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Casey had spent so long imagining the precise moment when she’d finally lock eyes with Ben again that she almost didn’t know what to do when he finally arrived.
When he stepped out of his black SUV, clean, freshly shaven, in dark jeans with a black shirt fitted snugly across his chest, it was as though no time had passed since their last night together, no distance between them that needed to be crossed. He wore dark suede shoes that she would frown at as impractical for the woods if she didn’t know he would be planning to spend the weekend in his hiking boots.
Or rather, the part of the weekend when he’d actually be wearing clothes. Casey stood in the doorway biting her lip as the heat rose through her body. God, she couldn’t believe he really existed, that it hadn’t all been a wonderful dream.
He drew the last sip from a venti Starbucks cup and leaned languidly against the car door, amusement dancing across his face. What had he been thinking about for the four-hour drive? Was the same flame building in him that had been licking inside her ever since he left?
She was afraid it was going to be awkward—should she throw herself at him and let him know he’d been missed? Or hang back and let him make the first move, like she hadn’t spent weeks with his name pulsing through her veins? In the end, it didn’t matter. She’d spent all that time thinking, but now that he was finally here, she could stop and do what felt right.
They stood there, both smiling, drinking in the sight of each other like two hikers who had been thirsty for weeks. Moving toward each other slowly, knowing that once they kissed, they wouldn’t be able to stop.
“I have the flu,” he announced, tossing the coffee cup into the car.
“What?” she exclaimed. He hadn’t mentioned anything on the phone when he said he was coming up, and he looked perfectly fine, his eyes bright and eager, smiling as he stood by his car.
“So thinks my advisor.” He grinned. “Nothing like the threat of contaminating food to get me time away.”
Casey threw up her hands. “You have work to do! You can’t go lying and taking time off whenever you want to!”
His eyes fell. “But otherwise I’ll have zero time until graduation, and there’s no way I could have waited until the end of August to see you. Are you mad?”
“I’m thrilled,” she said, grinning like a maniac. “I just figured someone had to say the responsible thing.”
He broke the distance between them in two long strides and put his arms around her, hugging her close.
“I had no idea a month could feel so long,” he murmured into her hair, brushing his cheek against hers.
“You must at least be excited about finishing up your degree.”
“The time went by like a snail on heroin. Sloowwly.”
Casey laughed and shook her head. “Well, you’re here now.” She took his hand and led him into the cabin. “Can I get you anything? Water? Food?”
“Later,” he said slyly. “I’ve got plans for you first.”
It was a warm afternoon, perfect for hiking or swimming or taking the boat out on the lake, but they spent it inside, kicking all the covers off Casey’s twin bed. It was as though no time had passed since the last morning he had woken up beside her. There was no shy relearning each other, no awkward beginning again. They were as comfortable with each other as if they’d been together for years, but with the excitement and spark that came from something new. Every touch was electrically charged.
Afterward, Casey pulled the blankets up over them and curled under his arm.
“Mmm, nice to see you too,” she murmured as he stroked her hair.
“Is it always this good?” he asked. “Or do you think we might be on to something?”
Casey rolled onto her stomach so she could look into his eyes, her hair falling onto his chest from when he’d pulled out her ponytail at some earlier point.
“I don’t know. Is this how you are with everybody?”
“Not a chance.” He closed his eyes. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Is that okay?” Casey was still afraid that any moment now he was going to come to his senses, look around at the rustic cabin and the redheaded thirty-four-year-old woman who inhabited it, and decide that was enough of that lark, it was high time to move on.
But Ben wrapped his arms around her tighter, pulling her on top of him and holding her close.
“It’s more than okay.” He kissed her forehead, then scrunched his face down to look at her. “Is it okay with you? I mean, you have a whole life here and I keep showing up. I don’t want to invade your space or keep you from anything. Seriously, anything you need to do this weekend, tell me and I’ll let you alone.”
Casey had to pinch herself to believe he was real. “If I need some time, I’ll let you know.” She smiled into his chest. “But for now, you can safely assume that I want you around every second of this weekend, for however long you can stay.”
“It’s a deal,” he confirmed.
“You need someone to take care of you while you have the flu.”
“Mmm, and I’m a terrible patient. I need a lot of extra attention.”
