Lions and Tigers and Bears

by Kit Tunstall

  Gratified at his response, she continued to play, her fingers stroking and massaging his balls while her lips tightened, holding his throbbing cock in her mouth, her tongue laving over the tightly stretched, satiny skin. Rafe’s body was taut with need, moving at her direction, and she breathed deeply of the spicy male musk that rose from his heated skin.

  The heady aroma worked through her system, pulling at her, urging her on until she felt near-frenzied with the need to bring him to climax. A light sheen of sweat broke out over her body and she leaned into him, rubbing her breasts against him, her hips echoing the rhythm of his as she drove him closer to orgasm.

  In her mouth she felt his cock swell ever larger and pulse as his body froze, then bucked. She heard the shout torn from his throat as the first volley of his hot male essence released. Lindy held on and swallowed each spurt of salty-sweet cream that filled her mouth, savoring the unique taste that was Rafe. He shuddered under her, the tension in his body easing, and she slowly released him, licking his skin clean of any stray drops.

  Wordlessly, she slid up the length of his body and collapsed against him, feeling his arm move over her shoulders. They lay quietly for a few moments until Rafe easily rolled her to her back and loomed over her.

  “Why?” he asked softly.

  “I wanted you,” she answered simply.

  Rafe’s mouth descended to hers, their lips opening, each welcoming the exploring tongue of the other. Lindy moaned with pleasure, then gasped as one large hand cupped her breast, gently squeezing. She arched her back, pushing into Rafe’s touch, urging him on, moaning her approval when his fingers found and lightly pinched a taut nipple.

  He broke the kiss and pulled back, looking into her passion-filled eyes. “You have to be the boldest female I’ve ever met. I’ve never had a woman make a meal of me the way you just did.”

  Lindy smiled and stroked a hand down his chest. “I couldn’t help it, you just felt so good and smelled so good, I had to taste.” She leaned up and licked one flat masculine nipple, feeling it rise under her tongue.

  Rafe growled and grasped her wrists, pulling her arms above her head. “It’s my turn now, sweetheart, and I’m very hungry.”

  His lips found hers again and he ravished her mouth, feverishly exploring with his tongue before pulling hers into his mouth and holding it prisoner as he lightly sucked. Lindy moaned, then began panting when he released her mouth and went exploring. He roved over her chin and jawline, lightly nipping as he went, and paused at her ear, sucking the lobe into his mouth, his teeth nibbling.

  Lindy went rigid under him when his tongue began to slide over the swirled curves of her ear. “Oh God, Rafe, don’t.”

  “Have I found a hot spot, babe?” he whispered in her ear, his tongue following the sound inside.

  Lindy bucked and groaned, pulling against his grasp, then gave in with a helpless shudder. “I’m getting dizzy,” she whimpered softly.

  “Just hold on to me, sweetheart, I’ve got you,” Rafe murmured and released her arms, smiling when they wrapped around him and her generous breasts pressed into his chest.

  He continued his assault on her ears until Lindy was quivering with need, her body straining against his. Rafe again pulled back, forcing her to release her grip, and reached for the hem of her t-shirt.

  “When I saw you last night, standing in the moonlight in this flimsy little shirt, with your nipples hard and pointing right at me, it was all I could do not to throw you down and take you right then and there.” The shirt came up and was quickly pulled over her head and thrown across the tent. Rafe stared reverently at her naked breasts. “Beautiful,” he murmured. “You have the most beautiful breasts, Lindy, so full and round.” His finger traced a path around one taut areola. “And these sweet nipples, just like juicy, ripe berries.”

  “You don’t think they’re too big?”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  She nodded.

  “No, baby—” he assured her, “—they’re not too big, they fit you perfectly.”

  Breathing hard, Lindy watched as Rafe lowered his lips to her impudently pointing nipple and kissed it, then moved to the other to repeat the process. Her eyes closed and she felt the warm heat of his breath mist over her skin a split second before his mouth closed over her. A guttural moan was torn from her as his teeth closed gently around the base of her nipple and his tongue flicked and laved the tip.

