by Kara Bryn
I didn't say anything but nodded my head, but I still wanted her to close her eyes.
"Allright, I'll shut my eyes," and she theatrically screwed her eyes shut and held her chin the air as if in wait for a surprise gift.
In a dreamlike state I swung my legs off of the sun lounger and stood up. Before I could change my mind I pulled the cord of the bathrobe, slid it off my shoulders and dropped it to one side. As it hit the ground Natasha opened her eyes.
"Done?" she asked.
"Hey!" I said. She merely smiled, gave me an almost imperceptible glance up and down, and fixed a satisfied look on her face.
"Okay," she said, "Now: Stark or Bruce Banner?"
"What?" I asked.
"Who would you rather have here now, since you're naked. Tony Stark or Bruce Banner?"
I smiled and lay myself back on the lounger, one arm behind my head and with my legs crossed at the ankle. My breasts fell outwards as I lay there, but I didn't care because Natasha didn't. Natasha was right about how much cooler it felt. The air was warm, but it was much more comfortable than being wrapped in the bathrobe.
"Bruce Banner every time," I said.
"Good choice. Bruce Banner, but not David Banner, of course." We both laughed.
"Yeah. Bill Bixby's not my type at all."
The conversation continued this way as we whittled our way through male superhero and fantasy figures. It was about as geek girly as I could ever imagine being, and somehow being naked just made it more fun. I wondered if Natasha was getting as turned on as I was by these fantasies.
Then, with a start I heard a voice near us.
"Hey, ladies!" the voice said. It was Martin. "Do you… woah, I wasn't expecting that." I looked up and saw him looking me up and down. I resisted the urge to cover myself with my hands; it was too late for that. "So you're one of those too, huh?" he asked me. I nodded. I may as well be "one of those" for the day if it made things easier.
He turned to Natasha and while she looked up at him I couldn't help glance down at Martin's shorts and wonder if I could see a touch more of a bulge there than usual. He might be Natasha's man, but it would be nice to get a small reaction. But even with my imagination I couldn't make anything out, unfortunately.
"Anyway," he continued, "I was going to ask if you wanted something to drink. I was thinking of cracking open a beer, so I can get you something if you like."
"Oooh, a gin and tonic would be lovely," Natasha said softly, "Rupes?" she asked as she turned to me.
"Oh yes, a gin and tonic sounds amazing."
This was going to be a totally decadent day. All we needed now were some semi-naked men to fan us and feed us grapes. I wouldn't have minded Martin doing it…
"I'll be right on it ladies," said Martin and he turned and went back to the kitchen, now seemingly at home with having not one but two naked women lounging in the garden.
"He seems really nice, Martin," I said to Natasha, "You're lucky to have him."
"Yeah, I'm very lucky," she said, and then looked thoughtfully into the distance. I let her train of thought run its course.
"Can I let you in on a secret?" she finally said.
"Of course!" I said, perhaps too eagerly. I rolled onto my side and saw Natasha's eyes follow my breasts as one piled on top of the other.
"Martin's not really my boyfriend at all. It's just something I say to keep the guys away."
My eyes must have gone as wide as saucers. "But, but," I stammered, "but how come? I mean, he's hanging around here and everything?"
Natasha grinned. "Yeah. We get on really well and everything and we've known each other for years, and then I worked out he was gay way before anyone else did. And round here, you can't really make it as a gay quarterback, you know what I mean?"
Suddenly it all fell into place. "Oh," I mouthed, and then aloud, "So it really is a marriage of convenience." Natasha grinned. "Well, if I was wearing a hat, I'd take it off to you."
Natasha laughed at the ridiculousness of the turn of phrase, especially given our state of undress.
"Promise not to tell anyone?" she asked.
"Absolutely," I told her, "I'm good with secrets."
Her eyes remained fixed on me with a hint of smile on her lips. "I believe it," she said, somewhat seriously.
