Laura D. was a co-worker. We worked for a field engineering firm and performed field surveys for the building of dams or other water supply or control facilities, often in desert areas out west. I had never teamed up with Laura before, but we had been friendly at work, sharing an interest in Star Trek and science fiction novels. I had never been physically attracted to Laura and she had never been to me. We were both in our 40's.
Laura was of medium height about 5'6"; she had a rectangular-shaped face and a rectangular body. Her hair was black and being of Italian descent her skin wasn't pale white; it was a light olive color. She had a cute smile, a giggly laugh and very pretty laughing, brown eyes, but these traits were often hidden by her serious nature and her preoccupation with doing the best job she could. She was married and had had three children with her husband. She was devoted to him and because she was so obviously devoted and so obviously serious, no one at work had ever made a pass at her. And I think she was upset that no one had even flirted with her like with some of the other women at our workplace. She would even mention it when gossip was raised about a couple of folks having affairs, "Why did he never approach me? I worked with him for eight years, and not one flirtation!"
Body wise Laura was small-breasted, and had wide hips and a full waist; she was rectangular shaped. After three children she had a healthy, not overweight figure, but wasn't someone who would cause you to turn your head. On top of that she always dressed modestly, even at the company picnics when some of the women or dates of the male employees would forego brassieres or even underwear and would become the topic of gossip at the picnic. Laura was never like that. She was always proper and serious in both her dress and her manner.
That's why it surprises me what happened on one trip to the Arizona desert that we had made together. We were there for a week and the government organization we were supporting hadn't planned for adequate water resources given how dusty and dirty it was to do the surveying. So near the end of our one week of surveying we were already rationing water. This meant limited showers which made it difficult in such a dusty environment. Most of us were taking washcloth bathes in which you dip a washcloth into a pan of water and simply towel yourself off. This worked for the normal dust that we were all encountering, especially coupled with a change of clothes, which you then wore the next day until they too became saturated with dust. Even one's underwear was invaded by the fine dust of the Arizona desert. Showers were reserved for those who had become muddied.
Well it was the day before we were to depart and Laura and I had been out surveying a particularly difficult piece of terrain; it was full of gullies. The area was a drainage area for underground mountain streams that came close to the surface in the location we were working in, usually at the bottom of the gullies. We were soon knee deep in mud in some of the locations we were surveying.
At one point Laura slipped on an embankment and the next thing we knew she was in a pool of mud that looked dry on the surface but wasn't. While trying to free herself she became covered from head to toe in mud. It was dripping from her face; and her hair and her clothes were saturated with it. I ran to the edge of the embankment to help her and in the process of pulling her out I too ended up in the mud as the embankment broke away and I tumbled in right on top of Laura. In fact I think it was how I landed on her that was a pre-cursor of what was to happen later. My face landed right in her crotch, and as I tried to extricate myself I kept slipping and falling back in with my face in her crotch or on her belly. It became downright embarrassing so I reacted with humor and said, "Well that's exactly where I would like to fall if I was to land on a beautiful Italian woman like you Laura."
What surprised me a little was Laura's response, "Well, that would be just the place where a beautiful woman would want you to land," then she laughed. From there the conversation got full of sexual innuendo about being in a mud bath and that the usual state of dress for a mud bath was to be completely naked so maybe we should take our clothes off and enjoy the mud. It was just talk though. Or so I thought.
Since no one else was around we had to figure out how to extricate ourselves. We finally figured a way up the embankment and out of the mud. In order to get out I had to use my greater height, 6'2", and strength to stretch out on the embankment, have Laura climb up over me, and then finally push her up the remainder of the embankment by grabbing her butt and then her feet with my hands and pushing her up. Then planting herself on her bottom and using a rope we had as part of our kit I climbed up the embankment and tumbled over the edge of it to safety. Once again, however, I fell over and landed with my face in between Laura's legs.
