Chapter 1: The First Day at the Beach

When Claire answered the door, she was surprised to see her son’s best friend of many years.

“No, Joshi, I don’t know which beach they’re going to,” Claire responded to the crushed look in Joshi’s big brown eyes after he heard that her son was already gone. “Jason left a while ago. I thought he was picking you up on the way. You must have missed him. Didn’t he call you?”

Joshi looked down and shuffled his feet. “Yes,” he mumbled. “He just said they were going to the beach. I guess he didn’t actually ask me.”

Claire’s heart went out to the slender boy standing before. Like Jason, Joshi had just turned twenty but he hadn’t bulked up like her son, remaining boyishly slender with a baby face. Living in beach city like they did, his slight frame was a drawback in the competition for the nubile young women that abounded in the seaside college town. Despite his bedroom eyes, Joshi was no match for his brawnier friends and Claire knew he was being left out fairly often these days. She really had to talk to her son about it. She was sure Jason hadn’t left Joshi behind on purpose but he really had to be more thoughtful, especially with a boy who had been his closest friend since the first day of school.

“Of course he meant for you to come. Don’t be silly, young man. You know how absent minded Jason is these days, what with his new girlfriend.”

The two boys were headed down diverging paths. Her son, Jason, had recently began to date the head cheerleader, a popular and pretty blonde girl with a dynamite body that consumed so much energy there was little left to power a brain. On the other hand, Joshi didn’t have a car or even a driver’s license because his parents wouldn’t let him get one, another huge hurdle in the dating scene. Why didn’t some parents think?

“Nancy and I were going to the beach ourselves,” she lied. “I’ll give you a ride and you can catch up to the rest of them there.”

“No, no,” Joshi said, even more embarrassed as evidenced by the increased shuffling of his feet.

Claire supposed the last thing he wanted to do was have his friend’s mother deposit him at the beach in front of everybody.

“I have some chores I should really do at home. It’s getting kind of late to go to the beach anyway,” he said, looking at the watch on his skinny wrist and noting it was already four o’ clock.

“Joshi, don’t be silly. Jason’s head is just full of that new girl. He just forgot, that’s all. Now, you’re coming with me and that’s that.” Claire urged Joshi inside and closed the door behind him, then ran upstairs, still talking, “I’ll just get a few things and be right back.”

Upstairs, Claire scurried about, stuffing things in a big cloth bag: a bathing suit, a towel, the pocket book from her bedside table and a magazine, her spare sunglasses — she didn’t want to take her good ones out on the sand. She checked herself in the mirror: summery blouse with matching shorts and white sandals. Good enough. Darn that son of hers! She had planned to sit by the pool this afternoon and relax with a few highballs. She sighed, put on a smile, and went downstairs to rescue her son’s best friend.

For most of the drive to the beach, Joshi looked out the side window, still embarrassed about being ferried by Jason’s mom. After they got on the highway, he looked ahead more but also cast a few glances at Claire who, despite her age, was an attractive woman with a vivacious free spirit. Joshi had always been a little in awe of her. His own mother was just as pretty but more reserved. For example, though she might wear the same outfit Jason’s mom was wearing she couldn’t carry off the breezy and cavalier manner that Claire exuded. It wasn’t the clothes that made the woman, rather it was the other way around, and that was the difference between his mother and Jason’s. The former would look merely in style while the latter was sensuous and sexy. Jason was lucky to have such a fun-loving mother. As his eyes passed quickly over Claire’s medium-sized breasts and then ran more slowly down her very nice legs, Joshi wished his own mom was more like her.

The beach was packed with a mix of people of all ages. Jason was nowhere to be seen, nor were any of their regular set of friends but they usually hung out at the far end which was too far to recognize anyone. Covering his eyes and peering down the beach, Joshi could see that, as usual, there was hardly anyone way down there near the rocks.

“Maybe he realized his mistake and went back home to get you,” Claire suggested without conviction. “Do you think we passed him on the way out?”

“I didn’t see his car,” Joshi said, turning around to scan the parking lot again.

Claire was stumped. She had expected to find Jason here and simply drop Joshi off. She hadn’t meant to actually stay. Now she was wondering what to say about Nancy not being there to meet them. Maybe Jason would show up later and she could make an excuse for Nancy not being there and then leave.

“Well, how about walking me down to the far end of the beach, away from the crowd. Nancy will look for me away from the crowd and they’ll probably be here by the time you get back.”

