The cocktail was ice cold in my throat yet it burned almost as hot as her. That swimsuit. Two electric pink pieces separated by a stomach not yet exposed to overindulgence. Water cascaded from her body in a 'V' as she hauled herself out of the coruscating pool directly in front of me and flicked dark hair behind her lissome frame like something from a damn movie. Nobody yelled, "Cut!"
I'd never been so glad of tinted glasses and having my knees drawn up on the sun lounger to hide my gaze and erection, respectively. Each droplet of water that glistened on her skin seemed to fall in slow motion to the floor, as if gravity was also weaker in her presence. Although I could have imagined it, I swear her eyes held mine, and something flashed behind them – a wildness – just before she reached full height, prominent nipples atop breasts jutting beneath material barely able to contain them.
Through the dripping bikini briefs clinging to her skin, I could make out the tantalising contour of each labial lip. And when she turned to face the pool, my God. I gulped another mouthful of Long Island Iced Tea at the way the fabric curved over those alabaster cheeks and swept between her lightly tanned, wet thighs. Just enough material to tease. Her thigh gap was a perfect keyhole I'd have died to unlock.
She stood with toes curled over the pool edge, waiting for space in the water. A female whoop to her left made her glance across and I marvelled at her profile that caught the fierce rays of the mid-afternoon sun from the cloudless Balearic sky. Gently tapered nose from which a drop of water fell, sensuous lips, high cheekbones. She waved, then refocused on the crystal blue pool and upended with a deft flick of her heels, balletic and shapely as the water parted to accept her.
My wife in the lounger alongside tutted. "Hussy."
I turned to her. Blonde locks tumbled over shoulders dappled with freckles either side of the straps of her burgundy one-piece. Beneath the shade of the oversized parasol she exuded radiance. Beautiful and womanly.
"Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it, right?"
She gave a tight-lipped smile, reaching for her G&T from the low wicker table between us and taking a sip. "I remember when you used to look at me like that."
"I wasn't-" I started, perhaps too hastily. I fixed Rachel with what I hoped was a guiltless expression. "I still do."
I watched her throat undulate as she took another pull of her drink. "Mmmm. But I don't have that effect on you." She nodded at my crotch.
I felt suddenly self-conscious and shifted in the lounger that creaked in defiance. "Yes, you do." I caught her eye over my glasses and lowered my voice. "Want me to prove it?"
She laughed and her breasts jiggled beneath the material. "Do you ever turn it off?"
I shook my head. Said nothing.
"Later."
I deflated a little, yet tried not to show it. "No carpe diem? We get such little time away from the kids." I reached across and stroked her forearm.
She shivered and pulled away. "Tickles." Dimples formed as she flashed a disarming smile. "Anyway, they'll still be with my folks later."
I pursed my lips and drained the drink as I returned my stare to the shimmering pool. My head didn't move, but behind the prescription shades I tracked the flashes of electric pink that sliced through the sparkling ripples, a dolphinesque grace about her.
As I drank in her elegance, my mind spun, returning to that loaded glance she'd given. The promise that sparked unhealthy visions of a clandestine meeting at the nearby shoreline. Holding hands. Laughing. Dancing in the sand, long shadows evaporating as the cherry sunset dipped below the horizon. Kissing. Rolling on the beach. Touching and tasting, my face ultimately pressed to her soaked bikini, gorging on her arousal through the fabric. Making her arch. Making her come. Making her beg for more as the saltwater lapped our toes and the night fuelled our illicit union.
.o0o.
For Rachel and I, later came as promised. Bathing suits strewn on the floor, her knees bent, legs parted, my face where it belonged. She tasted better than the fingers of golden daylight that bled past the gently swaying curtains. A mixture of chlorine and sun-kissed arousal trapped in the wiry tangle of hair beneath my stubble.
Her little mewls of encouragement drove me. Kissing her dewy snatch, lapping beads of juice that escaped as my tongue crooked into her folds. Trailing up to encircle her clit, all hot breath and necessity, I smothered her proud nub with varying shapes until she announced that she was "Ready."
I wanted to carry on. Take her further. Higher. Until she could no longer stand the torment and flooded my face with her essence. Until she pleaded with me to stop before she turned inside out. Until her sexy pussy was matted with saliva and strings of pearly excitement that would enflame my heart, her cries echoing off the crisp hotel ceiling as she came harder, longer, and wetter than she thought possible.
But all I got was her hands either side of my head, pulling me up. Away. Not even to kiss her so we could share her delicious nectar. She just rolled over, drew up onto all fours and wiggled her bottom. Not that I had cause for complaint. Forty years in the making, it was still a fine derriere. I grabbed her curvy rump as I shuffled forward on my knees. Angled my raging prick with one hand and found her slick entrance, pushing easily inside.