She kissed him and reluctantly dragged him out of the cabin. It wasn’t even dark yet—they couldn’t spend the entire time cocooned inside. As much as she might have wanted to spend every second with Ben in bed.
* * * * *
THE NEXT MORNING, CASEY’S kinder nature won out and she left him asleep while she raced into the water. He didn’t wake up until the smell of coffee roused him, as if on cue. He was as beautiful as ever as he sat up in her bed, shirtless, wrapped in blankets, rubbing his eyes. She brought him a mug of coffee and kissed his nose.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she teased.
“Have you already been up?” he asked, confused by the cold water dripping from her hair.
“I let you sleep in.” She patted herself on the back.
“Thank you.” He smiled sleepily.
“I have to go open the office, but you can stay here until you wake up. I’ll have time this afternoon when Geller comes in. I have to do some trail maintenance around the back campsites but then we could go for a hike.”
“Sounds perfect,” he said. “I’ll be on lunch and dinner detail.”
Her face fell. “I’m sorry, I hardly have anything. We can go to the store—”
But he cut her off. “I come prepared. Leave it to me.”
She took one last, long look at him before she tripped out the cabin door, still tying her shoes. Had she seriously found this man? Was he really in her bed, promising she’d come home to some fabulous meal? She jogged up to the office, shaking her head at the improbability of it all.
When she got there, though, the office was already open and Geller was giving a young couple directions to the nearest kayak rental. When he saw Casey, he immediately insisted she turn around and go home.
“You’re taking the weekend off,” he said, in the tone he reserved for his taking care of Casey moments, like when she was sick or needed a reminder to wear her gloves.
“What are you talking about?” she protested, confused. “I’m fine. Aren’t I on today?”
“No, ma’am.” Geller ushered the couple out the door and held open the screen, motioning for Casey to follow. “You’re off for the weekend. Go. Have fun. Don’t come around again!”
She turned on him, shocked, as he slammed the door in her face.
“Geller, what the heck is going on?”
He smiled at her through the front door, an enormous grin that showed off his missing incisors and folded his skin into such deep wrinkles that his eyes were nearly pinched shut.
“Bye,” he waved.
How could she argue? “You know where to find me if you need anything—okay?” she said.
“Why does everyone think I can’t run this place on my own?” Geller grumbled, shuffling back to the desk on his bad leg. “Twenty-two years I handled it all on my own...” Casey couldn’t hear the rest of his muttering.
Walking back to the cabin, she suddenly knew exactly who had put Geller up to this stunt. Lee. She’d told her not to say anything to the Gellers! She didn’t want Mr. Geller to do exactly what he was doing, insisting he could do everything himself in order to give her time if Ben came around.
When she stepped into the cabin, Ben was sitting at the small round table checking his email on her laptop. He looked up in surprise.
Only he wasn’t half as surprised as she was. Not to see him sitting there, since that was exactly where she expected him to be. But surprised at how not surprised she was to find him in her space. Surprised that it felt so normal, so natural, to have him in her home. As though that was where he belonged.
“Geller sent me home,” Casey said, plunking down across from him.
“Huh?” Ben flipped the computer shut. She wondered, briefly, who he was communicating with from his real life—the one where he wasn’t just a beautiful, charming lover sipping coffee in a cabin in the woods, far off the grid from everyone he knew—and then decided she was going to make a valiant effort not to spoil the time they had together being paranoid.
She shrugged at his confusion. “He told me to take the weekend off, like he thinks I need a break.”
Ben blushed. “He must have seen me drive in.”
Casey narrowed her eyes at him. “I know this would turn out to be your fault,” she said, pretending to glower.
“But I’m a good break!”
“If I had to put money on it, I’d say Lee put him up to it.”
“Who’s Lee?”
“My nosey friend in town. I swear sometimes she has secret cameras in this place, she always seems to know me too well.”
Ben looked shocked.
“I’m kidding,” Casey exclaimed. “No cameras. Although if there were, they certainly would have seen quite a sight.”
She winked, and Ben laughed.
“I can’t trust her in the least,” Casey said. “She probably marched right in and demanded Geller give me time off and pay me double for it.”
“I like this woman. Clearly she has your best interests in mind.”
“Maybe,” Casey conceded. As bad as she felt about Geller working today, she couldn’t help but be delighted that he had given her a break, and in time for her to see how sweet Ben looked in his blue boxers and white T-shirt as he shed the last layers of sleep from his eyes.