Joshi nodded and Claire led the way down the beach. Damn it, Claire thought. Where the hell was Jason?

As they walked, the crowd thinned. It was late in the afternoon and people were already leaving for supper. Claire kept going hoping to find her son and the rest of the crowd at the far end of the beach near the rocks where they could be as loud as they wanted and even partake in a few beers without being bothered. As they neared the end, though, Claire could see weren’t any groups of young people. In fact, there was hardly anyone there at all.

Joshi dutifully followed Claire but never quite caught up with her, partly because she was walking so fast and partly because he didn’t really want to. He was quite content to follow behind, watching her still shapely legs and fortyish behind. Other than being fair-haired and light-skinned, she was formed much like his own mother. A petite body with surprisingly full breasts atop a narrow waist that looked even smaller next to hips that flared out above a bottom made prominent by the slenderness of the legs below it. Though Joshi was sure it had been less fleshy before she bore children and reaching middle age, her ass wasn’t large. It only seemed prominent because of her tiny waist and the way it swayed when she walked, forcing her cheeks to bulge alternately with each step.

Joshi enjoyed the periodic jiggle of Claire’s ass when her feet slipped sideways in the sand. He would have liked to have met her when she was in school. In fact, Joshi had rubbed himself as he lay in bed on more than one occasion with visions of a younger Claire, conveniently naked, riding in a convertible beside him along a deserted beach.

“Well, I guess this is it. They must be just late. I don’t think they would have gone to another beach.”

Claire dumped her bag on the sand. They were finally at the end of the beach by the rocks. She pulled a towel out of the bag. Damn it, it wasn’t a beach towel. She flapped the bath towel in the slight breeze, shaking it out to spread over the sand.

“Here, use this,” Joshi cried, pulling a blanket out of his knapsack.

“But you’ll need it,” Claire protested.

“No, I don’t need it.” Joshi was already spreading the blanket out. “I’ll wait here with you until your friend comes.”

“Ok, but only until Nancy comes and then you have to go off and have fun with the rest of the gang.”

Claire regretted the words as soon as they escaped her lips. She hadn’t meant to rub it in. She would have argued that Joshi go back to look for the others because he might miss them this far down the beach but she had a feeling Jason had gone somewhere else and she didn’t want Joshi hitch-hiking home. Claire dropped to her knees on the blanket and started emptying her bag.

“Shit!” she exclaimed, holding up her bathing suit. “I brought the wrong one. I can’t wear this.”

Joshi didn’t see anything wrong with it and stated so.

“It’s from three years ago,” Claire remarked, clearly thinking that was explanation enough. “I don’t know what I was thinking about. Anyway, I should have put it on before we left. There’s nowhere to change way out here.”

“I’ll watch the stuff if you want to go back to the change rooms,” Joshi offered.

“No, it’s too far,” Claire said, pulling her magazine and book out. “I’ll just sit and read.”

“I could hold a towel up for you,” Joshi suggested.

Claire laughed and looked at her towel. “It’s not big enough to hide my big butt.”

Ignoring her self-deprecating remark, Joshi pulled his large beach towel out of his knapsack. “You can use mine,” he said.

“Joshi, I was joking.”

“Oh, sorry.” Joshi blushed furiously, embarrassed. “I didn’t mean...”

“That’s ok. I’ll just lie here like this.”

Claire kicked off her sandals and turned onto her stomach, setting a book in front of her. Joshi looked at her for a minute, then pulled off his shirt and pushed his shorts down his legs. He plopped down onto the blanket beside Claire and leaned back on his elbows, looking out at the ocean. After a few minutes, his gaze turned back the way they had come. Claire was pretending to be reading but she was really wishing Jason and his group would suddenly appear walking toward them. Poor Joshi. He had always been such a sensitive boy. She hoped his feelings weren’t too hurt.

Claire raised her head and looked down the beach over Joshi’s slender frame. What she saw was jolting and caused her to quickly look back at her book. What Joshi lacked in muscles he compensated for in another way, specifically, in another muscle. He was very well endowed.

Now it was Claire’s turn to blush. What on earth made me notice that?

Joshi looked back at her. “Want to go for a swim?” he asked.

“Joshi, I don’t have a suit.”

“Oh yeah, right.”

