It had been a hot mucky day in the middle of summer. It had been followed by a night that was just as hot and mucky. All things considered the day had been bearable, with air conditioning taking the edge off the temperature. The evening and night had been something else again, considering how I'd been spending it.
How you ask? I'd walked into a nest of psychic vampires and had been struggling with them ever since. Unlike their blood-sucking relatives you can't kill psychic vampires -- at least not without getting into trouble with the authorities. (No vampire fangs to show what they were.) So there I was, fending off these two evil brutes. Any time I had a chance to break free for a few minutes to recharge my own psychic energy there they'd be once more, battening onto me and sucking away all that energy, leaving me limp and helpless, total exhausted.
It was a good hour plus past their bedtime before they suddenly wound down and went to bed, promptly falling into the sleep of the dead. Nothing was going to wake those two little monsters before daybreak. Looking at them sleeping peacefully I found it hard reconciling two little angels with the monsters I'd been baby-sitting. This was one of those jobs where I'd definitely earned my baby-sitting money.
When I was leaving home to drive over here I'd told my mother that at eighteen I was getting too old for this baby-sitting lark. The unfeeling woman just laughed.
"In four or five years it will be your own children that you're looking after. That's when you'll appreciate what a good baby-sitter can do and you'll also appreciate the experience the sitting is giving you."
Right, mum. In her dreams. Children like the current pair should be put in cages and fed through the bars, never let out until they were adult. I mentioned this and my mother laughed.
"Funny. That's what your father said about you and your sister," she said. "That was just after you tried to pick up his bowling ball and managed to roll it off the table and onto his foot. He made it after he and his crutches got back from the hospital."
"I don't remember doing that," I protested.
"Ask your father. He does."
I arrived at the Adams's place and was admitted by Mr Adams. His brother, Don, was also there. They were going to the hospital for a few hours, ostensibly to visit Mrs Adams who was apparently in labour. Having two already hadn't taught her the evils of little children and she was going for a third, more fool her. I could at least leave them behind when it was time for me to go home.
Kids asleep I flopped down on the couch, making sure I was under the breeze of the air conditioner. And I was, and all was peaceful for the next thirty minutes. Then the lights went out and the AC died. I muttered some rude words under my breath, went to the front door, and looked up and down the street. No house lights and no street lights. Even the traffic lights you could normally see in the distance were out.
Why was I not surprised? The government had been playing the equivalent of Russian roulette with the power system, phasing out coal powered generation in favour of wind and solar. The trouble was the wind wasn't blowing and it was night-time. I guess that the extra demand on the system by all the air-conditioners trying to keep people alive had over-loaded the inadequate base power supply. The experts had been warning about that but politicians always know better.
I went back inside and turned on the laptop and logged in. The battery was fully charged so I could play on that for a while. No internet. Apparently you need electricity in the area for the internet to run, or at least this area did. I sighed and started playing stupid games.
After an hour the power came back on which meant lights, AC, and the internet. Seeing I had light I went to the bathroom and washed my face and arms with cold water, wiping off the sweat. Feeling a lot better I took off my dress and finished wiping myself down. Now I really felt better. I just wished I didn't have to put my dress back on as it was damp and sticky from all the sweat, clinging to my skin, but I hadn't brought a change of clothes. Still, I took the opportunity to dump my bra, stuffing it in my purse.
With the internet back I spent more time on the laptop, now with some decent games to play and some reasonable videos to watch. I spent an hour or so doing just that.
I was getting bored when Mr Adams and his brother returned. Good, because I could now get paid and get out of there.
"How are things progressing?" I asked as the men came in.
"She's being lazy. Nothing happening. Probably sometime tomorrow. She finished up ordering us to go home. Said we were getting on her nerves. Imagine that. We were just trying to bolster her spirits and cheer her up."
"The nurse backed her up," chipped in Don. "She said we were getting on her nerves, too."
