26
Before Briony went to sleep that night she set her mind to thinking of the best way to get Hunter all to herself on the following day, their last on the island. After an hour of fruitless thought, she hit on what she considered was the brilliant idea of going swimming with him at one of the nudist beaches they had on the island. Knowing there were several of these, as soon as she woke up in the morning she got the concierge to tell her which was the most secluded and - ever the believer in the power of positive thinking - got him to book her a taxi for 11 o'clock. It took a bit of work and the exercise of her not inconsiderable charms, but she also arranged for the hotel to let her have the use of a large umbrella to give them protection against the strong sun. She had a large beach towel they could use as a makeshift mattress and she'd take a couple of cushions from her room to use as pillows. Now all that remained was to persuade Hunter to make the trip with her.
As usual, he was first at the breakfast table - already there when Briony pitched up just after nine. She was wearing a low-cut T-shirt which showed off her considerable assets and a mini skirt which gave Hunter a glimpse of her well-toned thighs, especially when she shifted her chair away from the table and made a Sharon Stone-like show of crossing her legs. Hunter, who always waited for the others to arrive before eating, was sipping on his espresso when Briony arrived. She ordered a hazelnut macchiato and when it came, as she was stirring it, she decided to stir the beefcake Australian up a bit as well.
She pitched to him the idea of spending a day at the beach, not mentioning that it was a nudist one. Indeed, the concierge had drawn a map for her showing how at all times barring high tide you could walk round the promontory at the end of the beach proper to reach an even more secluded cove backed by towering cliffs. He checked the tide-table and it would be low tide at 1pm, which basically meant that Briony and Hunter could spend the day on their own private beach. Knowing that Hunter had a bit of a thing for geography Briony told him that there were interesting rock formations and even some fossils, which may or may not have been true, since she had just thought of the idea on the spot.
Naturally, Hunter mentioned the others and wondered if they would like to come. Briony knew for a fact that both Julia and Tina hated the sea - neither being very strong swimmers - and told him that they had planned to lie in (true) and then laze by the pool and maybe take in a massage (possible but never actually communicated by them to her). When Hunter understood this, he warmed to the idea, reminiscing about a time he was in the Canaries and had visited a beach with extraordinary rock formations and deposits of various minerals which Briony hadn't heard of and couldn't give a fig about. Sensing her moment, she told him she had booked a taxi for 11, which gave them 45 minutes to get ready. Thinking that Briony was doing this for him, Hunter thanked her profusely and went back to his room talking animatedly about packing his binoculars and his telephoto lens.
'As long as you bring your Canon,' Briony thought, 'I'm sure that there will be satisfaction all round!'
After his experience with the Speedos the day before, Hunter was careful to pack his Bermuda shorts for swimming. He was also very pleased to be able to use the mask and snorkel which he had brought with him but had not yet taken out of his suitcase. Having checked he had everything he needed, he rang reception to see if they happened to have a beach towel going spare. Today, he thought, he'd finally have the chance to get down to some serious reading of his book. He was fortunate that the person who answered his call was Anastasia, who had taken quite a shine to him and who he never failed to greet whenever he saw her around the hotel. Although the hotel policy on the loan of such items was quite clear, she told him to come round in five minutes and she would have one wrapped up ready for him.
That done, he returned to his room briefly to collect his other things and make one last visit to the loo and then made his way to the lobby, where he met Briony, who was waiting for him. As he turned to walk to the waiting cab, Hunter waved a cheery goodbye to Anastasia. Dropping her professional demeanour, she looked daggers at him, clearly regretting her decision to do him a favour when she saw exactly who it was he was going to be spending the rest of the day at the beach with.
Briony gave the driver a piece of paper on which the concierge had written the destination in Greek and they were there in nor more than 20 minutes, the last few hundred yards being on a dirt road. There were a dozen or so people on the main beach, two of whom weren't wearing any clothes. Hunter looked quizzically at Briony, who told him not to worry because this was a nudist beach. With a smile, she pointed him towards the little cove at the far end of the bay, whither they proceeded, Hunter laden down by the bulky beach umbrella but declining to let his companion carry it even part of the way.
Hunter was very impressed with the rock formations and the veins of various metals and minerals in the cliffs. He recognised the red tones of iron and the yellow ones of sulphur in addition to the familiar ivory colour of compacted ash from the many volcanic eruptions that had helped shape the island.