With that, he was up and gone. Claire twisted around to watch his slim frame run down to the ocean, wade out, and dive in without hesitation. She laughed, comparing his carefree plunge to her own timid approach designed to adapt to the water’s temperature before quickly dipping in and then running back to let the sun dry her skin. Claire turned away and became engrossed in her book. She didn’t hear Joshi coming and was completely unaware of his presence until the first cold drops dribbled up her legs.

She shrieked and twisted around, “Joshi, don’t!”

Joshi shook his head in laughing defiance, shaking a few more drops onto Claire’s legs, then dropped to his knees and picked up his towel to dry his face and hair in one smooth motion. Claire gaze, aided by Joshi’s body blocking the sun, was confronted with another shocking sight. Joshi’s wet suit did little if anything to hide his large asset. Claire’s eyes quickly flicked up to Joshi’s face and, relieved that the towel still covered his eyes, returned to appreciate his member. It wasn’t, on second glance, that it was huge by itself. It was just abnormally big given his slender frame, maybe a little on the longish side, and, thanks to the sheer, wet swimsuit, it appeared to be nicely formed.

My god, Claire thought, I bet it would look majestic unlimbered and hard. Immediately, she turned back to her book to hide her face, already burning from her carnal thought.

Joshi plopped down beside her and again turned to look down the beach. Claire tried to stop herself but couldn’t. She looked over Joshi’s torso and let her eyes slide down his flat stomach, still slightly heaving with the effort of his swim and displacing droplets of seawater off his sides, and on to the lump atop his loins.

“I think we might be alone,” Joshi said, turning slowly back to look at Claire, who just managed to pull her eyes up to look down the beach.

“You don’t see Nancy, or your friends?”

“Nope,” Joshi replied, looking again.

Claire stole another glance.

“But I don’t care,” Joshi added, turning back. “It’s nice to just relax on the beach. My Mom used to bring me out here. Just her and me. We stayed out for hours after everybody left, talking about her family back in India.”

“I’ve always been fascinated by India. I’d like to go there sometime,” Claire said whimsically, moving her book out of the way and resting her head on folded arms.

“You’re going to burn,” Joshi said.

“I forgot to bring suntan lotion,” Claire sighed.

“I’ve got some. Do you want me to tell you more about India?” Joshi asked. Joshi knew Claire could never hear enough about India. Given his limited knowledge, he often made stuff up, describing the India of his imagination, one that probably didn’t exist. Now, more than ever, Joshi wanted to play on Claire’s interest.

Claire heard Joshi rummaging around in his knapsack. While Joshi had been in the ocean, she had decided to act like she wasn’t feeling well and say they should go back. But she wanted to hear more about India. She had been mesmerized with the country, it’s sheer size and the diversity of it’s people, ever since she saw Gandhi. Maybe she’d put on a little lotion and stay a while longer.

Claire jumped when Joshi squirted sun tan lotion on her lower calf and started rubbing it in her leg. “Oh,” she squeaked.

She didn’t really know what to say in response to Joshi’s unexpected familiarity, it was so unlike him. Perhaps, he did this for his mother when they came to the beach and it just seemed natural to him.

“Do you put lotion on your mother?” The way she said it implied something a little improper but Claire didn’t mean that in reference to Joshi’s mother. It was more in reference to him rubbing lotion on her own legs. She kicked herself. She didn’t want him to feel any worse than he already did about today. Joshi didn’t seem to notice but Claire rephrased her question anyway, “I mean, it’s nice that you do this for your mom.”

“I do whenever we come to the beach. She says it relaxes her.” Joshi was lying, but his answer seemed sincere. Actually, there was no way his mother would countenance such familiarity.

Claire relaxed and closed her eyes. “Tell me about India.”

So Joshi started talking about his family and what he’d seen when he had visited India for the first time just two years ago. His voice was gentle, almost lilting, and Claire almost fell asleep as she listened to his words flow over her. She didn’t try to catch all the details, she wasn’t interested in a conversation as much as she was in sensing the overtones so she could get a feel for the place. Joshi was so adept, she was only dimly aware of his soft hands spreading the suntan lotion up and down her legs. Together with his soothing voice, it was very relaxing and she was startled when Joshi suddenly patted the back of her thighs.

“There,” he said. “If you take off your shirt, I’ll do your back.”

Claire was quite surprised.

“My shirt? I can’t take my shirt off on the beach.” Claire wondered why she specified ‘on the beach’ rather than ‘in front of you’.

