Natural Impulse

by Anna Durand

  I'd pictured her mouth sealing around my cock the same way.

  And that's why I'd needed to run away. Christ, the girl was terrified of nudity. How would she react if I developed a raging stiffy?

  Oh yeah, I had one of those now. Luckily, I'd gotten out of the house before Mara saw it. I managed to sneak back into the guest house and up to the office without running into anyone. Most of the guests were out on the lawn playing miniten.

  After half an hour of calling every hotel, motel, bed-and-breakfast, and campsite in the area, I realized I was never going to find another place for Mara to stay. I expanded my search to a hundred-mile radius, but still had no luck. It seemed like every person on the planet had decided to visit this part of Oregon this week. Calling all those additional places took another forty-five minutes. By then, I was feeling stiff all over---but at least not in the way I had been when I saw Mara earlier. My dick might've been relaxed, but the rest of me needed a massage.

  I pushed up out of the desk chair and stretched, groaning when my muscles protested. My skin itched too. I really, really wanted to ditch the clothes, but I couldn't do that with Mara around. She was so happy to have one non-nudist to talk to. How could I turn up naked? She'd freak like she had when she saw the nudists in the dining hall.

  Moving to the window, I stretched again and glanced toward the miniten court. The game had ended, but the net was still up. Guests lounged on outdoor chaises. Some lay on blankets, sunbathing or just talking to each other. My focus wandered toward the little house, the one where Eve and Val lived when they weren't visiting Val's family in Brazil. All the curtains were closed.

  A flash of movement made me look at the guest-bedroom window. The curtain was partway open, at an angle like someone was holding it that way. My curiosity got the better of me, and I grabbed a pair of binoculars off the cabinet beside the window. Eve kept them there in case we needed to scout for bears or other wildlife that might wander into the main resort area. I aimed the binoculars at the window of the guest bedroom of Eve and Val's house.

  Mara was standing there, holding the curtain slightly open, peeking out at---

  A laugh snorted out of me. She was watching the guests who were hanging out on the lawn. Not so terrified of nudity, after all, I guessed. Maybe she'd worked up enough courage to take a peek, but I doubted she would scamper out there to join in the fun.

  My phone made that silly tinkling noise it always made when I had a new text. While still holding the binoculars, I checked, and yep, I'd gotten a text from my best friend, Damian. He wanted to know when he could come for a visit. With Mara here? I had my hands full already, and Damian was kind of a player. He loved the ladies, and he'd never been shy about flirting with them---or stripping naked in front of them. I wasn't sure how Mara might react to him. He wasn't a nudist, but we had gone to an adults-only resort a couple years ago. Damian loved that.

  I liked it here. With guests who were like family.

  So I typed, Not now. Too busy.

  Damian replied, Maybe I'll surprise you.

  Please don't.

  Okay. I'll wait. He typed an emoji of a winking face. See ya.

  Just as I finished saying goodbye to him, the desk phone rang.

  I set down the binoculars and answered.

  "Hey, Ollie," Eve said. "How are things at home?"

  "Fine." I leaned back against the desk, where I could still see out the window, my attention fixed on the guest-bedroom window and the barely visible shape of Mara. "You know, you don't have to check in on me five times a day. I'm a big boy, Eve. I can handle everything on my own."

  Yeah, I wasn't quite sure I could, but Eve didn't need to hear that. I mean, I could handle the guests. But then there was Mara...

  "I know that," Eve said. "You're highly capable and very smart. But I got a text from Ruth Norris, and she seems to think you've got a bit of a problem on your hands."

  Shit. Had Ruth blabbed to Eve about Mara?

  "And I hear that problem is very pretty," Eve added.

  "What? Come on, Evie, I'm a professional." Sure I was. I'd become super adept at acting like I knew what the fuck I was doing when I actually wanted to scream and pull my hair out. My career in computer systems engineering had gone kaput. What did I know about running a resort? Not much, but I was learning. The hard way, sometimes.

  Like when I'd seen Mara and her pink toenails.

  "I don't get involved with guests," I said.

