“You’re welcome.” I open my gift from Jane, which is a bit larger than what she usually gets me. More rectangular as well. From the moment I rip off the wrapping paper (shiny platinum, with ruby red ribbon), I know it’s a piece of clothing. I can tell by the box. And Jane’s always trying to get me into dress in more-revealing clothes. Opening the lid on the box confirms my suspicions: it’s a baby doll nightgown like hers. Except mine’s bubblegum pink and purle, whereas hers is her signature red and turquoise.
“Oh, thank you, Jane.” I pull it out of the box to get a better look. Lace and silk for days. “How was your night?”
“Fantastic. Paul’s brother Alex ended up buying me for the night,” says Jane, grinning from ear to ear. “I made a similar offer to yours.” A mischievous, dirty-secret smile. “It was super interesting. I didn’t peg him for it, but Paul’s brother, while he may look like a puppy dog, is quite adventurous. Kinky.” She crosses her legs, showing a bit of skin. “Got to experience some fetishes that I’ve been curious about.”
She doesn’t go into any more detail. Maybe so she can keep it to herself. Maybe so she can share it with me later. Either way, she leaves it at that.
I decide not to press the issue. For someone who has always been interested in my sex life, she sure is private about hers. I usually respect her obvious desire for privacy, and I decide to do that again for now, although I have a feeling I’ll have some questions on our ride home. But what she just said has made me think about Paul again. His offer to meet up with him again at the hot tub.
Jane sees my anxiety immediately. “Hey, hey,” she says, “What’s the matter, Mariah?”
I sigh. “Well, I don’t know what to do.” I throw the wrapping paper off me, and set my lingerie down. Jane’s eyes press me for more details, and I give them to her. “This morning Paul invited me to meet up with him at the hot tub later” — Jane interrupts with “That’s great,” but I cut her off — “Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if I should go. I might get more attached to him that I already am, and I don’t think I can afford that.”
Jane waves me away like him talking complete nonsense. “Hold it right there, Mariah!” She uncrosses her legs, placing her feet firmly on the carpet. “You can so afford it!”
I bow my head, knowing he paid a literal fortune for me. “And anyway, it sounds like he’s the one getting attached to you, Mariah! A guy doesn’t pay that much to sleep with you and then ask you to join him again the next day unless he likes you. Unless there’s more in it for him than just more pussy.” Jane leaves her seat, and squeezes herself next to me in mine. “Come on. Stop worrying about yourself, and give the guy a chance, Mariah. You’ve taken risks up to this point, so what’s one more trip to a hot tub? Another night with him, even? Good job on making him interested in seeing you again, by the way. On giving him the chase.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I did remember how you talked about that. I decided to take the lessons to heart. Thanks.”
“Anything for you, Dahling,” Jane drools.
Her words simultaneously put my head on straight, and fill me with warmth. Hope. Excitement at the possibility of seeing Paul again. “You’re right,” I say. “I should visit him at the hot tub. It’s the least I can do.” I smile, imagining giving him a hand job under the bubbles. “Besides, I had so much fun with him, I want to have a little more before we leave!”
Jane hugs me. “Atta girl!” She kisses my cheek playfully. “There’s the Mariah I know and love!”
“But first.” I get up from my seat, kicking the wrapping paper and box out of the way. “I want a bit more hang time on the slopes!” I pause, feeling my tummy rumble. “And some hot cocoa. Maybe food, too.”
We laugh and Jane says, “I’m happy to do whatever you want. As long as you don’t leave Paul hanging.”
“I would never,” I insist.
“Good, because I might want to see Alex again too.”
“Oooh, Jane,” I coo. “I knew there had to be something in it for you.”
“Maybe,” she blushes, and I try hard not to look as surprised as I feel. It looks as if my friend may be falling in love. At the same time that I am.
Chapter 15
Paul
Alex and Jordan have been chasing me on their skis for the last hour and a half. They were on me from the moment I stepped out of the lodge. And now they’ve finally succeeded in cornering me.
