It was summer and we seemed to be going through a heat wave. All day the temperatures had ranged from hot, to very hot, to too hot. Not that we had to worry about excessive humidity – there's wasn't any. The air was so dry that it sucked the moisture out of you as soon as you stepped outside.
We lived a couple of miles out of town, our house being on the main road. Easy for people to find us as ours was the only house for about a mile. That's not to say we didn't have neighbours, because we did, but their houses tended not to be on the main road. You had to take little side roads to find them.
On this night, this hot night, I was home alone. The parents were visiting friends and would be away for a couple of days. I was lying naked on my bed, thinking rude things about the weather. It wasn't that it was too hot, the air conditioner took care of that. It was the dryness that was annoying me. I was restless and just could not get to sleep.
Thinking about how dry I was brought to mind our swimming pool. A nice big pool, full of cold, wet, water that would drive away this infernal dryness. I decided a dip would not go amiss.
I headed outside, turning on the lights by the pool. Then I dived in. Did you read where I put on a bikini? No? That's because I didn't. Why should I bother? There was just me and a few scattered sheep and any miscellaneous wild animals that happened to be about and who cared if a rabbit was watching?
I swam a little, and then just floated. The nice thing about swimming at night is you don't have to worry about sunburn. I just lay back in the water, flicking my feet every so often so that I drifted around the pool.
I could hear the noise of the traffic, not that there was much. An occasional car and once a heavy truck went past. A motor-bike came roaring along, a big one by the sound of it. I heard it sweeping past our place and forgot about it.
After a few moments something started nagging at me. It took a while for me to work out what it was and then I became puzzled. It was the motor-bike. I'd heard it approach and pass, but I hadn't heard it fade off into the distance. Thinking about it, it seemed to me that the bike had slowed after it passed, then the engine had got a little louder and stopped. Had the bike stopped outside our place for some reason? Did the rider have a problem? Maybe he was knocking at the front door even now?
I stopped floating and drifting and stood up, fortunately being in a relatively shallow part of the pool. Turning to look towards the house and road I gave a small scream.
There was a man, certainly the rider, standing at the end of the pool, watching me. I know he was the rider as he still had his helmet on. Did he know how ominous he looked, dressed all in black leather (in this heat, the maniac) with a black helmet and dark visor?
The scream probably gave him a clue as he reached up and took off the helmet. The rider was in his thirties from the look of him. He was handsome enough in a weather-beaten way, and had blond curly hair that gleamed under the pool lights.
"Ah, I've startled you. I'm so sorry, that was not my intention. I was passing and I thought I saw a body floating in the pool. It would be irresponsible of me to pass by if I could possibly help so I stopped to see if there was a problem. You can imagine my surprise when I found myself watching a water nymph, a veritable naiad, disporting herself in the pool. All I could do was stand here and watch."
"Um, yes, well I was just taking a midnight swim to refresh myself," I muttered, crossing my arms over my breasts and hoping the water was deep enough to cover other parts, though I had a dreadful feeling it wasn't. Not caring about the odd rabbit seeing me was one thing. This guy was something else entirely.
He didn't move, just stood there, contemplating me.
"Ah, everything's fine. You can continue on your way," I suggested.
He shook his head slowly.
"How can I continue on when you have enchanted me?" he asked. "I am yours to command, your slave. Would you be so cruel as to just send me away?"
"Um, yes, I think I would," I said with a giggle.
"Then if you insist I must be off. But first, come. I would pledge my troth to you."