by Lia Lee
I watched her face as she became lost in the sensations and I could tell when she was close to her first orgasm. Watching her orgasm was my new favorite thing to do. Her orgasm face was hotter than anything I had ever seen. Her brows knit together, her mouth opened in a small ’o’ and she made the sexiest sounds, whimpering and gasping before her breath was taken away completely for a moment.
Watching her, she let the pleasure take over and a moment later she orgasmed. Her body tightened, clamping down on my cock. Her muscles contracted and it took concentration not to lose my load right away. After she had sucked me off, I was dangerously close to an orgasm already.
When her orgasm subsided and she opened her eyes again, she smiled at me shyly. My turn.
I helped her climb off me. She lay down on the bed and I positioned myself between her legs. I pushed into her and she gasped. I leaned on my elbows on either side of her head, and my body covered hers. She wrapped her legs around my ass and pulled me deeper into her.
When I started moving my hips back and forth, she moved right with me. I bucked my hips harder and faster, pumping in and out of her. We could go for a second and third orgasm with her, but I was on the edge after what she had done to me with her mouth and I wanted a release. I wanted to be as close to her as I had been last night.
She orgasmed first and it was unexpected. I hadn’t aimed for her pleasure although I probably should have. Her body tightened around mine and she cried out. It pushed me over the edge and I released inside of her.
It was amazing not using a condom. I hated wearing condoms and being inside of her without made me feel so much closer to her than I would have been.
We rode the orgasm out together. When it was over and we lay together gasping and panting, I kissed her.
We lay together for a while. I slipped out of her and we cuddled the way we had last night. Everything was different with her. I held onto her and I knew that it would be the last time I saw her. I didn’t allow myself to be sad. I only absorbed our closeness and let that be enough.
Finally, I let go of her.
“I have to get going to get ready for work,” I said.
Farrah nodded.
I kissed her on the mouth and climbed off the bed, finding my clothes where we had left them on the floor last night. Farrah sat up, wrapping the sheets around her body. There was nothing more gorgeous in the world than Farrah’s perfect body wrapped in sheets after we’d had sex.
When I was dressed, Farrah walked me to the door, still wrapped in her sheet. Her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders, her lips red and puffy after we had made out so much.
I kissed her, long and deep.
“Thank you for helping me be bold,” she said, when I broke the kiss and my chest tightened. She was so innocent and perfect.
“Thank you for being you,” I answered, not knowing how to tell her everything I felt. She let me out and I walked to my car. When I glanced back, she was waiting at the open door. I lifted my hand in a wave and she did the same before the door slowly closed and she was gone.
I turned my key in the ignition, and thought that I had to return to reality after this as much as she did.
Chapter 10
Farrah
I pulled on pajamas after Lee left and went back to bed. Cocooning myself in the covers, I tried to get comfortable alone in the empty bed after he had held me all night. I had been used to sleeping alone for the past year and a half, but this time it was a bit of a struggle.
Sleep eventually dragged me under.
When I opened my eyes again it was much later. I rolled over in bed and stretched, feeling better than I had in a long time. Being bold was really starting to pay off. I was glad I had slept with Lee last night and again this morning. It had been scary to take that step, but it had been good for me.
He had been good for me. He had made me feel like I was more than worth the effort, and I knew that was what made all the difference. I could very well have found an asshole and the experience wouldn’t have been a good one.
When I was ready, I walked to the bathroom and took a shower. I let the water run through my hair and over my body, washing away the sex between my legs. I ran my hands over my body and thought back to how it had felt when he had touched me. My stomach clenched with delicious memories.
After I was done I dried my hair and packed the last of my things before heading out to my car. After loading my suitcase, laptop and camera in the trunk of my car, I walked to reception and returned the key.
Quickly, I drove over to The Pint to say goodbye to Hannah. I had only been in Packwood for a weekend, but I felt more attached to this place than to some of the places I had spent a week in or more. The people here were different.
When I walked inside, Hanna was alone behind the bar. Holly and Dustin were nowhere to be found and there were only two people enjoying breakfast at one of the tables.
“Can I offer you breakfast?” Hannah asked, when I walked over to the bar.
I shook my head. “I’m on my way home. I only stopped to say goodbye.”
“Oh, no. That’s so sad to hear,” Hannah said, and she sounded like she meant it. “I never asked, where do you call home?”
“Seattle,” I said.
“Not too far,” she said.
I nodded. “About a two and a half hour drive if the going is good. I should be home by lunchtime.”
“I’m sad to see you go, but I’m grateful you came to Packwood. You’ll always be welcome here.”
She hugged me and the sudden affection caught me a little off guard. At the same time, it was heart-warming.
“Thank you for making me feel so welcome,” I said. I knew my photos would increase Hannah’s publicity, but I didn’t feel that her kindness had only been an act. Everyone here was genuine.
Especially Lee.
