Summer's Eve Pt. 01

Meanwhile Jack seemed completely oblivious of his own nakedness, or that he was being ogled by a married female stranger. Helena saw him get up onto land and kneel down, and an involuntary 'oh' escaped her. She saw a massive sack hanging between his legs as he bent forward to dig around in a heap of clothes. Helena could just not look away. Now she was certain that her cheeks were burning with shame. Jack found his phone and was about to put it to his face when it rang one final time and then went quiet.

"Hello?" he heard him say loudly into it. "You still there?"

A couple moments later he shrugged and lowered the phone. Helena felt like sinking to the bottom of the lake when he glanced at her over his shoulder.

"Huh. Seems I missed it." he mused out loud. "Ah well."

That same moment the phone rang again. It's ringing was even louder and more obnoxious than before. He immediately put it to his ear again and Helena dared to exhale. God, she felt so stupid and embarrassed.

"Hey, Daniel." Jack said loudly. "Ah no, I was just out in the middle of the lake when you called."

He rose to his feet. His legs pressed together and hid his package from her, but Helena was not looking anymore anyway. She had forced herself to turn around and was now studying the opposite bank of the lake dot. From where they were now the thinner area and the beach where the local cottage-owners usually camped out was impossible to see from the reeds and steeper banks. Helena suddenly realized how stupid, not to say incriminating this whole situation was. She - a married woman - was swimming together with a naked man that was ten years younger than her. Even better - said man was now up on the shore, not even trying to hide his nakedness from her. And she, like some sort of curious schoolgirl, was spending all too much time staring at him, at his rippling muscles and his thick...

Helena angrily shook her head and even slapped herself in the face. Enough was enough. She was not only ridiculous now, she was goddamn stupid.

"No, I'll be back soon." Jack said, head facing the sky. "The water isn't great, but it's warmer than it was yesterday. I'll be back in time for supper. What?"

He briefly turned his head and looked behind him, not at Helena, but probably trying to spot the beach.

"I don't think we can trust the weather enough for that. Maybe try tomorrow. Alright. See you later man."

Jack lowered the telephone and looked at it.

"My people are saying that we're gonna eat soon."

Helena smacked herself on the leg beneath the water. That unexpected feeling of disappointment that cut through here was just too much to tolerate. Enough was enough. While scolding herself in her mind she nodded, but eyes quickly moved away from the naked black man. This was probably for the better.

"I guess I should be going to." she said, trying to sound casual. "I don't want to wake up the kids by barging in in the middle of the night."

"Probably."

He put the phone down onto the heap of clothes.

Then he turned around.

"Watch what you're doing." Helena said and her voice turned out to be louder than intended. She glimpsed him from the corner of her eye, but she kept her gaze steadfast and locked on the lake itself. Her heart was nevertheless pounding. "Why didn't you tell me you were going commando?"

"I wanted to." he said from the shore. "But I didn't really know how to do it. Felt weird."

"Oh really?" Helena wonder. "You had the perfect chance when I told you that I was naked. And you just... climbing out of the water like this, that isn't weird at all?"

"I had to answer the phone."

Now she was sure that he was messing with her. Enough was enough.

"I'll be heading back." she said, flexed her arms in the water and prepared to start swimming back to her distant rock. "I'll guess you will be too."

"Why?"

"Why?" she repeated his words, almost turned around to face him. She stopped herself at the last moment.

"I'm not in a hurry." he said. "Are you?"

"I..." she coughed and swallowed. "Not really, but..."

"I think I will stay some more."

Only when Helena heard him get into the water did she turn around. But as she did she caught a glimpse of him, just before he descended into the lake. Adonis. He was an Adonis. But instead of his body being chiseled from white marble, his was cut from black granite. Rock-hard and muscular. Bulging biceps and huge chest muscles. A six-pack like cut from stone by a master's masons hand. A incredibly defined pelvic 'V' muscle. And below it... Jack was already gliding through the water, but Helena had still seen it. The image of it was burned into her retinas. His cock had been huge.

"Why are you naked?" she asked him when he came closer. Helena felt that this question was more than appropriate now. "Why?"

"Why were you?"

