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A pale orange sliver of sunrise peeked above the dark blue horizon of the ocean. Jessica slipped out of their bungalow, easing the door to a quiet close. Her black lace cover-up hid all but hints of her red micro bikini and slowed the cool air that brushed against her body. Her ruby-painted toenails shimmered in the fading moonlight as she placed a foot on the boardwalk leading away from her slumbering husband. Perhaps she wanted to practice a quiet escape. Or maybe she just wanted to go for a walk to think. She wasn’t sure.
Brunch with Ron the day before both stirred and irritated her. Sure, Rex caught her eye with his ripped physique and rugged good looks. With his wedding ring. And with the desperate clinching of his wife’s arms around him. But Ron erected a new wall between her and Rex. Set down new rules. And made the fruit of Rex’s cock even more forbidden. Jessica’s favorite kind.
Ron should know better, she thought.
She made her way down the boardwalk and onto the beach. Before long, the bungalows over the water and rows of rooms further back on the resort green all lay quiet behind her with their sleeping occupants. Her skin tingled as she turned to look back at them. She felt like a predator prowling among helpless victims. The whole place stood like a monument of judgment over her. Over her kind. Wild, untamed women like her and her boss, Erika. Every couple at the resort, devoted followers to this suffocating religion of fidelity and piety, had gathered for jury duty. Her shoulders pushed back as she squared her stance in the sand, facing the resort, and her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths.
She whispered to them.
“I could topple any of your precious marriages.”
The morning light of the sun grew stronger on her skin, warming it. She turned to face it, and a lump formed in her throat. Her eyes fell to the sand as the rays spotlighted her with increasing intensity. Ron’s words came back to her. His question. “Do you ever worry that you’re going to burn in hell for these games?” The sunlight pierced her soul with a divine and disapproving glare.
A tear formed in the corner of her eye as she responded to it.
“You were never on my side. Where were you when I needed you?”
She took a deep breath and grabbed the hem of the cover-up. Lifting it over her head, she tossed it on the sand in front of her. Then she reached behind her back for the clasp holding her bikini top in place and unfastened it. As the rising sun heated her bare tits, she raised her chin into it, gritting her teeth, and hissed through them.
“I choose me. Whether you do or not, I will always be on my side.”
Tears flowed freely, burning on her cheeks. She put her thumbs under the strings of her bikini bottom and pushed it over her hips so that it fell to her ankles. Air filled her lungs as she drew it in. Her eyes closed, and she lifted her hands to run her fingers through her hair. The warmth of the sun on her bare labia provoked her body to arousal. Her nipples and clitoris hardened and pulsed. Tiny sparks jumped between her skin and her fingertips as she moved them down over her breasts, grazing the tips of her nipples, down her abdomen until they rested on her hipbones. Her lips fell open.
“Yesss. I choose this body.”
Electricity coursing through her veins, she turned back towards the resort. Leaving her bikini and cover up on the sand, she took one step. Then another. Her strides widened, and her arms swung with them. Spray from the ocean misted her bare breasts. She imagined the early risers on the island might notice her walking back towards her bungalow. She cocked an eyebrow, and her mouth curled up on one side. With each stride, the bungalows and resort rooms with their potential witnesses grew closer.
Near one building, in the shadows, she noticed two figures. Women. Her hand raised to her forehead to shield her eyes from the risen sun so she could better see.
Huda and Jennifer. My favorite people, she thought.
Huda disappeared from view, but Jennifer marched towards Jessica.
“Oh boy,” Jessica said.
She kept walking back towards her bungalow, pretending to be unfazed by the approaching steam train.
And she seemed so shy when we first met, Jessica thought.
The muscles in her stomach tightened.
“Jessica, what the hell are you doing?”
Jessica’s eyes narrowed on Jennifer, who stopped a few feet from her.
“I’m going for a morning walk.”
“Obviously. Where are your clothes?”
Jessica turned back towards the distant spot where she disrobed and pointed towards it.
“I left them back there.”
“Well, go back and get them. Now.”
Jessica laughed and placed a hand on her hip, cocking it to the side.
“Excuse me, Jennifer, but you’re not the boss of me.”
“Who the hell do you think you are? This is not a nudist resort. It’s a couple’s retreat. The rest of us are here to work on our relationships with our partners, and we don’t need a trashy slut parading around the island in the butt floss you’ve been wearing, much less naked.”
“What does my naked body have to do with you working on your relationship?”
“Are you serious? Just go get your goddamn clothes on.”
Jennifer leaned forward and planted her open palms on Jessica’s shoulders, pushing her back. Jessica brushed her hands away.
“Bitch, don’t touch me.”
Jennifer’s eyes burned as she put a finger in Jessica’s face.
“I’ll do a lot worse than that if you don’t get your ass over there and put your fucking clothes back on.”
“Afraid your muscle man will see something he’d like to get his hands on?”
Jennifer’s mouth fell open. Then she reared back and slapped Jessica across the face so hard, it knocked her back. The tendons in Jessica’s neck tightened as she gritted her teeth. Heat from the slapped skin mixed with her erupting anger, and she came back at Jennifer with an even fiercer slap. Jennifer cried out as she spun around and returned with a closed-fisted left hook across Jessica’s mouth. Then she grabbed Jessica’s hair and drove a knee into her stomach. The blow knocked the wind out of Jessica, causing her to double over and fall to her knees. Jennifer stood over her, snarling.
“Listen, you cunt. Stay the fuck away from my man!”
Jessica’s chest ached as her lungs fought to recover from the blow and grasp even a little air. A crushing pain spread through her jaw, followed by a burning sting from the broken skin of her lip. She lifted her finger to her mouth and felt the wetness of blood trickling from it. Looking up, Jessica saw sand kicking up from Jennifer’s heels as she stormed away. Jessica spat blood onto the sand and winced at the pounding in her head.
You messed with the wrong bitch, she thought.
Jessica grunted as she lifted one leg and put a hand on it, pushing herself up from the ground. Once standing, she looked down the beach at the pile of her cover-up and bikini lying on the beach. She liked that suit and would get it later, but for now, she had a naked walk to finish. She watched Jennifer disappear around the same corner Huda exited behind earlier.
“Just try to tell me what to do with my body,” she said. “See what happens.”
