I'd lain back on the sun lounger after taking a quick swig of the big iced cocktail the waiter had just delivered. And I had just turned my attention back to all that nubile - near naked - young flesh, clad as it mostly was in almost non-existent bikinis, when I spotted her emerging from the water like Aphrodite had from the sea in Greek legend. Or should I say, that I noticed the little black bikini, it's hard to say exactly what took my eye first.

From the moment I clapped eyes on that shapely body, I realised that there was something very familiar about it, even if at that distance — about two hundred yards or so — but I couldn't work out exactly what. However, as the woman progressed up the beach in my general direction, her hand went up and pulled the matching black bathing cap from her head.

The moment those flaming red curls unfurled themselves, I knew exactly who she was, but for the life of me I couldn't understand how she had washed up on the same island - let alone beach - as I, several thousand miles from our hometown.

I might not have known that she was on the island, but as she got closer, it was pretty obvious to me that she knew that I was there. And what's more, that she was making straight for me. She had to have pre-knowledge of my presence and exact location, because I'd had difficulty in recognising her at that distance, red hair or not. There was no possible way she could have spotted me almost lying down on that lounger as I was.

It never crossed my mind of course, that she might have already spotted me before she went into the sea and had decided to make a dramatic appearance. Not that it did her any good because I pretended to be asleep behind my sunglasses. I wore mirror sunglasses so the females would not be aware of me perving their nubile bodies as they paraded about the beach and hotel patio where I lay.

I'm not unattractive, but at thirty-three and feeling more like I was fifty-three, I wasn't really in the running for picking up any spare, even if I was on holiday. I'd had my fill of close encounters with the female of our species by then. Two failed marriages and a failed long-term relationship was enough for me, thank you very much. I was quite happy to lie there and fantasise thank you.

Mary Beth sashayed directly up to the foot of my lounger and then stood there staring down at me, her hands on her hips.

I pretended to be sound asleep.

She coughed once and then a little later she "Ahem'd."

Nevertheless, I didn't move a muscle, concentrating my mind hard on keeping my breathing deep and regular. With luck, she'd come to think that I was in a drunken stupor and go away.

Eventually she called out my name, but when I still didn't react. Then she said, "Fuck you. Tony Smart why do you have to drink so damned much all the time?" Then she turned and walked past me into the hotel.

I gave her plenty of time to get out of sight before I checked that the coast was clear. "Shit!" I said out loud. "What the fuck is she doing here?"

I'd first clapped eyes on Mary Beth Thomas. That's it Mary Beth by the way, not Mary Elizabeth. Wow betide anyone who ever called Mary Beth, Elizabeth. Apparently, she'd been named after some American actress that her grandfather had had the hots for in his younger days. As the first female born to the family Mary Beth was given her name; I suppose to keep the old boy happy.

Anyway, I first ran into her when we were both sixteen on my first day in Technical College. With a lot of other students, I'd been milling around in the lecture room that was to be our base for the year, when Mary Beth made her entrance. With a delightfully shapely body and that flaming red hair, no bugger — well male student anyway - in the room could miss her. Every male eye in the place — no matter whom they were apparently talking to - was on Mary Beth as she went up to the lecturer and asked him where she should sit. The randy bugger playfully suggested the front row where he could keep a friendly eye on her. Beth chose this moment to demonstrate her loud voice and called him a dirty old man, if not with a little playful tone to her voice, and everyone took it as a joke.

Her actual words were, "Here! We'll have to watch this one girls, I think he's going to be as bad as the rest of these perverts!" The rest of these perverts she was talking about were her male fellow students. Who, of course, were still ogling her.

Mary Beth then threw a withering look at one poor guy as she passed him on her way to the rear of the class. Where she very soon collected a little group of female Queen worshippers around her.