She sighed as I sank home and her shoulders slumped to the bed, face against the pillow. I heard her hand slither between her body and the starched sheets, to attack the clit I had awoken with my tongue. Felt her fingers circling her jewel protruding from its hood as my cock picked up pace in her slippery channel.
Rachel was tight from behind. I loved fucking her that way, her moans absorbed by the pillow on each instroke as I hammered. She was clearly enjoying herself, but all of a sudden something felt wrong. Something deep inside me, like a clock spring giving up, the rest of the mechanism reduced to ineffectual twists of metal and cogs. Unmeshed.
I pistoned in and out as my mind over analysed everything. Couldn't help it. Conjectures. Hypotheses. Cause. Effect. I concluded her moans weren't truly representative of a woman being elevated to higher planes of excitement, propelled towards being totally out of control. They were just… measured. Lacking spirit. Never letting go, animalistic and raw. And in that moment, I realised that's what was missing. What I needed to hear. The feedback to know that I was delivering utmost pleasure. Even just once.
I felt broken. Laced with self-doubt. Like I'd somehow failed her by being too selfish about cunnilingus when maybe she didn't really enjoy it. Or I was not very good at it. Too blinkered on my own fetish that I'd not met her needs. For the first time in our fifteen-year marriage my erection waned. Still hard enough, it seemed, to keep her satisfied, but I had lost that steel edge of which I was proud.
Panicking, I tried peeling apart her fleshy cheeks, imagining one day driving into her delightfully tight rear. Maybe after one too many tequilas, she'd allow me the honour. She moaned with each thrust, her fingers a blur on her clit, but I felt on borrowed time. Like I might not finish inside her. A failure.
It wasn't until a flash of electric pink surfaced in my mind and I imagined the cheeks I was holding encased in that bikini that my erection sprang back to its former glory. Full, hard and veined, I ploughed as my wife's moans kept pace. I felt her body tremble, telltale panting the prelude that she was about to make herself come. I wanted to come with her. An attempt to atone for poor performance.
But in my head, I ravaged the young swimming beauty. Heard her unbridled cries as she let me take her to places she'd never been. As I snarled obscenities in her ear; things my wife didn't like to hear me say. I imagined my voice catching as I whispered how much I wanted to fuck her svelte, tight, young body. How I wanted to spit on her upturned arse, press my thumb, then flared cockhead against her and ultimately plunder her darkest place with my hardness. How I wanted to do that while spanking her pretty bum until it turned red, my handprints marking her pristine flesh. Owning her.
I felt dirty. A low cheat for having to resort to such tactics, but the guilt was immediately replaced with euphoria as I erupted amid the familiar confines of my wife's clutching heat. She came. I came, filling her with spurt after spurt of white gold. Mission accomplished.
But as I pulled out and a trail of thick spunk drizzled onto Rachel's thigh before she collapsed beneath me, I felt shame. A fraud. I bent to kiss her perspiring body to make up for it. To try and convince myself that it was just a temporary blip. To reconnect. To push the brunette from my head. But somehow, deep down, I worried. Was it just me? A rut? Could I escape it? Or was it something worse?
I knew I had to change or I'd risk drifting away. But I had no idea how, nor where to start.
Until the very next day.
.o0o.
The mercury in the thermometer lashed to the wooden upright of the bar indicated the mid nineties. Pedestal fans whirred and yawed but merely served to redistribute the heat. Local staff inside the shack hustled to serve the clutch of patrons, including me. Some wore all-inclusive wristbands. I didn't.
Santiago turned his attention my way. "Señor?"
I smiled. Held up a single finger. "Uno gin and tonic, y uno Long Island Iced Tea, por favor."
It sounded shit, like some school script from a kid with no language prospects, but what could I do? The drink names were Anglicised already. It was like that cringeworthy moment in French classes: J'habite à Kensington. Santiago seemingly forgave me, nodded and set about the order.
I fiddled with a beer mat, spinning it to see if the logo would be the correct orientation when it came to rest. I felt her presence more than saw it from my periphery, but turned to glance at her all the same. Didn't know where to look, her breasts barely contained in the same style bikini as the day before. Mint this time, a decorative sarong wrapping the waist down. She shook her hair out of its ponytail and tousled it with her fingertips. It seemed a provocative gesture. Probably was.
Placing her clutch purse on the bar, she waited, facing the bustling staff. It was a long while before I realised I was staring and she glanced across, catching me in the act. My cheeks burned and I focused on the bar between my hands. My heart was thumping, mouth dryer than a Martini.