“That’s our money that went into your good night, yo,” says Jordan, cutting off my escape route into the woods. He knows if he lets me skate past him, he is not going to be able to get close to me ever again. “You’re, like, obligated to tell us how it went. What happened.”
I ski right past his weak attempt at blocking me. “I don’t remember that being part of the deal,” I answer, aware of my brother hovering back and to the other side of Jordan. “You wanted me to forget about Darla, and I forgot about her.” I zip down a bit of an incline, purposely spraying some snow in Jordan’s face. “Mission accomplished.”
Jordan shakes off the snow, and flips me the bird. I return fire lazily, which pisses him off more. He skates down toward me. “That wasn’t a five-dollar fuck, yo. We deserve some details.” He pauses, looking frustrated at more than just the snow that’s melting into his jacket. Into his uncovered spots. “I mean, at least give me something, man!”
Alex coasts up to me, whispering, “He didn’t get any girl to take his bid, so his bed was empty.”
A snowball collides with the side of my brother’s head almost instantaneously. “Hey! You said you wouldn’t tell him that!”
“Seriously, though,” says my brother, talking over Jordan and his temper tantrum. “He’d like to hear something about what it was like with her, brother.” He pats me on my snow-dusted shoulder. “At least so he knows our money went to a good cause. And so we won’t have to listen to him whine and cry anymore.”
I sigh, throwing my hands up in defeat. “Fine. It was great.” Just thinking about Mariah — her silky, pliable body — makes me grin like an idiot. “Well worth the money. Every dollar of it.” I shrug, deciding to leave my brother behind in the powder. “Happy?”
“Yeah,” says Alex, bringing up the rear. “I guess I understand you not wanting to go into too many details.” Behind me, I hear his ski poles poking gentle holes in the snow. “I bought her friend. You know, Jane?”
I swivel around to face him. “Yeah?”
Alex blushes deeper than a summer sunset. “Well, she was worth it, too,” he mumbles. “When she said that she was open to anything, she meant it…”
If my brother says anything more after that, I have no idea.
My attention has just been inextricably drawn to the skiing area down below. To the field the snow closer to the lodge. Mariah is down there, ordering herself a cup of hot cocoa. Jane’s with her, holding her own hot drink. “I’m going to go talk to her,” I say suddenly, not caring if Alex is still going on about his own night.
Jordan rushes up toward us. “Who?”
“Mariah.” Without wasting another second, I dig my ski poles into the side of the hill, and launch myself down a barely-visible path toward her.
“You’ve got it bad, yo,” shouts Jordan, coming to stand right where I just was.
Alex calls down after me, “You really like her, don’t you?”
“I’m not getting serious about her,” I shout back, not bothering to stop my skis. “I just like hanging out is all!”
“Suuure, whatever you say, dude!” I crouch on my skis, gaining more speed and distance. That’s right, Paul. Keep your fucking head on right. As I tear down the slope toward Mariah, I try to steel myself from her sugar-plum personality. You’re not serious about any woman, virgin or not, remember? I grunt, forcing my skis to go faster. You don’t do relationships, remember?
I do remember, but that was before Mariah. It might not be that easy anymore.
***
Mariah’s face lights up the minute she sees me.
A smile bigger than the sun beams across her lips, warming and brightening her entire body.
“Paul!” She giggles, as if I’m her most favorite playmate in the whole world. Even more fun than her girlfriend, who is just a few feet away. “Oh my gosh! It’s so good to see you!”
Just like when I first met her, Mariah’s in her ski gear. Snow pants, snow jacket, goggles and knit cap. She’s so damn cute even when dressed in winter clothes.
“I was just going to go do some skiing!” She wiggles her skis at me. “I was going to try some of the most difficult, black double diamond slopes. Since I’m feeling so adventurous these days.” She pauses, drinking from my eyes like it’s a bigger, sweeter cup of hot chocolate than the one she’s already holding. “What about you?”
“Same.” I try to sound nonchalant. Like I wasn’t rushing down here to see her. “Just doing something so that when I warm up in the hot tub it’ll be extra nice.”