On one point Mary Beth was right, she did have to watch the boys. Very soon, she was getting hit on and asked to go out on dates by nearly every reasonably looking guy in our class and many from other classes as well. I had to give it to her she didn't string any of the guys along. Actually, she told them to piss off in no uncertain manner, and of course always at the top of her voice. Eventually nearly all of the guys got the message and they stopped pestering her for dates. Which I assumed, had been Mary Beth's plan.

Another odd thing about Mary Beth ... Well don't you think it was odd, a very beautiful young woman who, to all intent and purposes, kept every guy at arm's length no matter how handsome they were? "Bloody odd if you ask me." I thought at the time; but I was to learn otherwise later. Anyway after a few weeks, word was spread around by some of the young wolves in the college, that Mary Beth was a lesbian. I suppose to cover the fact that they hadn't managed to score even a date with her.

Anyway, the odd thing I'm talking about was her female group of friends. Unlike most catty little female groups, obviously they weren't a closed shop. Neither was there a need for any girl to particularly fit in with the leader's ideas, basically Mary Beth's; for she couldn't abide female bullying of any kind. Any mousy little girl was apparently welcomed into that little ... eventually very big, gang. About the only thing they all had in common was that they were all very dedicated to - and vocal on the subject - when it came to the women's Liberation movement; but we'll gloss over that part if we may, it has no real bearing on the story.

After watching Mary Beth's appearance that first day, I thought I had the situation pegged correctly and I had no intention of being made a laughing stock of, by trying my luck, no matter how much I fancied her on the quiet. There were plenty of other fish in the sea for me to chase after; I have always believed that there's little point in wasting time chasing the unobtainable.

I suppose six months had gone by, when we were assigned group projects by our physics lecturer. The group members he randomly pulled from a hat, or to be precise a wastebasket. It was some surprise to me when I discovered Mary Beth had come over to join the group I was in. Even more surprising was the fact she had very little to say for herself that first day. It didn't strike me until later, that physics was hardly Mary Beth's forte.

By the third or fourth week of the project, Mary Beth was really struggling and holding the whole group back and some of the group members actually dared to get uppity with her. Oddly, Mary Beth didn't bite back, but she looked embarrassed.

"Tony you got a minute?" The lecturer called out to me at the end of the session.

I turned and saw him standing there with Mary Beth at his side.

"Whas-up boss!" I said approaching his table.

"Mary Beth here is having problems with this project. She's asked me to remove her from your group because she's holding the rest of you back."

I stood there and stared at him, wondering why he'd decided that I must be the natural leader of the group, which I wasn't actually.

"This is your area Tony, you leave the rest of them at the stocks. Could you find your way to find time to tutor Mary Beth and bring her up to speed?"

"I suppose so, but what does Mary think of that idea?"

"Mary Beth is willing to give it a try!" Mary replied, correcting me - not for the first or the last time - on her name.

"Okay girl, I'll meet you in the refectory after classes finish and we'll see if we can arrange something." I replied. Then I got the hell out of there before she had time to react to the girl comment.

Yeah I was pulling her chain a little, but I was a young man who liked to get out and enjoy himself. I had enough to do with my own studying; I really didn't want to waste my time tutoring one of the college dykes. Yeah well, throw enough mud at something and eventually some of it will stick! I do believe that I was coming around to join the general consensus of opinion that Mary Beth was a lesbian. I had never seen her with a guy since the day we'd all arrived at the college and no one — well guy anyway - had ever claimed that they had taken her out.

"Well we can't do much in here, too damned noisy." I said to Mary Beth when I joined her in the refectory that afternoon.

"The library!" she suggested.

"Yeah, but they get all out of shape if you talk too much in there. How about your place, where do you live?"

"About a mile away. But I don't think my dad will like that, he's a little paranoid about me and boys."

"Mary Beth, I ain't your bloody boyfriend; I'm supposed to be tutoring you in physics. Tell your father that if you don't get help, then you're going to flunk out. He'll have to come round. I'd say you could come to my place, but my brothers would be around with their tongues hanging out all the time. We just wouldn't get any peace."