“Sure you can. My mom does it all the time,” Joshi lied again. “Just undo the buttons while you’re lying down and I’ll pull the sleeves off for you.”

“Your mother doesn’t really do that, does she?”

“All the time,” Joshi assured her. “Ever since I was little.”

Claire lifted her head and looked past Joshi, who was now lying on his side facing her. The closest people were fifty feet away and were paying them no mind. In fact, they seemed to be kissing. There was nobody behind them, only rocks. Claire dropped back to the blanket but didn’t move. Joshi didn’t push her so she was surprised when she felt her fingers slip underneath herself to undo her blouse.

‘I can’t believe I’m doing this.’

When the blouse was undone, Claire stretched her arms down her sides. Joshi gently peeled the blouse away from her neck and shoulders and tugged on her sleeves, first one arm and then the other, back and forth, until the blouse was pulled away.

“Cover me with the towel if anyone comes,” she instructed.

“Of course,” Joshi replied.

Cool lotion squirted on her back just as Joshi’s voice resumed regaling her with the wonders of the Indian subcontinent and especially its women and their beautiful exotic clothes. Claire was more aware of his touch now. Though Joshi’s voice was just as soothing, the push and pull of his hands and the slow caress of his fingers never quite left her senses. He worked the lotion into her shoulders and down her sides, pushing into her spine and up, his fingers slipping under the wide strap of the bra stretching across her back.

He first pushed under her bra strap in the center, in the groove between her shoulder blades, but soon spread out to the sides, sliding out wide enough to pull the cups of the bra slightly away from the sides of her breasts. It was very sensual and Claire felt her body warming to the whole experience. Her bra was undone before she could protest.

“Joshi, what ARE you doing?”

“What?” he asked in surprise. “You don’t want to get marks across your back, do you?”

“No, but ... is this how you do it with your mother?”

Joshi didn’t miss the obvious double entendre although he was sure Claire didn’t mean it.

“Of course,” he replied. “Just lift up a little and I’ll pull it out.”

Hesitantly, Claire complied. Joshi slipped the shoulder straps over her arms and pulled them down until they slid over her elbows and off her hands. She lifted her chest to let him pull the bra out to the side. She was lying bare-chested on a public beach for the first time in her life, and it felt thrilling. Claire couldn’t explain it but it was exhilarating. Though there was actually no need for Joshi to pull the bra completely away, the thought never even crossed her mind.

Forgetting herself, Claire lifted up to look down the beach over Joshi’s side. Nobody was looking their way. Strangely, she felt a little disappointed. She lifted higher so she could see farther down the beach. Though she was aware that her breasts were no longer pressing against the blanket, the repercussions didn’t filter into her mind until it was too late. Suddenly, she was aware that Joshi was regarding her bare breasts. At first, she froze like a deer caught in headlights, but even when she recovered her senses, she didn’t move. She should have dropped to the blanket immediately but, instead, she held herself up, breasts swaying slightly, and, while he was distracted, glanced down at Joshi’s shorts to confirm what she already suspected. He had grown!

He wasn’t really thick, she noticed, but he was quite long and clearly had more room to grow. Claire lowered her chest but only slowly. She paused when her nipples, now stiff, grazed the blanket. Rocking on her elbows, Claire let her breasts sway from side to side for a few more seconds before dropping her head onto her arms.

“Tell me more,” she sighed.

“I think you should take your shorts off.”

“Joshi! I’m not going to take my shorts off.”

“You’ll have a big white line across the back of your legs and you won’t be able to wear half of your skirts.”

“It doesn’t matter. My skirts aren’t that short anyway.”

“Some of them are,” Joshi replied.

“How do you know?” Claire retorted, for some reason pleased that he had noticed.

Joshi didn’t answer. “Come on, push them over your hips and I’ll get them the rest of the way.”

“I can’t lie on a public beach in my panties.”

“Sure you can. Mom does.”

“Your mother doesn’t take her shorts off on the beach with a bunch of people around.”

“That’s true,” Joshi agreed, “but she hardly ever wears shorts. She just lies down and slips her skirt off.”

“No way! She does not.”

“No, really. She does. But only when she’s with me,” Joshi lied.

“I can’t, Joshi. Someone might see.”

“They’re way down the beach and you’re lying down. They won’t be able to see you and, anyway, we’d see them coming long before they got here.”