Mariah hits me with a smoldering grin. “‘Extra nice,’ huh?” She brings up her cup of cocoa and finishes it. “Before or after you get me and you in front of one of the underwater jets?”
“Well, kitten” — I snatch her empty cup of cocoa with playful, mocked irritation — “That all depends on you.” I shake the empty cup at her, watching out of the corner of my eye as Alex and Jane meet up not far away, and engage in their own conversation. “More hot cocoa?” I ask hotly.
She refuses wordlessly, biting her lip.
“You know,” I whisper, discarding the still warm Styrofoam cup, “I’ve tried those jets, Mariah.” I brush my finger down her chin and over her lips. “They’ll loosen you up. Even in your tightest, smallest places.”
Mariah hums as if she’s already in front of such a waterjet, testing its patterns on her bare skin.
“Oh, yeah,” I say, egging her imagination. “You’ll be wide open in no time.”
Just as I’m about to kiss Mariah on her plump and shiny lips, I see Darla, the Barbie from hell, making her way toward us. She’s got skis on, but it’s clear from her scowl and the way she skewers Mariah with it that she’s jealous. She looks at me, torn between being flustered and angry. Possessive and uninterested.
Tellingly, her boy toy isn’t with her. She must’ve left him up in the room like a caged canary, like she tried to do with me. But I’m not a canary; I’m a fucking lion, and she found that out the hard way.
I watch her, preparing to slink away if she so much as opens her mouth.
Mariah, thank God, seems not to have noticed Darla. She’s too busy playing with my hair. Particularly the longer bits by my ears. Also with my tattoos. The little bit of one that she can make out on my wrist.
As I fear, the moment Darla comes close enough to us, she reaches out to me. I scoot away. “Paul,” she begins, “I’d like to —”
Without waiting for her snake tongue to wrap around me even more, feed me more poison and more lies, I grab Mariah and head away with her.
“Are you ready to hit those black double diamonds together now, babe?” I ask Mariah, making my voice extra sweet, extra protective, just to piss Darla off. To give her the verbal finger. “I’ll show you some advanced moves. Just like I did last night.”
“Sure!” By Mariah’s playful and happy tone, it seems I’ve dodged the bullet of her realizing my ex is here, as well as the fact that she just tried to sideswipe into our time.
“Okay,” I say, matching her carefree tone. “Let’s go.”
My tone may be light, but my hold on Mariah is not. It’s strong and unmoving, so I can get her and myself the fuck out of here.
Chapter 16
Paul
On our way out of range of my ex and whatever the fuck she might be thinking she wants to do or say to me, we cross paths with Alex and Jane. Before Jane can voice the questions I see in her eyes; questions about where we’re heading off to so quickly, Mariah answers.
“Paul invited me to go up the mountain with him,” she says. She smiles, glancing at me briefly before capturing Jane’s eyes again. “He offered to go with me on one run, on the more difficult courses.”
Jane appears surprised, but also happy. Content. “Oh, okay.” Alex slings an arm around her waist, looking happy as well, as if they’re an old couple by now. I have no idea where Jordan has wandered off to. “Have fun, you two.”
The way those words came out of Jane’s mouth, it’s like she can see what I’ve started thinking. Of doing something else up on the mountain. In the cover of trees. Our skis will be on but, if I have my way, we won’t be pushing powder. At least not the way Mariah thinks.
“I’ll be back after one run, okay, Jane?” Mariah asks again now, as if to reassure her she’s not going to run off with me for good. Damn.
“It’s really okay, Mariah,” Jane say, waving us away while hugging my brother closer to her fur-lined neck and breasts. Those two got super cozy, super quick. I guess I’m happy for my brother, but I’m too busy being happy for myself to really notice. “Seriously, lady,” Jane insists. “Just do you, and I’ll see you when you get back.”
Jane winks at me, making a hidden gesture about more sex. I don’t answer her gesture with any kind of confirmation. I just squeeze Mariah’s hand a little harder, and prepare to guide her away from them.
“Come on, Mariah,” I say, “We better get going to my one and only run with you.”