"I'll talk to him then, give me your number." She replied.

Her dad did keep giving me funny looks but he never actually said anything. Mary Beth's mum was great and was forever trying to feed me up; when I went round their house; usually I was invited to have an evening meal with them. Only that saying "Grace" lark before eating took me by surprise a little.

The months rolled along and I eventually got Mary Beth up to speed. But once the project was over she still kept hounding me for help, it seemed that I was going to be stuck with tutoring her in physics for the rest of our college lives. Not that I really minded, once you got past that front she put on she was very nice really, for a dyke that is!

"Tony, are you a queer?" You could have knocked me over with a feather when Mary Beth asked me that, on about our third week back of our second year of college.

"No I fucking-well ain't!" I replied angrily.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to upset you. I was just wondering because you've never made a pass at me. You're probably the only male in this whole college who hasn't made a pass at me at one time or another, and that includes half the lecturers."

"I don't take rejection well Mary, and you have the reputation that you've rejected everyone who's ever asked you out. You do realise that there's some in this college who suggest that you swing the other way don't you?"

"Do you?" she asked.

Honest answer?" I queried.

"Honest answer, I'm thick skinned." She assured me.

"Well at one time I did wonder. But I've got to know you quite well now and I've never seen anything that leads me to believe that you swing that way."

"Thank you, and for your information, I don't! I was just an early developer and I've had randy little shits thinking they are going to get into my pants ever since I was ten years old. One or two very early and extremely upsetting experiences, was enough for me to be very wary of all men. Young and old alike!"

"Holly shit you weren't..."

"No, I just got touched up a couple of times before I was old enough to realise what the buggers were up to. My dad kicked the living daylights out of one of our neighbours when I told him, and he warned me to be careful around the male of the species. I'm afraid it's got to become a bit of a habit."

"Oh I see!" I said, wondering where the conversation was going.

"No you don't see!" She replied.

I don't?" I echoed wondering what the hell Mary Beth was referring to.

"No you don't, if you did, you'd have kissed me yonks ago. Christ, I've given you every opportunity." She announced.

"That's news to me!"

"Yeah I can see it is! Well if you aren't going to see the damned bait I'd better take the bull by the horns hadn't I?" She said, then she threw her arms around my neck and pulled me into a clinch; right there in the middle of the college refectory, in front of everyone.

The next thing I know Mary Beth's tongue is jammed in my mouth and cheers are going up all around us. I'll happily admit that it was possibly the best kiss of my life that far. However, I was somewhat embarrassed by the all attention we were getting from our audience.

I had little choice but to wrap my arms around Mary Beth. God, did those two breasts feel good pressing against my chest.

That was it really; from that day forth Mary Beth and I were an item. Even her old man seemed to have accepted the fact.

The years rolled by and at the age of nineteen, I went off to college on the south coast to study engineering. Mary Beth who had left the education system by then, came along with me and we set up home in the grubbiest little one bed roomed flat that you've ever seen. Nevertheless, we were happy there together. For a while!

Beth found a job and went out to work everyday and I, of course, went to my studies. Most evenings we worked together in a pub for the extra money. Well, that flat was such a dump; Mary Beth wouldn't want to stay in it on her own.

It was as I was approaching my final exams that things kind of turned all topsy-turvy on us. I believe I'd been somewhat shocked at Mary Beth's reaction when I'd suggested that we got married right after I graduated. Mary Beth sort of panicked and mumbled something about not being ready to get married yet.

After that day, we seemed to argue all the time about nothing at all. It was as if every time I opened my mouth I was waving a red rag in front of a bull. Eventually, the night after I took my final exams we somehow finished up going at it like hammer and tongs. I suppose a lot of things were said that really shouldn't have been, but I really can't remember what they were. Damned if I can remember what the argument even started over now.