"You like to watch?" She had a soft, lilting accent. Difficult to pinpoint in such a short phrase. North-East England if I was guessing.
"W- What?"
She drew a circle with her fingertip around the beer mat in front of her. "I saw you watching me yesterday. And this morning by the pool."
I shook my head rapidly. "No. I…" Paused. Didn't know how to finish the lie.
She smiled. "I know."
Staring at the movement of one of the fans, I wished the bar wasn't twice the temperature a moment earlier.
She leaned towards me a fraction. "It's okay. I don't mind. Which side did you prefer? Front or back?"
I gulped. "Is that a trick question?"
There was a twinkle in her eye. "Depends."
"On what?"
She giggled. "Your answer."
Santiago returned with the drinks and I paid him, waving away the change. I turned to face her. "Then I'd have to say…" I thought a moment. "Back."
She picked up her purse revealing a room key underneath. With a flick of her wrist she sent it scurrying across the bar behind her and off the edge. "Ooops. Butter fingers."
Like a life-size twisting garden decoration, she spun first from her feet, then hips, to her head a moment later until she faced away from me. I held my breath as she bent at the waist, the extent of those beautifully tight orbs curving beneath the blue-green bikini material through the transparent silk of the sarong.
Standing, she spun back and placed her key on the bar, batting her long, natural eyelashes. "I'm so clumsy."
I shifted. A crude attempt at hiding the beginnings of my erection. She leaned in again and whispered, "This is the part where you offer to buy me a drink."
I tried hard not to gaze at her impressive cleavage. "Uhh, of course. Sorry. Would you like a drink?"
She giggled again. "Very kind of you to offer. Margarita, please."
I caught Santiago's attention and ordered for her. He scurried off to fulfil the request.
There was an awkward pause. "I'd best… take this to my wife or she'll wonder what's happened to me."
"Wouldn't want to come between a woman and alcohol."
I nodded. Felt uncomfortable. "I'll… uhh. Be back."
She flicked her hair again. "I'll be waiting."
I left her finger combing her locks as I hurried the drink to my wife, citing some excuse about running out of ice that required me to return to the bar for my drink.
As promised, the brunette was still standing there. I slowed on the approach to appreciate the full magnificence of curves that swept to the perfectly smooth behind tucked into the minty parcel and flowing sarong. Drawing level with the bar where her drink sat, condensation rolling down it already, I retrieved my wallet. Santiago accepted payment, sliding the drink to me. I deflected it across to her.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." I paused and held my glass up for her to chink. "So, is this your way of avoiding the astronomical resort prices?"
She laughed. Didn't deny it. Eyeing her over my glass, I wondered how many other suckers seated around the bar had fallen for the room key gambit.
"You're not here alone, I take it?"
"No. A bunch of us jetted out between semesters. World Cup Widows!"
"Shouldn't you be with your mates?"
She took a gulp of drink and grinned. "I'll join them later. Swap stories."
Raising my eyebrows, I gently shook my head. "Did your boyfriend really choose football over that bikini?"
She twirled and wiggled her hips. "You like it?"
The lump in my shorts approved and I nodded. "Very much."
Blatantly ogling my crotch before flicking her gaze to my eyes, she breathed, "So I see," and took another mouthful of cocktail. Swallowed. Traced a fingertip around the rim of her glass, a bead of condensed liquid forming that she licked off. "Tell me, what would it take to make my body really excite you?"
I nearly spat my drink into her cleavage. "What?!"
She fluttered her eyelashes. "You heard. All this sun makes me feel… funny."
I stared at her, trying to decide if she was playing me. "Are you for real? Y'know… boyfriend?"
She regarded the floor a moment. "He'll have been drinking since lunchtime. Without me there, if England win, he'll probably call his ex." She gave a noncommittal shrug. "Bigger tits than me. And besides," wrapping her lips around the straw, she sucked suggestively, "what happens in Ibiza stays in Ibiza."
I stared agog as she cupped her hands around the cocktail glass, then brought them to her hips, tracing upward. A trail of condensation glimmered on her perfect, bronzed hourglass. As she reached her bikini top and brushed her breasts, her mouth opened a fraction, inhaling.
She shivered and smiled at my slack-jawed reaction. "I'm definitely for real."
Again, her eyes roamed to my crotch. I shifted my footing, trying to make it less obvious. Failed. Pushed my glasses back up. "This can't be happening."
She flicked her hair from her shoulders. Seemed amused. "Why not?"
Choosing my words carefully after a slug of alcohol, I said, "Because you're half my age. Because we have partners. Because it's wrong. Pick one."
A wry smile crossed her lips. "And yet," she mused, "you haven't left. And nor have I."