  "Never suggested you were involved with Mara Severins. It's interesting that you assumed that's what I meant."

  The teasing tone in her voice told me she was enjoying ribbing me about this. So I ribbed her back. "I remember when you swore off sleeping with guests."

  "Yeah, I stuck to that resolution for about five seconds after Val showed up." She laughed. "Oh Ollie, don't make the same mistakes I did. If you like Mara, tell her."

  "I can't." I shuffled to the window, leaning my forehead on the glass,. "She's terrified of naked people, and I kind of, uh, let her sort of believe I'm not a naturist."

  Eve laughed again, much louder than before. "Honestly, Ollie, you're the cutest."

  "This isn't funny, Evie."

  A male voice said something in the background, but I couldn't make out the words.

  "Hang on," Eve said. "Val wants to talk to you, man to man."

  Oh great. The notorious playboy, the guy who used to strip naked on the soccer field when his team won a game and the guy who'd starred in his own sex tape, was about to give me advice about women. One woman. A nutcase.

  A really hot nutcase.

  "Ollie," Val said in his Brazilian accent that women all seemed to love, especially Eve, "I hear you have a woman problem."

  "There's no problem. Everything's fine."

  He chuckled. "You're infatuated with a girl who's afraid of nudity. How is that fine? I can give you advice, you know."

  "Thanks, but I'm good."

  "Are you sure? I do have experience in this area."

  "No, man, that's okay. I can handle things with Mara."

  "All right. If you're sure."

  We said goodbye, and I stood there with my forehead on the glass. Movement caught my attention again, and I glanced at Mara's window.

  She had pulled the curtains halfway open and now held a small pair of pink binoculars.

  I lifted my head, sure I couldn't be seeing what I thought I was seeing. Mara, the anti-nudist, could not be watching the naturists with binoculars.

  But she was.

  Maybe she wasn't as uptight as I'd thought. If she had a naughty streak... Just thinking about that made my hard-on return. Oh fantastic. I'd be spending who-knew-how-many days around a woman who gave me the worst case of blue balls in the history of mankind.

  I sat down at the desk and forced myself to concentrate on work. Accounting was pretty much the most boring thing on earth, next to watching a golf game, so I focused on that for half an hour. My stiffy softened up gradually the less I thought about Mara, distracted by the complicated accounting software, until I felt reasonably confident I wouldn't look like a total perv when I walked out of the office.

  Ruth Norris cornered me when I got to the bottom of the stairs, so close to escaping the guest house that I could see the exit sign down the hall. Of course I couldn't get away without an embarrassing conversation with a seventy-ish woman who loved to razz me. In a sweet old lady way. Like she was my naughty grandma.

  "Ollie," she said, hooking her arm around mine. "I've been looking for you."

  "Did you need something?"

  She fixed me with a grandmotherly look of concern. "Are you all right, dear? Everyone can see how much you and Mara like each other, but the poor girl is afraid of nudity."

  "How do you know if we like each other? You saw her for thirty seconds and never even spoke to her."

  Ruth's mouth kinked up at the corners in a sly smile. "She came out of the house while you w
ere hiding in the office."

  "She---what?"

  "Mara sneaked outside to have a look, from a distance, and I met her." Ruth urged me to walk, taking us down the hall toward the exit. "She's such a lovely girl, but I'm afraid she's full of anxieties. Mara needs a good man to straighten her out."

  I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, like somebody had dropped a head-size boulder in there and it was tearing a hole in my gut, that I knew what Ruth would say next.

  She squeezed my arm and tapped my chest. "You, Ollie. You are the man who can help her."

  "When did I become the house therapist?" I shook my head. "Mara is crazy. She's cute, yeah, but totally out there. What do you expect me to do about it?"

  Ruth waggled her eyebrows. "I'm sure you can think of something."

  Yep, no doubt about it. A senior citizen was encouraging me to have sex with Mara in the hopes that would "straighten her out." I wasn't self-conscious about my skills in bed, but honestly, I kind of doubted I could fuck sense into Mara.

  But I'd have fun trying.

