Chapter 15

Later that Sunday afternoon, I was lying in one of our lounge chairs and simply enjoying not having anything to do. I felt a shadow fall across me and opened my eyes slowly. When I looked up, I saw Gina’s sun-haloed figure.

“Wanna go for a swim?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Sure.”

She trotted down to the edge of the lake, where it was perhaps four feet deep, and dived gracefully into the water. She resurfaced several yards further out, swimming confidently toward the unoccupied raft.

I chased after her and barely caught up with her, both of us reaching the raft at the same time. Bobbing in the water, her black hair slicked back and shining in the afternoon sun, her white teeth flashed at me in a smile. She didn’t climb out immediately, instead steadying herself with a hand on the raft, easily treading water with the other.

“Jenny and Manfred want to go on another hike tomorrow morning.”

I arched my eyebrows.

“Jenny’s mom won’t let her go unless you and I go too.”

I nodded.

She waited. “Well?” she finally asked.

“Well what?” I asked.

“Well, do you wanna go with me, or not?” she said, tolerant exasperation clear on her face.

“Oh! Yeah. Of course.”

She gave me a look of extraordinary patience. “Jenny wants to pack a picnic lunch,” she said.

“Sure. That’d be cool.”

“You’re such a goof,” she said, shaking her head in mock sadness. “But you’re a cute goof.”

I grinned broadly and she splashed me in the face, quickly ducking under the water to make her getaway. I sputtered and ducked after her, swimming under the raft toward the shallow end of the lake. I let her beat me there and she quickly climbed up onto the grass.

The far side of the lake was about a hundred yards from the sunbathers on the hillside, and it was deserted. As I waded toward her in the ever-shallower water, she lay back on the grass and propped herself up on her elbows, crossing her legs coquettishly.

She glistened with diamond droplets of water, dark complexion tanned darker still, and her breasts were flattened to the sides of her chest, nipples still erect from the chill of the water. I stepped up onto the brick coping of the lake and looked down at her in frank admiration. She smiled up at me and then, with a look of supreme indifference, gently shook her wet hair. I joined her on the grass, propped up on my elbows to her right. She looked over and smiled at me.

“You’re still a goof,” she said lightly, closing her eyes and basking in the afternoon sun.

I smiled the smile of an incredibly content goof, and closed my eyes as well.

The next morning, after breakfast, Gina and Jenny fixed a picnic lunch. Manfred and I packed blankets, towels, and water bottles in his backpack. He also grabbed his sunscreen and I went looking for some suntan oil. Manfred dug out an additional backpack, and when the girls were finished making lunch, we packed it with the food. I pulled four Cokes from our refrigerator, wrapped them in a hand towel, and put them in the pack with lunch.

Manfred shouldered the pack with the blankets and towels and I slipped my arms through the one with our lunch. Manfred then showed me how to tighten up the straps to make the pack more comfortable, and we set off toward the lake.

“I was talking to my dad,” Manfred said as we were rounding the feeder lake, “and he said there was an abandoned quarry up one of the other streams, toward the back of the lake.”

“Yeah?” I asked breathlessly, trying to keep up with his long-legged stride.

“He said it was four to five miles up that way,” he said pointing toward the ridge on the far side of the lake. “He said the water is deep and clear, and should be good for swimming.”

“Okay,” I said. “That work for you girls?” I turned my head, and Gina and Jenny nodded.

We crossed our stream from earlier in the week and then came upon a second one. Manfred turned up the hill to follow the watercourse, then crossed it when it got narrow enough. We quickly formed a single file and headed up the slope, Manfred in the lead, followed by Jenny, then Gina, with me bringing up the rear. Half the fun of the upcoming hike, I thought to myself, was going to be watching Gina’s shapely ass as we climbed toward the quarry.

The hike itself only took about two hours. The trek wasn’t all that steep in most places, and, by Manfred’s estimate, we quickly covered more than five miles. We could see the trees opening up ahead of us for several minutes before we reached the edge of the quarry. Once we did, we all stopped and merely stared, catching our breath.

