Waiting

NICKI SPEAKS

Another night plagued by memories of hell is at least finally at its end, and once again I am aware of the bitter irony of my true love sleeping peacefully beside me while I lie awake and remember the horrors of the past. Jen and Billy and Connie – how I love them all! – but they are forever aware of Suzanne's fragile state as her waking hours are plagued by consternation of the terrible injustices we all endured together. Due to my brave face and resilient appearance, they all think I have overcome the memories as well as the three of them have. Little do they know how very often sleep eludes me while night time is the one and only time Suzanne seems to be free of her angst.

Jen and Connie, at least, think I am as one with them. Fully recovered from our past. Billy, bless his heart, he knows otherwise, as I am not nearly as comfortable in his presence as Jen and Connie are. But even he clearly believes Suzanne is the only truly wounded soul still among us, for he has no inkling how challenging it is for me to let my guard down in his presence. Much as I enjoy his caresses in the shower and in the waves, though, I am but a better actress than my sweetheart is, nothing more.

In any case, though, the sun is once again brilliant over the ocean – our ocean. Once again I stand naked in the window and bask in my freedom – both literal and metaphorical – and enjoy the sunrise and wonder.

How I wonder!

Halfway to paradise already, the Lady in Green says, and I wonder when will she allow us passage over the ocean to our sweet reward? She visited us yet again yesterday, offering only the most encouraging of platitudes just as she has done upon every visit since she brought us here, yet not a word on just when she will lead the way across our ocean to the promised paradise where Suzanne and I shall once and for all be free of the horrors of our past. How sweet that day shall be - and yet once again she offered no clue as to when it would arrive. "You are improving all the time," she says to us, again and again, but that is all.

And yet I know we have improved, and will continue to. For all my fears and memories of the past, the five of us have made a pleasant life of it here on the edge of the world. I can but hope it continues, however long it might take.

Nicki stood unabashedly nude in her bedroom window overlooking the beach, the new sun warm on her dark skin, and gazed off at the horizon over the ocean. A few early-morning revelers were already down on the beach, and Nicki caught at least one eye and received a friendly wave. Nicki smiled and returned the greeting. Her breasts and pubes on full display in the window, she was neither embarrassed nor frightened given the safe distance. Such were the lingering effects of the horrors she and her friends had endured that nudity felt only natural and enjoyable to them now. Even Suzanne, whose spirit was still the most clearly wounded, had come to enjoy the unique camaraderie the both of them shared with their three friends and fellow escapees from the horrors of the bad old world.

Nicki could feel the day coming when she would be in that company, as Jen and Connie and Billy all were. She had even ventured to the beach with them a few times now to frolic naked in the surf, a line Suzanne was not yet ready to cross. Nicki found herself on that line, and thus perfectly happy to put her body on full display in the window...but not quite over the line yet.

Or perhaps, she mused, she simply wanted to wait until Suzanne was ready to cross over with her. Nicki's bond with Suzanne was profound and strong, and it went far beyond just being lovers as far as Nicki was concerned. All had suffered during what they now called "the nightmare," true, but Nicki and Suzanne had suffered more. That was why they had been drawn to one another in those few days after the escape: no one else, not even the other women and certainly not the men, would ever appreciate what they had been through. Only Suzanne could look Nicki in the eye and understand.

Though neither had been consciously attracted to other women before the disaster that had befallen them all, naturally they had fallen in love. Nicki now suspected that her attraction to other women had been there all along, and that she had simply repressed it back in the bad old days. It occurred to her only in retrospect that men had never felt like quite the right fit for her, and Suzanne had mentioned that as well from time to time. Indeed from their very first encounter, just after the escape when they hadn't yet met the Lady in Green or come to the edge of the world, it had felt only natural for her to love another woman. Suzanne had made her feel things she had never felt with a man even before the disaster, and things she was quite sure she would never again feel with a man after what the men had put her through during the nightmare.

As if aware that Nicki was thinking so intensely of her, Suzanne – taller and thinner, a brunette like Nicki – stirred for the first time in the queen sized bed. Her hair, long and dark like Nicki's but straight in contrast to Nicki's gentle curls, spread beautifully around Suzanne's peaceful face as she came slowly to life. Nicki turned her attention back to the bed with a smile and took a sip of water from her bedside table while she waited for her love to awaken. Growing a bit impatient, but not wishing to disturb Suzanne in her last moments of being unencumbered by demons of the past, Nicki stretched out her arms and arched her back so that her D-cup breasts stood proudly out despite being unsupported, as they often were these days. Her large, full bush was also very much on display, and she hoped that would be the first thing Suzanne would focus on upon opening her eyes. She knew it would be a comforting welcome into another day of their love, a reminder that she was safe in the feminine sanctum of their bedroom. Nicki's bush was, after all, what had attracted Suzanne to her in the first place, as Suzanne was the only one of their fellow prisoners who had rivaled Nicki in that particular endowment. Forced nudity had been common during the nightmare, and the two had come to identify with one another over their unusual and much-scorned characteristic. Now their mutual hairy pussies were something of a trademark of their intense bond. Jen, Connie and Billy sometimes teased them gently about them, but all three admired Suzanne and Niki's natural beauty and demonstrated as much regularly in the common rooms of their home.

