There are two things I enjoy that, when experienced together make me feel wonderful.
All right, I know what you are thinking but no, I mean a hot summer's day and my garden.
Those two things together have the ability to make me forget all my troubles and woes.
You see, when the sun shines, I can potter around in my garden to my heart's content and when the chores are completed and the garden is tidied to my satisfaction then what could be better than relaxing on the veranda of the summer house with a glass of something and the warm sun on my face.
Oh, I suppose I had better introduce myself.
My name is Harriet although I am known generally as Hattie. I am quite tall, five feet ten to be precise, without heels.
I like to keep myself trim and, at forty-six not too old to do a little exercise now and then.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I am no health freak but I do watch what I eat and I have a small exercise machine in the garage which helps keep me trim and firm and helps pass the time when my husband is away on business... which seems more often these days.
Anyway, my garden.
My house is not big but I like it. It is a three bedroom detached bungalow which is situated on the corner of a junction in a small village. The front faces one road whilst the drive, at the rear is connected to the other road.
My beloved garden is at the rear and surrounded by tall shrubs and hedges and is not overlooked. I could run around naked and no-one would see.
Actually, between you and me, I have been known to do just that but only after nightfall, just in case, you know?
In the far corner is a small summer house where I keep most of my gardening implements but there is also room for a small table and two lounge chairs which I pull out onto the veranda when the English weather permits.
The front garden is different, open plan. There is a flower border around the house but to the front and side, following the footpath around the corner is a lawn which I keep trimmed neatly.
So? I hear you asking, no doubt wondering why I am telling you all this.
Basically, I am telling you because something happened yesterday which I thought you just might like to hear about.
Like today, the weather was scorching, by English standards at least, around twenty five degrees in the shade and not a cloud in the sky.
My drive borders my neighbours property and they have various shrubs planted alongside.
Unlike me, sadly, they don't look after their garden and I was sick of not being able to see very well when reversing my car out because of overhanging branches.
Therefore, yesterday I decided to tidy them up somewhat and so, after mowing my lawn and digging my borders, which wasn't hard due to the lack of rainfall lately, I set to with the hedge trimmer and began the task of shaping the shrubs into something more reminiscent of a hedge.
As I worked, I noticed a young woman walking past on the opposite side of the road.
Nothing unusual about that but the way she was dressed caught my eye.
Once again, I can almost hear your thoughts churning over.
Shorts? Tight shirt, small skirt maybe?
Haha, no, nothing like that. She was sporting a kind of hippy look but with a difference. Even on this hot day she was wearing jeans and those loose style ankle boots, you know, with the laces up the front but not fastened?
She also wore a light jacket but it was her hair which struck me, it was long and streaked dark blonde and had been pulled back from the sides and tied together at the back. Something like the Viking style I suppose. It wasn't neat, just roughly done but that was what what made it look so striking.
I couldn't help but watch her disappear up the road, admiring how her jeans accentuated the soft curve of her bottom as she walked.
Well, that was it. I returned to my hedging and thought nothing more of it.
Almost an hour had passed. I had finished lopping and cutting and was now clearing up the mess ready to take to the tip.
I happened to look up as I lifted a handful of debris and noticed the same young woman walking back from whence she had been only this time, she was on my side of the road.
As she neared I dropped the leaves and twigs into the garden box, stood up and wiped my brow with the back of my hand.
This time I noticed something else about her. She was wearing a loose t-shirt under the unfastened jacket and from the way her small firm breasts were moving it was obvious she was braless!
For a second I was mesmerised by their movement but quickly looked away as she approached. I doubted she could have seen what fascinated me as my eyes were hidden by my large framed sunglasses.
To my surprise, she didn't walk past but stopped alongside me.
“Hello,” she said. “Your garden looks nice.”
“Oh, thank you,” I replied with a smile and removed my glasses.
“I like a nice garden,” she said, looking around at the colourful plants and neat lawn. “Maybe, one day, I shall have one of my own.”
“Hopefully you will,” I agreed but once again I was drawn to the tiny points that had appeared in her t-shirt.
I should perhaps explain at this point that whilst I am married and have been for twenty-five years, I have always appreciated how attractive some women can be and just what it is that draws men to them.
She didn't see where I was looking as she had been scanning the garden as she spoke but when she looked back at me I realised that she also had a very pretty face.
“I haven't seen you around here before,” I said to her. “Are you visiting someone maybe?”
“Oh no,” she said, her pretty lips spreading into a wide smile. “I have come to live with my Aunt and Uncle just up there.”
She pointed back up the road in the direction from which she had appeared.
“I am studying for a degree at the college and went home for lunch.”
This time, as she said 'college' she pointed in the opposite direction, down the road.
I was a little puzzled. She seemed too old to be at college.
“Oh, but...” I began. “Have you swapped colleges then?”
“No, I just started here this term.”
She must have noticed my uncertainty and smiled.
“Oh, you thought... Don't worry,” she said with the sweetest smile. “I'm only nineteen. Most people I meet think I am in my mid-twenties or something.”
She paused before suddenly thrusting her hand towards me.
“I am Ediline but you can call me Eddie if you want to.”
“I am Harriet,” I replied with a bright smile. “And if you want to, you can call me Hattie!”
