Clothes Maketh The Man — Part 75.

Find Part 1 here — Chapter list here –

I don’t know how long I slept. When I finally drifted back from that blissful sleep Annabel was beside me in the bed fast asleep, her hair tumbled over her gently rounded shoulders.

I watched her for a few minutes as the early light of dawn filtered in through the half drawn curtains. How perfect that shoulder was, the warm brown of her skin, the lift of her breast, half uncovered by the sheet. It seemed inconceivable that this could have been the shoulder once of a boy, or a man. No, I was looking at a woman, regardless of what incongruity may be below that perfect flowing waist and flat tummy. How meaningless the label of this or that was, when what I was witnessing was beauty.

Does beauty demand a label, I asked myself. Male, female, young or old? No, what was before me was beauty — regardless of categorization or analysis.

Annabel’s breath flowed softly to and fro. I leaned forward and smelled the softness of her breath. How intimate an act that was. The warm flow of life into her and from her.

Surprised at my own boldness I drew back and silently slipped from the bed. A few quiet steps and I was outside walking on the sand, naked in the dawn, the air warm against my skin. I stepped onto the beach, and felt the soft sand between my toes. In…