They loaded two chilly bins into the dinghy and helped me in.
Once again, I was taken by the sand’s noise as I walked up the beach, and I jinked around as I walked, marvelling at the noise. Then I set my blanket down halfway between the water’s edge and the bush, pulled my sun-frock over my head and lay down on my towel. I was still topless, no longer worried about covering my breasts around the guys.
The air still held some chill from the night, but it was wonderfully warm lying in the sun. I heard the clink of bottles and looked sideways to see Aaron pull a couple of beers from the chilly bin. He offered me one, but I declined; too early for me, and worried about needing to go to the toilet if I drank too much. However, I was surprised when they dropped their board shorts and lay back to sunbathe nude.
“So, I suppose I’m going to get a lot of stick now about joining you guys in the nude?” I snapped at them. “You will be wasting your time if you try.”
As always, Ryker answered, “You do what you want, but I’ll put ten dollars on the fact that you will be happy to go nude by the end of the weekend.”
I wanted to rattle him, not give him a chance to stir me again. So I changed the subject.
“Why did you not marry Valerie when you got her pregnant? You obviously love her.”
I saw I had hit the mark; he looked pensive and sat quietly for a moment. I looked to Aaron to see if I had crossed some forbidden line. But he just smiled at me, seemingly unconcerned.
Finally, Ryker said, “Valerie wanted us to get married, but she’s always been a free spirit and slept with whomever she wanted. I was okay when Tony joined us; he loved her as much as I did. But sometimes, at a party, she would head to the bedroom with some fancy guy, making me as jealous as hell. Afterwards, we would argue, and she would always tell me I was being stupid and that she didn’t love them and would never leave me for someone else.”
I wasn’t expecting that. Valerie was so sensible and attractive; I could not believe she would sleep with all and sundry. Thinking he had finished, I went to argue that I didn’t believe she would play around.
But Ryker gestured at me to wait, that there was more, “She also went with women sometimes. That was not nearly so hard as when she took off with a guy. I said I would marry her if she stopped sleeping around. She couldn’t promise me that, and with a lot more discussion, we both realised that if we married, it would always be a major issue for us.”
He thought a bit more, and I could see he was reminiscing about those times.
“Tony had no such qualms; he loved her much more than me and wanted to marry her. When he found out she was pregnant and heard us arguing, he asked me if I would mind him asking her to marry him. You can imagine that messed me up pretty badly. The three of us had long conversations about what was best, and finally, I came to my senses and agreed for them to hook up and look after our son. I now know it was probably for the best.”
“Valerie and Tony did not marry immediately; she’d always figured we would marry and was unsure if her feelings for him were strong enough for marriage. So telling Tony to email me if they needed anything for my son, I took off for England for a couple of years. The decision to get out of their way and let them sort out their feelings was for the best. They married a little over a year after I left. I didn’t worry about missing the marriage, but I did regret that I wasn’t there for Nick’s birth.”
“But all told, it’s worked out really well. I come here four or five times a year. We have had Nick stay the nights with Sally and Steve when I’m here because once the three of us get in bed, it can get quite wild, and he’s getting to the age where he is starting to ask questions.”
“Tony was a lot smarter than me. He brought her here to the Great Barrier, where he oversees the Conservation Department. I don’t think she has played around much now that she is married, not that I think Tony would mind that much; he has always enjoyed sharing her.”
He hesitated again, then, “Well, she does have a thing going with Sally, but most guys can handle woman on woman.”
That was another shock to me. I knew a couple of girls at school that were openly lesbian but had never come close to touching another woman in that way. It made sense, though. I didn’t doubt him this time, as I remembered the kiss that Valerie had given Sally. It was a lot more passionate than I thought was normal.
Ryker could see my surprise and asked, “Are you judging me? Does this shock you? I guess you have never heard of people living like this.”
“No. My mother told me never to judge others. She said everyone was different, that the chemicals in their brain made them who they are, and that people aren’t really in control of how they are put together.”
“So she’s okay with sexual deviants and murderers then?” Ryker responded.
“No! She doesn’t say they shouldn’t be held to account if they break the law. She just says we should try and understand what is wrong with them. She reckons that in the future, all people will be required to go and get tested. They will drink a solution of chemicals and will be wired up to a machine that reads their reaction to the concoction of chemicals. The solution will have a fancy name, like ‘rhapsody’ or something, so people want to take it. Then the machine will spit out a formula they will have to drink for the rest of their lives. It will make them behave normally.”