Silence breathed between us. The murmur of conversation around us. Distant poolside shrieks and splashes. The whirring fans that seemed even more ineffectual in the stifling heat of her radiance. Of this stranger practically throwing herself at me. I couldn't deny the allure. I wanted to step in, scoop her into my arms for a passionate kiss. Let her feel me grow against her soft body, the rest of the world inconsequential as we became lost in the moment. Shared breaths. Shared contact. Her obvious need slotting into mine like a long lost jigsaw piece.
Over-thinking things again, I could only speculate at her circumstances. What drove her behaviour. Laddish boyfriend, probably. Attentive enough to keep her interest, but often out with his mates drinking, leering at women, watching the game on TV, leaving her unfulfilled. Ignoring her needs. Criminal.
It was wrong to take advantage, I knew. Plus, I had a lot to lose. Kids. House. Wife. Did I have the moral muscle to resist? Or would I succumb and risk it all? A moment of akrasia bringing everything crashing down.
The remainder of her alcohol disappeared down her throat and she returned the glass to the bar. "Thank you for the drink." She brushed the back of my hand, fingertip to wrist and I shivered. "Nice to have met you."
She picked up her purse and that was it. Over. The decision made for me, no risk required. I wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.
I watched her arse leave the bar, her body becoming bathed in bright sunlight as she stepped barefoot from the shade to the concrete path that led to the pool. I watched as long as I dared then faced the bar. Contemplated my drink. Cursed quietly under my breath. Exhaled.
Then I saw it.
Her room key on the bar. Number face-up. I looked back quickly, expecting to see her perfection sashaying in, returning for it. Nothing. No movement. Just me and temptation in the airless atmosphere. I focused on the key. At the very least I should return it. It was the chivalrous thing to do.
I reached for it. Stopped. A wave of doubt swept over me. Guilt, maybe. Then something else. Something scary. Need, unfurling inside me. Taking over.
Snatching the key, I pocketed it, grabbed my drink and headed back to my wife.
.o0o.
The room key was burning a hole in my pocket the entire time I was lounging poolside, not listening to my wife's inane chatter. I made noncommittal noises to keep up the pretence of paying attention, praying there wouldn't be a quiz after.
I scoped the pool and deckchairs for any sign of the girl. Convinced myself it could have been a genuine mistake. Figured I could then saunter over, casting a shadow across her perfect figure and dangle the key for her to take, our fingers brushing as she did. From there, who knew?
But part of me knew it was no accident. She'd left it there to see what I would do. To see if my resolve crumbled; see if my decency would erode. See if I'd chase after her like a puppy with a ball. To what end, only my cock stirring in my swim shorts could imagine.
I pictured walking into her room, finding her lying on the bed still in that bikini. Imagined staring, mesmerised before closing the distance between us, her legs scissoring open as I crawled onto the mattress and buried my face between her trim thighs. Ate her sexy, naked pussy through her swimwear, the gusset soaking as I drove her to orgasmic shrieks that filled my head with raw want.
Playing scenarios over in my mind, every one of them ending face first in her snatch, I eventually snapped. Turned to my wife. "Getting too hot here. Just going for a walk to cool down then I might go for a swim. You want anything while I'm up?"
She shook her head and I rose, almost having to sit down again to steady myself.
Stepping away from the poolside heat, I passed under leafy palms covering partially shaded interconnecting paths. The concrete was scorching beneath my soles in the exposed patches. Irregular spurs led to triplets of whitewashed buildings beyond rectangles of parched Mediterranean grass, the embedded sprinklers timed to pop up in the early evening to try and limit the sun's damage.
Scanning the numbers alongside doors to each self-contained cube of accommodation, I located the room that matched her key jangling between thumb and forefinger in my pocket. I stood at the end of the path that curved past shrubs and ferns to the bleached front door. Took a deep breath and ventured forward, each step making my mouth dryer.
At her door, I paused.
Knocked.
Waited.
No reply. Where was she?
I fumbled the key. Should I go in? Was it right? Ethical? Was she expecting me the other side?
Curiosity won. I brought my shaking hand to the lock and, with a cursory glance left and right, slid the key home and turned the latch.
Pushing the door open revealed a room not dissimilar to the one in which I was staying. Terracotta tiled flooring. Bed along one wall opposite a mirrored dresser, upon which a small flat-screen TV sat alongside strewn make-up and leaflets for local attractions.
I found my voice. "Hello?" The sound reflected, unanswered. "Hello-o?"
Silence.
Still shaking, I stepped across the threshold, the tiles welcomingly cool against my bare feet. The wicker chair in the corner by the window faced a small glass-topped table upon which were a half-finished bottle of local red and a thin-stemmed wine glass, a ring of sediment partway up.