WOOD

by Rocklyn Ryder

  "Let's take this somewhere more comfortable," his voice is nothing but gravel near my ear as he turns off the shower before lifting me by my hips so that I'm forced to lock my legs around his waist. But then the head of his cock bobs against my pussy and suddenly neither of us want to wait.

  My back hits the shower wall, my body pinned in place. Blaze lifts me high enough for his mouth to reach my breasts and my fingers spear through his wet hair as his tongue rolls over each nipple.

  I can feel him pressing against my opening, the thick head of his cock swollen and slick with precum and I moan for him to fill me.

  He groans around my nipple between his teeth and then burrows his face into the valley between my breast, licking and sucking at my wet skin. I feel him push closer but then he groans again, sounding frustrated.

  "I really should have put a bench in here," he tells my breast, "never thought I was going to do this in here."

  For a second, I feel him so close to being inside me I think he's going to do it and then he backs up, still holding my body effortlessly around his waist, and carries me to his room.

  "You're so lucky that's such a short trip," I tease as we fall together on the bed.

  "You're right about me being the lucky one," he mumbles as he slides inside me in one smooth motion that takes my breath away, "one step farther and I'd have had to drop us on the floor to get inside you." His last words are ground out between his clenched jaws just as he begins to move against me.

  I hate that he feels so good. The weight of his larger body pressing me into the plush comforter on top of his firm bed, the string of sweet obscenities whispered in his deep voice against my throat, the spicy scent of his soap covering us both that fits him and this place so perfectly, and especially the way he fills me to completion when he's fully seated deep in my body.

  It's too good to pretend that I'm just biding my time till the storms pass. Being with Blaze is easy. Too easy. Easy enough to start thinking about how happy I could be here in his life but I know how dangerous that is so I shut those thoughts out when I feel his lips find mine.

  "Fuck, Princess," he growls against the corner of my mouth, "you're so fucking tight."

  I open my mouth to let his tongue sweep along mine and I give in to just feeling him. The way he moves in and out of me in strong thrusts, so thick I can feel my body being pushing apart to make room for him. The way he opens me up and makes my body come alive for his.

  "Ride me," he commands suddenly, breaking our kiss and quickly rolling to one side, pulling me along with him so that now I'm on top of him. My knees bend so my legs are folded on either side of him as I straddle his groin. The hard length of his cock still inside me as I catch my breath and take over the pace.

  "You're so fucking gorgeous," he tells me, his eyes watching me as his hands wrap around my thighs and he guides me up and down his shaft, "you look good riding my cock, Princess," he still has the presence of mind to tease me but his eyes are glossing over and his breath is ragged.

  I'm balancing my weight with my hands on his chest, enjoying the dim, stormy daylight filtering through the windows that lets me see him fully. The crows feet at the corners of his eyes that make him look older than he really is, the deep coloring to his full lips under his dark rust colored whiskers, the way his Adam's apple bobs as he swallows hard and his blunt nails dig into my legs as his hips thrust upward to match my rhythm.

  My hands wander over his chest, tracing the definition between each muscle and flattening my palms out over his pecs, letting my thumbs brush his flat brown nipples and watching his skin jump at the contact.

  His eyes have been closed tightly, his jaw muscles working under his beard but I feel his knees lift under my ass, bending so that I can feel his powerful thighs behind me.

  "I want to watch you come for me," he forces his eyes open and holds them on me, "I need to see you get off while you're up there riding my cock, Princess."

  It's like he pressed a button on a remote control and suddenly the only thing I can think of is how badly I need to do what he wants. I sit up and lean back, holding my spine straight and letting my head drop back on my shoulders and it feels like he's going so deep I'm going to choke on the end of his cock.

  As if he can read my body, his hand loosens its grip on the top of my thigh and I feel the rough pad of his thumb on my clit, pressing and circling.

  His other hand reaches for my ass and then I can't move anymore and I can't tell if it's because he's holding me down while he spears me with his own body or if it's because I'm coming so hard I can't remember how to move anymore.

  Either way, I'm vaguely aware that Blaze is coming with me. Pumping his seed deep into my womb while we scream out for each other just as the darkening sky outside breaks open as if the storm is part of our climax.

  Blaze

  Watching Gail lose herself to pleasure is the best thing I've ever seen and I need to figure out how I can see it every day.

  Right now Gail's head is laying on my shoulder with my arm wrapped around her. The covers underneath us are wet from not taking time to towel off when I pulled her off the shower wall, but I don't care if she doesn't.

  I wish I knew what it was that kept her thoughts so far away today. It seems like the only time she's really here with me is if I've got my dick in her. Not that I'm complaining about that-- if that's what it takes to keep her mind off of whatever makes her eyes go sad and lonely, it's a job I'm willing to sign up for.

  "Is your name really Blaze?" she asks softly. Her hand is drawing lines across my chest and her soft touch feels like heaven.

  "Yup," I answer her with a hint of a smile on my lips.

  "Who the hell names their kid Blaze?" She laughs and her breath makes my skin tighten in response.

  "My dad," I tell her, "he was a fire fighter. All the kids have stupid names."

