The weather was about as perfect as anyone could want. Almost no swell, not a cloud in the sky, and temp in the mid 80's. Everybody showed up on time for the dive, about an hour after dawn. Karen was there as instructor, Bill to navigate—he had known these waters since he was a kid, Rick to pilot—after all, it was his and Karen's boat, Asch and Octavia as paying participants, Charlie to take pictures, and the girls for the excitement. —Oh yes, and to pose for photos.
Rick and Karen had strapped air tanks to the railings and stocked the boat with drinking water and snacks. Everyone stowed their gear under the seats, and they headed out.
Bill took out a GPS. "Okay, that kinda shallow place with the interesting coral is out, uh, that way, maybe three quarters of a mile."
Rick pointed the boat west and slightly south. Karen made everyone review their dive charts and calculate how long they'd be able to stay under at the estimated 20 feet. The men pulled on their wetsuits but left them unzipped to keep cool. The women discussed swimwear. They were already dressed in "modest" bikinis under their coverups, and had their snorkeling gear at hand.
They arrived at the location and Rick dropped anchor a little way from the reef. Karen said "Okay Charlie, you're in charge. I'll watch."
Charlie got up and looked a little bashful. "Okay, I'd like you all to just get in the water and explore like it was a regular skin dive while I practice with the camera a little and take some fish pictures. I'll bang on my tank when I'm ready and you can wave at me and I'll come over and take pictures of whatever you're pointing at, and you can do some poses, too. Okay?"
The girls jumped into the water and Charlie, Octavia, and Asch put on their dive gear. Karen said, "Bill, you should get in, too. That way there'll be an even number of people the water for buddying up. You can buddy with Charlie. I think Asch wants to buddy with your sister," she grinned.
Bill shrugged into his gear and joined the rest, secretly delighted to have an excuse to do some girl-watching.
Rick double-checked their first stage valves and sent them in. Rick and Karen leaned on the railing side by side. "It'll be hard for Charlie to take bad pictures with those models," she remarked.
"Not as cute as you, but yup."
She leaned into him as they kept watch over the splashing girls and the streams of bubbles.
Under the water, Asch fell into his learned habit of steady breathing and followed Octavia as she descended, gliding sensuously around outcroppings and turning to look at fish. Asch wondered if she was deliberately moving erotically knowing that he was watching. Even with her wetsuit she looked pretty sexy.
Charlie was off to one side pointing the camera at things and creating occasional flashes. He'd take a picture, look at the camera, adjust the lights, and take another. It looked as if he wasn't even looking at the girls, but Asch noticed that every now and then he'd point the camera upwards and take a shot, still with the camera examination after each one.
Bill hung below Charlie so he could look up and watch the girls while being a good buddy, keeping Charlie in view.
The girls revelled in the attention they knew they were getting, and the attention they figured they'd get later, too. They dove a lot to look at things, played tag, swam parallel holding hands, waving at Charlie and Bill, and generally having a good time.
Finally Charlie banged on his tank with his knife, and pointed at the girls, motioning them to come toward him. They dove and he got some nice shots of them head on, they swam across his line of vision and he got some nice side shots. They turned every which way and he got some nice full frontal views, and more shots from about every angle you could imagine. He tapped his tank again and signaled to Asch and Octavia, so they swam over and he took some photos of them exploring, holding hands, from a couple angles.
Eventually it was time to go up. They broke the surface, the girls chattering excitedly as they took turns climbing onto the boat.
"Okay, Charlie," announced Sharon. "I want you to get a few more shots of us before we move on to the next location. We want to do this in different suits."
"Uh, okay." He watched as she and Jenny went to their bags and pulled out wisps of white fabric that were supposed to be bathing suits.
Sharon faced Charlie with a little smile on her face, and took off her bikini right in front of him! Top off first, then she pulled down the bottom. Jenny followed suit. Then they wiggled into the new bikinis, still smiling. It happened so fast, nobody had time to react, but both Octavia and Karen smirked, mainly at Charlie's and Bill's reactions.
"Okay, let's go!" and they dove into the water. Their suits turned essentially transparent in the water.
Charlie stood there dumbfounded, then gathered himself together and jumped in with his camera, tankless, but with his mask and snorkel. He still had his fins on.
Rick and Asch threw the girls their fins, and Charlie took pictures of the girls putting theirs on, and followed them around as they dove and cavorted in the water.
On the boat, Octavia looked at Karen and nodded her head toward the water. "Let's go."
Karen caught on, and both women stripped off their suits and dove into the water. When they popped back to the surface, Octavia yelled, "Bill, you can't look at Karen, and I'm your sister!"
Karen yelled, "Rick, don't look at Octavia, okay?"
Both men laughed, and Asch threw in two more pair of fins, and the women swam in front of Charlie, who nearly choked when he saw he had two more targets. But he rose to the occasion, and kept snapping away. The four females swam-danced together, making stars and rings, presenting Charlie with some spectacular opportunities to get pictures of wet underwater mermaids.
Finally they got tired and swam for the boat. Rick looked sideways at Asch and said, "I didn't look, but that's quite a woman you got there."
Asch smiled. "Me neither, and you too." Then they helped everyone get onto the boat. Karen and Octavia caressed their man's cheek as they sashayed by, and Jenny and Sharon did a finger-wiggling wave to the other two men. Then the four models pulled on their coverups, which didn't quite cover everything.
"Whaddya say we save the wreck for another day and go have lunch?" ventured Rick. "After this adventure, even a wreck would be anticlimactic."
Everyone agreed. The women put on a little more clothing under their coverups while Rick headed back to the pier.
Karen looked at Charlie. "As instructor, I insist on helping you select and edit your photographs. Maybe one evening this week?" She looked the group over, "Um, let's have a public viewing session, say next weekend?"
"Bring a CD up to the house and we can look at them on the big screen," offered Asch.
