An Old Friend: Version A Part 25

Lisa changed into her short, sleeveless nightgown and laid back on the bed, waiting for Michael to finish brushing his teeth.  She sighed contentedly.  Dinner was wonderful as usual, and tonight was their first night together as husband and wife. 

Michael emerged from the bathroom, whistling happily.  As he walked over to her, she sat up and looked up at him sweetly.  He sat down next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder and started rubbing it. He looked into her eyes and smiled tenderly.  "Did I ever tell you how beautiful you look?" he asked softly.

She blushed a bit and grinned.  "Did I ever tell you how incredibly handsome you look?" she returned, grinning broadly at him. 

Michael blushed furiously and gave her a shy little smile.  She put her arms around him and they embraced, locked in a passionate kiss.  They eased down onto the bed, at which point, still engaged in the kiss, Lisa began running her fingers through Michael's hair.  To her surprise, he began doing the same, running his fingers through her hair until his hand reached the side of her face.  At that moment Lisa's eyes widened, she pulled her lips away from Michael's... and laughed right in his face.

Michael stopped and looked at her curiously, raising an eyebrow.  Lisa blushed in embarrassment, but she couldn't stop laughing.  She was very ticklish and he unintentionally tickled her when he touched the side of her face. 

To her surprise, he started laughing too. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry for laughing in your face like that, Michael," she said between giggles.  "It's just that you tickled me a bit when you did that, and.."

He guffawed, then calmed down just enough to explain.  "I was only trying to be romantic by caressing your cheek like that, Lisa.  I never meant to tickle you!"

She giggled a bit more, then smiled at him.  "I know.  I'm so sorry, Michael."   She reached over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

He smiled and began smoothing her hair down.  "That's quite alright, dear," he said softly. Suddenly, a mischievous grin spread across his face. "So, you're ticklish, eh?" he said with a naughty tone in his voice.

She looked at him curiously, then tried to back away from him as he lunged for her.

"Tickle tickle tickle!" he exclaimed, reaching over and attempting to tickle her on the neck.  Lisa yelped and began to giggle as she tried to edge away from Michael, toward the other side of the bed. Suddenly he made his way down to the end of the bed and grabbed her feet. "Tickle tickle!" he grinned as he began tickling the soles of her feet. 

Lisa threw her head back and laughed, almost in hysterics. "HA HA HA HA HA! Michael, stop that!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA...."  she laughed.

He grinned mischievously at her, and looked back down at her feet as if he were about to tickle them some more. 

As she saw him doing this, her eyes widened and she thought to herself, "Oh no, not again!"  She threw her head back and laughed some more.

Michael looked back up at her and saw that she was laughing herself to tears.  He grinned broadly at her. "Alright, I'll stop that now."  He giggled. 

He edged his way up the bed and laid down next to her.  She was still laughing, but calming down.  He laid down halfway on his side, with his head in his left hand.  He gazed passionately at her.  She finally stopped laughing and looked him in the eyes. "God, do I love you," he said softly.  He reached forward and gave her a tender kiss on the lips.  With that, he shut off the light...

"Lisa?"

Lisa woke with a start upon hearing Michael's voice calling her softly.  She lifted her head up off the pillow and could see him standing next to the bed, looking down at her. "Michael?" she said sleepily.  "What time is it?"

"Half past midnight."  He smiled.

She looked at him curiously.  He gestured for her to get up and she slowly removed the blanket and picked herself up off the bed.

"Come on, I've just thought of something we can do," he grinned naughtily, raising his eyebrows.

"What?" she asked, still curious as ever.

"We're going to take a nice moonlit drive," he answered, still grinning.

She smiled at him.  "Oh, how lovely.  Well let me just get dressed and fetch my purse..."

"There's no need for that, really," Michael interrupted softly.  "I'm just going like this, so it's no problem."

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow.  "In your pajamas?? Whatever for?"

"Don't worry, love, you'll see when we get there," he winked.