"Mmmmm...nice view," Suzanne said, sitting up and brushing her hair out of her eyes.

"Are you only going to admire it?" Nicki asked, patting her lower abdomen with an enticing flair. Once again she was amazed at her own resilience that she could stand to let anyone look at her like that after what those people had put her through. But that was why she loved Suzanne so.

"I can't very well reach you from here, can I?" Suzanne teased, wiggling out of her nightgown. When done, she pulled off the covers so her own bushy pussy was on full display for Nicki. She ran her fingers invitingly through her own pubes to spruce them up a bit. "Let's wake up with a bang, dear, if that's what you want."

Eagerly Nicki leapt onto the bed and scooped Suzanne up in her arms, and they kissed deeply. Nicki wasted no time in rubbing Suzanne's thighs and working her way inward, and she was soon aware of Suzanne returning the favor, as further up their breasts rubbed pleasantly together. Side by side, they teased one another down below as they had become accustomed to doing, and Nicki turned her attention downward. Kissing Suzanne's breasts had always given Nicki a certain sense of healing from the nightmares that had bonded them, and once again the warm soft flesh against her lips made her feel delightfully safe and loved in a way she had thought impossible a year ago. Suzanne's hungry sighs in response only added to that contentment, as did her finger slipping into Nicki's vagina.

"Ohhhhhhhh!"

As usual, Suzanne found just the right spot with the pads of her two fingers and rubbed intensely up and down Nicki's inner flesh. Nicki flipped back on her pillow and thrust her hips up in the air exulting in the sensation. She continued to toy with Suzanne's nipples as best she could, but her attention was hopelessly focused on her own sensation now. "Oh Suzanne, oh myyyyyyy....unghhhhhhh, yes! Yes! Yes!"

Nicki's orgasmic grunts were audible in the next room, where Jen and Billy had just finished their own morning lovemaking and were still entwined with one another. "I'm so glad those two hooked up," Billy said admiringly, looking up at Jen who still had him clamped within her, her pale yellow hair spilling around her shoulders.

"Heaven knows they deserve to be happy," Jen agreed, playfully squeezing his cock within. "I didn't think either of them would come through you-know-what with their sanity intact."

"Did you think any of us would?" Billy asked.

"Well, you and I had each other to look forward to," Jen said. Their first date had been only days before the disaster. "And Connie is tough, you know, and I think I am too really. But those two, so quiet and conservative? I didn't know. And to think they never would have ended up together if not for what happened."

"I wonder if that bugs them at all?" Billy mused, reaching up to caress Jen's breasts.

Jen looked at the wall between their rooms and listened to Nicki's orgasmic screeching, which was now intermingled with some moans from Suzanne as well. "Does it sound like it bugs them?" She burst into laughter, and bent down to kiss Billy again. "Come on, let's go shower."

Across the hall, Connie was also arising from her bed for the shower. Awakened by the pleasant din from her friends, she climbed out of bed and peeked out the window to survey the quiet beachfront complex that her side of the apartment faced. Although she was nude – enamored with her freedom and frightened of any sort of confinement ever since the escape, she never wore a stitch to bed anymore – Connie had little fear of being seen. Like Nicki, she had come to value the freedom and natural intimacy that nudity offered far more than she cared who saw any part of her.

The only one of their gang who was single – her true love had gone to the dark side during the nightmare – Connie was also the only one who slept on the side of the house facing the old world rather than the beach, and also the only one who spent much time going out into the old world beyond their front door. She knew that was no coincidence. Though she bore scars of the nightmare just like all her friends did and she looked forward to the day the Lady in Green would usher them out of their current purgatory and into the wonderful new world, Connie was hesitant to face the journey alone while Jen had Billy and Suzanne had Nicki. So while they all went out and mingled among the old world people who thought this was just another resort town when they had to do things like buy food or shop for clothes, Connie was the only one who sometimes went out by choice to read by the side of the condo swimming pool rather than lounging around nude on the beach. Pleasant as that was, her desire to indulge in the wonderful intimacy they all shared was limited as long as she was the only one who was flying solo.

