The Mountains Trilogy (Boxed Set)

by Phoebe Alexander

  Her heart palpitated a bit when his familiar broad silhouette appeared against the back door. She revealed his wicked grin as soon as the door creaked open, but within seconds she was in his arms, his lips pressed against hers. His body pinned her against the wall as she threw her arms around his shoulders. He had her bra unhooked and shirt unfastened in a heartbeat, and she felt his erection pressed against her pelvis. She opened her eyes and took his hand to lead him to her room, not saying a word.

  He wasted no time throwing her on the bed and sliding her panties off. He dropped to his knees on the floor and pulled her by her calves so that her bottom was at the edge of the bed just below eye-level. He spread her thighs and ran a finger up the inside of her legs from her feet to her slit, slipping just the tip inside to gauge her wetness. She sighed at the slight hint of penetration and arched her back, thrusting her pelvis toward his face. She was already craving more, remembering how wonderful he’d felt inside her during their last encounter.

  He was enjoying making her wait, intensifying her desire and for the next few minutes he let his hot breath fall on her flesh with his lips mere inches away with no actual contact. He relished her moans as he finally let the tip of his tongue part her labia and slide nearly up to her swollen clit but deliberately stopping short. She breathed deeply as she settled into what was shaping up to be a lengthy, tortuous tease.

  She heard him unzip his pants and the heavy fabric subsequently make a soft thud on the carpet. Even though she couldn’t see his hands, she knew he’d taken his stiff cock out of his boxer briefs and was beginning to stroke it slowly as he made a trail of kisses up the crevice between her vulva and her inner thigh. She was lying on her hair, so she sat up halfway to gather her thick brown locks and fanned them out all around her head, then closed her eyes, anticipating his next move.

  With one hand stroking his cock, he began to tease the opening to her sex with his other hand, just one finger lightly traveling from her anus to her clitoris, almost imperceptibly penetrating her labia on each trip back and forth. Then his tongue took over, tracing the same path, once again lightly entering her just enough to taste a hint of her sweet nectar. All of this teasing and her clit was soon throbbing with the need for attention; he could feel the urgency radiating off her skin. She wanted to pull his face closer to her, to lift her hips and grind against his mouth. She struggled to maintain patience. Patience has never been my strong suit, she thought. Particularly not when it comes to matters of a...carnal nature...

  He parted her lips again with his free hand, holding her open, and finally allowed his tongue to encircle her swollen rosebud. He felt her thighs start to quiver as the sensations that ensued from his oral ministrations began to surge through her body. She felt her orgasm building under his tongue as his finger slid inside of her and arched to find her G-spot. He took her entire clit into his mouth, gently sucking it as his fingers massaged her deep within her sex, slowly thrusting in and out of her, deliberately strumming that magical bundle of nerves behind her pubic bone.

  She felt the walls of her sex swelling as if a dam was about to break; the intensity of the pleasure was beginning to make her extremities feel numb, all of her vital fluids draining into the core of her body. She no longer had control of her voice or her hands; moans were escaping that sounded only vaguely human. Her fingers firmly gripped James’ head, clenching tightly onto his buzzed hair, holding him in position as if the fate of the world rested on his mouth maintaining contact with her pussy.

  Just as the floodgates were about to open, she shouted, “Watch out!” Naturally, he watched; it was the “out” he had issues with. He was unable to avoid his entire face being drenched by a huge gush of fluids emanating from her sex, a display the likes of which he had only witnessed in internet porn.

  “Holy fuck!” he whispered as he felt her thighs close around his neck, preventing his escape. The sweet, hot juices began to drip down his chin and chest, quickly cooling in the chilled night air. For minutes afterwards Sarah laid convulsing beneath him, maintaining her death grip around his neck until finally she slowly released, her thighs lazily falling to each side of her as if she were completely limp and lifeless.

