Chapter 1; Tim
A soft warm hand on my shoulder, shaking me, waking me and a distant voice echoing around my brain as I sought to establish just who and where I was.
"¿está usted bien?"
"¿Usted necesita ayuda?"
A soft female voice then and the realisation that in fact I had fallen asleep on my beach.
At least, what I considered to be my beach.
In truth it was a small secluded cove about half way along the magnificent Sotovento beach in Fuerteventura. I had found the cove at the end of an overgrown track leading off the main road from Caleta to Jandia.
"¿está usted bien?"
"¿Usted necesita ayuda?.
The same questions were repeated.
" No, I'm OK, thanks," I said pushing myself up onto my knees and dusting the loose sand off my chest. "SÃ, Im multa, gracias, yo conjeturan que debo tener dormido caÃda."
I turned to face the girl who had almost certainly saved me from a bad case of sunburn.
She was stunning, late twenties, around 5'6" tall, 120 lbs, black eyes, dark skinned, with waist length hair tied into a flowing single plait. She was dressed in a wet suit and carrying a snorkel mask.
"Soy Francesca" she said
"and I'm Tim," I replied extending a hand.
"You really should get some sun cream on your shoulders" she said lapsing into a beautifully accented English, "they are looking quite red."
I reached forward and rummaged through my beach bag, pulling out a bottle of an Aloe Vera after sun lotion. In truth my shoulders were beginning to tingle and I checked my watch to see how long I had been asleep, I frowned in surprise as I realised that far from a short nap I had actually slept for a couple of hours.
Francesca saw me checking the time and said, "You were asleep a long time weren't you. I saw you were asleep when I passed here on my way for a swim and when I saw you hadn't moved when I came back I wondered if you were ill or something."
I turned what I hoped was my best smile and said that I had been working all night and had just come down here to chill out for a while.
She asked what I did for a living and I told her that I worked at the airport, looking after the business and private aircraft that routinely used Puerto Del Rosario.
"Would you mind if I joined you for a while," she asked.
"Not at all, would you like a beer?" I said and pulled a couple from my bag and passed one to her, which she accepted with a smile.
She sat beside me and stretched out her long legs.
"How about you," I asked, "How do you spend your time"
"I lecture," she told me, "I teach Spanish History at Madrid University."
We sat and chatted for a while, watching the birds sweeping in to take the fish from the shallow waters along the beach. We talked about each other's lives and occupations as we drank the beers then,
"Look, Tim, I didn't mean to socialise today and I haven't actually brought anything down to change into, but I really need to get out of this wet suit, its making me sweat. I've made myself a little nest up there in the rocks, would you care to join me for a drink or something?"
"Sure," I said, "I've been on the beach too long as it is"
I pulled a pair of shorts over my trunks, grabbed my shirt and stood up, and collected the few things I had brought down with me and stowed them in my beach bag. I followed Francesca up the hill toward where I had left the car but she broke away from the path, toward the base of the hill that overlooks the cove. A stony track virtually invisible led to the very foot of the cliff. She pulled away some branches of loose vegetation, carefully laying them to the side and there in front of us was the entrance to a small cave.
"Welcome to mi casa de la cueva," she smiled, "Come in and make yourself comfortable"
The cave was a lot bigger than I had expected, extending to about 20' in depth and about 15' wide with a ceiling that allowed a person of average height to stand normally without stooping. The single entrance rose to about 7' and was about 4' wide.
It was immediately obvious that this cave had been lived in for many hundreds of years; generations past had made use of its natural shelter. Each generation had added to its décor and there were traces of all of them.
"How did you find this place," I asked, "its virtually invisible from any direction"
Francesca explained that whilst researching the subject of the Guanche tribes of the Canary Islands she had discovered that many of the early tribes had made use of the original geographical features of the landscape and that she had found this one whilst looking specifically for just such a place.
"I am convinced that no-one knows its here now, its far enough off the track and unless someone is actually following you, you seem to disappear just after the bend in the track.
I've been coming here now for the last five years, at all times of the year and its always just the way I remember it, nothing changed or moved."
"Beside I've never seen anyone else in the cove at the end of the track, you must have stumbled on it by accident."
I told her that in fact I hadn't found it by accident; I had seen the cove whilst doing a low level flight test and had noted its position and decided to investigate.
I was able to confirm that the track to the cave and the cave itself were not visible from the air, or from the beach, so her privacy was virtually guaranteed.
"It's a bit basic," she said, "there are no amenities as such, but there is a shower of sorts when I remember to fill the tank. I have managed to make it habitable as a sort of day place. If you need to pee though you will need to go outside and find a convenient bush!"
Some cushions and beanbags were strewn around the floor and some wall hangings (towels?) hung from the protruding roots of the vegetation growing through the walls. The remains of a fire littered the centre of the floor.
Sure enough a rudimentary shower comprising an old 20 litre plastic container with a tap and a length of hose with a showerhead attached was assembled into a corner.
"Help yourself to a beer, and would you get one for me," she said, "there is a cool box in the corner."
I opened it up and it gave up its contents of some cold meats, cheese, bread and beer. I made up a small snack for us and opened a couple of beers. We continued the small talk about this and that until, as if she had made up her mind about something she said,
"Tim, would you give me a hand with this, please."
I heard zips being unfastened, and turned toward her. She was standing in the entrance to the cave, and as she stooped to unfasten the zips at her ankles, the neoprene of the suit moulding itself to her slim narrow hips and the cheeks of her bottom. I felt the strong stirring of an erection in my shorts.
With her back to me, Francesca slid down the long zip that ran from the neck of the wet suit down to the crutch, and shrugged her shoulders out of the restricting neoprene. I took hold of the collar as she struggled to break the seal between the suit and her skin and literally peeled the suit away from her. As the suit passed below her waist, I realised that under the suit she was naked, and the tugging erection in my shorts became stronger.
She slid and peeled the suit down seemingly impossibly long legs, every inch of its removal revealing more of her beautiful lithe body, until at last she was able to pull off the suit over her feet.
Francesca turned to face me. Without a trace of embarrassment she stood before me, her hands on her hips and her long, long legs slightly apart. Her head thrown slightly back, her small breasts rose and fell as breathed deeply. A strangely amused look crossed her face as I stood totally gobsmacked in front of her. I let my eyes flow over her body, over the soft curves of her waist and across the rounded hips, down to her thighs and the mound of soft black hair at the junction. She was totally unabashed by her nakedness and was flaunting it before me, inviting a response, inviting me to challenge her. Silhouetted against the light, she was Woman at her most powerful, and yet at the same time her most vulnerable.
"So, Tim," she breathed, "here we are; what are we going to do now?"
I crossed the cave toward her, but she stopped me about six feet in front of her.