Anyway, when I got home the following evening - I still had some odds and ends to tidy up at college - Mary Beth had packed up her stuff and gone home to her mum and dad. Well that's what the hastily written note implied, no goodbye or anything. A neighbour described - what I believed - was Mary Beth's father's car parked outside the flat late that morning.

I can tell you I was pretty devastated when that happened, but I was extremely angry at the same time. Christ, we'd invested five years into our relationship and Mary Beth had walked away as if it meant nothing at all.

When I told my parents what had happened, they suggested that I should call Mary Beth and talk things over with her. But I was adamant that I wasn't going to do that. She'd left me; I figured that it was up to her to come and find me again. They even went as far as to tell me that Beth had called their house looking for me, but I never really believed them. I told them that I'd tried to call her back, when I hadn't really. Yeah well, I was pretty pissed off with the turn of events, as I saw it, it was up to Mary Beth to do the bleeding grovelling.

I should say that I'd got used to not living at home with the horde by this time and I had found myself a nice little flat before I even got back to my hometown from Uni. All right, originally, I had intended that Mary Beth and I would start our married life living there together; but it served just as well as a bachelor pad. Somewhere that I could take all the conquests that a free man could enjoy, if you understand me?

My relationship with Mary Beth did provide one very unexpected legacy. Being known as the guy who'd captured the most beautiful girl in town's heart - who incidentally had the reputation of being an ice maiden - and having kept her for five years, did somehow raise my standing amongst all the unattached females locally. All right, and maybe some who weren't unattached when I first looked their way, that didn't make me everyone's favourite guy in town either. I do believe that a few guys got a little narked with me about it. And it could well be that that came back and bit me a few years later; one will never know. Christ, I found that I really was like a kid let loose in a sweet shop; almost any bird I looked at, was more than happy to go on a date with me. And quite a few were just as eager to climb into my bed as well.

It not being a very large town, I had always realised that it stood to reason that I was going to run into Mary Beth at the few good nightspots we had. Although I wasn't really expecting that I'd run into her - with a different guy — almost every time I took a girl out.

Jesus she was a bitch. The moment she saw me, she'd manoeuvre her date around the dance floor until they were standing right in front of us. Then they'd prance around with his hands all over her for most of the evening, whilst Mary Beth looked daggers at my date and myself.

I soon discovered an antidote for her behaviour though; once Mary Beth and her date had positioned themselves to her satisfaction, I'd pull my date in close and snog her silly. Usually Mary Beth and her guy would be gone when I finally broke the kiss. For some reason it got me a reputation as a good kisser as well.

I think I'd been back from Uni for about six months when I picked up Sally somewhere. I have no recollection of where we met, I can only assume she was one of the girls who'd always been around somewhere; lets say I'd always known of her but didn't know her at the same time. All I can remember of that evening is giving her a lift home in my taxi one evening, snogging and most likely steeling the odd grope or two on the way. Yeah well, I didn't care, I took quite a few liberties. If the girls didn't like it, well ... there were plenty more fish in the sea!

The following evening was a Friday and just after I got in from work, I found a message on my answer machine from Sally asking what time I was picking her up? Well, we went dancing that night and after a lot of hemming and hawing, she deigned to come back to my flat with me for the night.

What surprised me, was not that she was so willing, but the fact that she was almost completely inexperienced. Oh, don't go getting the idea that Sally was a virgin or anything, she most definitely wasn't. But, she admitted to me later that she'd only ever been shagged — with a capital S — in the back of a car, or behind the bushes in the park. No word of a lie, missionary only, and not the slightest idea on how to give head.

Boy did I have my work cut out bringing her up to speed. Mind you, she took to making love in a bed — as against getting shagged in the back of a car — like a duck to water. To be honest, once she found those Internet sites on my computer — you know the ones with all the mucky and very descriptive stories and pictures on them - she turned into a raving sex maniac. You say it and Sally wanted to give it a try. Even bondage and S and M. Not really my cup of tea, but we had some fun experimenting.

