Authors: Kate Richards
Now he had to wait for her to wake and see if she wanted more from him.
His cock twitched at the sight of her lying soft and yielding in sleep. It would be so easy to slip inside and take her again…wake her with his dick and his mouth, drive her to ecstasy again.
Convince her she couldn’t live without him…anymore.
She was single, he’d learned that much, but she also had a life, friends and maybe had acted on impulse. The mountain’s magic had captured them both. Would it hold them close or cast them out into the cold world again? He deserved no better.
Trying not to disturb her, he dressed and tied his boots on his way to answer nature’s call. The snow had stopped during the night but left a few inches on the ground that would melt off during the day. The
colorful burst of impending sunrise in the east lifted his spirits as always and he walked a few yards away where he could see the view of the valley below.
While he stood, watching the edge of the solar orb lift above the mountains opposite, a rustling behind him captured his complete attention. He didn’t turn. Let her come to him, if she would.
She did, wrapping her arms around him. “Morning.”
He rested his hands over hers, squeezing
, his body humming with awareness of hers. “Morning to you. You’re just in time.”
“My favorite time of day up here.” Releasing him, Michaela came to stand next to him and he
laid an arm over her shoulder.
“Used to be mine too…but something has given me an appreciation for nighttime in the higher elevations.” As the sun began its ascent into the sky, he turned to face her, holding her against his chest and savoring the moment. “Do you have to go back today?
She rubbed her cheek against him, pliant in his arms, her breasts poking his chest.. “Have to, no. But I don’t have enough food with me for another day.”
Being prepared had its benefits. “I have plenty.”
She tipped her head back and winked at him. He’d never get enough of the sparkle in her eyes.
“Of course you do,
Scout. And since the gallery is closed on Mondays, my assistant won’t send out a search party until tomorrow. So as long as I get to where I can get cell phone reception and call someone by sometime tomorrow morning, I can stay out here until we eat the last of your mother’s cookies. How is your mom, by the way?”
“She’s fine
. Living off the grid in a cabin in the woods in the Pacific Northwest with some old guy she met while on a trek across Alaska. I try to tell her she’s too old for such rugged living, but she tells me to mind my own business. And my chakras.”
Her smile warmed his heart. “I liked your mother. When she came to visit, I couldn’t believe such an uptight guy had such a cool mom.”
“I got that a lot. At the commune.”
“Her friends were nice, too.”
“Her friends were stoned.”
He’d been disgusted when the whole psychedelic hippie van unloaded inside the camp gates, a half dozen grungy, stringy haired flower children hugging him and chatting with his friends.. Their
behavior solidified his resolve to get as far away from his childhood as possible. And his firm decision to resist getting involved, tied down, too young.
“Well, if they were, I couldn’t tell. But they were all very sweet and shared their munchies.”
“Health food munchies.” The memory of his commune childhood where he had felt deprived of fast food french fries and cheese puffs, had no toys that didn’t belong to all the kids equally still rang, but now he began to think maybe his youthful pride had cost him too much. And that maybe lessons in sharing were not a bad idea.
“Anyway, sounds like she’s doing okay.”
“She is.”
But he didn’t want to talk about his mother, anymore.
Rubbing his palms over her lower back and up to her shoulders, he tried to memorize her contours, while considering how long he could make his food stash last. For some reason, he worried if they left the mountains, he’d lose her again. Cupping her chin, he bent to kiss her while the Sierra dawn washed over them, savoring her lips slowly, feeling blessed by the universe. Yes, his mom would approve.
In a few days he was due back at the office
. When had his successful life become a prison?
Three thousand miles from his heart.
Could his body endure losing her again? His cock had been like a weather vane since the night before. He was becoming addicted to Mickie’s brand of loving. He’d been a stupid, stupid young man, but those days were gone for good. He was going to find a way to make this work.
Shoving the thoughts aside, he lifted his head and looked around the area where they’d found themselves after darkness. Still cold, but it would warm later and be a beautiful day.
“So what are you doing up here, all on your own? Taking landscape shots?”
She nodded. “Sort of. I still do straight landscapes for the gallery, but on this trip looking for a new location for a series I want to do as Marley. Thinking young, hot men, water, boulders, trees…fall leaves.”
“And did you find one?”
She laughed. “No. I got lost, embarrassing as it is to admit. And I need to get that set up before it gets too late in the season.”
He knew. “I saw the spot yesterday…I think. I don’t know what a photographer would see, but if you like, I can take you there.”
She bounced in eagerness,
her tits mesmerizing in motion. His cock twitched in response. Was he the only one who grew up? His mother never had, either. Mickie and his mother held the joy of youth while the weight of responsibility weighed him down.
A grandfather while everyone else seemed frozen in time. Taking her hand, he led her back toward the tent. “Okay let’s have
something hot.”
Breakfast? Tea? Me?
She nodded. “Tea? Something warm to eat would be great this morning. I hope there’s no snow where we’re headed. It’s hard to see the contours of the land under it and I don’t want to do a winter shoot.”
“Oatmeal it is then,” he replied
, resigned to waiting until later to tumble her again. “And, no, this spot is in a valley a couple miles north, but about two thousand feet lower, so I don’t think snow will be a problem.”
Michaela ducked through the flap
, ass jiggling enticingly.
Yep, another hard on
.
“Remember skinny dipping?”
He pulled out the burner again and took it to a flat rock along the trail then set water to boil and went back to help strike camp. “I sure do. I remember jumping into the water fast so you wouldn’t see my cock waving like an antenna and think I was after one thing.”
