My last submission to Literotica was quite dark, as some readers noted. This is an attempt to be more upbeat, but with a slight edge.
This story is a work of fiction. The story mentions or implies some real places and institutions. They are used fictitiously here. To the author's knowledge, no real person affiliated with any of those places or institutions has done anything akin to what is described in this story. Any similarities between any character in this story and any real person are coincidental and unintended. I encourage comments on this story, both favorable and unfavorable. Thank you for reading.
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I met Beckett Reed the first year of college. We were both attending a rather prestigious university in the Chicago area on partial athletic scholarships. I wrestled. Beck swam. We had several things in common. We were both from Southwestern Ohio. Both of us were at a school our families could not have afforded but for the partial scholarships. Even with them, money was tight for us both. Neither of us was bad at his sport, but neither of us was above average either. Beck and I performed better in the classroom than in the pool or on the mat.
I guess these common factors, and a shared attitude towards life, were why we became such close friends. We roomed together sophomore and junior years. Senior year, Beck shared an apartment with his girlfriend, Yvonne Pelletier. Beck and I got into and went to the same law school in Michigan. Yvonne followed Beck there and they married the summer after first year of law school. Yvonne gave birth to their daughter Michelle during third year. Beck called me from the hospital a few minutes after she was born. I was, and am, impressed that Beck managed law school, marriage, and fatherhood all at once.
Beck and I both graduated towards the top of our law school class. It wasn't an agreement between us, but we reinforced each other's inclinations to go home to Cincinnati to practice. Yvonne, who was from Dayton, was fine with that.
I spent a lot of time with Beck and Yvonne. I never thought I was good with young children, so I never babysat Michelle or anything like that. Michelle did take to calling me "Uncle Ian," but, I think, to her, I was just the strange man Dad was friends with. I watched her grow from a young girl to an attractive high school student but didn't see her much once she went to college in Columbus.
I was in the litigation group of a large "full service" law firm. About four years into my practice, I defended a client in a complicated multi-party case. The lawyer for another party was an attractive, elegant woman about my age named Julia Scherer. Julia and I worked closely on that case. In addition to being physically attractive, Julia was smart and witty. Our backgrounds were quite different. Julia came from a wealthy, established family; and belonged to the Junior League. Despite our differences, we clicked and got married about a year after the case settled.
Life with Julia went well for several years. We both made partner at our respective firms. I was forty when a couple of my senior partners left the big firm to start their own shop. I and four other younger lawyers went with them. Julia and I had discussed the move and she had said was completely ok with it. With hindsight, I don't think she really appreciated how moving to a start-up firm would affect my income. I did ok at the new firm, but Julia was making much more money than I was.
From my perspective, Julia thought that, because she was making more money, she now ran the marriage. I did not take that well. Arguments became more frequent, with a lot more personal insults and nasty comments about each other's backgrounds. I became trailer trash, while she'd been born with the silver spoon in her mouth. That was the polite version.
I suppose it was inevitable. Julia got a case in which she had to work closely with a neurosurgeon expert witness from Boston. I met him once. He was impressive: thin, well-cut silver hair, expensively dressed, and conversant about fine wine and antique furniture. My efforts to engage him in conversation about football, baseball, or hockey fell flat. When Julia's case settled, she matter-of-factly informed me we were getting divorced. She moved to Boston.
Before things got bad between us, Julia and I often spent time with one of my partners, Beth Abernathy, and her husband Chris. Once, we had joined them on a trip to the Iroquois National Forest in south central Ohio, just over two hours' drive from Cincinnati. There was a large lake in the Forest. I don't know if Beth and Chris planned it, but our hike took us to an unofficial nude beach along about a half-mile of the lakeshore. The Iroquois Forest was about an hour and a half from Columbus in one direction and less than an hour from Athens in another. I thought proximity to the universities in those towns probably explained why most of the nude people at the beach were young.
Beth and Chris wanted to strip off and enjoy the beach, and I was curious to try it. Julia resisted, but Beth finally persuaded her. Beth, Chris, and I loved it. Julia couldn't leave soon enough. Beth and Chris went back to that nude beach many times. They invited us repeatedly. Julia wouldn't consider going back.