  “Rafe, oh God, Rafe,” she moaned as an orgasmic shudder slammed into her. Legs straining and bottom bouncing against the sleeping bag beneath her, she undulated against the hard body above her, then lay panting and shivering in the aftermath.

  “I’m going to suckle you now, sweetheart. Come for me again,” Rafe ordered softly.

  Giving in to the magic his mouth worked, the gentle suction and pressure accompanied by his tongue’s insistent caresses, Lindy helplessly obeyed and cried out as another orgasm rocked her quivering core. Blindly lost to the pleasure, she missed the fact that Rafe was peeling her shorts away and sliding them down her long, shapely legs.

  “Rafe?” she questioned, coming slowly out of her daze, having lost sight of him.

  “Right here,” he answered.

  Lindy looked down to find him lying between her widespread legs. His hands slid over her thighs and her mind supplied an image of warm milk chocolate pouring over sweet vanilla ice cream. The rich brown of his skin was such an erotic contrast to the creamy hue of her own that she shivered.

  “Rafe, did you know that you’re the sexiest man I’ve ever seen?” she asked, looking deep into the heated depths of his brown eyes.

  “No, I didn’t, but thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?”

  “Oh yeah. I told you I was hungry. Is that a problem?”

  “No, it’s just that…well, no one’s ever…”

  “Never?”

  Lindy shook her head, her wide, green eyes revealing a vulnerable uncertainty.

  Rafe bent down and kissed her inner thigh, smiling as she trembled under his lips. “I promise you, if you don’t like it, I’ll stop. Do you still trust me?”

  She wordlessly nodded.

  “Then lay back, sweetheart. I’m going to make love to your sweet little pussy and set you on fire.”

  Lindy moaned and felt another rush of moisture heat her already well-lubricated sheath. Before she could take a breath, Rafe’s lips made contact, his tongue laving her clit with a sensual slide. She jumped and tightened her thighs, at first instinctively seeking to close them, but Rafe’s actions soon had her seeking to open them wider.

  His tongue licked, laved and swirled over the sensitive, swollen tissues of her needy pussy. First he’d concentrate on her clit, driving her higher and higher, then he’d plunge his tongue as deeply as possible into her warm, weeping channel and gently fuck her with it. Again and again he repeated the procedure until Lindy was frantically tossing, only Rafe’s sure grip on her body keeping her right where he wanted her. Occasionally he’d vary his actions by lightly nibbling on her swollen labia, but soon he was back at her very center, teasing and tormenting her.

  Aroused to the point of madness, Lindy began begging. “Please, I need to come, I need to come, I need to come!”

  Heeding her pleas, Rafe slid a long finger deep into her tight sheath. The walls fluttered and closed around it as though trying to pull it deeper inside. A second finger joined the first spreading her wider and Lindy began pushing into them. “That’s it, baby.” Rafe looked up and encouraged, “Ride my fingers.”

  Dipping back down he took her clit into his mouth and began to suck. The effect was spectacularly immediate. Lindy wailed as her climax hit. Her sheath gripped and milked Rafe’s stroking fingers as she continued to mindlessly fuck herself on them. Her body spasmodically rocked with the sharp bursts of pleasure that shuddered through her until finally, finally her muscles eased and she slowly relaxed. She continued to utter small
sated moans as the aftershocks rippled through her, and Rafe moved up and leaned over her, drinking in the soft sounds and smiling at the flush that lit her pale skin from within. She was glowing like a woman thoroughly satisfied.

  Lindy sighed and without opening her eyes, reached up and pulled Rafe down to her lips, kissing him long and deep. She sucked his lower lip into her mouth and tasted herself on his skin, deciding the flavor was not unpleasant.

  Releasing him she looked into his eyes, hers half-lidded and drowsy. “That was wonderful,” she sighed softly. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure,” Rafe answered and kissed her again.

  He rolled over and stretched out on his sleeping bag. Lindy couldn’t help but notice that his cock had recovered and was again standing tall.