For some odd reason, this sweet young woman made me feel twenty years younger and suddenly, I wanted to know more about her but she said she had been home for lunch.
“I had better not take any more of your time,” I said, releasing her hand. “I don't want to make you late for classes.”
She chuckled and the sound was that of a gentle waterfall or a babbling brook washing over the stones.
“There are no classes this afternoon, just free study time. I don't have to rush off.”
“Oh, that's nice,” I replied, quite at a loss of what to say.
She looked at me with her head cocked to one side as if weighing something up before she spoke.
“I could help you with this,” she said, quite out of the blue and indicating the piles of cuttings strewn across the drive.
“Oh no, there is no need at all. I can manage on my own.”
I was being polite, if truth be told, as I would have enjoyed her company and hoped she would insist.
“I am sure you can,” she said and I thought I saw a twinkle in her dark brown eyes as she spoke. “I just thought it would be nice but...”
She turned back towards the road.
“No, wait!” I tried not to sound desperate. “Tell you what. If you really have no classes then all right. We'll tidy this up and I will get us a drink. We could sit on the veranda with it... if you would like to, of course.”
The last bit I added as an afterthought, thinking I may have sounded a little controlling.
She paused for a moment, her head to the side and her lips pursed sideways as she considered the offer.
“Yes, all right then,” she replied finally. “I would like that.”
It didn't take much more than about half an hour to finish the job with both of us working but I was finding it more and more difficult not to look at her. The movement of her small firm breasts inside her shirt was keeping me enthralled and, though I didn't like to admit it, was getting me a little excited.
As we walked across the back lawn towards the summer house, Eddie slipped the jacket from her shoulders, the fabric of her 't' tightening across her chest momentarily as she slipped it over her arms.
This time she caught me looking and I smiled innocently as though I had just glanced at her.
In the summer house, I kept a small fridge. It was an old one which we were going to throw away when we modernised the kitchen but as it still worked my husband suggested we keep it there to cool drinks in the summer. Inside I kept wine, beer and, since we didn't always drink alcohol, some bottles of mineral water.
Eddie opted for water and I poured some into a glass for her along with several cubes of ice from the freezer compartment.
In the heat, the glass immediately became wet with condensation and I passed it to her carefully.
“Thank you,” she smiled sweetly but then, the wet glass suddenly slipped through her fingers and the icy water cascaded like a waterfall down her front and into her lap.
The glass itself bounced off her knee and landed with a thump on the wooden decking floor without breaking.
The sudden shock of the cold water made her open her mouth and eyes wide as she gasped for breath and jumped to her feet but then, to my utter amazement, she whipped her shirt over her head in one swift movement.
I didn't know what to do and just gawped at her perfectly formed breasts with nipples as tight as a drum because of the cold water.
“Damn! That was cold!” she said, breathing out slowly and then began to laugh.
“Your face!” she said between giggles. “Haven't you seen boobs before?”
I shook my head very slowly.
“No... erm, well, yes, of course but not like...”
The words tripped and fell in my astonishment and she looked down at her chest.
“What's wrong with them?” she asked, seemingly puzzled.
“Oh gosh, I'm sorry. No, nothing at all, they are perfect, I wish mine were so pretty. I just wasn't expecting you to whip you shirt off like that.”
She didn't seem to be making any effort to cover herself so I passed her jacket to her and she draped it over her shoulders but made no effort to close it.
For what seemed like forever she held my gaze and I was unable to break from her until,
“May I ask something, Hattie?”
Still a little embarrassed I simply nodded and she took a step closer to me.
“Do you like girls?”
What an odd thing to ask, I thought.
“Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I?”
She took another step towards me and was now close enough to touch.
I realised that she was no longer looking at my face but lower and I looked down at myself.
I realised then that my own nipples were so hard that they too were obvious through the fabric of my thin cotton bra and blouse.
Eddie slowly raised her hand and stroked a finger across one aching tip and even through two layers of fabric her touch was like a bolt of electricity coursing through my whole body starting with a spark at the point of contact and ending with a dull pulsing between my legs.
I had never experienced a feeling like it and my whole frame was taut as a bow string and when her fingers closed around my breast I could do nothing to stop her.
She looked me in the eye and smiled but I just stood and looked back at her, unable to make the slightest movement.
When her soft lips touched mine it was as though my insides melted and my brain just closed down, shutting out everything but the softness of her lips and the firm caress of her fingers.
Slowly, very slowly, I began to react and my mouth opened to accept her inquisitive tongue. I raised my hand and closed my fingers blissfully around her warm, naked breast as her jacket slipped from her shoulders and pooled on the wooden deck behind her.
My heart was pounding with a desire I had never before known, not even with my husband when first we had made love.
I closed my eyes.
Beneath my hand I could feel the urgent pounding of her heart as I caressed her soft flesh and pinched her long nipple. I sensed more than felt the air being drawn from my lungs when she inhaled sharply as my finger and thumb squeezed and stretched the pliant flesh.
It was like a trigger! She pushed me back off the decking and onto the lawn at the same time tearing my blouse open and pushing up my bra and before I knew what was happening I was on my back on the soft warm grass with her astride me, her lips drawing my aching nipple deep into her mouth.
I no longer cared that we were outside in broad daylight, nor that anyone could walk in through the high gate at any time.