"This is not a game." she gruffly rebuked. "I had no idea you were busy hiding underwater. I thought I had some privacy."

Jack was now treading water a metre or two away from her. He was not smiling, but in Helena's eyes he looked amused. It made her feel both angry and weird.

"I thought I was being alone too."

"But you couldn't have told me?" she asked. "We're grown people, you could just have excused yourself and nothing more would have been said about it. Instead I have to get a shock when you climb butt-naked out of the water to get your phone."

"So you wouldn't call me a dirty pervert if I just told you that?" he tilted his head to the side. "Because I was thinking that was exactly would would happen."

"If anything you're more of a pervert now. You're naked damn it. Put on some swimwear, or something."

"I didn't bring any with me." Jack said. "I just have my boxer shorts, and I'm going to need them dry when I'm going back to the cottage."

Helena gave him an annoyed, almost angry look. This light-hearted banter had been fun earlier, but now the border of decency had been crossed. Her own behaviour and thoughts were making her angry as well. Now it was decided - it was time to go.

"I will be going home." she said shortly. "I've been here for too long already."

Helena broke into a quick yet dignified breaststrokes and headed for her distant rock. She had made the right decision, it was time to get back to Lars and their two sons and just forget about all of this. Helena picked up pace and cut through the water, and it did not take too long for her to reach the middle of the lake. For only a moment she halted, turned over onto her back and looked behind her. Jack was crawling. He was not following her, he just let his strong, magnificent arms rise and fall with slow but yet so powerful movements as he swam in his part of the lake. Helena watched him make a turn and continue back towards the reeds and the tuft of land where he had his things.

This short pause in the middle of the lake was enough to break her resolve.

Helena was cursing herself. How stupid could you get, like really? She just had a couple of dozen metres left until she reached the flat rock where she had left her clothes. Get out of the water, dry off, put on the skirt and blouse and Just. Go. Home. Forget all about this weird encounter and go on with your life.

Helena, you stupid, stupid woman.

She knew that she was just that. But she wanted more. What exactly? No idea. She did not want to leave, not yet. The sun had yet to settle, and although the water and shadows were slowly growing darker it was not like she had to hurry anywhere. At the very least (she tried to convince herself that) she would get plenty of good exercise from swimming and back forth the lake this many times. Helena muttered a curse - one which she would never ever utter within hearing range of her sons - and turned around. Her heart jolted as she sat course for the forest of reeds once more.

"Weren't you going?"

Jack slowed down when he saw her approach. Helena had expected him to sound triumphant, maybe even sarcastic as she, defeated, returned. To her surprise his voice voice was sincere, and the look he gave her was frank and straight-forward.

He was a really handsome man, come to think about it.

"Not yet." she muttered. "I could use some extra exercise after all the Midsummer's Eve food."

"Okay."

That was his only answer. Again Helena had expected something else, but Jack just nodded and started swimming again. Hesitantly she followed his lead.

Jack was fast and strong. He was basically flying through the water, see. Helena broke out into a crawl as well. At first she fell behind, and seeing his white soles kicking in the water in front of her made her redouble her efforts. Her lungs took deep breaths and sent a rush of oxygen-enriched blood into her system. Helena's heart pumped it vigorously around, sending the erythrocytes to every little fiber of her body. Her muscles worked harder and she remembered the proper crawling technique, which probably had not been forgotten to begin with and only dormant.

Helena caught up with him when they reached the middle of the lake. As they sat course for the steep shore they had visited before she overtook the lead. She was on a roll now and quickly passed by him. Helena glanced back at him and saw - to her own satisfaction, actually - how he fell behind. She still got it. But she had barely even felt the triumph before he caught up with her. This time his dark body appeared to the right of her. He was like a torpedo of muscles and speed. They were almost at the steep bank now. Helena accelerated, pushed her efforts even further than before. Now she had but one goal in mind - reaching the shore before him. From out of nowhere this had become a competition.

The last ten metres they were evenly matched, but Helena - fueled by adrenaline and determination - pushed ahead at the last moment. Like in a competition she reached out with her arm and touched the damp earth above the water.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, her voice ringing with almost childish excitement.