'Oh, boy,' she thought to herself, rolling her eyes.  She couldn't say anything else.  She slipped on her flat-heeled shoes as Michael eagerly waited in the doorway. She then followed him out the door, and he locked it behind them.

Lisa narrowed her eyes and grinned at Michael, not knowing what he had in mind.  As he drove, he had a little impish grin fixed on his face, and was giggling softly. She rolled her eyes and grinned at him.  He was obviously up to something and she was trying to figure out just what it was. 

A short time later, they arrived at their destination.  They appeared to be at a beach of some sort, with a huge body of water surrounding a castle off a bit in the distance.  It turned out to be Castle Stalker, where the end of Holy Grail had been filmed.

Michael parked the car alongside a small gate and turned off the ignition.  He turned and looked at Lisa expectantly, his eyes lit up and his eyebrows raised as if to say, "Well?"

Lisa turned toward him, then reached over and opened the door on her side.  She stepped out of the car and noticed that it actually wasn't too chilly out.  She turned straight ahead, then looked all around. "Well, this place seems a bit familiar," she mused as she turned back to Michael.

"It should," he grinned.  "The final scenes for Holy Grail were filmed here."

She looked at him thoughtfully, then grinned as he blushed deeply, forgetting for a moment that they had filmed that scene almost a week before she came up to meet him.

"Er, I mean...it should be familiar to me, anyway."  He said quietly.  She laughed at him and bent down to give him a kiss on the cheek.

He smiled, then picked himself up off the car seat and exited.  He slammed the door shut, then looked around. "Quite a nice night, isn't it?" he smiled.

She nodded and smiled back.  She grew a bit nervous as he made his way toward the open gate, leading to the beach. "We aren't trespassing, are we?" 

He turned back to her and giggled sympathetically.  "No, love, this beach isn't privately owned.  The castle is, but I'm not about to have us swim across this large body of water just for a little snogging inside a big old castle."  He winked and grinned mischievously as she rolled her eyes and playfully swatted him.

"Oh, you naughty boy," she said facetiously as he giggled.

They walked down to the beach until they were standing right at the shore, overlooking the castle.  It was a beautiful night, not too chilly with just a light gentle breeze blowing.  Lisa looked up at Michael and smiled sweetly as his hair began blowing ever so slightly in the wind.

Suddenly he turned toward her with a slight grin on his face. "How about a little swim?" he asked.

She raised an eyebrow at him.  "Well, it's a nice night, but I didn't bring too many nightgowns with me, and I wouldn't want to get this wet..."

Michael looked down and remembered he was wearing his pj's. "Hmm, I didn't think of that either," he lied.  "Well, I guess there's only one solution." With that, he quickly unbuttoned his pajama top, slipped it off and threw it down onto the sand.  Lisa watched, wide-eyed as he slipped his pajama bottoms off as well as his boxers, until he was completely naked. He was about to jump into the water when he turned back to her and gestured for her to join him.

"Michael, you're crazy!  I can't swim in this!" 

"Then do as I did!" he called back to her, smiling broadly.  He then ran a few feet ahead and jumped into the water, submerging himself.  Lisa continued to stare wide-eyed until he reappeared above the water.  He pushed his wet bangs back out of his eyes and again gestured for her to come in with him.

Lisa rolled her eyes and grinned.  Michael had been planning this all along.  She knew he also had a naughty side to him, and tonight she was finally seeing it. She turned back around just to make sure no one was there, then her naughty side took full control and she began ripping off her nightgown and undergarments until she was completely nude as well.

Michael was practically up to his chest in the water, and he smiled broadly when he saw her running toward him.  He was glad she didn't think he was too daft to pull something like this, that she wasn't a party pooper.

Giggling, she ran toward the shoreline and jumped into the water, yelping as it was a bit cold at first.  When she reappeared above the surface, she pulled her long wet hair back away from her face and giggled along with him.