Martin returned with our drinks and a bowl of olives. He sat on the end of Natasha's lounger and talked with us for a while. I was all ready to get excited about the idea of lying about naked with this hunk of a man talking to us, but now that I knew he wasn't going to be interested in anything either of our bodies had to offer it seemed the most natural thing in the world.
After a while Martin left and we went back to talking about comics and whether the next Star Wars was going to be any good. Time just flew by again, and lying around naked and getting slowly drunk seemed the most perfect way to spend the afternoon.
"Hey you two!" A female voice suddenly intruded on us from inside the house. I looked around in time to see Theresa and Georgia stepping out into the garden with two young men in tow. Theresa was the one who'd called out to us. "What have y-- woah Rupa! I nearly didn’t recognise you with your clothes off!"
I tried not to blush, but I knew even with my complexion it was noticeable. The two young men trailing them were wide-eyed as they tried to take in both Natasha and my own naked body stretched before them on the sun loungers. I tried to act casual, although perhaps not as convincingly as Natasha did. She glanced over at me, noticing the worried expression on my face.
"Don't you guys knock or anything?" she asked them. I got the impression that she wasn't all that happy about being discovered by strangers either.
"Oh, lighten up, Tash," Georgia said. "Everyone knows what to expect when they come here now." By the look of the two boys I wasn't sure that was true. Natasha's face adopted a sterner expression than I've seen on her before but I think neither of us could see any benefit in making an argument out of it. I figured that they'd seen me now and acting embarrassed would only make it worse.
Theresa turned to me. "We were in town having a post-lunch drink or two and we met these two gorgeous guys," she told me. I guess that this wasn't the guy that she had been with last night. "And then we got a call from Claudia and she's having some people over tonight and asked us over, so that's what we're doing tonight. Unless you have plans?"
I shook my head. I could have planned to have a quiet night in, and I'd be willing to bet that Natasha has some Studio Ghibli on blu-ray that we could churn through, but I knew that Theresa wasn't going to be diverted from a second party in two nights, especially not if she already had a drink or two inside her.
I swung my legs around and put my feet on the warm stone. I noticed the two boys staring at my chest as I did so.
The gin and tonic was making my head spin, and that probably gave me the courage to maintain a conversation whilst sitting there naked.
"Well, first I need to go back to your place and pick up some clothes," I said, looking down at myself as I did so and realising that I had just made everyone stare at my newly shaved landing strip.
"Or, you could go like that," Theresa joked, "'Come as you are', Claudia said." She winked at me. I stared back. Theresa turned to Natasha.
"Natasha? Up for it?" I looked at my naked friend pleadingly; I really wanted at least one person at the party I could talk to, especially if Theresa was going to be occupied with one, or possibly more, of the boys.
Natasha glanced at me, picking up on my expression. She turned to Georgia. "We're not doing anything are we?" she asked her housemate.
Georgia had already been pre-sold the Claudia party plan. "Oh, I'm going to the party, Tash," she said, "It's just a question of whether you want to come too."
Natasha looked back at me. "Okay, let's do it. Theresa, you're okay to ferry Rupa around?"
Although I wasn't sure Theresa if she'd been drinking at lunchtime. I always tried to stop her driving after the "one or two drinks" that I knew where
likely five or six.
"Don't worry. Brandon here's been driving us. You're okay with that, Brandon? Brandon?" She turned to the man she was still holding onto. He just about managed to tear his eyes away from Natasha's body for a second so he could answer.
"Er, yeah, sure," he said feebly.
"That's it. Settled. Sorted," Theresa said, "Rupa, let's go and get you kitted out."
I stood up and turned to Natasha.
"So you'll be along in a while?" I asked my new friend. Natasha smiled reassuringly.
"Yup. I'll drive with Georgia and Martin and be along in a bit, once you've had time to find some clothes."
Georgia disappeared inside leaving her man-of-the-day to stand and gawp at us. I walked over toTheresa and she leant in and put an arm around my shoulders as I approached. I was very conscious of my bare breast rubbing against the fabric of her blouse. "You look like you've had an interesting day," she whispered in my ear, and then glanced at Natasha, who was oblivious to the exchange. I nodded, not wanting to add any more detail.