Somehow, Sally and I finished up as a couple, probably more because we had so much fun in the bedroom — or any other room in the flat that took our fancy — than anything else.

Then suddenly just after that Christmas, Sally dropped the bomb on me. She was pregnant! I have no idea what went wrong, we'd taken all the right precautions; but these things happen; no type of birth control - except total abstention - is completely foolproof. We were married, less than two weeks later.

Unfortunately, Sally's pregnancy did not go full term. I'm not completely sure what went wrong because the doctors spout all that technical shit at you. Anyway, Sally got some kind of an infection herself and nearly died. It was an upsetting couple of months for both of us I can assure you.

But once she recovered, and with additional precautions - we added a cap to the mix — our sex lives got back the enthusiasm they'd had when we'd first got together. The problem was that after a few months I discovered that Sally had taken an interest — through the Internet — in swinging. Her - or maybe it was my - problem was, that she didn't seem to understand that for it to be swinging, both partners have to be in on the plan - or should that be act? Joining a swinging club without your partner isn't really Cricket, now is it?

The divorce was amicable and very quick. I couldn't really see the point in getting all out of shape over it, especially when Sally was happy to shag my brains out, even after the divorce. Not that I did very often; I had no idea who else she was shagging. She had developed the art of giving a good blowjob by then though.

After Sally, I sort of lost confidence in women. Hey, maybe that's why I still laid Sally now and again. I knew she was a cheating slut, so I wasn't likely to be disappointed again.

But then Jane came into the picture. I met Jane at the office; to be precise we were stuck in a lift together — in the dark - during a power failure. We sat there in the dark and talked about our lives, having no real idea what each other looked like whilst we chatted. (Boy did I get a surprise when the lights came back on!") For some reason not even the emergency light had come on when the power went out. And who the hell takes more than a quick glance at anyone else who gets into a lift with them, when there's only the two of you in there.

Yeah, if the lift is crowded, and a shapely young backside gets in, most guys will try to position themselves to have a good perv. But, when there are only the two of you in the lift together, very suddenly the floor display panel has to take on a whole new interest, or you're liable to get your face slapped.

When the lift suddenly jerks to a halt and you're plunged into complete darkness; eventually you have to start talking to your companion, to put them at their ease at least. You know we both had cigarettes, but neither of us had a working lighter. By the time the power came back on, we'd both pledged to give up the dreaded weed. We actually met again a few days later, to assure each other that we'd kept that pledge.

That meeting lead to a date, and well ... eight months later we were walking out of the registry office man and wife. But, not before Jane had informed me that children were not going to be on the cards. Jane had been born with a deformity in her ovaries and they'd had to be removed almost the moment she reached puberty; because of some complication or the other, which she never did go into fine details about. I'll be honest here I get just a little queasy when folks start talking about all that medical stuff. Jane also informed me that she had to take hormone replacement pills everyday, like some women who reach the end of their menstruation do. What do they call it, the change?

Although the idea of not having any naturally born children, was a blow for me; Jane had accepted her lot many years before. We did discuss the possibility of adoption sometime in the future. And there were some unexpected benefits to living with a woman who didn't menstruate. No PMS - like Mary Beth used to get sometimes — and no missing out a few nights every month.

The only unpredictable thing was a distinct variation in Jane's sexual appetite or libido that proved to be connected to those pills she took every day. Jane of course, had been aware of it for years and unbeknown to me until after we had wed, she changed the dose of the pills she took to take it into account. Whether it was an over dose or under dose of one particular pill, I never could fathom out. But when she got it wrong, Christ the woman would almost kill me. Still, others have had far worse crosses to bear.

