All characters in this story are over 18 years of age
I've tried to build a back-story in this one...
The launch approached the jetty in calm seas, salt spray whipped up by the nearby rocky outcrop wet my face and hair. I was then twenty-two and I'd only left here two months ago to work on the mainland, now dad was gone and mum needed my help to run the island.
Flanagan's Rock Lighthouse, where I grew up, is one of only two on the East Coast that still has a live-in manager, not because the light needs it but because the 'Lighthouse Keeper' is responsible for the research station at the eastern plateau monitoring seabird habitat, marine habitat, a weather station and an experimental wave generator, amongst other duties. Mum couldn't do it all herself, so she needed me after dad packed his bags and left, taking our only boat with him.
Flanagan's Rock is really just the wind-denuded highest point on the unimaginatively-named Bird Island, which is one of five islands surrounded by shallow shoals 22 nautical miles from the mainland. Bird Island is a kilometer long and 350 meters at its widest and its claim to fame is that it has the largest surviving colony of the endangered Eastern Dwarf Seal.
It was a warmish day, and my mother sprang down the grassy bank to greet me with the breeze blowing her pale blue cotton dress tight against her body. I noticed an appreciative glance from Ronnie Mason as he eased the boat expertly beside the ageing wooden jetty. And why not enjoy the sight? Mum was forty-three, medium height, slender, blonde shoulder-length hair almost blown to right-angles in the breeze. Her breasts defy gravity. They are magnificent -- easily C-cups, but on her slim frame they looked bigger. She must have found the perfect bra because they pointed outwards, separating into two round orbs the shape of which was clear thanks to the sea-level winds whipping about the place.
As she stepped onto the end of the short jetty, her thighs were at eye height and her thin cotton dress could not hide the length of her shapely legs, and for a moment my eyes settled on the gap between them, plainly outlined as she stood with her legs slightly apart.
I remembered a windy day like this, maybe two years before. Dad was doing the "obs" -- the observations on the experiments -- so was out of sight. I was helping mum bring in the washing. One advantage of a windy island is quick-drying laundry.
I heard mum curse and pulled the sheet I was wrestling with aside to see why. She'd dropped something and had bent to pick it up, just as a gust blew her dress up her legs and practically over her head. I gazed guiltily at her legs, her bum, and -- in a slip of pale-yellow fabric between her legs, I momentarily saw a definite cleft. The outline of her pussy.
She stood and fought the dress and the wind ang got it back over herself. So high had it been blown that her navel was visible. Once she'd regained control she looked at me and said: "You OK there, sport?"
I mumbled something in embarrassment. A couple of minutes later we were trudging up the slope to the lighthouse carrying our baskets, and mum said: "Don't worry, sport. Dad loves my bum too!"
I tried to smile at her tease, but all I could think of was that right now, I was horny. And it was because of my own mother.
I recalled another incident like that at about the same time. She'd slipped on wet grass navigating a slope and ended up sliding a few seconds, during which the friction pulled that day's dress up her legs, which splayed apart in her distress. This time I got a glimpse of that forbidden delight between her legs from the front.
These images jumped into my head as Mum reached the boat and beamed at me while she greeted Ronnie. They chatted like old friends do -- Ronnie has been running supplies across the strait for as long as we've been here, so more than thirteen years. He passed a few parcels to her as I threw my kitbag onto the jetty and climbed up out of the boat. And then, with a wave and a cheery goodbye, I was alone with my mother on the island. We strolled back to the 'house' with our arms around each other's waists.
"Thanks for coming, Archie. I hope Sammy Hill wasn't too upset you leaving the job so soon after starting?"
"No, he says you need me more than him and sends his best wishes. What happened with dad?"
"He hit me. After all these years..."
"Shit! You OK?"
"Yeah, it was a slap and it was over nothing. I told him to leave. It's been hell this last year, son. He just got worse."
"I'm sorry, mum. You gonna be OK?"
"Yeah. Now that you're here."
I squeezed her waist, she responded by settling her head on my shoulder as we walked. We reached the old weatherworn wooden door which creaked as we drew it open. We spent the next hour catching up with each other's news until mum said: "OK, time for obs." Meaning observations.
