"That's right. Maybe it'll be good for you to be exposed to a different way of life." Dad glanced at me. "It's sure been good for Mara."
Mom moaned and dropped her head onto Dad's shoulder. "Our daughter is a nudist."
"No, Mom, I'm not." Though I had jumped into the hot spring naked. She didn't need to hear about that. "I don't know if I'll ever want to be a nudist like Ollie and the others here, but I like these people. They're nice. Everyone here has accepted me as-is, and that's a new experience for me."
Though I'd kept my clothes on the whole time, staying here had turned into the most liberating experience of my life.
Dad murmured things to my mom that I couldn't hear, but it seemed to relax her a bit. She raised her head to look at me.
"All right," she said. "We'll stay here. Could someone please get my bags? I need Xanax."
I couldn't blame her for that. Maybe I needed some too. This conversation with my parents had been more stressful than when I'd gotten my first glimpse of nudists. The whole thing had left me on edge, and I needed to decompress soon, maybe by doing yoga---or doing Ollie.
Glancing at him, I couldn't help wetting my lips.
He caught me watching him and smiled in a sexy, yet oddly supportive, way.
I exhaled the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.
Ollie set his hands on his chair's arms, about to get up. "I'll grab your bags."
"No," I said, "let me. I know which one Mom keeps her Xanax in, so I can bring it to her faster. We can get the rest of their stuff later, once they're settled in somewhere."
"I'll stay in the guest house. Your parents can have the room here."
"Are you sure your bosses won't mind? It's their room, after all."
"Yeah, but Eve and Val are cool. They won't care." Ollie flicked his gaze to my mom and back to me. "Besides, I think your mother will be happier here than in the guest house."
With all the naked people. Yeah, he had a point.
"Thank you, Ollie," my dad said. "I appreciate that."
"No problem."
I marched into the kitchen, straight to the door to the outside, and swung it open.
An enormous naked man with wild hair and the most enormous penis I'd ever seen filled the doorway.
Every ounce of blood in my body seemed to evaporate. My heart pounded so hard and fast I couldn't catch my breath.
And I screamed.
Chapter Sixteen
Ollie
Mara's scream echoed through the house. She didn't just scream once, though. She did over and over, with only a little gap between each outburst, probably to pull in more air so she could shriek again. What the heck was going on out there?
The shock of her screams kept me frozen for a moment, but then I leaped up and bolted into the kitchen.
Mara stood at the door that led outside, one hand on the open door, her body stiff.
Val Silva hunkered at the threshold, completely naked, his lips moving. He seemed to be trying to calm Mara down, though her screaming drowned out his words. He moved his hands like he wanted to grasp her shoulders but seemed to nix that idea. Instead, he held his hands up like he was in a bank during a holdup and Mara was the robber pointing a gun at him.
I raced up to them, inserting myself between her and Val. "Mara, it's okay."
Her last scream wound down into silence, the only noise her ragged breaths. Her chest heaved, and her lips quivered.