"Uh-huh." Jack was right behind her. He agily twisted around in the water just as he touched the bank and then started swimming back through the very waves they had created. "Whoever gets back to the other shore wins."

"What?"

But it was too late. Jack was already gaining precious distance on her. Helena's blood was rushing and her heart was pounding from the rather intensive course. She wanted to shout that he was being unfair, and that she had won fair and square. With a groan she pushed herself away from the bank with her feet and started furiously working her way forward. She needed to catch up with him.

Breathing was becoming strained and her chest and ribs were feeling the massive amounts of air passing and out of them with each breath. Her muscles were getting tired, she realized, and Jack was still far ahead. No. She had to defeat him, or at least catch up with him. Helena pushed herself to the brink and her strokes and kicks grew into a splashing flurry of movements. She caught up to him. Barely, but she managed to do it. His strokes were as easy and strong as before. Helena realized that she was losing to him. A shame, she thought. She had really wanted to win. Jack did not leave her behind, however. Even though Helena suspected that he was taking it slow, she still managed to keep up besides him. The exertion took its toll; just as they reached the forest of gently rocking reeds her vision darkened.

Her feet hit the muddy slope of the lake bottom and Helena stumbled out of the water, loudly gasping for air.

Finally her feet felt the muddy slope of the lake bottom. Helena stumbled out of the water, loudly gasping for air. The pulse was loudly swooshing in her ears. Amidst near total exhaustion and with muscles aching she was barely aware of how she lost footing and stumbled forward. Helena braced herself for impact, but before she felt the impact a pair of strong hands grabbed hold of her. They halted her fall and pulled her upright again. When on dry land they let go of her and Helena landed with a loud (and not very elegant) 'Umpf' at the ground. She felt warm, and her glistening wet skin did not feel the cool embrace of the evening air.

"God." she was still struggling to fill her lungs with air. Helena fell onto her back and felt soft fabric beneath it when she came to rest. "Oh damn."

"You okay there?"

"Sure." Helena wiped off her face with her hands and opened her eyes. She was staring at a cloudy heaven and the obscured disc of the settling sun. "It's just..." more deep breaths, but now she felt that she was finally recovering from the exertion. "I didn't think I was that out of shape."

Jack chuckled. "I think you were pretty good. We kept a good pace, both there and back."

"I feel like I just did an entire triathlon."

"Then maybe you'll have to work on your cardio."

"Hey!"

Helena pretended to be insulted. Jack chuckled and turned his head to the lake again. Helena's muscles protested when she sat up and made her groan with displeasure. Now the whole situation was coming back to her and she realized where she was. Both she and Jack were sitting side by side on a patch of coarse grass, both of them soaking wet. Helena's hair clung to cheeks and forehead with in heavy wet tufts. Lazily she brushed them away, once more arranging them into her ponytail. Thankfully the scruffie was still with her. Now that her breathing had finally returned to normal she felt much better. Tired, but better. But when Helena lowered her eyes she came to stare at her own breaths, almost mesmerized by their heaving motion. Was she really breathing that heavily?. Fine drops of water were still clinging on to the ample mounds, and as her breasts rhythmically rose and fell the droplets took turns of running down along their shape. It felt strange to suddenly become so aware of her own body like this, or how her breasts moved in the tight embrace of the yellow polyester. Did her bikini top really show that much skin?

Ah yes, she had almost forgotten. The man that sat on her right was still completely naked, and the fabric she had rested her back against was probably his clothes. The realization of this predicament made her tense up again. She made sure to keep her eyes on the lake and thoughts away from anything... indecent.

"No, you're good." Jack concluded. "Good technique, good speed. You're good. But..."

"I'm slow and and easily fatigued?" she asked.

"There is always room for improvement."

"There always is." Helena nodded. "But I haven't done serious swimming for years now, and I doubt I'll ever do it again."

"Why not?"

"Why not?" she slowly shook her head. "Not enough time. Work and family takes a lot of time."

"That's a good point."

"You?" she had almost looked over at him, but a stern and motherly voice in her head had made her stay the muscles in her neck. "Do you spend all your free time working on your swimming techniques?"