She disappeared into the bedroom and came out two minutes later wearing jeans and a V-neck heavy tee shirt. Today's obs station was sheltered in a little dip in the grassy ground but to get to it we'd be negotiating the island's smooth-rocked backbone in the full face of the wind. Like before. I had to admit I was a little disappointed she wasn't wearing a dress. Mum shared the obs bags with me and we set off.
It took maybe thirty minutes to walk there and another hour to do the observations -- it's usually quicker but mum was refreshing me on how to do it -- I'd be solo from tomorrow when it was my turn.
She pulled out some cool beers and we sat in the sheltered hollow. It was like someone had turned off a huge fan, so that we could talk at normal volumes now. Mum snuggled between my legs, her back to my chest. It was a familiar gesture and I knew she wanted a shoulder rub. I sipped my beer, propped it in the long grass and smoothed the shoulders of her top aside to gently caress her there. It took me half a minute to realise there were no bra straps. A glance downwards confirmed it: the fabric of her top was parted enough for me to see maybe two-thirds of those elegant, round orbs and her cleavage right down to the top of her stomach.
My thoughts found words that I hadn't intended to speak: "You're beautiful, mum."
"Thankyou son. But maybe you shouldn't say such things when you're ogling my chest."
"Oh, um..."
"Ssshhh. Don't spoil it."
I continued my stroking. Like a hundred times before. Had the air temperature gone up? And... Don't 'spoil' what? I told myself to stop reading things into it. She caught me out and teased me, now she just wanted to enjoy my soft touch. Surely that was all? Or was I hoping that maybe that thing that happened before might somehow happen again?
She hadn't moved and that meant I didn't need to try hard to look down her top again. I think her eyes were closed in relaxation. I watched in guilty amazement as her breathing deepened and swelled her breasts rhythmically with each intake of that cool sea air.
I let my hands slide down the sides of her shoulders to push gently at the fabric of her top. As I continued my mind returned to another day just like this, not long after the wind-blown dress incident. I was doing the same thing; she was in a yellow bikini at the 'beach' -- a strip of gravelly sand thirty meters wide on the north side of the island. I had pushed the thin straps aside, like now. I'd stroked, caressed, like now. That time I touched the front of her chest and her neck as well. I'd got bolder and stroked downwards. A little more each time, until my hands were cupping the upper shapes of both her breasts and my lowest fingers could have been no more than two finger-widths from her nipples.
I gulped at that thought. I had almost -- almost touched my mother's nipples. More than once. After a couple of minutes, she had sighed, pulled the straps of her bikini top back into place, and said: "I hear your father coming."
So now, my mind raced at past possibilities. Probably she hadn't realized how close my fingers were. No, what woman doesn't know where her own nipples are? Another possibility came into my head. I thought for a good three minutes before my plan hatched. I cleared my throat and tried to sound like I was teasing in case she took offence, and as innocently as I could make it sound, I said: "So, not wearing a bra today mum?"
"Mmm? Oh, no."
I hesitated at one end of a bridge you can't un-cross. My throat was dry, and my heart sped up just a little.
My hands froze on her shoulders. It seemed like time stood still. She sensed it, I'm sure. She knew I was going to try to...
"Hungry, sport?"
"Huh?"
"Time for lunch." She stood, pulled me up. I must have had a guilty look, but she kissed my cheek, put her cool hand where she'd kissed, and said: "You're so sweet, darling."
I ate my lunch through small-talk. I felt something. Something new and... taut. Like tension between me and mum. I was swallowing the last of my hot tea when I realized, for the first time, this was a
sexual
feeling. Sexual tension. Like when I'd almost 'done it' with Sandy Grayson at her sister's wedding last year.
I watched mum fuss about, went to help. I stood behind her, put my arms around her waist and hugged, saying: "I'm sorry about you and dad."
She snuggled back and said: "Don't be. He changed, Archie. Quickly. And I felt unsafe out here on my own."
"I'd never let anything bad happen, mum."
She turned, still in my arms, and smiled. "I know, baby. I know you won't." Then she brushed my lips with hers. It was electric. And then I was beside her continuing our chores.