"It's been nice," I said out loud, and I meant it. Natasha smiled again.
"See you in an hour or so," she said to me, and gave a delicate wave of her fingers.
The inside of the house seemed unnaturally dark after the brightness of the outside and I followed Theresa down the hallway, conscious that Brandon behind us was watching my backside all the way.
Georgia came bounding out of a side door with a neatly folded pile of my clothes in one hand and my shoes in the other. "These are yours," she said, handing them to me. I don't know if it was the gin and tonic, but I really should have made the point that I was hoping to put them back on before I left. But before I could work the thought out Georgia opened the front door and ushered us out.
"We'll see you later," she said and shut the door with a wave.
Brandon stepped past me and pointed a key fob at an open-topped sports car parked in the driveway and unlocked it. I realised what part of Brandon had attracted Theresa to him. I went to follow him but as soon as I put a foot on the gravel I recoiled at the heat.
"Ouch! That's hot."
"I could get Brandon to carry you?" Theresa said, not entirely helpfully. Brandon looked very keen on that idea.
Instead, I bent down and slipped my feet into my stilettos. Natasha was right: being naked except for high heels suddenly felt so much more sexual. Theresa smiled at me, as if she read what was going on in my mind, although I couldn't really work out why she was enjoying this so much.
With my dress and underwear neatly folded together in one hand I teetered across the gravel driveway and Brandon held the door open for me to climb past the passenger seat and sit in the back. I saw his eyes look me up and down again as I sat down and I realised that perhaps Theresa would be less happy if she it occurred to her that she was being upstaged for once.
The beige leather was hot on my skin but I knew it would only last a few seconds. The seatbelt felt rough against my chest and over my stomach and I was very conscious of my unclothed state. I tried to relax into the seat and let the gin and tonic insulate me from the embarrassment I knew I should be feeling.
Theresa insisted on being helped into the passenger seat by Brandon who, with a final glance at my breasts as he climbed into the car, started the engine and, full of testosterone, over-revved in first gear and the car spat gravel across the front of Natasha and Georgia's house before accelerating down the driveway.
Theresa leant over to talk to Brandon a couple of times, but with the open top and the noise of the wind I couldn't make out what they were saying. I noticed her look over at me at least once so I guessed I was the topic of at least one conversation. I could forgive her that: it's not every day you ask your new (temporary) boyfriend to chauffer your naked friend around.
It was an odd sensation, being naked in the back of a car as we cruised along the back roads. A few cars passed by on the other side of the road but I was grateful that my small stature meant nobody would be able to see anything from the neck down, and people barely even gave us a second glance. After a while I realised I was feeling some of the liberation that Natasha had spoken of, and with the air moving over me and the warm sun of the late afternoon on my bare skin it became an entirely pleasurable experience. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine I was naked in the passenger seat with a variety of heroes at the wheel beside me, or perhaps I was the one driving and they were just admiring me sitting there, my arms gently massaging the sides of my breasts as I turned the steering wheel.
My reverie was broken by the sound of tyres on gravel again and I realised we must have arrived. I opened my eyes: this didn't look at all like Theresa's house.
"Where are we?" I asked her.
"Now don't get mad," she said, but I could tell by a very wicked look on her face that this was not an apology for anything, "But while you were asleep back there, we decided that… well, I never realised you were so comfortable, like Natasha is, and maybe you just needed that little push…" I could feel I was starting to turn red with anger, or fear, or a mixture of both. "To cut a long story short, we were going to ask you, but you were asleep so we decided it must be okay if we just came straight to Claudia's."
"What?" I almost shouted, sitting bolt upright in the back of the car.
"Look, I said don't get mad, okay?"
Just because you say something, it doesn't mean it won't happen, Theresa, I thought. Theresa continued her line of thin logic.