After some time, they were able to get used to the water and it didn't feel as cold.  They swam out a few feet, not enough to be close to the castle, but just enough away from the shore.  Lisa had never been skinny-dipping before, but as long as she was here with Michael, the man she married, it was actually quite fun.

Finally Lisa began feeling a bit cold, so she started swimming back to shore.  Michael looked down at his watch and discovered it was after 2 a.m.  He began feeling a little chilly as well, so he joined her.  Once they reached the shore he snuck up behind her and grabbed her, putting his arms around her.  She shrieked and started giggling.  She began to run down the shore closer to where they had thrown their clothes when Michael caught up to her and found her lying on her side on the ground.  He laid down on top of her and they engaged in a long, passionate kiss with the water just crashing right up to them, a la From Here To Eternity. 

Suddenly a flash of bright light made them stop and unlock lips.  Michael slowly arose from the sand and turned around.  His eyes widened in shock and he let out a yelp as he saw a policeman standing there, aiming a flashlight on them.

After he arose, Lisa was able to make out the policeman and she too rose, her eyes widened.  She blushed furiously and grabbed her nightgown, wrapping it around herself.

"Well, what's all this, then?" the policeman said curiously, his eyes narrowed.

Michael cursed to himself.  Right now he was feeling more foolish than anything.  He hoped they weren't going to issue a warrant for his arrest. He blushed deeply and immediately cupped his hands over his privates. "Um...officer...I can explain, really, I-I..." he began nervously as he reached up with one hand and flicked a piece of stringy hair out of his eye.

He thought this was going to be the end for him, when suddenly the officer looked right into his face and furrowed his brow. "Hey, aren't you one of those Python lads?" he said curiously in a thick brogue.

Michael blushed even deeper.  "Um...y-yes.  That's right.  I'm..."

"No, let me guess, you're Terry Jones, aren't you?" the officer smiled.

Michael's eyes widened and he stared at the policeman, insulted for just a moment.  "No, no, I'm Michael Palin," he shook his head.

The officer shut his eyes and sighed.  “Oh, that’s right, Michael Palin!  I keep getting you two lads mixed up every time I see you in that telly program.”

Michael rolled his eyes, then turned back to the officer.  “Oh, er, well, we’re not that much different in height, and we do weigh about the same, I suppose,” he smiled sheepishly.

The policeman laughed.  “So you are.  Well what brings you up here, laddie? And with a beautiful young woman, no less?” He turned toward Lisa who stood there with her gown wrapped around her, blushing.

Michael smiled.  “Oh…well.. this is my wife, Lisa.  We just got married, and...”

“This is your...honeymoon, then?” He winked knowingly at Michael.

Michael laughed a bit.  “Ha ha ha! Yes, that’s right!” he nodded.  “I’m sorry if we were intruding or disturbing anyone.  We were just about to head off, actually...”

The officer shook his head and held up his hands.  “No, no, you weren’t disturbing anyone.  I was...er... just making sure you hadn’t hurt yourselves.  For a moment I thought the young lady had drowned and you were trying to resuscitate her.”

'Sure you did,' Michael thought to himself.

“Well, just move along then...er, when you’re ready,” the officer winked at them.  With that he got back into his car and drove off.

As soon as he was out of sight, Michael turned back to Lisa and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Oh my, was that ever close,” he said.

Lisa giggled nervously.  “For a moment there I thought we were both going to get arrested!”

Michael smiled and looked up.  “Well... thank God he was a Python fan.”

Lisa laughed as he turned toward her and began laughing alongside her.  He began brushing the sand off of himself then slipped his boxers and pj’s back on.  Lisa ran up to the car and crouched behind it as she slipped her nightgown on over her head.

Michael met her back up at the car and without saying a word, just smiling at her, he got in the car.  As she entered on the other side, he grinned at her and raised an eyebrow. “And if we’ve had this much fun here, I can only imagine how we’ll fare in Barbados where it’s considerably warmer.”

She looked at him curiously, then put her head back and sighed contentedly as he started the car, put it into gear, and headed off.