I didn't say anything. If I had they would have thought I was having a shot at them, because I would have. Idiot men shouldn't hover around a woman in labour. They're likely to get bitten.
For some reason Don seemed to be looking me over. I have to admit that men do look me over at times and I've come to expect it but they're not normally as blatant as the way Don was looking. What was his problem?
"Hey, Mike, what do you think?" he said, nudging his brother.
Mr Adams took a closer look at me and then he was looking me over in the same way Don was. He gave a small shrug.
"Air-conditioner failure is my guess," he said. "Did you have a power outage?"
I nodded. "Yes, for a couple of hours a little while after the kids went to sleep. It was most irritating."
"And the house promptly became an oven, right?"
I nodded, wondering what he was getting at. Then it clicked. My dress was damp and clinging to me. That was what told him. I looked down at myself and nearly had a heart attack. My dress was thin and was clinging to me like a second skin. My breasts were the next best thing to bare, with the damp material hiding nothing. You could plainly see my nipples and areola.
I blushed and put an arm across my breasts. Then I had another terrible thought. I was only wearing light panties and they were also damp. With the dress plastered against me and the same with my panties just how much was I showing.
"Um, well I guess I'll be on my way now," I mumbled, looking to Mr Adams to produce my pay.
I proceeded to ignore Don, just idly noting that he was moving away. It turned out that he wasn't moving away so much as moving around. As soon as he was behind me he took the hem of my dress and lifted it straight up, peeling it off me with no problems, leaving me standing there in scanty panties that were clinging to me and not hiding much.
"Hey, give that back," I snapped, snatching at my dress, only to have it held out of reach.
"In a moment," he said, laughing at me. "First do a three sixty turn so we can see you properly."
"No. Give it to me."
He simply shook his head, laughing. I turned to appeal to Mr Adams but he simply smiled.
"You might as well," he said. "We've already seen everything."
The look I gave him should have killed him but it didn't. I had no real choice and did a slow three sixty turn. I had no doubt that if I'd spun around fast they'd have made me do it again until I got it right.
"Satisfied?" I demanded, holding out my hand for my dress.
Don was holding it just out of reach but I was damned if I was going to try to chase it. I just waited, glaring at Don the entire time. In hindsight that was probably an error.
"You know what they say, Don," said Mr Adams. "Might as well hang for a sheep as a lamb."
I didn't know what he was getting at and just ignored him, hand still out to receive my dress. Thus I was taken completely by surprise when my panties headed south, helped on their way by Mr Adams.
"You'd better lift your foot," said Mr Adams, tapping my ankle. "I'd hate for you to trip on your panties and fall down."
I'd hate it, too, so very reluctantly I lifted my feet while Mr Adams slipped my panties right off.
"That's much better," came the approving comment. "Now how about that slow three sixty again."
Emotionally I was all over the shop. I was feeling embarrassed because I was naked in front of two men. Irritated because they wanted me to do a three sixty to show off my body. Against that I was flattered that they so obviously liked what they saw. In addition I found that I was quite excited because I was naked in front of a couple of men who were looking at me. (If asked I wouldn't have guessed that last one. I'd have guessed red-hot fury, but oddly enough anger didn't enter into the way I felt. A mild irritation doesn't count as anger.)
I did the pirouette they wanted, taking my time so they wouldn't demand I do another because I moved too fast. With that out of the way I'd be getting dressed and out of there.
My intentions ran into a slight drawback. As soon as I'd finished the pirouette I started to take a step towards my dress only to find Don standing in front of it. At the same time Mr Adams had moved up and was standing right next to me. They both moved in an almost synchronised manner, each of them reaching out and stroking one of my breasts. I was totally taken aback. I hadn't dreamed that they might try to touch me.
"Hey, no touching," I snapped, slapping at their hands, relieved when they both dropped their hand and took a half step back. (Only a half.)
"Is she kidding?" asked Don.
"No. Just incredibly naïve," replied Mr Adams with a laugh.
They both turned and looked at me, both of them smiling.