  No, I would not. Sex as therapy? Jeez, the girl was so uptight she'd probably shriek and hit me over the head with a baseball bat if I tried to seduce her.

  Well, she had kissed me.

  Oh no, I could not be seriously considering Ruth's insane suggestion.

  Even though I was absolutely not considering that, I heard myself saying, "I'll see what I can do."

  "Try singing for her. Women love men who have hidden talents."

  "Uh, maybe. We'll see."

  Ruth led me out of the guest house, then peeled off to go find her husband, Sylvester. I spotted him playing checkers with another senior guest, Gil Foster. The two silver foxes had become good buddies right off the bat when Gil had arrived a few days ago.

  Other guests were playing volleyball on the court that had been set up for miniten earlier.

  A trio of twenty-something girls had brought out butterfly nets and were jumping around trying to catch the little critters. Even the bouncing of their breasts couldn't rev my libido.

  I scanned the area, looking for Mara.

  She hugged the corner of the little house, not far from the kitchen windows, her expression pinched. I couldn't tell for sure if she had her eyes closed, but I thought maybe she did. I hadn't expected her to come outside at all, so this was a huge step forward for her. I walked toward her, seeing more of her face the closer I got. She held her palms to her cheeks, then slid them up to cover her eyes, only to peek out between her fingers.

  "Enjoying yourself?" I asked, coming up beside her.

  Mara jumped like she hadn't noticed me approaching. "Ollie, I---Well, I thought immersion therapy might be the best thing for me."

  "Sounds like a plan. How's it going so far?"

  "Think I need to go back inside for a while."

  "No rush. Take your time adjusting to the naked people."

  She smiled, her lips sealed, then retreated into the house.

  I went back to doing my job, but several times I glanced out the office window to see Mara outside the little house, cautiously watching the guests who were hanging out on the lawn. And yeah, I got out the binoculars so I could get a closer look---at her facial expression, not her body. Okay, maybe I enjoyed taking a peek at that too. She seemed less anxious about the whole naturist thing, since she didn't squeeze her eyes shut anymore, though she still didn't go out onto the lawn to socialize. Baby steps, I guessed.

  At lunchtime, I got a great idea. Well, it sounded like a great one to me. Mara shouldn't hide in the little house all day. Fresh air and exercise, plus a few fun activities that didn't involve nudity, would make her feel better. I was sure of it. So I made us lunch in the big kitchen in the guest house and trotted over to the little house, setting my picnic basket and guitar case on the ground beside me. I knocked on the door to avoid scaring Mara again.

  When she opened the door, she smiled. "Hi, Ollie."

  This girl had the most beautiful smile in the history of smiling. I had no idea how long ago people first started making that expression, but it didn't matter. To me, her smile was the best.

  "Hey, Mara," I said. "Made us a picnic lunch. Want to come out to the lake with me? All the other guests are in the big house, in the exercise room or the entertainment room, so we'll have the lake to ourselves."

  "I've never walked in the woods before."

  "You came here to commune with nature, right? And do some birdwatching?" When she nodded, I said, "I want to show you my favorite spot for seeing birds and other wildlife. It's also a nice place for a picnic."

  She peered out the door at the lawn, where only a few guests still hung out. They were chilling on chaises and talking, not doing anything crazy.

  I held my hand out to Mara. "Come on, it'll be good to get some fresh air. Trust me."

  She bit her lip, but then slipped her hand into mine.

  My gaze dropped to her feet and those sexy little pink toenails.

  Veering my attention to her face, I cleared my throat. "You might want tennies instead of sandals. Better for a nature walk."

  Mara hurried off to change her shoes and came back wearing pink tennies. She stepped outside and shut the door, saying, "Let's go."

  I picked up the picnic basket and my guitar case. "Follow me."

  We headed toward the nature trail, skimming the edge of the lawn maybe thirty feet from the naturists who were hanging out there. Mara glanced sideways at them but didn't even flinch. Maybe her immersion therapy was working. I hoped so, because I didn't want her to leave. I kind of liked her, neuroses and all.

  "Want me to carry something for you?" she asked. "You've got your hands full."

  "I'm cool. Don't worry about it."

