A Summer Vacation: A Wife-Swapping Novella Read Online Free PDF Page A

pleasure. She used her hand to rub the liquid over her skin.
    “See,” Zahra said, not asking a question. “Better.” She fanned her fingers out as she waved at her this time, like a witch content with a spell. Then she adjusted her glasses, and wiggled her shoulders, and said no more.
     
    The sun was hot and eventually cast a spell on Helena. She relaxed into that feeling of not knowing how much time is passing, a kind of meditative state.
    In the back of her mind though, she was quietly enjoying a little fantasy or two about her summer.
    Nothing too risqué. Nothing she would ever really act on. But all the bare bodies, the young, fit men, the summer fun and the carefree parties without kids – it was all very seductive.
    And Helena loved to flirt. She had done it at the first party, and remembered how much she liked it. She had remembered that she was pretty, that she was funny and that men liked to talk to her. She had also caught many a guy scanning her body, resting his eyes on her plump breasts.
    Something about being around Zahra again brought out even more of this compulsion than ever. Zahra, who flirted with everyone. Zahra, who managed (as far as Helena knew) to keep her marriage intact while she flirted constantly with disaster. She and Reza sort of seemed to get off on it.
    It was a dynamic she had always enjoyed watching between the two of them, though she didn't understand it that well. And she would rather die than bring the subject up. She knew she would sound like a silly prude. 
    Of course, she was married. Of course she would never actually cheat on Steve: she loved him too much for that. And Steve and she didn't have the same kind of relationship as Zahra and Reza.
    But she had to admit: she enjoyed a good flirt. A little appreciation from other men. A little bit of male energy around her to get her excited...
    “I'm going for a drink,” Zahra said suddenly, interrupting the silence and Helena's slow daydreaming thoughts.
    Helena propped herself up on her elbows. She had the overheated sleepiness that came with having sat in the sun for too long without moving, and she felt a trickle of sweat down her spine. Zahra's skin was glistening with a light sheen of sweat, thousands of tiny, sweet droplets shining on the swell of her breasts. Helena watched as a single droplet gathered momentum, formed a small drip, and snaked between her breasts and down to her stomach.
    Zahra reached over and tapped her playfully with one hand, and for a second Helena was worried that Zahra had seen her staring. “You stay here. I'll bring it. Tea?”
    “Sure,” Helena said, absent-mindedly. She slid back onto the lawn chair.
    Zahra returned shortly, with a very cold, tall glass in her hand.
    Helena was thirsty, so she gulped the cold liquid.
    “Oh my god!” she exclaimed. “This is full of booze!”
    Zahra smiled unapologetically and swung her pretty legs up onto the chair, which she had adjusted so she could sit up.
    Helena had her mouth open to protest, but then she decided not to. After all, this was her vacation. The only chance she would get to have her own thoughts and time to herself, and a long-island iced tea at two in the afternoon.
    On a Tuesday.
    What was the harm?
    She set the drink down and adjusted her own chair so she was sitting up. The alcohol was already creeping through her, licking at her from the inside. Already she could feel herself loosening up, ready to flirt.
    Zahra smiled.

4
     
    Helena was home already when he came home from work, and she was busily cleaning in the kitchen.
    “How was it?” Steve asked. He didn't really have to hear it to know: Helena was relaxed, flushed with the freshness of a day in the sun, and humming a pleasant tune.
    Maybe a little too relaxed?
    Steve tried his hardest to dismiss the thought. Helena was on vacation, and there was no reason to let his mind wander off thinking accusatory, mean, terrible...erotic...thoughts.
    There was something different about