The quarry lake was actually fairly small, only about a hundred yards across. Halfway around the rim, the rock wall had crumbled into the lake itself, and there were large boulders sticking out of the serene water.

The far wall was much higher than the edge we were standing on, and was streaked with deposits from the trees and soil above. In the middle of the wall itself, there was a tall waterfall, where a stream suddenly emptied into the quarry lake.

The stream we had been following up the hill disappeared around the shoulder of the hill to our left. When we had seen the trees opening up ahead of us, Manfred had left the watercourse and headed toward the quarry itself. As we walked around the rim of the quarry to the left, we could see that the stream poured from the lake where the rim wall had crumbled. The rocks were jagged and startlingly white in the late morning sun.

“We can climb down here,” Manfred said, pointing to the jumbled slope leading down to the stream. “Then that big flattop rock,” he said, pointing, “is where we can lie out.”

With that, he began climbing down the rocky slope to the boulders forming islands in the lake. Jenny quickly followed him. With a shrug in my direction, Gina started down after them and I followed.

It took a few good leaps to make it out to the flattop rock, but we easily reached it in a few minutes. Manfred stripped off his pack and began untying his shoes, the rest of us following suit.

“Wait right here,” Manfred said, cautioning us. “I’ll check to see how deep it is.”

He quickly climbed down the sloping back side of the rock and was in the water with barely a splash. From the straight front edge of the large boulder, I watched as he swam around until he was directly underneath me. Then, his legs kicking in the air for a moment, he dived straight down.

For a minute, only bubbles returned to the surface. I was just starting to worry when I saw him coming back to the surface. His head and shoulders shot out of the water, and with a sputter and great breath, he grinned up at us.

“It’s deep,” he said, treading water easily. “About twelve feet right here, much deeper out toward the center of the lake.”

With that, he swam back to the sloping side of the boulder and quickly joined us, dripping and grinning.

Then, he looked at me and raised his eyebrows in challenge. Two quick steps took him to the edge of the boulder, and with a powerful thrust of his long legs, he arced off the rock, diving toward the surface eight feet below. I quickly followed him, lifting my arms over my head and tucking my chin as I too arced toward the cool surface of the lake.

The water parted before my outstretched hands as I broke the surface and arrowed into the deeps at the base of the boulder. The water was surprisingly warm, not quite the intense, numbing cold of a spring-fed lake. With a whoosh, I breathed out through my nose and angled toward the surface above.

I came up right next to Manfred, both of us grinning. Up on the boulder, Gina and Jenny looked at each other and shrugged. With a laugh, they both dived off the boulder. Manfred and I watched them arc into the water, raising barely a splash as they both gracefully broke the surface.

When Jenny surfaced next to Manfred, I began to worry about Gina. What if she’d hit her head on the bottom? What if... ?

What if she grabbed my ankle and pulled me underwater? I sputtered to the surface again and came face to face with a laughing Gina. I looked over and Manfred was howling with laughter as well. Jenny had her hand in front of her mouth and was trying not to break into laughter of her own.

“Little man,” Manfred said, gasping for air as he chortled ruthlessly, “you had the greatest look on your face!”

“Thanks,” I said dryly, blinking water from my eyes. I quickly rounded on Gina and shoved her under the water.

A general melee ensued and Manfred and I ended up chasing the girls toward the middle of the lake. When we got there, Jenny pulled up and let Manfred catch her. Gina stopped too, and soon I was treading water beside her. We all decided to swim over to the waterfall, and set out with long, sure strokes.

It was fun swimming under the waterfall, like swimming in a very heavy rain. All we could do, however, was swim under it; the wall of the quarry was sheer, without even a handhold for climbing. After several minutes playing under the deluge, we decided that the waterfall was fun, but probably better viewed from afar.

“I’m starving,” Manfred said suddenly, treading water to the side of the falling stream.

As soon as he said it, I realized that my belly was making neglected noises as well.

“What’s for lunch?” he asked.

“Chicken-salad sandwiches and macaroni salad,” Jenny answered, swimming over to him.