Connie was no babe in the woods, and the nightmare had toughened her as it had toughened them all. She didn't need a man, she knew that. But with all the sex being had among her friends, increasingly she wanted one. The poolside was as good a place as any to keep her eye out for one. The beach was better, that she knew, for the men there were awaiting the same redemption she and her friends were, and it was safe to frolic naked in the water there; but for some reason Connie preferred the challenge of the condo pool. Perhaps she had been too hardened by the disaster and felt unworthy of the easy bonding found on the beach. Or maybe it was fun to observe the everyday folks who didn't seem to know who among them was awaiting their turn to make the passage with the Lady in Green. It further tickled her anticipation of the day to come when she experienced a safe last taste of the old world. What, she often wondered, did those other people even see when they looked out their back windows? An ordinary beach, she supposed, rather than the wonderland of joyfully open people like herself who had come through their suffering and were now on their way to paradise.

Of course, some of the people who appeared to be locals at the pool were also awaiting passage with the Lady in Green just like they were. But such things were not to be talked about on the old world side of their home, so Connie had no way of knowing which of them were. Perhaps that added to the allure of the pool instead of the beach.

At least she wouldn't be lonely for long, Connie reminded herself yet again as she picked up her towel and left her bedroom. Though the Lady in Green hadn't told them exactly what awaited them beyond the beach, she had certainly implied that there was someone for everyone over there. That thought pleased Connie as she meandered down the hallway to the shower room, hugging her towel but otherwise not covering up as per usual.

The shower room had a communal shower with four taps. Jen and Billy were busy soaping each other up under one of the taps when Connie arrived and hung her towel next to theirs. "Good morning!" she said to them both as she turned the nearest tap on.

"Connie! Looking radiant this morning," Billy said with a grin.

Connie was flattered to see his cock spring to attention at the sight of her. Jen wasn't, though she knew Billy's heart – and his penis – belonged to her. "And who else is looking radiant, dear?" She cupped his balls in one hand and gave him a hard look.

"Well, that goes without saying, doesn't it?" Billy said to Jen with a sheepish grin.

"Good answer." Jen caressed his sack more gently and let go. She didn't begrudge Billy sharing the shower with the other women – Connie could be trusted not to mess with him any more than Jen allowed, and Suzanne and Nicki wouldn't want to mess with him anyway, and after all Billy didn't mind when Suzanne and Nicki played with Jen in the shower too – but it was ever so unfair that he got so much eye candy and she had only him to admire.

Still and all, it was all part of the fun of their wonderful new life, as well as the bond they shared through their past. Connie didn't look put out as she went about washing herself, and poor Connie must have been lonely all these months. Jen, now regretting her jealousy, padded over to Connie and embraced her surprised sister in arms. "I'm sorry, dear," she said. "I know I can trust you and Billy."

"Well of course you can trust me not to sleep with him," Connie said with a relieved smile as the hot water streamed down her face and body. "But can you trust me to keep my hands off you?" With that she tickled Jen's lower abdomen, between her bellybutton and her pussy, and Jen bent over in surprise and laughter.

"Well if I can't trust you, maybe you can't trust me!" Jen squealed. With that she picked up a can of shaving cream and squirted it across Connie's small, pert breasts. Connie gave her a shocked but amused look, then wiped off the foam and smothered it over Jen's left breast. Jen countered by poking Connie in the ribs on both sides, drawing a squeal of laughter and a retaliatory squeeze of both breasts. Billy, not to be left out and figuring he could play if Jen could, sauntered over and spritzed liquid soap on Connie's back. He had only a few strokes to rub it in before Connie turned around and grabbed at his cock, tickling it playfully. Jen did not try to stop Connie, but did reach around and squeeze both her breasts just as Connie had done to her. Billy reached around to Jen and sandwiched Connie in an erotic hug

The three of them were still a ball of laughs and touching – hands everywhere – when Nicki and Suzanne arrived. They were wrapped in towels as they always did for the walk down the hall, being somewhat more modest than their friends even after all these months; but Nicki eagerly removed hers to join in the ritual squirming and touching. Suzanne alone held back, though she did remove her towel. Billy was a good guy and she knew she'd have to learn to be comfortable around men again sooner or later. For now, though, even looking was a challenge, much less touching. Though she loved Billy, Jen and Connie dearly, there were lines she was not yet ready to cross. Tempting as it was to join in the loving play, she turned on the third shower tap and watched from a safe distance as Nicki got her share of touching and feeling and being played with. It was no surprise that Billy dove in to kiss and fondle Nicki's big breasts while Connie lathered up her robust bush and ran her fingers through it. Suzanne loved doing both those things herself, and the thought of her dear friends doing the same to her was enticing, if only she could conquer her fear.

Someday maybe, she would join in. For now, she could only enjoy Nicki's ecstatic moans and her responsive grabs at her friends' bodies vicariously. But she smiled appreciatively when she caught Billy admiring her body from a respectful distance. To reflect her own titillation at it all, she reached down and stroked her pussy with one hand, smiling more broadly as the pleasant sensations spread throughout her body and as she observed Billy's prurient approval. One day she would be able to embrace him just as readily as all the others could. In the meantime, she enjoyed the show.