I didn’t think too hard about him. It was strange thinking I had slept with Hannah’s brother, and I didn’t want to dwell on it while I was with her.
“I hope we see you around here again,” Hannah said.
I nodded. I didn’t know if I would come to Packwood again, but it was the kind of place I wouldn’t mind returning to. Maybe one day I would come here again. It was beautiful and so removed from my reality it was a refreshing escape to be here.
As I walked out of the bar, Dustin and Holly arrived. They were both on foot. Dustin nodded a hello at me when I greeted them both. Holly didn’t respond at all. She only shot me a dirty look and walked right past me.
What was that all about? I shrugged it off. I barely knew her and we weren’t exactly cut out to be best friends. She looked like she was barely out of school. I forgot about her reaction almost immediately.
After stopping at The Pint, I drove to the Chamber of Commerce where I found Frankie. She was in her office and her secretary ushered me through. Frankie was behind her desk when I walked in and her face broke into a grin when she saw me.
“Your photos are amazing. The edited copies you sent of the town itself are just spectacular. And the photos of Leeland are going to be a hit, I know it! You’re very talented.”
“Thank you,” I said, and I couldn’t help but smile. To hear that my work was more than satisfactory made me feel wonderful. It had been a great risk to give up my permanent position at a company in Seattle to start freelancing, but I’d had a chance to spread my wings. I would never have had the chance to see the wonderful places I had visited so far or to meet the amazing people I knew now if I had stayed with the company.
Affirmation that it was all working out was incredibly rewarding. Though I still attributed a lot of my good mood to Lee and how he had made me feel throughout the night.
“I am on my way home,” I said to Frankie.
Her reaction was similar to Hannah’s, telling me it was a shame I was leaving and that she hoped I would come back again soon.
“Maybe I’ll even hire you myself just to see your pretty face again,” Frankie said with a wink, and I c
huckled. How was it possible to feel this good about myself out here when I spent so much time hating myself back home?
When I finally got away I was sad to leave. It felt like I was leaving friends behind. Everyone around these parts seemed to invest themselves emotionally in people and that was rare to find.
Before I hit the road, I considered stopping at the ranger office to say goodbye to Lee again. In the end, I decided against it. If I saw him again now, I wouldn’t know what to expect. Our goodbye this morning had been beautiful. We had been caught up in what we had shared and it had been a sweet goodbye with no pretense and no added emotions that were out of place.
I wanted to keep it at that. So, instead of stopping at the ranger’s office, I climbed onto the main road that headed out of town and turned my car in the direction of home.
The drive home from Packwood was far better than the one going there. I felt so different, now. I’d felt welcome and l loved which was something I hadn’t felt for a very long time, though I realized part of that was spending time with the right kind of people, too. Simply avoiding the wrong people obviously wasn’t enough.
Lee was on my mind. Every now and then I started to drift back to Jim and what he would think about what I had done, and what he would say to me, but I wouldn’t let those thoughts take over. I didn’t want to ruin the way I was feeling, and Jim was nothing but bad news all the way around.
Dr. Boyer had said that if I thought about him and let his words affect me, I was still letting him control me. If I let him take over my mind, whether I saw him or not, he was still winning and I was still letting him rule my life.
And that was the last thing I wanted to do. No matter what he had been to me before, Jim was nothing to me now. He had hurt me more than words could describe and he didn’t deserve to still have a part of me. Even if it was just my thoughts.
This time, it was easier than before to push him out of my mind. I had great memories to fall back on and I felt warm and beautiful, and even loved. The feeling was out of place, but I welcomed it anyway. Once upon a time, I had felt this way with Jim. But it had been a very long time ago and so far removed from more recent reality that I’d forgotten what it was like.
What I felt now was also different from before. There had always been underlying judgment from Jim. This time, good memories were all I had and I would hold onto them for as long as I could. The memories were like a buoy that would keep me afloat in an ocean of sorrow and terror. If I clung to it, I might be able to keep myself from sinking.
The drive to Seattle was smooth and I reached the city in good time. The day was overcast and I found I missed the sunlight that had smiled down on me in Packwood.
As I drove down the road between the tall buildings to get to my home, I found that the good feelings I had brought with me were slowly starting to fade. I was back home again, in the city where my life had fallen apart once upon a time. I fought desperately to cling to the good feelings and only partially succeeded.
Arriving home, I unloaded my car, carrying in my bags bit by bit. I made myself a cup of tea and opened the doors to the porch. A bit of sunlight broke through the clouds and I wanted to soak in as much of it as I could.
Armed with my cup of tea and a book, I walked outside and sat in the wicker chair. I sipped my tea and tried to read, but my mind kept drifting back to Packwood and the people there.
Everyone that came into The Pint had seemed like they had belonged to one big family. They had laughed together, drank together and they had greeted each other as if they were long lost friends, even those that arrived alone and left alone.