Fastening her mat to the underside of her pack, she stopped and tossed him a glare. “Why would I think that? I chased you the whole summer and you never took me up on that
one thing.
”
He twisted the propane valve closed and poured boiling water over the oatmeal in its cooking bags and into the tea mugs.
“If we didn’t have a long way to go and if we hadn’t already struck camp, I would take you up on it now.”
His cock throbbed in response to the suggestion
, pushing against his pants to get to her.
He chose his words carefully.
“But we’d get all cold and wet in the snow and the spot I want to take you to is a few hours away.”
Handing her the breakfast, he held the bowl for a second until she looked up and met his gaze. “It should be perfect for skinny dipping.”
She winked at him. “I’m not that hard to get naked,” she said.
She held the bowl until he released it, choking back his
surprise. “But I do like skinny dipping. Thanks. Let’s eat up and head out.”
“You’re welcome.” Val stirred the cereal, watching her spoon hers up
, tongue darting out to catch at bit of oatmeal at the corner of her mouth. She made gloppy trail food look as sensuous as any gourmet meal he’d ever had the pleasure to dine on. He forced breakfast down his dry throat and followed it with tea. “Okay let’s hit the trail. We’re burning daylight.”
“Okay, sir.” Michaela stepped back. “You go ahead. The trail is narrow through here and I want to watch the view. You might be uptight, but you have a fine ass there, old friend.”
“Old friend, my ass.”
“Exactly.”
Cheeks heating, he took the lead, aware with every step of her behind him, staring at his rear end. The birds continued their morning chorus and a light breeze cooled his hot face. He struggled to think of some kind of conversation, but the unreality of their situation held him hostage. And the crunch of his boots on the thin layer of snow held a cheerful note in chorus with hers.
After a half hour or so, they came low enough to leave the snow behind and he thought of a
comeback. “I think you used me last night. For sex.”
The trial widened and he slowed until she walked beside him. “Not just for sex.”
They fell into step together, and he remembered how it always was when they hiked. “Really?”
“I also wanted you for body heat and cookies.” She bumped him with a hip. “That bother you?”
No.
“Yes. Are you going to toss me aside
?” His breath caught at what he implied. But it was too late to go back. “Or use me again? And again?”
Michaela slowed and he paused to keep her beside him. “Val, we have
now. I know even if you aren’t married anymore, you have family and work responsibilities far from here. Let’s enjoy the day and not think about the future.” Her voice broke. “We have today.”
“You’re right.” Taking her hand, he started out again “Let’s go find that special spot and make the most of our interlude.”
And I’ll try not to think about all the other men—naked and not in their fifties men—you’ll be bringing there when you come back for your photo shoot.
She didn’t respond right away, and he twined their fingers together, taking encouragement when she squeezed his hand. It would have to be enough. He still had ten years or so before he could even consider retirement and until then he would be working those seventy-hour weeks. It wouldn’t be fair to ask her to wait, not for ten years.
Conversation returned. He told her about his daughters, one a Harvard Law School graduate, married and expecting her second child, an up and coming Boston criminal attorney. The other was between colleges, staying with his mother and her boyfriend and trying to “find herself” in the woods.
She shared more about her work. Anecdotes from her life carefully crafted not to talk too much about the man who had shared it. Just as he tried to keep Julia out of the picture.
“I think we have to accept we have had lives, Val. And people shared them. As much as I hate picturing you with Julia, she shared your bed for over thirty years. Silas slept in mine. Let’s accept that they helped make us who we are.”
She was right. Time to stop pounding himself for years they wouldn’t get back.
“We need to take this path here.” Releasing her hand, he waved her ahead of him. “Just through here and…”
“Oh, Val!” They emerged from the shade of the tall pines and rattling, fall-colored aspens into
the bottom of a narrow valley where diamonds of sunlight sparkled on a wide creek. Across the water, boulders lay stacked in random formations where they had tumbled down the side of the mountain eons ago. “This is perfect.”
Nearing noon, the sun stood almost directly overhead, warming them, and Michaela dropped her pack and pulled out her camera.
“I’m going to take some test shots.”
Twisting her hair into a knot, she changed. From fun Mickie, sexy Mickie…to a new woman who took his breath away. The successful photographer emitted an aura of magic, tight focus on the view through her camera..
“Great. Let me know if I can help.”
Sitting on a wide, flat rock, Val dragged his sweatshirt over his head and watched Michaela at work.
She snapped shots from many angles, changed lenses and stepped into the shade of a tree to look at her screen, nodding and murmuring to herself. Since she seemed to forget him entirely, he lay back and watched the show.
With an hour or two of sleep the night before, he dozed off and woke to find her standing over him.
“Okay, I’m ready for you.”
He jumped
to his feet. How had he wasted a single moment of their time together. But then years of a brutal work schedule had taught his body to grab sleep when it could. Stupid body…but his engorging cock redeemed itself.
“Oh, okay sure. What can I do? Cook lunch?”
Fuck your brains out?
“When we’re done, sure. Unless you’re starving right now? I want to catch this light.”
“No, I’m fine.” Well he was hungry, for her, but if she needed the light…
“Okay then,” Michaela glanced across the water and back at him. “I want to get you on that
heap of boulders over there first, I think.”
“What?”
“Yes, I think that will work.” She fiddled with the camera while he unlaced his boots, pulled them off and then stuffed his socks in them. But when he stood and headed for the creek, she grabbed his arm. “You’re forgetting something.”