“So, what should we do with your newfound freedom?” he asked, polishing off the last bite of the toast he’d made in the time Casey had been gone.
“I was promised lunch and dinner,” Casey reminded him.
“How about sandwiches with a view?”
She grinned. Ben went out to the car to pull out the groceries he’d kept in a cooler in the trunk, too busy when he’d arrived to bother with trivialities like unpacking.
“How about tomato, avocado, red onion, sprouts, and a lemon-chickpea-mint puree on sourdough baguettes?” he offered as he wheeled the cooler inside.
“I didn’t know sandwiches came in anything other than peanut butter.”
Ben laughed and began unpacking the food. She couldn’t believe how easily he made his way around the tiny kitchen, without any of the awkwardness Casey usually experienced in other people’s homes. It was as if he belonged.
Don’t get too comfortable, a voice inside her warned, but she pushed it away. He’d made time for her this weekend and she was determined to enjoy it. Especially the food.
“The bread’s homemade,” he added as he reached into a second grocery bag. “Made yesterday morning. Before my, uh, terrible flu came on. The dough spent twenty-four hours in a cold rise first. I was planning ahead.” He shot her a smile as though looking for her to confirm that yes, he was thoughtful and amazing in every way.
She stared at him. “Are you an actual person,” she blurted out, “or just some figment of my imagination, come to torture me with fantasies of impossible things?”
Ben finished piling the groceries on the tiny wedge of counter space and laughed. “I don’t know why you think you can’t have anything you want, Casey. Something tells me that you usually find a way to get what you’re looking for. Isn’t that how you wound up here?”
“Something like that,” she mused, not sure whether her arrival in Bonnet was her getting what she’d wanted...or running away from what she could no longer have. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was complicated. Maybe she would never know but would reap the benefits no matter what.
While Ben busied himself in the kitchen, she ducked out and went around making sure there was no trash or other signs of life left at the campsites that had been vacated that morning. No matter what Geller said, there was no way she was going to leave everything to him. Something told her that she didn’t need to worry about what Ben would do to occupy himself when she was busy. He seemed as if he could take care of himself, whether she was around or not.
He’d made it clear several times that he actually wanted her to keep living her life, even when he was there. It was strange, that independence. Casey couldn’t quite puzzle it out, but she knew that she liked it. It made being with someone seem not only possible, but good. Like maybe she could have a relationship, after all. It didn’t have to be stifling, and it didn’t have to mean putting her own life on hold.
She was trying not to get ahead of herself, but it was hard not to feel flushed and happy when she looped back to the cabin and found Ben packing up the sandwiches in a backpack. She filled two water bottles for the hike and then went straight to the bathroom to change into shorts, knowing that if she stripped in front of him, they wouldn’t set out for another hour at least. Not that she’d object to that...but she didn’t want to lose the best part of the day—not when they’d still have all night to enjoy each other.
When she came out, Ben had put on dark green shorts and a heather gray T-shirt with a Frisbee emblazoned across the front.
“Your car or mine?” he asked as they laced up their boots.
“No driving. I’ve got something else in mind.”
Perplexed, Ben grabbed the backpack with their supplies and followed her as they headed out of the cabin. But when she immediately turned right toward the lake, he stopped.
“We’re not going to swim there, are we?” he asked, eyes wide. His tone sounded as if he would have believed her if she’d actually said yes.
“Come on,” she prodded. “I promise you won’t freeze.”
When he saw the rowboat by the bank of the lake, he laughed. “So that’s your secret weapon,” he said, helping her right the boat. Together they slid the prow into the water.
“Hang on a sec, I forgot my gloves.” She held up her hands where two red spots still remained inside each thumb, even though the blisters had healed over. “Geller may be willing to give me time off to entertain my weekend wonder, but he’ll kill me if I show up with my hands cut up again.”
“Never fear, I’m on rowing detail,” Ben said, grabbing her arm before she could go back to the cabin.
She raised an eyebrow. “You really want to row all the way over? Don’t tell me this is some manly junk, like you can’t let me do the work.”
“Trust me, baby.” He pulled her close. “I’m happy to let you do the driving.” He kissed her and she felt the heat rise to her face.