“And your mother is okay with everyone becoming drugged-up clones?” asked Aaron.
“No, she hopes she will be long dead before it happens. She has another theory that the people in charge will never have to take the test, just all the common people. And when someone gets into power, like Trump, they will adjust the formula so that everyone behaves in the way the people in charge want. She reckons that will probably finish off the human race before the atomic bomb does.”
Aaron sat up, obviously itching to debate or argue the merits of my mother’s theory.
But Ryker touched Aaron’s arm, “Let’s discuss this later. It’s a bit of a morbid topic for this beautiful day, and you must phone your work. Also, I want to get some peaches and make a pudding for tonight.”
Aaron nodded and got up. “Nique, go with Ryker and get some peaches if you want. I must row out to the boat, as my phone won’t work here. We have a booster on the boat for cell phone signals.”
I hadn’t been called ‘Nique’ before; I liked it coming from him. Ryker told me to put on my sundress, or I would get scratched as we pushed through to the fruit trees. And after putting on his shorts and tee shirt, he led me up the beach onto an overgrown track.
We didn’t go far before we were in what had once been an orchard. But it was terribly overgrown now. I stopped by a lichen-covered plum tree and picked one. But Ryker told me the best plum tree was a bit further in and not to bother that one. I took a bite anyway and quickly spat it out. He was right, as usual. It was bitter and sucked my mouth dry of any moisture. Another twenty meters and we came to where the overgrowth was a bit thinner and let in a lot more sunlight, and he showed me an old Black Doris plum tree that was laden.
I tried one; it was okay but still very tart. Ryker reckoned that all the fruit was quite different from what we are used to nowadays.
“I’m not sure if it is the variety of trees, they had back then or the fact that the trees are so old and overgrown, but this fruit is really only good for cooking; come help me gather some peaches,” and he led me further into the grove to the most laden tree. As we got close, a couple of red-crowned parakeets took off from the uppermost branches, their emerald green plumage quite beautiful in the morning’s sun. We could see that they had spoilt most of the top layer of fruit. But some peaches that were not quite so high up had hardly been touched.
“Here, I’ll boost you up; see if you can get me a dozen or more unspoilt ones,” He placed a hand under my bottom and the other under an armpit and lifted me high above his head.
As I reached out and made to grab the best peaches, I was acutely aware that two of his fingers had slipped between my legs and were applying pressure to my vulva. Whether by design or a mistake, I did not know, but it drove an instant surge of desire through my body. I quickly grabbed every peach in sight and indicated to him I had as many as I could hold, and he lowered me back to the ground.
I dropped the five peaches in the grass, and before I could comment on the placement of his hand, he lifted me high above his head again. This time I was sure he knew where he had his hand, as his fingers seemed to curve around the shape of my mound and settle firmly on my clitoris.
I hastily grabbed some more peaches, tried to make my voice sound casual, and called out ‘down’. But my voice betrayed my arousal. It was more like a moan than a clear, lucid command.
“Four or five more should be plenty,” he said, lifting me back into the tree.
Again his fingers were pressed firmly against my sex. Even threw my dress and bikini bottom, I could feel the fingers move and curl to feel my engorged mound. Such an innocent movement sent waves of desire through my body, and I was very aware, as I reached for the last peaches, that my rock-hard nipples were rubbing against my cotton sundress. And I was sure he would feel how wet I was. My secretions had started flowing onto my bikini’s gusset.
Once he lowered me to the ground, he further inflamed my desire by lifting the hem of my dress and placing the bunched-up hem in my hands. I thought he was going to raise my dress over my head and remove it. And when he knelt in front of me, I involuntarily opened my legs to give him access, expecting him to push his head between my legs. But he just picked up the fruit from the ground and placed it in the gathered folds.
How embarrassing, my face flushed red, but although he knew exactly what had happened, he didn’t comment or make fun of me but took my arm and helped me walk back to the beach. We stopped by the Black Doris plum tree as we passed it, and he put half a dozen of these in my dress, “We’ll cook these to go with our cereal in the morning.”
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