Page 76 of Minha Dona

“Yes.”

“I was about to…”

“Walk out of the Atlantic Ocean stark naked in front of what would probably have been a very interested retired judge and his wife. Yes. They’re the ones sat up by the trees.”

Caitlin sank into the water until it was up to her chin again, her eyes wide. “I was tempted to toss the bikini out into the sea.” She started laughing. “Thank God I didn’t do that.”

“That would have been bold, yes.” Helena grinned. “You’ve got both pieces still?”

Caitlin was rapidly pulling them on, top first, bottoms second, and tying the strings.

“The woman who didn’t even want to take her shoes off at Kirby’s,” Helena said as they finally walked out of the water together, fully bikini-ed, “just tried to go fully nude on a public beach.”

“I blame you. You’ve corrupted me.”

“I’ve liberated you. There’s a difference.”

“There’s also a difference between liberation and traumatising the wife of a retired judge.”

They collapsed onto their towels, both grinning, and Caitlin said, “You’re never telling Mariana about this.”

“I’m absolutely telling Mariana about this.”

“Helena.”

“It’s too good not to tell.”

“If you tell your sister I tried to skinny dip on a public beach, I will dump you.”

“No, you won’t. Anyway, it would have been magnificent… I would pay to watch you walking out of the ocean like a naked Bond girl.”

“I hate you.”

“You don’t.”

“No,” Caitlin admitted, grinning. “I don’t.”

They lay on their towels in the afternoon sun, the ocean in front of them, the bikini incident already becoming the kind of story that they’d tell each other again and again, a shared joke that belonged only to them… of course she wouldn’t actually tell Mariana, but it was good to tease.

***

The afternoon continued in the pool house. Both of them were slightly drunk on the couple of beers they’d bought from a vendor on the beach, with sand in their hair and salt still on their skin.

Helena couldn’t help herself in the end. She led Caitlin to the bedroom, peeled the bikini off her, and spent the next two hours showing Caitlin what happened when the urgency of the city was replaced by the luxury of time.

She went slowly. Agonisingly slowly, Caitlin told her afterwards, but that was the point. The pool house with just the two of them there invited a different pace… open windows, the sound of the waves, the breeze blowing through the room. Helena used her mouth, her hands, her whole body, building Caitlin up in long, rolling waves that echoed the ocean outside, while Caitlin writhed and strained against her restraints, helpless, entirely at her Dona’s mercy.

She edged her three times before letting her finish, and when Caitlin came it was loud and long and altogether satisfying for both of them.

Afterwards, lying tangled in the pool house bed, Caitlin said, “I want to stay here forever.”

“In this bed?”

“In this bed. In this pool house. In that bikini, which I now accept is appropriate swimwear.” She paused. “In this life.”

Helena pulled her tighter. “We have tonight and most of tomorrow before the others arrive. Let’s not waste it.”

“What’s tonight?”