“You made the sandwiches,” she pointed out.
“Manly sandwiches,” he added.
“Filled with extra testosterone.”
“Let me row.”
“Only if you’re sure.”
They were whispering now, each word peppered with kisses.
“At this rate we’ll never get away,” she said as he kissed her again.
“Are you complaining?”
“No.”
Her lips sought his. He pressed up against her through his shorts and she leaned her hips into him, pushing back.
“You shouldn’t be able to do this to me,” he groaned, holding her around the small of her back.
“Are you complaining?” she echoed his question with a mocking tone.
“No,” he said, kissing her again.
Finally, she made herself pull away. “Something tells me there’s more of that on the other side of the lake,” she said with a teasing smile.
“Well let’s get going, then.” He grinned.
They climbed into the boat and Casey lay in the back, enjoying the sun and the view as Ben got his bearings around the oars. She expected some fumbling and wondered whether she should at least start off rowing and then he could take over if her hands got sore. His hands might blister too—she was surely more calloused than he was. It would make sense for them to trade off.
But Ben rowed as fluidly as if he did it every day. His strokes were long and powerful and he guided the boat smoothly across the lake. As he rowed, she saw the definition in his biceps as his T-shirt slipped up his arms. He had a faraway look in his eyes, but not like he was somewhere else altogether. It was more like he existed only on the lake, in the boat, through the motions of the oars.
“We don’t have to rush.” She at last allowed herself to break his concentration. “We have all day.”
He leaned forward to lift up the oars, sweat glistening on his forehead. “Too fast?” Now that he had stopped, she could tell how hard he was breathing.
She shook her head. “I just don’t want you to knock yourself out.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll save some for you.” He flashed her a secretive smile and fell back into the rhythm of the boat. She pointed out where they were heading and he steered them in with ease.
“You’ve obviously done that before,” she commented as he leapt out of the boat and pulled it up onto the small bank.
“I rowed crew in high school,” he said with that embarrassed look he got when he talked about himself. Casey remembered how he said he’d gone to the same prep school as his father, his two uncles, and his grandfather. Of course an expensive private school in Long Island would have crew.
“You certainly have the build for it,” she teased, shamelessly eyeing him up and down and licking her lips.
Ben made a face, dismissing her compliment. “I hated it. Every year I threatened to quit, and every year my dad pulled out another trophy from his rowing championships to show me.”
She groaned out loud. “The man really knows how to lay on a guilt trip.”
“You have no idea. I liked being out on the water, but not the six a.m. practices, the grueling workouts, the feeling that if you weren’t half dead in your seat you weren’t pushing hard enough... I guess I kind of missed some important Mailer gene.”
“The one that thrives under the pressure to win?”
“That’s the one.”
“Well, lucky for you Paper Lake doesn’t have much of a competitive team, so you’re safe for now.”
“It’s nice to be able to row.”
“Anytime.” She smiled. He slid his hand into hers. It was warm and rough from the wooden oars and he was still breathing from the exertion. She took the backpack from him and slid it over her shoulders, tightening the straps to fit her frame.
“This way,” she said, pointing to where the brush had grown in.
“Here?” he asked, looking around. They were in the middle of the woods and it was hard to see where any path began. “You’re making me bushwhack up a mountain?”
“No, but that would be fun. Over there, the trail opens up. I just have to find it.”
They were going up to the ridge that angled alongside Mt. Bonnet. It would be a long walk around to a steep stretch in the middle, and then the trail would flatten out at an open viewpoint affording them a spectacular sight of the surrounding lakes and the mountains behind. It was Casey’s favorite hike in the area, even better than Bonnet, because except for the first stretch in the woods, it offered views of the distinct, knobby ridges of the surrounding peaks for the whole time up.
Not to mention that it was completely secluded. Everyone went around the other side to Bonnet, or else drove off in any number of directions to the countless peaks all around. This ridge wasn’t much of a destination in and of itself, and certainly no one would be coming up the hidden trail that rose as if straight out of the water. She loved being able to paddle to the trailheads without having to get in a car. It made the mountains that much closer if all she needed to explore them was her own body for ammunition.
As soon as she found the start of the trail, they set off. They hiked in silence, listening only to the sounds of the woods and the give of the mossy ground as it revealed its well-kept secret, the trail that spiraled up and around. Soon they fell into a steady rhythm as the ground sloped up to the rocky climb that would open into the first expansive views.