I wrapped my fingers around my warm cup and closed my eyes, letting my thoughts transport me there. The pub had been warm and dimly lit. I hadn’t noticed it then, but thinking back now, there had been music floating around, adding to the atmosphere. I pictured the whole scenario again and smiled.
In my mind’s eye, I saw Lee behind the bar, wiping it down or pouring a beer for a customer. His board shoulders were straight and his graying hair was a little mussed up as if he had pushed his hands into it a few times. It made him look rugged and handsome rather than shabby and unkempt.
He was such an amazing person, and had made me feel like I’d been the only thing that mattered. With Lee, I’d felt like I was beautiful and special, and like I had so much to offer. It had been refreshing.
The last couple of days were been perfect. I had driven out to Packwood for a job and I had come back with unlikely friends, feeling revitalized and great about myself. The money I had made for the project was the least of what I had gained.
I was a pity I would never see them again. Especially Lee.
Maybe one day I would have to return to pay them all a visit. I was sure I could invent a reason to go there. It wasn’t too far and there were a handful of people I wouldn’t mind seeing again.
I flashed on Lee’s face and the same warmth filled my chest. This was what I would hold onto whenever I struggled with thoughts of Jim, I decided. Even if I never saw Lee again, it could be enough.
Chapter 11
Lee
I threw myself into my work, pushing hard and working longer hours than I ever had before. I worked hard as it was, but since Farrah had left I had to try to forget about her somehow. Work was all I had as a distraction.
It didn’t make sense that I would be so hung up on her. I had only known the woman for four days. Yeah, we’d had a magical time together. But pining for her was pathetic. Not that she wasn’t a woman worth pining over. Farrah was everything I had always envisioned in a woman. She was the full package, even though she had baggage. But who didn’t?
Still, I had only known her for a short while. Too short to validate how often I thought about her. There were nights that I missed her so much it ached.
Which was ridiculous. I had to stop thinking about her and move on with my life. I didn’t doubt that she had already done that.
It was only three days since she’d left town. When I woke up on Thursday morning I told myself I would take until the weekend to get it out of my system, and then I would move on. She had made quite an impression on me, so all I needed was a bit of time to get over it.
While I got dressed for work, I caught a glimpse of myself in my uniform. As I buttoned my shirt, I thought of the photos she had taken of me in my uniform for Frankie. She had taken so much time to get the perfect shot, and hadn’t charged Frankie for her extra time.
She had been completely caught up in her art and I’d realized right away that when she was focused on something she was passionate about, she was able to rise above the things that got her down. During those times, she went from a beautiful woman to one who was radiant.
I shook my head. Here I was thinking about her again, and I had to stop. The upside was that we’d slept together in the motel room. Thank God it hadn’t been here in my cabin because I was already struggling to get her off my mind. Imagine how much harder it would have been if her scent had been on my sheets, or if the memories were of here in my home, and my bed.
Small miracles.
I left the cabin and headed to my office. I had the late shift today, but to keep busy I’d been going in early every day.
“What are you doing here so early—again?” Hank asked, when I climbed out of my truck. He stood on the porch, smoking, his long blond hair was pulled back into a short ponytail and he stood with his free hand in his pocket.
I shrugged, “Never hurts to have more hands on deck, right?”
“I’d love to know what’s eating you these days.”
I shook my head and walked past Hank into my office. I hadn’t told anyone about Farrah. Even Hannah didn’t know how far I had gone with her and I wanted to keep it that way. There was nothing to tell, after all. Everyone had noticed I had thrown myself into work, trying to bury my thoughts. But no one would find out what it was about.
Because it would go away in no time, so there was nothing to tell anyway.
“I think we got our guy,” Hank said. “I was out on the trails yesterday afternoon and there were no prints. It’s the third day in a row.”
“Good,” I said. “He’s lucky he got off.”
Hank nodded. We had managed to catch the hunter who had been trespassing. We had taken shifts throughout the night, camping in the forest where we had found the footprints. We had caught him at the crack of dawn, walking around with a rifle as if it was normal for him to hunt where people hiked every day. The sheriff had slapped a hefty fine on him and threated him with jail time if he was seen in the forest again for the next two years, even for a hike.
I would have locked the man up for a week or so to teach him a lesson, but that wasn’t exactly legal. There was nothing that taught a man a lesson like being locked up for trespassing the way jail time did. But a fine and a two-year ban would have to do. It seemed to have worked, at least for now.
“What do we need to cover now that we caught our guy?” I asked.
Hank chuckled. “We still have all our other duties, remember? Finding missing persons, keeping the trails clear and watching for forest fires. You know, the stuff that usually keeps us busy. I don’t know what’s on your mind, but it seems intense. If I’d seen you with a woman I would say that’s I, but you’ve been a loner lately.”
He was right. Before Farrah, I hadn’t spent a lot of time dating women or even pursuing one-night stands. I had started to wonder what the point was if it never amounted to anything. Farrah should have been in the same category, but for some reason, it was all different with her.