"You know, I always knew there was more to you than meets the eye, and now we know, eh Brandon?" Brandon looked at her and nodded, but quite obviously did not want to make eye contact with me while I was seething inside. Theresa started to climb out of the car and, following her cue, so did Brandon, who then pushed the driver's seat forwards and held the door open for me to follow.
"Uh, uh. No way," I said, "We're going back to your place, and maybe we'll skip this party entirely now."
"Hush! Don't be like that! Now come on, or I'll have Brandon carry you." This time, with the glare I gave him, Brandon looked entirely unhappy about the idea of trying to pick me up.
I took off my seat belt and climbed out of the car, shunning Brandon's hand as I did so. I walked around to confront Theresa. At least with the heels on I was closer to her eye level.
I stood in front of her with my hands on my hips. Looking back, that would have been quite a sight, if there were anyone except us three there to see it.
"Now, listen to me," I said, trying to keep my voice quiet but fully conveying just how angry I felt at her right now, "We are going back to your place. You can go to this stupid party if you want to, but I'm not."
I heard Brandon's key fob chirp behind me and there was a prolonged mechanical noise from the car as the doors locked.
Theresa just smiled at me. "Hey, Rupes, just let yourself go have fun for once, huh?"
She knew how to goad me into anything, or almost anything. I hated my reputation as a "fun killer" and she always used it to get her own way. Behind me, I heard Brandon's footsteps disappearing towards the house. I got the feeling he wanted no part of Theresa's plan, or our argument, and I couldn't blame him.
"Well, you can stay out here all night if you like," she said to me. I wondered if I really could, and then I realised I had a get-out plan: I still had the clothes from last night in the back of the car. Maybe a few people would notice it was the same dress, but who cares?
I turned around to grab them from the back seat of the sports car, and then realised what the whirring noises had been: Brandon had closed the hard-top for the evening. The car was locked up.
"What?..." I started to say. Theresa took her opportunity to skip towards the front door. "Come on!" she called back to me with a laugh.
As best as I was able in the high heels I bounded after her and grabbed her wrist just before she reached the front porch. I turned her around towards me.
"Please, Theresa," I said, "Don't do this. I know you like a prank, but
not this."
"Oh, don't be such a baby," she said, "Do you know how many men in there will have seen me naked? And from very close up to. And I think a few of the women have too. It's all been a bit of a blur…"
That didn't exactly help me.
"And besides," she continued, "Everyone knows what Natasha's like, and they're fine with it. So what's another one?" That was also thin logic. And what did she mean by "another one"?
There was a buzzing noise and Theresa pulled her phone out of her bag. She unlocked it and waved it in front of my face.
"Look", she instructed.
I read the message from Georgia. "Where are you guys? We're here already," it read.
"See?" she said, "Natasha's already here. We'll look after you. Come on…"
She put her arm around my shoulders. She'd tried goading, running away, and now she was trying the act of the compassionate, helpful friend. I didn't believe any it, of course.
Still, somehow, knowing that Natasha was already there, and when does anyone ever get a chance to reinvent themselves… And I still blame the gin and tonic for clouding my judgement. I took a deep breath.
"Fine," I said, "But not for long, okay?" Theresa hopped up and down with excitement.
"You're the best, Rupes." She took my hand, pulled me towards the front door and pressed the bell. It was opened a few seconds later by a tall, glamorous blond woman in a long, red evening dress. Her surprise was noticeable as she looked me up and down and tried to conceal her surprise as she turned her eyes to Theresa.
"Hey, Theresa!" she said.
Theresa leant forwards and they exchange a brief hug and a kiss on each cheek.
"Glad you could make it!" our host continued. She turned to look down at me. "And you must be Rupa?" she said.
As I nodded, she extended an arm and I was pulled in for the same hug and kiss. I was momentarily distracted by the exquisite feeling of my nipples against the satin fabric of her dress.
"So you're one of Natasha's friends too?" she asked. I nodded. It felt like Natasha's trailblazing was my get out of jail free card for the night. "Well, come on in, come on in."