Casey was grateful that Ben didn’t try to talk. She hadn’t warned him beforehand, but she usually disliked hiking with other people. They were noisy and generally got in the way. Either they wanted to speed up the mountain as if it were some kind of exercise video to conquer, or else they were so slow it was impossible to actually cover any ground. She hated when it felt as if it were something on a checklist to fill in—did that peak, now onto the next. She had some lovely friends she would never hike with again. Hannah thought it was the same as regular catch up time but outside—they might as well have been drinking lattes or strolling around some manicured park for all she cared about the hike itself. Casey had quickly stopped inviting her when she would take Saturdays off in college to drive up the California coast, preferring to be by herself.
Sometimes she and Nick used to take the Metro North train from New York City up the Hudson River and spend a day climbing one of the small bumps that passed for mountains in that part of the state. It was fine, but it never felt far enough from the city for Casey to truly be able to breathe. When she got away, she’d driven north because she knew that was the piece of her life that had been missing, and the only thing that could fill the hole Nick had ripped out of her.
Now, though, she couldn’t imagine not wanting Ben along. Mostly because it hardly seemed to matter that he was there. They could talk, they could not talk—it was all the same to both of them.
It wasn’t that she demanded silence on the trail. But she liked when the conversation evolved organically. They pointed out the yellow and purple wildflowers and swaths of enormous mushrooms clustered inside a fallen log. The rest of the time, the minutes unfolded without anyone taking note of them. When Ben stepped on a twig that snapped loudly under his boot, she had almost forgotten that he was behind her, matching her stride for stride.
At last, when it felt like her legs were turning to jelly and she couldn’t take another step, the trail came to the ledge overlooking Paper Lake. When she suddenly stopped and Ben came up short behind her, he gasped.
“Whoa,” he said, and she couldn’t help grinning at the wonder in his voice.
“Not bad, right?” She took a long swallow from the water bottle and passed it over to him.
They were standing on a rock outcropping that afforded them a wide, panoramic view uninterrupted by trees. Before them stretched what felt like the whole entire world, blue-green mountains rolling as far as the eye could see. Paper Lake glittered below, with its small crook-necked shape nestled among the fingers of the mountain ridges sloping down. To the left was Mt. Bonnet, which Ben had already climbed, but the view was different from here. The multiple angles just made it all the more obvious how vast the whole range was and how small their own piece of the pie.
He pulled Casey nearer so his arms were around her shoulders, hugging her tight as they admired the view.
“Beautiful,” he breathed in her ear.
“I know, isn’t it spectacular up here?” she said, holding on to his forearm across her chest.
“I wasn’t just talking about the view.” He kissed her ear, then her neck, tasting the heat pulsing off her skin and the salt of her sweat drying in the breeze. He lifted her hair up to cool the back of her neck, and then because that skin was now exposed, he kissed her there, too.
“Sandwiches?” she murmured, closing her eyes to his touch.
He let her go, and they found a rock to sit on as they unpacked the spread. Casey was ravenous. Everything tasted better outside, after a long, hard walk. But it wasn’t just the bright air and the climb that made Ben’s sandwich so out of this world.
“I never knew chickpea-lemon-mint puree could be so delicious,” she said with a mouth full of the sweet, tangy, summery sandwich he’d so magically prepared. “What is that—that thing in it?” She couldn’t place the flavor, only that it was divine.
“Preserved lemon,” he said. “Lemon juice, lemon zest, and a slice of preserved lemon laid on top.”
“It’s all in the details.”
“Like the perfect cup of coffee. Everything should be just right.”
“Otherwise why bother?”
“You have to be attentive.” He inched forward. “That’s one thing I’m learning from you.”
She winked. Were they talking about food...or something else?
“I think you already knew that,” she said, savoring the last bite of his homemade sourdough bread. “I’m extending it to other parts of your life.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Are you sure?” She wanted to make sure he knew what he was saying.
His kiss was answer enough.