“Cool,” he said, putting his arm around her and treading water with the other. “Last one there is a rotten egg!” With a strong kick, he was off.

Jenny quickly followed him. Gina rolled her eyes at me and I only shrugged in reply. Then we both set off at a stately pace across the lake, watching Manfred and Jenny pull away from us.

When we got back to the boulder with our stuff, Manfred and Jenny were already on the flat top, watching us as we both slowly swam around to the sloped side.

“For a little guy, you swim okay,” Manfred said, teasing me.

“Yeah, well, for a tall freak of nature, you sure are clever,” I replied, climbing up the boulder after Gina.

“I’m not a freak of nature,” Manfred replied, putting his best hurt tone in his voice. “I’m tall, fair, and handsome.”

“Tall, sunburned, and handsome is more like it,” Jenny said, surprising us all. She reached down into Manfred’s pack and pulled out the sunblock, unceremoniously squirted a dab into her palm, and gestured for Manfred to bend over.

With a pained look in my direction, he did as instructed. I was barely able to conceal my glee at his predicament as Jenny rubbed sunblock onto his cheeks, nose, and forehead.

When she was done, she and Gina started pulling out lunch from the second pack. We didn’t even dry ourselves off; we simply sat on the warm granite of the boulder and ate our lunch, drying in the noonday sun.

Lunch was surprisingly good. The girls had fixed two sandwiches apiece for Manfred and me, and we had macaroni salad, carrot and celery sticks, and oranges for desert. We quickly devoured the meal.

“Mmm, that was very good,” I said, licking orange juice off my lips. “Thanks girls.”

Gina blushed and smiled. Jenny stared doe-eyed at Manfred, and Gina covertly rolled her eyes at me.

“I think we’re gonna hike off our lunch,” Manfred said, “and head around to see the top of the waterfall. You wanna go?”

Sensing that he and Jenny really wanted to be alone, I quickly demurred. “I think I’m gonna stay here and relax,” I said.

“Me too,” Gina said quickly. “You two go on without us.”

“Suit yourself,” Manfred said, and reached for one of the blankets from the pack. He didn’t try to argue us out of staying, so I suspected my intuition was correct.

Gina and I quietly watched them until they were several hundred feet around the rim of the quarry.

“Sheesh,” Gina said. “Did you see the way she looked at him?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Gone. Completely gone.” I shrugged. “Hey, as long as they’re happy, I’m cool.”

“I guess.”

We sat in silence for a few moments, then Gina reached for the suntan oil.

“I am gonna lie out for a while,” she said, popping the top on the bottle.

I watched, completely entranced, as she proceeded to oil herself. Watching her spread oil on her breasts, lifting each one up to get the underside too, I almost passed out. By the time I remembered to breathe, she had moved on to her flat stomach and then to her thighs.

When she was done—a shining, oiled goddess—she offered the bottle to me. I mutely shook my head and swallowed hard.

Gina merely raised her eyebrows and grinned at me. I blushed and returned her grin. She wrinkled her nose in thought and then gave me a speculative look.

“I think I changed my mind. I wanna lie on my front first. Will you do me?” she asked, holding up the bottle again.

Would I do her? Would I! I swallowed hard again and reached out to take the oil. She stood and spread out her towel on the warm surface of the rock, then lay down on her stomach.

I suddenly decided to go for broke, and stepped between her ankles. She merely folded her arms in front of her, laid her head on them, and spread her legs slightly.

I knelt between her calves and trembled. Before, when she had asked me to put oil on her back, she had already oiled her legs and ass. This time, she had only oiled her front before asking me to do her back.

“Want me to get your legs too?” I asked tentatively.

“Mmm hmm.”

I squirted oil onto my palms and quickly had her calves covered. As my hands worked up her legs, I kept my eyes glued to the junction where her thighs met. Her dark pubic hair was easily visible, and if I looked hard enough, I was positive that I could spot her slit.

I gently ran my hands up the back of each thigh, stopping several inches short of the promised land. She sighed when I removed my hands. I squirted more oil into my left palm and then drew a deep breath.