  “Looks like you’re ready for another round,” she teased and reached out to softly stroke his erection.

  “He always did have a mind of his own,” Rafe answered.

  “You know,” she slowly drawled, “when we first met, my imagination supplied me with an image of riding your beautiful body.” She rose up and straddled him, settling herself on his thighs. “You didn’t happen to bring any condoms with you, did you?”

  “No, and unless you did, it’s not going to happen. I’m not taking the chance of getting you pregnant,” he replied in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

  Lindy felt an immediate pinch of hurt in her midsection. She lifted herself away from him and began rummaging for her clothes.

  “Lindy,” Rafe began softly and sat up. “You’re jumping to conclusions again. It’s nothing personal. There are things about me you don’t know…things I can’t explain. But the last thing I intend to do is take the chance of fathering children. With anyone.”

  “You don’t have to explain anything to me, Rafe, we barely know each other,” she replied, slipping her t-shirt on. “Getting pregnant is certainly something I’m not looking for at this point in my life. But I have to say that I rather resent the implication that you think I’d be irresponsible enough to have unprotected sex with you or anyone. I don’t make a habit of trying to entrap men by getting pregnant. Let’s just forget it, okay? How do we go about getting a bath around here? Will the bears mind if we wash in the river?”

  Lindy slid into her shorts, grabbed up her sleeping bag and left without waiting for an answer. She could feel Rafe’s silent regard as she slipped out of the tent and she just had to get away. Despite his assurances that his words weren’t directed specifically at her, she still couldn’t help but feel as though she’d been rejected. She was angry, not only at him but at herself as well.

  Rapidly cycling thoughts chased themselves through her head. This is stupid. We were only having fun, right? Why did he have to mention children…and why doesn’t he want any? Does it matter? Is it any of my business? It’s not like there’s anything between us but maybe a growing friendship and some physical attraction.

  She rubbed her stomach, trying to loosen the knots that formed with that last thought. Nothing between them? Why was that thought so disconcerting? she wondered as she returned to her tent and dropped the sleeping bag inside. She grabbed a towel, soap and clean undies out of her backpack, picked up her clothes and slipped her feet into her shoes, then she left the tent and headed toward the river. She’d decided that at that moment she’d rather face ten bears than Rafe, especially when his scent still clung to her skin and the memory of his touch was so fresh.

  Chapter Four

  The next few days moved slowly by and there was no repeat of the intimacy they’d shared that first morning. Rafe and Lindy were polite to each other, cooperatively working together to fix meals and keep the campsite in good order. They spent long hours quietly observing the bears at the river and Lindy felt most relaxed at those times, especially when Rafe pulled his drawing pad out and sketched the bears.

  It amazed her how the drawings seemed to magically form under his hand. The sure, precise strokes of his pencil against the paper produced some of the most beautiful images she’d ever seen. The only trouble was that watching him work, his long, dexterous fingers lightly gripping the pencil, set her imagination on fire. She kept remembering what it felt like to have those fingers so intimately deep within her body, and it made her ache with need.

  One afternoon, after a particularly restless evening spent fighting her imagination and the images of that first morning together, Lindy fell asleep in the grass, lulled by the quiet and the warm sunshine. She was unaware of the picture she presented while curled up with her cheek resting on the back of one hand, or that, struck by the sweet innocence of her expression, Rafe felt compelled to draw her.

  When she woke, the sketch was completed and tucked away and Rafe was, she noticed, using the camera to photograph a lone coyote that had come to the river to drink and scavenge.

  By the time a week had passed, Lindy was ready to scream with frustration. Not only couldn’t she deny the physical yearning she felt for Rafe, but she was finally willing to admit that it was much more than that. Those feeling that had begun to form when he’d first let her see the vulnerable man inside were growing.

  She found herself watching him when he wasn’t looking, yearning for him to say something or look at her in a way that might convey that he was feeling something too. But he never did. Rafe seemed to have stepped into the role of polite coworker, offering nothing of a personal nature.