  "Was?"

  "He retired a few years ago-- the folks live in Boca Raton now. Miserable place, I went to visit once. Too hot, too crowded."

  "Oh."

  She sounds relieved that my folks are still alive and hearing her concern for the people I came from only adds to the crazy notion I have that she belongs here. With me.

  "I've got a sister named Flame and a brother named Coal." I laugh.

  "Cole is a perfectly normal name for a guy." I feel her still damp hair against my skin as she moves her head to look up at me.

  "Except it's Coal, as in charcoal," I clarify, "Dad thought our names were great, but some of the kids at school were less impressed. No one picked on Coal-- maybe because his name doesn't stand out as much, but probably more because he's always been solid. Nobody picked on Coal. Me, on the other hand..." I trail off, chuckling at the memories now that I'm looking back at them from a safe distance.

  "You're huge, you could crush anyone who picked on you," she tells me.

  "I wasn't always this big," I assure her, "I was downright scrawny back in grade school. Coal was a few years older than me so most of the time he was in a different school than I was, and the rest of the time he wasn't paying attention to his kid brother. Even when I hit 6 foot my junior year, I was still way too skinny for my height. The other kids felt plenty safe picking on me."

  "Why did your mom let your dad give you all dragon names?"

  She makes me laugh. A full laugh that comes from deep in my gut that makes me realize how rarely that happens up here by myself.

  "You saw my license, yeah?" I crook my neck to look down at her, "Mom got her revenge on all of us. It was just a matter of which name was worse."

  "Hayden is a sexy name." I can hear her pout and it makes me bend my neck to place a kiss on top of her head.

  "Where were you when I was in the seventh grade? Huh?"

  I like the sound of her giggling. I like feeling her body jiggle beside me. I tighten my arm around her and pull her tighter into my side.

  I'm never letting this woman go.

  Even if she's wrong about Han Solo.
>
  She wriggles free of my hold on her and twists around so she's staring down at me. This new position is just as good, her naked body is lined up to mine with the soft tuft of her pubic hair tickling my thigh and her full breasts pushed against my chest and damn if my cock doesn't twitch with anticipation of being inside her again.

  "So what are doing up here in the mountains, Blaze?" Her hands splay out over my chest and she stares at me like she's expecting some dark secret truth to be revealed.

  I feel bad about disappointing her.

  "Got sick of the noise," I tell her honestly. "Everything in the city beeps and flashes and no matter where you go there's already somebody there. So you're either always giving up your space or you're always taking somebody else's and you end up competing for stupid shit like who's got the best cell phone plan or who gets the best mileage on their morning commute. I got sick of it."

  "This is a long way off the edge of the map to get away from Facebook notifications," she says somberly, "you don't have a crazy ex-wife somewhere? Not trying to dodge child support for a kid you don't think is yours? ...you're not hiding from the mob? or running from a broken heart?"

  I shake my head slowly on the pillow with a wry grin, "No such luck, Babe," I try to break the bad news to her gently, "I'm not some bad boy who's up here hiding from his demons, see?" I roll my shoulders so she can see the backs of my arms, "I don't even have any tattoos."

  She makes an exaggerated frown as she takes her time inspecting my naked skin for the ink she already knows she's not going to find, "Figures I'd stumble on the one surly mountain man that doesn't have a past to hide...or any tats." Her eyes land back on mine and she gives me a disappointed pout, "At least you have a crazy mountain man beard that's kinda sexy." Gail smiles and reaches up to stroke her fingers through my beard.

  It's not like I grew the thing out for fashion, I'm just too damn lazy to shave most of the time and razors are pricey but if Gail likes it, I'll keep it. Especially if it means feeling her fingers running through it like they are now.

  "Does a man really need to be running from his demons to live alone up in the mountains where the air is clear and he can hear himself think?" I ask her seriously, "I mean, what about you? What's got a beautiful girl living in the back of an SUV?"

  She smiles at me but it's a sad one and even though she plays it off as she lowers her lips to my chest and begins trailing lower, I see that far away look again.

  I'm going to let her get away with it for now since her tongue is making its way down the underside of my already hard dick, but I'll have to figure out what it is that keeps her on the road.

  Maybe a man doesn't have to be running from his demons to go off grid...but it seems like a woman does.

  Gail

  I'm pretty sure the weather is conspiring against me. I've been here 3 days already and standing outside right now, I can see a new system moving toward us.

  "Is it ever going to stop raining?" I ask as I pick up the handles of the loaded wheelbarrow and head toward the cabin.

  "Yeah," he says nonchalantly, his arms full of more firewood than I think fit in the wheelbarrow, "Then it starts snowing."

  We've had a few hours without rain and we're bringing more of the split and seasoned wood up to the porch to get us through the rest of the storms.

  Earlier, Blaze took me out to the garden and showed me around his land.

  He's been telling me all about the history of the place. The cabin was built several generations ago, before the forest around it became public land. The private land is grandfathered, but his family can never sell it or it'll get absorbed by the national forest.

  Blaze says he's the only one who ever came up here anymore, so when he said he wanted to live here permanently, his father gift deeded it over to him. Now it's up to him to keep it in the family, which will require having kids to leave it to.

