documents about the human body's swimming capabilities. Interesting stuff, actually. Helena liked the feeling of herself effortlessly gliding through the water. She imagined that being weightless in space was something similar to this. The sun had gone into the clouds again and the water had stopped glittering. Helena saw the shadows among the trees in the forest growing darker, but there was still some daylight left. This was the middle of summer, after all, and the nights were supposed to be as short and light as they could get. She had some time to enjoy herself before having to go home.

But there still was one thing that kept bothering her: the fact that Jack was probably (no, she was now sure of it) naked. She wanted to somehow comment on it, to let him know that she had found out. Helena filled her head with ways she could tip him off, or even tell him outright, but actually deciding on one was hard. Harder than expected. Several times she was about to speak up just to close her mouth a second later.. She just couldn't do it.

"And what are you doing around these parts?" Jack asked after a long period of silence. They had done a semicircle along the shore and were now just floating in the water.

"Me?" he took Helena off-guard. She even scratched her head while she tried to find the answer.

"Yeah, you." he said with a smile. "I can't really see anyone else here."

Helena responded with a curved smirk at his smart-ass comment, but she felt neither annoyed or angry.

"Enjoying summer." she said. "Enjoying some time away from the office."

"Nice. Are you studying too or are you working full-time?"

Helena's heart jumped. She stared at him, but Jack had looked and sounded completely honest. Even now he was looking at her with a politely curious expression on his face. Once again Helena's cheeks felt like they were on fire.

"Heh. No." she blurted as soon as the initial surprise had left her. "I'm working full time."

"Me too." he said. "I work at a can factory back home. You can't imagine how nice it is to not have to smell frozen meat juice all day long."

He deeply inhaled the evening air through his nose to show his enjoyment. Helena's cheeks were still hot, her heart was jumping in her chest and her stomach had refilled with butterflies.

"So you're staying at one of the cottages?" Jack continued. "You must be, I haven't seen any other place where people could live."

"Yeah, I'm staying at one of the cottages. My in-law's cottage."

Now it was his time to look at her in surprise.

"In-laws?"

She nodded. He wrinkled his forehead, looked to the shore and then back at her.

"Really? How old are you?"

"Now, that isn't a question you ask a lady now do you?" she reprimanded him with a feigned stern voice. "But yes, I'm staying here with my in-law parents."

Jack's eyes widened somewhat, but he quickly regained his composure.

"So you're married?"

"Yep." Helena started laughing. "Actually I am. For ten years, ten years, actually."

"Damn." he simply uttered. "Wow. I thought you were like... I don't know, twentyfive."

"Really?"

Now this flattery was just making her feel all warm and fuzzy. She gave him an inquiring look and he shrugged.

"Yeah."

"Thank you." she said and laughed again. "That's very nice of you to say that."

"I really thought you were twentyfive. Twentysix maybe, something like that." he muttered. "How old are you?"

"Again that question you never ask a lady." Helena teased him. "Tell me how old you are first, then we can see if I tell you my age."

"Alright." Jack readily agreed. "I'm twenty-four."

My God. Helena shook her head in dismay.

"I was in 9th grade when you were born." she finally told him after a deliberately long pause. "I'm thirty-four. JUST turned thirty-four, I'm not that old yet." she added with a chuckle.

"Get the fuck out of here."

Being a mother of two boys she hoped would grow up well-behaved, Helena instinctively raised an eyebrow at Jack's swearing. Still, his so seemingly sincere surprise was amusing to her. It was really flattering actually. Helena's diet, training and genetics had paid off after all.

"You serious?" he sounded sceptical.

"Dead serious."

"Damn." he repeated once more. "You look really great."

"Thank you."

Something rang, loudly and insistently. Helena turned her head around and wrinkled her forehead. The sound rolled across the open expanses of the lake.

"What was that?" she wondered looking at Jack.

"My phone."

It rang again.

"Your friends?"

"Probably wondering where I am."

He started swimming towards the shore. Helena remained where she was - the distance to the bank was not that large to begin with. But she did wonder where from the phone was ringing - there were long reeds everywhere. Jack took mighty yet somehow still graceful strokes with his arms and kicked lazily with his feet. Like a motorboat he flew through the water and reached the reed forest. She slowly followed after him, and as she came closer she realized that the reeds parted around a small piece of dry, grassy land jutting out from the main shoreline. From a distance it was well hidden, and it was only now that Jack made his way to it that she actually spotted it.

When there was just a metre or two left to the patch of land Helena saw that Jack's feet reached the lake bottom. His shoulders rose from the lake and water cascaded down them, his shoulder blades and back. Helena froze in the water, and her heart made a big jolt in her chest. She was unable to look away. A perfect, wide back emerged from the water. The black skin was barely containing the muscles beneath it, and neither did it on the long, oh so so strong-looking arms. Helena almost stopped breathing. How dared she stare like this? No, there was nothing wrong with looking at handsome guys - but now she was blatantly staring at him. Helena was an adult, married woman, and while she was certainly not a prude there were limits for what she could allow herself to do.

Helena stared at Jack coming out of the water. Her eyes trailed down his glorious back to his bare ass. She had not been imagining it being bare after all. Muscular thighs, toned from what she could only imagine a lot of active swimming, appeared. The legs were amazing, the calves defined. All were as dark as the rest of him. Jesus Christ. Helena's teeth clenched down on the inside of her lower lip. There was something thick and dark swaying beneath Jack's legs. It was massive, big and heavy. Helena's skin grew goosebumps for probably the tenth time today. She instinctively pressed her thighs together and started sinking. Her head almost disappeared under the surface, but only when water hit her face did she remember that she still had to stay afloat.