Laura laughed this time and remarked, "Mark!!! You seem to really want to be down there. Here maybe this will help. She opened her legs so now my nose and mouth were right up against that tender place between her legs. Impulsively and playfully I opened my mouth and grabbed her crotch with my teeth. And then I quickly realized that I may have gone too far and backed off, sat up, and moved away, almost tumbling down the embankment again in my haste to put distance between my mouth and Laura's crotch.
Laura grabbed my hand before I tumbled back and held me fast. "Wow, a little excitement has got me quite flushed and you looking a little embarrassed too. But thanks. I appreciate the flirting. But let's get back to business, finish this survey and get back to base camp so we can clean up before dinner tonight. I think everyone is heading into the nearby town for some Tex Mex tonight before we pack up and head back home tomorrow." So we finished the survey by giving the gully a wide berth, packed up our gear and headed back to camp, literally caked in mud.
At camp we were in for another surprise as Laura was told by her tent mate that she was lucky; there was just enough water for one person to shower. Being the nice, considerate person she was, she came and told me, "Mark, I just learned from Amy that there is only enough shower water for one person to take a shower and then that's it. What are we going to do?"
Still feeling silly from our earlier travails I joked, "Well we could always shower together."
Laura shoved me and uttered, "Mark, you dirty old man."
I responded, "Well, yes, after all, look at us...both of us; we're both pathetically muddy. I paused in thought and then it came to me, "Heh, do you have a bathing suit? Maybe we can do it that way."
"No," she responded, "didn't think I'd be swimming in the desert."
"Well, then how about the thickest, most concealing pair of underwear you have, one that won't go transparent in the water. I have dark-colored briefs. Do you have any non-white bras and panties? That way we can share the water and stay relatively modest."
"Yeah, I do," and Laura soon returned wrapped in a bath towel and a sports bra and panties, both a dark green color, from her Army days. Even though we both knew it was her underwear it still looked like a bikini. I told her to situate herself in the portable shower stall and I'd be right back. I was already wearing black briefs so I just undressed, grabbed some clean clothes and briefs and a bath towel. Laura was already behind the walls of the stall with her clean clothes and the towel draped on the cloth walls of the stall.
As I stepped in I realized that for two people it was pretty tight but we tried to make the best of it. Still, standing there in our underwear just inches apart from each other we were both nervous and blushing, and I for one was wondering what my wife would say if she knew the circumstances. Well I for one wouldn't be talking about it; I hoped Laura wouldn't mention it to her husband, Kevin, either.
"How do you want to do this?" Laura asked, "I suggest we stand close under the water for a quick soak and then soap up; then finish with another quick rinse." Logically this all sounded good to us so that is what we did. But in order to both be under the water we had to be up against each other so taking a chance I wrapped my arm around Laura to draw her against me and with the free hand pulled the chain on the water. We got thoroughly doused with a warm shower of water. The water had been thankfully sitting in the sun and warming up.
As soon as we were wet we nervously separated. I had to admit that Laura's soft, feminine body and her mouth breathing hot breaths on my chest and throat had aroused me. I was unfortunately showing it below. So I faced away from her and lathered up as best I could. I especially lathered up my hair. Fortunately for Laura she too had short hair and was able to lather up.
"Are you ready to rinse, Laura?" Due to the soap which had gotten in my eyes I couldn't see too well.
She sounded a little distressed, however, when she answered, "I can't get clean down there. If you know what I mean?" It took a second but then I knew what she was talking about. The mud and dirt had worked its way deep into our respective crotches and trying to wash while still wearing panties or briefs was proving very difficult. I had no answer. It was Laura who finally suggested, "Don't look. I'm going to remove my underwear. I'll be naked but it's the only way. Don't look. Keep turned away. If you have to, do the same. Face away from me."
After dropping my briefs and soon realizing I was standing within inches of a nude woman it had the obvious effect. My erection came back with a vengeance. I tried to not think about it by focusing on getting cleaned up down there.