At first they stayed seated on the flat rock, leaning toward each other. But as the kiss mounted in intensity, there was no chance of keeping that kind of distance. Casey found her fingers sliding up the sleeves of his T-shirt, tracing the cut of his lean muscles that had so powerfully carried them across the lake. And then the contours of his back, his shoulder blades, his stomach, his chest. He grasped her with the same urgency and soon they were tearing at each other, the sweat and salt of their bodies only making them more heated.
They were surrounded by the green trees of the forest and the mountains stretching on and on, undulating peaks cut with a craggy saw against the deep blue of a sky whisked with strings of white. They were on top of the world. And, except for the silhouette of a hawk circling off in the distance, they were completely alone.
Casey hadn’t thought to bring a towel or something soft to lie against. But they weren’t about to wait and try to find a more comfortable spot in the woods. The view here was intoxicating, and they were long past the point of no return. Ben pulled her up so they were both standing. Then he put his arms around her hips, sliding up to feel under her shirt, around her back. Sliding down to palm her ass through the thin athletic shorts she wore.
She whimpered in his ear, one hand pulling on the hair at the nape of his neck and the other tugging insistently at his shorts. He moaned as she ran her hand over the fabric where his cock was pushing up against the elastic. When she undid the drawstring and slid her hand underneath, the sound he made was low, animal, inescapably male.
“I need you,” he panted. “Now.”
She dropped to her knees, desire thrilling through her body at his command. She yanked his shorts down and his cock bobbed up, right at eye height. With his shorts around his ankles, she put her hands securely around his muscular thighs, giving her more leverage. She flicked her tongue over the tip of his cock and licked up and down the thickness of his shaft. She had never, ever loved doing this as much as she loved it with Ben, when all his pleasure was at her command and she felt the full heat of him responding to her.
She knew he was too far gone to take much teasing, though. And so was she. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her. Without any further ceremony, she circled her lips around his tip and plunged him deep into her mouth, pulling up and sliding down again, using her lips, her tongue, her breath to make him groan. He buried his fingers into her hair and she let him push into her, the head of his cock sliding against the back of her throat.
“Oh God,” he moaned. “Oh God, oh God.”
She lifted one hand from his thigh and used it to play with his balls while she licked the underside of his shaft before plunging him in her throat again. He was looking out over a majestic view while she sucked him hard, with wet sounds that seemed to echo through the entire valley below. But now, even if they were seen, she wouldn’t have cared. There was no turning back after they’d come this far.
He bucked his hips against her. But what she really wanted was for him to take her completely. To give herself over to him. When he pushed her shoulders back, gasping, she knew that he was close. She’d have to act fast if she wanted him to last long enough to fill her where she craved him the most. She stood, wiping a string of saliva from her lips.
Ben drew her close and kissed her hard. “I want you. I need you. It has to be now.”
Casey surged with adrenaline and lust. She’d been the one to stash a condom in the small pocket of her shorts and she pulled it out, handing it over to him. “Take me,” she told him, her voice throaty and raw.
Ben needed no further instructions. Quickly he spun her around and yanked down her shorts. She stepped out of them, and he drew her near with her back against his stomach, so they were both standing looking out at the view, the warm sun and the cooling breeze on their bare legs.
He ripped the condom wrapper with his teeth. He had one arm around Casey and with the other hand unrolled the condom as he rubbed his cock over the soft mound of her ass. His rigid desire left her panting in anticipation. He kissed her neck, her ear, and then the hand that had been stroking himself reached around and stroked her instead.
Going down on him had made her impossibly wet, and she knew he could feel it. “That’s from me?” he asked.
“Completely,” she said, moaning even more as he slid his finger inside her. When he pulled out, it was to rub insistent circles around her clit until her legs began to tremble and buck.
Casey didn’t want any more foreplay right now. She wanted him to take her as only he could.
But Ben kept making it build. He moved his first two fingers right where it made her the weakest, then pulled away maddeningly, reaching up to lick the tips of the fingers that had been inside her.
“You’re so sweet,” he murmured. He ran his fingers over her mouth, and she licked off her own juices, opening her mouth as if his fingers were his cock and she was showing how deep she could go. She moved her down his fingers, between his knuckles, flicking and sucking. He brought his hand away, trailing wetness down her chin. There was no doubt in her mind. She’d never experienced anything this hot, this dirty, this everything before.
“You’re sure you want it?” He rubbed his cock down her ass.
“Please,” she whimpered.