  But yeah, I had a feeling I did have my hands full with this girl.

  Maybe that's what I needed in my life---something unpredictable.

  Chapter Five

  Mara

  Ollie guided me down the wide dirt path, pointing out the trees and wildflowers while explaining what each one was. I'd never gone out in the woods before. City parks had been the extent of my nature communing. I hadn't needed to leave the city, except to fly somewhere for a vacation at a fancy resort, so I never had.

  The trees were so big and beautiful here, and their branches formed a canopy above our heads. The sunlight filtered through them, creating a gentle glow. I heard birds tweeting and squirrels chattering. Ollie had to explain to me what that chattering noise was, since I'd never heard such a thing before. There must've been squirrels in Philadelphia, but I swore I'd never noticed them making noises.

  Today I'd learned something. I loved the outdoors.

  Once we got to the lake, Ollie set up our picnic by laying out a blanket for us to sit on and setting food items on it. We sat facing each other, so we could talk while enjoying our meal. Ollie had made sandwiches---the best I'd ever eaten. He also brought cupcakes like the ones I'd eaten earlier.

  I munched on a potato chip before asking him the question I'd been wondering about all morning. "How did you wind up working at a nudist resort? And how long have you worked here?"

  He seemed so normal, not like the kind of guy who would want to spend his days with naked people.

  Ollie winced, though I couldn't understand why. He looked down at the picnic blanket for a couple seconds before aiming his gorgeous amber eyes at me. "How long? I, uh, started working here last fall. It just sort of...happened. They needed an assistant manager, and I'd gotten laid off from my job as a computer systems engineer, so it all worked out. To be honest, I was sick of my old job, anyway. Staring at a computer screen all day got really old really fast."

  "That's quite a leap, from computers to a nudist resort."

  "Maybe, but it made sense to me." He screwed up his mouth, looking away again. "But I'm boring. Tell me more about you. What do you do for a living?"

  Oh, I hated that question. Whenever I told a man
about my work, they wound up finding excuses to run away. Escape from the spoiled rich girl, that was all they wanted to do. Nobody understood that I took my job seriously. Maybe Ollie would understand, but I didn't want to chase him off before we really got to know each other.

  So I played it safe. By sort of lying.

  "Me?" I said as a lame delaying tactic while I considered my answer. "Well, I'm basically in real estate."

  "Cool. Do you sell a lot?"

  "No. I'm more into...management." I picked up a cupcake and bit off a big chunk, eating it as another delaying tactic. Then I swigged water from the bottle Ollie had given me and decided to offer him part of the truth. "I'm really good at the business side of real estate. I know that sounds arrogant, but I don't mean it that way. I love figuring out the best marketing strategies, testing them, refining them, all that stuff."

  Ollie grinned. "I knew you were smart. I mean, I thought you were crazy at first, but I could still tell you had brains too."

  "How could you possibly know that? I've been acting like a complete idiot since the moment we met."

  "Nah. You had a big shock when you found out what this place really is, that's all."

  Wow, he was absolutely the sweetest man on earth.

  "If you don't mind me asking," he said, "how did your travel agent screw things up so bad? She must not have even looked at our website or read what's on the travel sites."

  "Ugh, I'm so mad at that woman. She came highly recommended, but I have no idea why she thought this was a birdwatching retreat." I shook my head. "She'll be getting an earful from me, let me tell you."

  "I'd love to listen in on that conversation." He leaned over to set a hand on his guitar case. "Mind if I play for you?"

  "No, I'd love that. Do you sing too?"

  "Sure." He opened the case and brought out his guitar, bracing it on his lap while he tuned it, plucking each string and adjusting the little knob doohickeys. "I do modern songs too, but my favorites are the classics. Stuff from, like, the fifties and sixties. Some even earlier."

  "That sounds wonderful. I'd love to hear it."

  He started to play a tune I recognized, but only when he began to sing did I realize it was "Bridge Over Troubled Water." He sang beautifully, with a natural voice that didn't seem like an affectation or an attempt to sound like popular singers. I found myself smiling and swaying to the gentle rhythm of the song.