My thanks, as always, to Grand Teton for his calm in the face of my wilder flights of fancy, and his solid understanding of the rules of punctuation, which he's trying vainly to pass on to me, with varying degrees of success, I have to say! To him goes most of the credit for the last part of Sisterfest in the form posted here. Thanks also to my darling Lori for putting up with me, and pushing me to finish this ahead of some of the other writing projects I'd lined-up, and to Bonnie, for always taking me seriously.
This, it goes without saying, is not the real world, so things happen here, in my universe, that couldn't, or wouldn't (but should!) happen in the real world, so please, suspend disbelief and play along. All characters indulging in adult acts are over 18.
I you like it, please vote for it, if you don't please tell me why. Funny comments, even if they're meant to be nasty, get left up, pointlessly rude, nasty for the sake of nasty, or just plain creepy, comments get deleted. You have been warned...
Have fun!
beachbum1958
*****
Robyn led Lara and Finn through an unobtrusive door partially concealed behind a large spray of Hawaiian Frangipani flowers into a much smaller, more intimate pool area.
"This is our private lair, do you like it?" she asked.
Finn was speechless; the pool was an infinity pool, the far side just visible as a sparkling line against the faux dusky blue horizon, smaller than the main pool, but no less luxurious. The pool room was darkened, most of the light coming from inside the pool itself, dappling the midnight-blue ceiling with rippling blue light.
Thousands of tiny glittering white lights were set in the domed ceiling, brighter lights arranged to form the familiar constellations of the Northern sky; Ursa Minor and Ursa Major, Orion, Cassiopeia, The Pleiades, all were there, picked out in bright points of light on the ceiling skyscape, with thousands and thousands of less bright pinheads snaking across the ceiling in a band that Finn suddenly realised was the Milky Way.
The pool was framed on each side by a wall of verdant bamboo, long graceful stems arching over the pool, and bright green papyrus shrubs dipping down to trail their fronds in the water. A set of broad, shallow steps led down into the water, and a sunken bar cut across one corner of the pool.
Robyn led them to a softly-lit area set back from the pool, with a group of large, luxuriously soft leather chairs arranged in a square behind a decorative trellis screen, where Evan and Sylvie arose to greet them, inviting both of them to take a seat. When all five of them were seated, Evan smiled and passed them chilled soft drinks.
"Welcome to our escape hatch!" he grinned, lifting his glass in salute to his two sisters, Finn and Lara.
"We don't usually ask our guests to come in here; this is normally only for us, but frankly, the girls think both of you merit an exception to our rule, and we wanted to get to know you a little better. My sisters are very good at spotting people it would be good for us to know, and they have a very good feeling about you Lara, and you Finn, hence this little meeting."
He paused to take a sip of his drink before continuing.
"We do actually carry out very discreet, but very thorough, background checks on all the people we invite to our home for these get-togethers; it would never do to let the wrong person into our home, given what happens here, so we did check you out, and what we found, we liked. I think, and Robyn and Sylvie both agree, that you might be very interested in becoming better acquainted with us; no, not like that!"
he grinned as Finn's hand slipped protectively around Lara's shoulder. He nodded approvingly at Finn's gesture and continued.
"My sisters and I are committed to each other, and only each other; we have been for a very long time now, and we think we see that same commitment in both of you. As I said, we did run a little background check on you, so we know about your family, your lives in general, but I'd really like you to tell me about yourselves, about what you want, where you want to be and what you want to do when you finish university, and more importantly, how you feel about each other."
He smiled gently at them over the rim of his glass.
"Please don't think I'm prying; I know there are things in your personal life that should stay personal. What I want to know is how committed you are to each other; I wouldn't normally ask, but right now it's very important that we know."
Finn looked at Lara, their eyes locking as they each silently asked each other the same questions: what was going on here, and could they trust these virtual strangers with intimate details of their lives?
Lara stared into her brother's eyes for a long couple of seconds, then slowly nodded, telling him she trusted them, and to go ahead.
Finn grinned slightly sheepishly as he ran his fingers through his hair, raking it back out of his eyes.
"I don't really know where to begin; everything that's happened to me in the last twenty-four hours is so new and so different I don't even have the words to describe how I feel. I do know one thing, though; Lara and me, we don't want anyone else, and we already agreed one thing; whatever happens from now on, we're together. When I finish university, I suppose I'll get a job, wherever I can, anywhere, as long as it's not bloody Herefordshire! Once I've got a job, I'll get a place, somewhere the two of us can be with each other, because that's really all we want. Sissy?"
Lara took his hand in hers, looking down as she examined their fingers twined together.
"Everything Finny said goes the same for me; I've wanted him for longer than I can remember, and this weekend just clarified all I've ever felt for him; whether he gets a job in London, or Scotland, or Kathmandu, or the Amazon jungle, I'm going with him; he's mine, you see, and I belong to him, and if we have to spend the rest of our lives digging holes in the Gobi desert, it'll be because that's what we wanted for both of us, not because someone expected or demanded it of us."
All the time they were speaking, Evan sat quietly, watching them, watching their eyes, and slowly nodding, as though he was hearing something that jibed with his expectations. When Lara had finished speaking, he smiled and nodded at his sisters, who also smiled, leaving both Finn and Lara feeling they'd just passed some sort of test, but a test of what?
Sylvie and Robyn stood up and took Lara by her hands, urging her to stand
"Come on, Lara, let's swim a little," grinned Robyn mischievously, "I told you earlier I wanted to play with you!"
Lara bit her lip and glanced at Finn, who shrugged his shoulders and grinned, so she pulled off her top and slid her shorts off, following Sylvie and Robyn as they too stripped-off. All three girls then held hands as they walked down into the pool to slip into the water and breast-stroke away.