“My girl can’t wait,” he murmured, even though Casey knew he couldn’t possibly hold off any longer, either.
“Give it to me,” she pleaded. “I’m yours.”
“How do you want it?”
Now he was just torturing her. He was paying her back for how she’d rode him last night, hard and then soft, pulling back every time he was about to come, making him wait and wait until finally he exploded so hard he was bucking against the bed, shaking the walls.
“Do everything you want to me,” she begged him. “Take me, have me. As hard as you can. Don’t hold back, give it to me.”
It was all he needed to hear. Bending her over, holding her up, he grasped her hips and plunged his cock inside her.
Casey’s fingertips were balancing her against a rock in front of her, and she braced herself for his hard, fast thrusts. She whimpered at the mix of pleasure and, yes, delicious pain as he went in so deeply, over and over again.
They were facing out on the rock ledge, overlooking the view. Casey still had enough presence of mind to appreciate what the scene added to the intensity of the sensations as his cock drove into her at the exact spot inside her that made want to explode.
For all the time she spent hiking and camping, she’d never actually had sex in the woods. In tents and in cabins, and once on a thin inflatable sleeping pad under the stars. But never like this, in the middle of a trail, in broad daylight, the world open to her below. It made her want to scream.
She did.
Her shouts made Ben thrust harder. When he came, it was with a deep, throaty shout that left her weak in the knees. She felt the heat deep inside her and it filled her with a warmth that had nothing to do with the flush of the sun. This wasn’t just sex, what they were doing. This was something more, something she was sure she’d never experienced before.
She pressed deep against him while he was still groaning. Taking the hint, he reached around and found the tender, throbbing nub that ached for his touch. Leaving himself buried deep inside her, he rubbed hard and fast, using the combination of his fingers and his still-hard cock to bring her over the edge. With his other hand, he played with her breasts, making her whimper and moan.
The sensations made her head spin, and she felt herself falling into the brilliant sunshine spread all around her. She bucked her hips forward and back until she came with a cry, pulsing against his fingertips, his cock.
“I can feel you,” he murmured, drawing out every last tremor, thrusting deeper until he knew she had truly been sated.
When they could no longer hold their position together, he pulled out, took care of the condom, and gradually tugged up his shorts, a wide, sloppy grin plastered all over his radiant face. He was still hard, but Casey guessed that he would soon calm down, only to be ready for another round before she knew it.
She stood and stretched her back. Her own shorts were discarded somewhere on the outcropping and she reached for them, glad she’d managed to restrain herself enough to not toss them over the edge. She marveled at the sensation of the wind on her wet thighs. What they’d done felt ridiculously dirty, but oh so right.
Casey stood on the ledge facing Ben, her naked behind to Bonnet and the lake below. He was looking at her with a devilish eye, licking his lips as if he wanted to devour her whole.
“I could look at you all day.” He grinned.
She slid her shorts on over her boots. “Ah, but then we wouldn’t make much progress down the mountain.”
“But why should I care about getting back down the mountain?”
“Because of what more is waiting for you there,” she said coyly.
He blushed. “You’re forgetting one thing.”
“Chocolate?” Casey asked, still hoping he’d brought some for the hike.
“Something even more important.”
“Bourbon?” Casey wasn’t sure what else there was that she still had to look forward to.
Ben strode back out onto the ledge and took her in his arms. “You,” he whispered, running his fingers against her through the soft fabric of her shorts. “Don’t even try to pretend that you’re done. I know you can come again.”
She shivered in delight. It was tempting. But there was something about drawing out the deliciousness of the day that appealed to her. Wanting it every step down the steep slope would only add to her excitement, until she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from letting go.
She liked it as hard and fast as Ben had just given it to her. After all, she’d been the one begging for him to let go. But she also liked delayed gratification and the mounting pulse of desire as it turned burning want into absolute need.
Gently, she pushed his hand away.
“Make me wait for it,” she whispered. Lightly he pinched her nipples visibly straining out through her thin shirt.
“Make me,” she repeated with a whimper.
“Anything you want,” he promised, licking his lips with that look in his eye.
He pulled off his sweaty shirt and tucked it under a strap of the backpack. She was going to enjoy looking at him for the rest of the hike. When they started back toward the trail, they were flushed and laughing. They couldn’t stop touching each other the whole way down.