I wasn't depressed about the divorce. I was dismayed to be single again at age 48. Because Julia had always had things for me to do when I wasn't working, I had stopped working out during our marriage. With Julia gone, I forced myself into a rigorous workout schedule: lifting, swimming, running, and yoga. I wasn't trying to make myself more attractive. I'd decided I didn't want to risk another experience like Julia. I just didn't want to be disgusted every time I looked in the mirror.
One Friday in late Spring, Beth Abernathy walked into my office. "Ian, with Julia gone, are you ready to go back to the nude beach in Iroquois Forest?" she asked. "Chris and I and another couple are going tomorrow. It would be great if you came too."
"Won't it be uncomfortable having a spare man?" I asked.
"Only if it makes you uncomfortable," Beth answered. "Chris and I would love to have you along. I already talked to Kathy and Kurt, the other couple. They're fine if you come along, and I think you'll like them. Please? You need to get out."
I was skeptical about being the unattached man at a nude beach with two couples. However, Beth seemed to genuinely want me to go. Also, she and Chris were good friends who had helped me through the divorce.
I met Kathy and Kurt at Beth and Chris's house the next morning. They seemed like good people. During the drive, I learned that Kathy, Kurt, Beth, and Chris had been going to the beach regularly on the weekends for several summers. I had feared that Beth might have pressured Kathy and Kurt to agree me coming, but I got no sense of that.
The nearest parking was just over a mile from the beach. I was secretly pleased that I could carry the cooler with our food and drinks, by myself, the entire way to the beach without breathing hard. At the beach, we stripped matter-of-factly. Although both were in their late forties, Beth and Kathy were handsome women. Beth was a little shorter and full figured. Kathy was taller and looked like she ran regularly.
The couples spread sunscreen over each other while I took care of myself. Beth did offer to do my back and I gratefully accepted. As Beth was rubbing the sunscreen over my upper back, she said, "Damn Ian, you've got some muscle in your shoulders and back." That made me feel good.
The beach was much as I remembered it. The surrounding trees had grown taller, and it was more crowded. Chris explained, "this is Federal land. The local cops have no jurisdiction here. The Forest Service polices this and, as far as we can tell, they could care less if you're dressed or bare."
The crowd was still, primarily, younger adults; although I saw some people whom I guessed had come as college students a few years ago and kept coming. Some of the women were very attractive. Being guys, Kurt, Chris, and I all looked. To even things up, Kathy and Beth looked at the nude men. I guess they thought some of the men were attractive too.
After we had swum, eaten lunch, and finished one of the bottles of wine I had brought. Beth stood up and said, "I want to take a walk. Who's coming with me." The initial response was silence. Chris, Kathy, and Kurt all declined. "Ian?" Beth asked.
"As your business partner," I said, "I guess I owe it to you to go with you if your husband won't."
"He won't," Chris said cheerfully as he opened the second bottle of wine.
We had set up at one end of the beach. As Beth and I walked towards the middle, there were more people. It was a beautiful, warm day. "Remembering how good it feels to be outside with nothing on?" Beth asked.
Before I could answer Beth, a female voice called out "Uncle Ian?" I turned towards the voice. A tall brunette stood up and began walking towards us. The first thing I noticed was that the woman had a beautiful body: melon-sized firm breasts above a flat stomach. Her hips flared alluringly, but not too widely above long, elegant legs. I guessed her to be mid-twenties. As she got closer, I almost ran away. The gorgeous woman was Michelle Reed, Beck and Yvonne's daughter.
I knew Michelle had graduated from college and stayed in Columbus to work. She got better looking as she came closer. I'd never thought of her as a stunning beauty, but she was. With what had happened in my life, I hadn't thought of her at all in a long time.
As she got close, Michelle said with a smile, "Uncle Ian, it's great to see you. I didn't know you came here."
"I, uh, uh, didn't know you did either," I replied.