He was so fascinated by the topology that after setting up the umbrella and laying down the beach towels he told Briony that he would like to make a little recce and would be back in 15 minutes or so. His explorations took him not just to the cliff face but also to the shore, where he found some beautiful shells, some of which he put in the pockets of his shorts with a view to taking them back home for Hayley, who had quite the collection at home.
He returned to the little camp they had made in an excitable state, ready to share his discoveries with Briony. She had turned the umbrella to face the sun so that he only saw her when he entered the space from the far side. He was stopped dead in his tracks by the sight of the black girl lying on her back on the double towel with not a stitch on her. Hunter didn't know where to look and was beginning to turn away when Briony called him back.
'Come and join me,' she said, raising herself on her elbow and displaying her superb breasts to him. 'There's lots of room.'
'Look,' said Hunter, searching for the right words. 'I think I'll take my things and find a place over by the cliff. There are lots of lovely spots.'
'But it's nearly midday and the sun is very hot. I don't want you to get back to England with sunstroke. Hayley will never forgive me.'
Hunter pondered his options for a moment and decided to stay put. There would be room next to Briony once she moved to one side or the other, and he could read his book for half an hour before taking a dip in the sea and doing a bit of snorkelling by the rocks. He communicated all this to Briony, who responded by moving towards where Hunter was standing, which meant he would have to clamber over her when taking his place. He took off his shirt, took his book and a bottle of water out of his backpack and coughed to let Briony know that he was ready to take his place next to her.
Briony, who had been lying on her side, turned to lie on her back, making it difficult for Hunter to negotiate a safe path over her without looking at her breasts, her legs and ('Ohmygod' thought Hunter) her pubic hair which grew luxuriantly in tufts like wire wool. He tried to avert his eyes but didn't manage to do so before he had caught a glimpse of jet black pussy lips separated by what appeared to be a thin red strip. As he attempted to pass her, Briony raised one of her knees, which tripped Hunter up and caused him to fall face first into the middle of the blanket where his legs became entangled with the black girl's.
'Oops, sorry!' said Briony, sitting up to lend Hunter a hand in getting settled, her boobs inches from his face as he shifted around attempting to orientate himself in the confined space.
Hunter really wanted to lie prone on the ground, but the stony ground underneath made that very difficult with all the sharp edges that could be felt through even two beach towels. So he lay on his side facing Briony, who adopted a similar position facing him. The first thing she did was to check if he was feeling okay, putting her hand on his shoulder in a show of concern. Having been assured by Hunter that he was as right as rain, she watched as he took up his book and tried to find the page where he'd left off reading. In the end, rather than keep flicking through the book, he started at a fairly random point in a part of the book he was pretty sure he had already read. Sure enough, he remembered having read this bit before but decided to plough on regardless, since the last thing he wanted was to appear flustered, as he had a suspicion that Briony would use that as a pretext to 'comfort' him again, and this time it might not be on his shoulder.
ο»ΏHunter was making progress with his book. He had finally caught up to where he had got up to at the airport nearly a week ago and was keen to see how the story would end: whether the villain would get what was coming to her or whether she would outfox them all and return to terrorise a different group of people in a new book.
He was of course aware of Briony lying there as naked as the day she was born but had accepted her right to adopt a naturist mode since this was designated as a nudist beach. When he thought about it a bit more, he reckoned that there was in fact quite a bit of difference between a naked new-born baby and a naked nubile woman in her mid-twenties. Still, she had just as much right to adopt a lifestyle which was comfortable for her as he himself (or anyone else for that matter) did.
He had just started a new chapter when he felt something on his shorts. Looking down he saw Briony's brightly painted pink toenails moving slowly across one covered thigh on a journey which if uninterrupted would in due course arrive at his other covered thigh. In terms of a possible interruption there existed only his penis, which was swelling extremely rapidly as if it wished to defend him from the invader.
Out of the corner of his eye Hunter could see that Briony was no longer reclining: she was standing in a hunched pose on account of the umbrella, standing on one leg as the other made its inexorable way towards his todger. He found himself admiring her suppleness and wondering how she managed to remain balanced in that pose for so long.
While he was thus engaged in thought, her big toe had reached his tumescent column, which became if anything even more tumescent at the touch. Thinking it was time he put an end to this silliness, he rose up from his recumbent position to have a word with her. She instantly used her foot to push him back onto his cushion.
'Now look,' he began to say, before her foot was on his mouth preventing any further utterance.