  What she didn’t know was that Rafe was on the verge of an explosion. His gut churned with the need to not only touch her and hold her again, but to tell her all the things he was holding inside, all the things that made his life the personal hell it had become. His soul longed for the solace he instinctively felt she could offer, but he was afraid to take the chance. Afraid to see the fear and loathing that might be her reaction to what he so wanted to confess.

  How could anyone possibly believe or understand what and who he really was? The idea of it was so farfetched that sometimes he himself was struck by the sheer impossibility of it.

  Another day passed in frustrating silence for both of them and after sharing the evening meal, they retired to their separate tents for the night. Lindy lay wide-awake, too worked up to sleep, when a chorus of howls began in the distance. She froze and listened for a moment, then heard a stirring from the tent next to hers.

  Quickly rising, she looked out her tent flap to see that Rafe, too, had been disturbed by the sound. “Is that coyotes?” she asked softly.

  “Wolves,” he answered. “But don’t worry, they shy away from contact with humans. Go to sleep.”

  Lindy, hurt by his curt dismissal, nodded and ducked back into her tent. She lay back down, a cloud of misery settling over her. Something had to change, she decided. She missed the friendship that had been growing between them and if nothing else, she wanted that back. She lay thinking of ways she might accomplish that goal and yawned, realizing that she felt better now that she’d resolved to try to set things right between them.

  Snuggling into her sleeping bag, she was just drifting off when she heard the zipper of Rafe’s tent in the silence. She reasoned that he was probably just going to use the “facilities”, but something about it bothered her and she rolled over and opened her own tent flap just the slightest bit.

  Looking out, she spotted Rafe. Fully dressed, he was leaving the campsite and heading out along the line of trees that bordered the meadow. Puzzled, curious and a bit alarmed at the fact that he was leaving her alone, Lindy feverishly donned her jeans and hiking boots and crawling out of her tent, headed in the direction he’d disappeared.

  Fortunately there was plenty of moonlight, and reaching the tree line, she saw him in the not-too-far distance. Walking as quickly and as silently as possible, she followed. Rafe had a good head start on her and she was soon breathing hard, trying to catch up with him, but eventually she closed the distance and slowed, not wanting to alert him to the fact that she was following him.

  He continued on for nearly half an hou
r until they came to a hill that was covered with some trees and dense brush. Rafe disappeared into the tangle and Lindy closed the distance, afraid she would lose him. The moonlight revealed a lightly worn path and she carefully picked her way through, avoiding the thorny underbrush.

  Up ahead she could see the path widen as it trailed out of the woods and she frowned, very much afraid that she’d lost him. Hurrying to the edge of the wood, intent on her search for Rafe, she failed to notice the bundle that lay in her path and tripped, falling to the ground with an oomph as the breath was knocked out of her.

  Rolling over, she sat up and reached for the bundle that had trapped her unwary feet. As her fingers came in contact with it, she recognized it as fabric. She lifted a piece up and in the faint light she was able to discern that it was a shirt. Bringing it close, she could smell the distinctive scent on it… It was Rafe’s shirt.

  “What the hell?” she whispered.

  Why had Rafe shed his clothes? she wondered. Lindy stood and walked toward the edge of the woods, searching for any sign of him. Reaching the outer perimeter, the hill began its downward slope, one that ended in an open valley. Lindy peeked from behind the outermost tree and stared wide-eyed at what was before her.

  One lone bear was surrounded by a pack of seven wolves and they seemed to be playing tag. A wolf would rush in and nip at the bear, which would swing around and give chase. The wolves would scatter and romp around, tongues lolling from what looked like grinning faces, as their pack mate was chased, until the next one would take its place and goad the bear into changing targets.

  This went on for some few minutes until the largest of the wolves must have gotten in a particularly painful nip that pulled a muted roar from the bear. He abruptly sat down on the injured part. Holding her breath, Lindy expected the bear to become enraged and retaliate, but instead it sat quietly for a moment as the wolf pack gathered around.