“Sure,” Mariah says, obediently following after me. It shouldn’t surprise me, but we move together perfectly. We have harmony and we make a good rhythm together, even on skis and freshly fallen snow. “Lead the way!”
I’m more than happy to do so, hearing my brother and Jane start up a conversation again. It’s about tonight, and what last little bit of fun they’re going to get up to tonight before Jane and Mariah have to leave tomorrow.
I’ve already made plans for what else Mariah and I are going to do the minute we get further up the mountain and into the cover of trees. Why wait for night to come, when you can make your own underneath a couple of pine trees?
***
For as long as I possibly can, I make it look like we are indeed heading up to a more difficult ski run. But then, at the last minute, I deviate. I refuse to go on a second ski lift, and instead, I veer myself and Mariah off to the side of a particularly tree-infested patch of snow. It’s at that moment, when I guide Mariah into a particularly shadowed patch of green and pine cones, that she realizes plans have changed.
“What’s going on, Paul?” Her tone and expression are a beautiful mix of curiosity and caution. Just the way I want her for when I reveal my plans. “We’re not going on a run?”
Beautifully, Mariah actually sounds genuinely confused. Surprised, even though she was the one who put the words of a run in my mouth.
“We are,” I say, skiing up to her, and throwing my poles to one side of me. They happen to land up against a log, instead of getting lost in the snow. I then take Mariah’s polls from her, and jam them upright in the snow, “but not any ski run you’re familiar with, Mariah.”
I let her be confused for a moment more, before grabbing her wrists in my hands, and bending down to whisper in her ear. “I’m going to fuck you right here and now, Mariah,” I say, enjoying the way her arms tense.
Around us, around our semi-sheltered cocoon, there are skiers. Snowboarders. They cut it close to us, pushing clouds of snow and ice into our impromptu home. Even here, their voices and laughter are clear. Which means any sound they make will be loud. Clear as crystal. And that means any sound we make is going to be just as audible. Just as intact, and by the look of surprise in disbelief on Mariah’s face, she knows it.
“You are?” The clueless, I-don’t-believe-you look in her eyes makes my blood start to flow. She glances around her, watching a pair of skiers and a few snowboarders. While they’re not really regular, there’s enough traffic to make her feel vulnerable. “You’re kidding!” She laughs. It’s an unsure sound, but also oddly exhilarated. “Here?”
&nbs
p; Another snowboarder goes sailing down part of the ski trail close to us. It’s close enough to smell his aftershave. “But there are people here.” She blushes, snared like the snow bunny she is. “We’ll be seen, caught,” she whispers.
“Not if you’re quiet, Mariah.” I take her, and guide her over to the one big log we have available to us. It’s at least as high as a small couch or chair — more than enough height to give me great, unfettered access to her holes. “And yes,” I add, throwing down big branches of fallen pine to give her something dryer to kneel on, “I am serious.”
When I’m satisfied with my bed of pine branches and needles, I pull down all three layers of clothes at once. Snow pants, sweatpants and panties, they all come down with a single yank. But I only pull them down far enough to access her pussy and or ass, no more. “I will fuck you out here, in front of all these people.”
The sight of her ass trembling in the cold has me rock-hard and ready to take her. I haven’t even had her kneel down and bend over the log yet. “It might even be in your ass, Mariah. You owe me as much, what with the price I paid for you and all.”
Mariah nods. To my amazement, she says, “Yes, sir.”
“Good girl. Kneel down and bend over that log.” Hearing those words, she practically melts onto the ground and curls herself over the log. In doing so, she makes sure that her pussy and ass are as far up in the air as they will go without toppling her over. “Think of this as your early Christmas present to me.”
As I plunk myself down on the ground behind her, and start the process of partially undressing, she looks back at me. Her eyes and face are alive with a delicious mix of trepidation and anticipation. “Are you really going to fuck me in the ass?”
I free my cock from my layers of clothing, letting her get an eyeful of my cock’s tall, strong stature. The clear, icy shine on itshead. I pull out a condom from one of the zippers on my ski coat. “Since you asked if I’m really going to do it, yes, Mariah. I am.”
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