  "Well I don't know how you're planning on having kids if you won't even go into town," I laugh, "How are you going to get some girl knocked up?"

  Joking around with him is easy as I follow him back to the wood pile with the empty wheelbarrow.

  "Serious?" He laughs as he starts filling up the wheelbarrow with me, "what you think I've been trying to do for the last 3 days?"

  The implication that he thinks he's knocking me up makes me howl with laughter, "You really think you're going to knock me up?"

  He looks up with me with one eyebrow raised and a smirk curling one side of his mouth. I know that look. It's a look that I'm getting all too familiar with and it heats my core and makes my pussy tingle in anticipation.

  "I'm on the shot, you're outta luck," I tell him. I try to keep my tone light and maintain the playful banter we've been enjoying but I can't keep a hint of the regret I feel out of my voice so I grab the wooden handles of the barrow and head for the porch before he has a chance to call me on it.

  Blaze has been trying to get me to open up since yesterday. It's not like my life is a huge secret, I just don't see any point in spoiling what time we have together by oversharing my personal issues.

  Today should be the last of the storms. If the sun is out tomorrow, I'll be hiking out of here and that means leaving forever so Blaze can get on with his life and maybe get his fine ass into town to find that baby-mama he's going to need.

  I try not to acknowledge the stab of jealousy toward whoever gets the privilege of being his next princess but it's almost as hard to ignore as the sadness of knowing I have to relinquish my crown.

  Instead of dumping the wood and immediately turning around to get another load, I take my time and neatly stack the wood we've brought up on the porch.

  "You hidin' from me?"

  Blaze rounds the corner with another armload of wood that's almost as big as I am.

  I force a laugh that I hope is convincing.

  "You never have told me why you're living in your car, Princess."

  He hands me wood, one piece at a time and I find the perfect spot for each one.

  I wish I didn't secretly love it when he calls me Princess. I like the way he makes it sound kind of sarcastic without being derogatory. Like he knows it doesn't fit me and he likes that about me.

  It's one more thing that makes it hard not to get comfortable here with him.

  But Blaze deserves better than me.

  With a deep sigh, I manage to find the right place for the last piece of firewood just in time for the next storm to start dumping new rain around us. "Did you cover the wood pile back up?" I ask him like hauling firewood to the house is something we've been doing together forever.

  "Yup," he grins at me, "looks like it's time to get back inside."

  I like that devilish grin on his face. I just hope that means he's more interested in rolling around on the rug in front of the wood stove than in pestering me for my personal history.

  "You should put your bed out here," I tell him dreamily as I watch the fire through the glass door of the stove while Blaze curls his body around mine, "it's nice being by the stove."

  He kisses down my neck and continues along the curve of my shoulder and down my arm, "We could put a stove in the bedroom," he says in his husky after-sex voice.

  It's not lost on me, the way he keeps saying "we," but I ignore it. I don't really think he means it that way anyway. I think it's just part of the way he's able to live in the moment. He's so here all the time. His mind never seems to get too far from where he is at any given time.

  I envy that and I notice myself starting to do it too. The cabin is an easy place to be, the mountains are easy. It's easy to tell time by looking outside and thinking "it's day time" or "it's night time" or maybe "morning" or "afternoon" if you want to get specific.

  Blaze's life is easy. Blaze is easy. And I can feel myself falling into step with him and I have to make an effort to keep my mind in the future.

  Tomorrow I'll hike out to the car. Tomorrow I'll change my tire. I'll be in town tomorrow night. I'll get the tire replaced, I'l
l be back on the road...I'll go back to living for someday and someday I'll find a place that I can call home.

  "Where'd you go?" His lips are warm on the side of my face, "you keep slipping away from me, Princess," he says softly.

  "I'm right here," I say, even though I know it's not exactly true.

  "I meant where are you here?" he asks with a brush of his fingers against my forehead.

  "I was thinking about hiking out and changing my tire tomorrow if the sun comes out." I've never denied that I'm only hanging out with him because he was pretty serious about the condition of the road when it's raining.

  His arm tightens around my waist. It feels protective and a little possessive and it surprises the hell out of me that it doesn't piss me off. I like it. I like the way he makes me feel like he wants me here. The way he tries to take care of me but still manages not to treat me like a princess.

  I lay my hand over his arm and smile.

  "OK," he agrees lightly, "we'll go change your tire tomorrow-- if the sun is out."

  "I can do it myself." I'm not asking him to help.

  "I know you can," he whispers into my ear, "but you don't have to."

  Blaze

  The crash of thunder echoing off the mountains around my little valley has never sounded better than it does this morning.

  I'm getting used to this. Waking up slowly, a little later than usual, feeling relaxed with a woman in my arms. Not just any woman either. It had to be Gail. My stormy princess with all her moxie and sass who swears she hates all my favorite movies and then knows them better than I do.

  She's warm under the quilt with me, her naked body pressed against me with that curvy ass up against my morning wood, just waiting till I notice. It didn't take long for us to fall into a comfortable routine and this morning is another perfect wake up, even though we're still on the floor.