I started by running my hands up the backs of her thighs again. Only this time, I didn’t stop. I ran my hands over her tanned ass, running them over her hips, coating her with oil. I heard her moan, low in her throat, and I moved my hands back down to her thighs.

I spread the excess oil from her skin over the inside of her thighs, only an inch or two from her pussy. I heard her suck in her breath in surprise as my hands moved higher, but she quickly relaxed when I withdrew them and returned to her ass.

I couldn’t linger as long as I wanted to, because then it would become obvious what I was doing, so I stood up. Gina looked disappointed as she opened her eyes and looked back up at me.

“Put your legs together,” I said. “I’ll straddle them and do your back. Okay?”

She quickly complied and I placed a foot on either side of her knees and sank down over her. I made sure my dick didn’t touch her, but as I sat back on my haunches, my thighs did.

“I’m not too heavy, am I?” I asked her.

When she shook her head, I squirted more oil into my palm. I started right above her hips, quickly covering her back and sides. I paused for a moment and simply enjoyed the sight before me. She had her arms folded beneath her head, and I could easily see the outer curve of each breast where it was flattened beneath her. I felt my penis begin to stiffen, and throwing caution to the wind, let it.

I squirted more oil along her spine and she shivered. I then began to rub the slippery stuff into her dark skin. I took my time, enjoying the contact and feeling the radiating heat of her body. My penis was now fully erect, pointed right along the crack of her ass. I continued rubbing her back, even though I already had her oiled up, and she sighed deeply.

Once again, I decided to go for broke. As I leaned forward to rub her shoulders again, I let my erection dip and touch her ass. Her eyes immediately popped open and I began to panic. But my arousal overrode my fear, and I pulled my hands from her shoulders and sat back, keeping my erection in contact with the smooth skin of her ass.

“Are you okay?” I asked with as much composure as I could muster.

Gina opened her mouth to speak, then with a small smile quirking the sides of her mouth, she shut it again.

“Do you want me to keep rubbing your back?” I asked solicitously. Do you want me to keep my hard-on against you? I wisely kept that question to myself.

She smiled and nodded, then closed her eyes with a sigh.

I leaned forward again, pressing my erection against her even more firmly, and resumed rubbing her back and shoulders. I rubbed her like that for several minutes, my motions causing my hard-on to gently rub back and forth in the well-oiled crack at the top of her ass. I rubbed along her sides, making sure to caress the outer curve of her breasts, and she sighed again.

Finally, I sat back on my haunches and looked down at her beautiful figure. When she felt my hands leave her back, she waited. When they didn’t return immediately, she opened her eyes and turned her head to look back up at me.

Seeing the expression on my face, she asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.”

“Then what’re you looking at?” she asked, fear creeping into her tone.

I shook my head and held her eyes with my own. I felt my panic rising as well. I suddenly wanted to bolt. I couldn’t believe I’d gotten myself into this predicament. Finally, I ruthlessly forced down my fear and my lingering uncertainty.

At my silence, her fear had only intensified, and she looked at me with a tinge of panic. I looked down at her and all I wanted to do was to spare her, to calm her fear, to tell her...

“How beautiful you are.” Did I say that out loud? Oh, my God, I did! I waited for her reaction, an eternity on needles, my senses hyper-alert.

I felt her breathe a huge sigh beneath me, as if she’d had the wind knocked out of her, and she lowered her eyes. Even with her tanned complexion, I could tell she was blushing.

In a singular stroke of brilliance, I shut my mouth and didn’t say another word. I prudently decided that anything I added would only spoil things.

As I looked on, still worrying about her reaction, she smiled and closed her eyes. When she didn’t say anything, my panic began to fight toward the surface.

I said the first thing that came to my mind.

“Want me to do your front now?” How stupid was that? She’d already done her front. Dumb. I knew I was doomed.

Gina burst out laughing, the tension completely broken by my bone-headed remark. She raised up on her elbows and shook her head, still laughing.