"Not all the time." he replied thoughtfully. "But a lot."

"So you are the kind of person that only works to afford his own hobby?"

Jack shrugged. "I guess you could say that. Can factory is a living, but I don't live for the factory."

Helena slowly nodded to herself and looked down at her long naked legs. She placed her arms behind her for support and sighed. She was still feeling a bit tired, but far from as exhausted as she had been just a minute ago.

"No, no more swimming for me today." Helena concluded, both to herself and Jack. "I think I've had enough of it for a while now. And sorry. I think I got water on your things."

"It's alright."

Jack reached out and Helena lightly trembled when his arm brush against her back. What was going on with her? He had grabbed his phone and was now looking at the screen. The bluish light lit up his face among the slowly settling shadows and his thick fingers danced across the touch-screen. Helena was not sure what to think, or what even to feel. Emotions, thoughts and feelings were locked in a confused and conflicting mix inside of her. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Nothing. Well, something had happened. She had been been swimming back and forth over the lake with this handsome (Helena almost slapped herself) young man. They had been competing, and he had won - there was no use in trying to deny it. He had even dragged her out of the water after she had so stupidly exhausted herself during the race. And now they were sitting side by side, chatting. Nothing out of the ordinary. Save for the fact that he was naked and she was feeling strange to say the least. She tried to look at her own thoughts and mind from the side, like she imagined a psychologist would do. Had anything bad happened? No. Had he or she done anything wrong? No. Then why was she feeling so... disappointed? Yes, that had to be the right word. Why was she feeling disappointment, like there was something missing?

Helena sighed and checked her ponytail again. It was getting late after all. No idea in staying until it got dark.

"Thank you." she mumbled and leaned forward, trying to reach her feet with her hands to stretch out her muscles. "This was fun. Some exercise and someone to talk to. A bit awkward-" she made a slight grimace. "But fun."

"You're leaving?" he asked, eyes still on the phone screen.

"Yeah." Helena could hear her own disappointment in her voice. "Time to get back, or my husband might start thinking that I drowned or something."

"Hm." he made a thoughtful sound. "It's not that late, but if you need to go..."

"I do."

God she sounded silly. Helena would have laughed if not for the stupid feeling of disappointment filling her up. And she did not even have any reason to feel that way - quite the contrary.

"I was actually thinking of inviting you to the party earlier."

"What?" Helena immediately snapped into attention. "What did you say?"

"Not now, earlier." Jack corrected himself. "When I thought you were twenty-five."

"Really?" Helena felt that she had been saying 'Really' or variations thereof an awful lot this evening. "Why?"

"I did." he readily admitted, and although Helena was still not looking at him she saw him flashing a smile from the corner of her eye. "I thought that you could hang out with us. Drink some beers, eat some barbeque. We're a big group, but we got both the cottage and tents. Could have been fun to hang out."

Maybe it was just Helena who was behaving like an easily swayed schoolgirl. Perhaps it was Jack really trying to flatter her, or maybe he was not doing it all and was complimenting her by accident. Either way - Helena felt warm.

"Did you now? Or are you just trying to smoothe over the fact that you still haven't put on any clothes?"

Why the hell did she even mention that he was naked? Helena could not answer that question even to herself.

"I'm not trying to compliment you."

"But you're certainly succeeding at flattering me." Helena made a short pause. "So you wanted to invite me to that party of yours, huh?"

"Yeah. Could've been fun. Offer still stands, if you feel like it."

"Oh no." she said decisively and shook her head. "Me, on some party with drunk twenty-something year olds? No, I'm too old for that."

"Ah, don't say that. You looked young enough earlier."

Helena rolled her eyes, but her heart jumped in excitement. No really, what was happening to her?"

"I need to get going." she said, once more remembering the time and place. "It is getting late."

She knew that he was looking at her. She could feel his eyes on her body. Probably moving across it. She had stopped stretching and was just sitting, slightly slouching, hair wetly clinging on to head and shoulders and her eyes fixed on the peaceful waters of the lake. She could practically feel how his dark eyes wandered from her neck and over her back, along her waist and hips and... Helena shivered, but it was not cold that made her shiver.