Dark water surrounds me. Dark and cool. The air is hot. Too hot. That’s why I am here. It is the middle of the night and I cannot sleep for the heat. My mind wants to sleep, but my body is awake, so I come to the water.

I float here, in the deep end, on my back, with my ears under the water. That keeps the sounds away. Like this, I can float both in the water and in my own head. There are echoes from the outside world, but they are fuzzy. I can hear my breathing. It is peaceful.

My arms and legs move slowly, keeping me just below the water’s surface. Except for my breasts. They float nicely on the top. Moving up and down with my breath. Bobbing back and forth with the ripples in the pool. I like the way they feel like this. I like the way my entire body feels in this water. Naked. Covered in the caresses of the moving liquid.

It is not often that we are given the chance to have our bodies enveloped in touch. I need that. I crave that. That is why I swim naked. To immerse myself. To feel everywhere, all over me, all at once.

If I move my arms just so, I can feel the water swirl around my face, my shoulders, my armpits, my back. My hands send larger, stronger, waves to ripple along my sides, my hips, my buttocks. Over my stomach. If I move my legs just so, I can feel the water swirl around my ankles, the backs of my knees, my calves. My thighs. There are so many places on a body that are neglected; that are not attended to with sensual or erotic touch. The water gives me this.

The sky is dark. There is no moon tonight, but the stars are clear. I have an excellent view from my horizontal vantage in the deep end of the pool. Looking up I can disconnect from here and fall up into that infinity. I can NOT look at my body, and simply feel it. I can become sensation. I can feel more.

My hair floats, framing my face. As I move my head slowly back and forth, it pulls oh so gently at my scalp, and tickles my shoulders. I can feel my pubic hair floating. Like this, it tickles me, too. I smile to think of whether anyone else in the world has paid attention to that particular sensation before. It is my fun little tantalizing secret.

I close my eyes and I am alone with my body. With my external senses dampened, the sensations that come from within are amplified.  If I pass my hands slowly over my skin, I can link those internal sensations to the sensations that come from without. My nerves come alive. Small sparks begin with their meeting. I inhale and breathe life into them.

I adjust the movement of my arms, strengthen it, and the waves lap at my nipples. An easy teasing. I adjust the movement of my legs, scissor them just so and it moves the water in gentle waves over the soft skin of my inner thighs, towards their junction. I open and close my legs so that there are echoes of ripples along the folds of my sex and between my buttocks. With my ears under the water, I hear myself breathe as I do this.

The water is my lover, and I stay for a long time in its embrace, enjoying the feel of its tongue on my skin.