Mentioning about Mary Beth again reminds me. With hindsight, I realised that a very odd thing happened concerning her. You remember, I said that when I got back from university she seemed to be everywhere that I took a date. Well, the odd thing was that after I got married to Sally, Mary Beth disappeared off the face of the earth. Only to reappear again whilst I was dating Jane, but once Jane and I got hitched ... well blow me, no more Mary Beth again. I hardly ever clapped eyes on her anywhere in town, other than in the High Street sometimes on Saturdays and even then she appeared to be avoiding eye contact with me. Not that I let it show that I cared!

Working in the same building, Jane and I probably spent more time together than most newlyweds. We travelled to and from work together, and ate lunch together everyday. Our free time, when we weren't trying to shag each other to death, mainly revolved around Golf and line dancing. The golf was my pastime, that Jane took up with much more enthusiasm than I did her Line dancing, although I had to admit that it was fun once you got the hang of it.

We tried other pastimes as well. Ten-pin bowling, Yoga, horse riding one summer and water skiing another. The horse riding stopped when Jane got thrown. The water skiing stopped when I broke my leg. Yoga kind of came and went as our fancy took us, and the ten-pin bowling ... well, we were both absolute shit at it, but we went once a month or so anyway and laughed at ourselves.

For the next few years, theoretically everything was perfect. I got promoted and we bought a nice little house. Jane changed jobs within the firm, but for a long time we couldn't seem to get to work in the same department. Then suddenly - and completely out of the blue - I was offered a position in the same department as Jane. I took it, although it cost me a little seniority.

Regretfully, Jane was at the time secretary to a guy called Jack Prout, Prouty to most people behind his back. Jack Prout had seniority over me, and he made it very clear right from my first day in the department that there was no way he was going to let me have Jane as my secretary. Not that that mattered really because my desk - being the new guy - was in the same office as Jane's. Although we knew that as I moved up the chain, I'd get a private office like most of the other guys.

Another unexpected flaw in Jane's and my master plan was that, as the new guy, Jim Martin the department head decided that I needed to familiarise myself with the departments clients and that led to numerous overnight trips all over the bleeding country. Instead of spending more time together, Jane and I were apart more than we had been since almost as far back as that day we were stuck in the lift together.

We had been married over four years by then, so we just sat back and bit the bullet. We knew that once I'd visited, spent some time with and got to know all the clients then I wouldn't be away half as much.

Well that was the state of play when I suddenly realised that everything wasn't quite as kosher as it should have been. Two snippets of overheard conversation were to tell me that some bastard was pulling my bleeding chain and I got really out of my pram over it. Alone they meant almost nothing; together those snippets were to lead to the shit hitting the fan in the biggest possible way

The first I overheard by the lifts one day. I was carrying three file boxes full of paper and I stepped to one side so that the people in the lift could get out before I went in. But, as the two guys exited the lift one was saying to the other.

"Christ when she gets going, nothing stops her! You know, she nigh fucked four of us to death the other..."

The guy suddenly stopped speaking when he saw that I was standing there. Him doing that locked his words into my brain.

Then about a week or so later I was going into the tearoom one morning when I heard one of the other guys saying.

"Yeah Prouty switched her bleeding pills she was fucking gagging for it when we got..."

Once again the guy stopped speaking when he realised that it was me entering the tearoom and they both avoided my eyes as they hurriedly left.

Now even if Jane hadn't been like a woman possessed, when I'd returned home from my trip the previous evening I'd have still worked out what was going on. There was only one woman who kept her handbag inside Jack Prout's office. How kind of the bugger to offer to volunteer to lock it in his safe everyday, and I still wonder exactly how long the bastard had been fucking about with Jane's pills. Come to that for how long had the bastard been laying her?

Consumed with anger I charged straight from the tearoom into Prouty's office where Jane was taking dictation from him. My unexpected and sudden appearance must have told him that I'd sussed the bugger out, because he tried to scoot his chair through the far wall. But I was on the bastard anyway. I had two hands around his neck and I was squeezing for all I was worth.