  As she came to, she realized that they had not spoken one actual word of greeting to each other. Nothing had been said except her warning to watch out and his exclamation of surprise. There was also complete silence as he pushed her back onto the bed and filled her still dripping pussy with his swollen cock. He looked intensely into her eyes as he stroked slow and deep within her, his need for release so great that he was afraid to move with any more speed. On his knees between her thighs, he could feel the wet spot she had created seeping outwards on the sheet under him, which only served to remind him again of the powerful orgasm she’d had under the direction of his deftly skilled mouth. The momentary rewind of the scene that had occurred just minutes before prevented him being able to hold back any longer: a few more long, deep strokes and he exploded inside her so forcefully that she felt it hit her cervix.

  That was when she realized he hadn’t worn a condom.

  ***

  Sarah lay in James’ arms in her special spot for several minutes after he finished and rolled off onto the bed beside her. She could feel the warm sticky semen dripping from her sex and onto her thighs. Plus the bed was already wet from the earlier oral activities. I’ll have to get up and change the sheets. She was reviewing how many times she had been with James now...was this our 10th night together? He’d never failed to produce a condom from his pants pocket or to grab one from the drawer beside her bed. What made this time different?

  He was still and silent, as if he was about to drift off. They had talked about so many things during these quiet post-coital moments, but never their experiences with other lovers. She still had no idea about his past and he had no idea about her lifestyle. She suddenly felt very guilty for not being upfront with him, and she couldn’t shift the blame to him for not asking. It’s time, she thought, now is the time.

  “So...no condom this time?” she broke the silence, causing his eyes to jolt open. She felt the muscles in his arms and chest tense at the abrupt sound of her voice.

  “Oh, god, Sarah,” he replied, “I was so caught up in the moment...”

  “James,” she said, “it’s okay. My tubes are tied; I’m not going to get pregnant or anything.”

  “Whew!” he sighed and laughed a bit. “Good, no big deal then. Why didn’t we talk about this before?”

  “Are you seeing anyone else?” she asked pointedly.

  “Not right now,” he answered. He didn’t hesitate, which put her at ease. “Are you?”

  “There’s probably something you should know about me, James,” she confessed, sitting up so she could look him in the eye.

  Her serious tone gave him pause. He sat up as well, wearing a perplexed, tense expression. She’d never seen him that way. He was always so confident and relaxed. She patted his leg a bit, trying to reassure him as she began her story, “I don’t know where to start exactly... When I met you, I hadn’t been with anyone for a long time.”

  He relaxed a bit and urged her on with his eyes. “But?”

  “Right...there’s a but... In the past several years I haven’t really had any traditional relationships. Not since my divorce. I...I actually prefer having multiple partners,” she explained, carefully gauging his reaction. “That’s why I suggested a friends with benefits arrangement. I thought maybe my situation might be too complicated for you. You should probably be aware that I just started seeing someone else, and although I haven’t had sex with him yet, I intend to at some point.”

  James looked confused, as if he couldn’t decide whether he should be relieved or shocked. “What, are you like a swinger or something?” he finally asked, like it was the punch line to a joke.

  Sarah laughed at the way he said the word, as if it was dirty. “I don’t particularly like that term. I prefer to think of myself as very open-minded,” s
he corrected him.

  “So I guess I don’t understand what this means,” he admitted. Sarah looked into his eyes, noticing that he suddenly looked so young, so naive. “What does it mean for me?” he clarified.

  “Well, it’s definitely something I should have told you from the beginning,” Sarah admitted. “We’ve been seeing each other for a while now, and we should be open about any other partners we have. I just met Pawel and I haven’t...been with him yet...I would have told you...when we did. But I didn’t want to scare you off...” The words were tumbling out like water from a broken faucet, in disjointed spurts. “I really like you, James...” She took his hand into her own and laced her fingers through his. “Maybe too much...”

  She instantly regretted adding those last three words. When will I learn that those words are probably scarier to a man than the discovery of any number of partners I might have? She looked down at how small and delicate her pale fingers looked intertwined with his thick tan ones. She studied the way the hair on his knuckles grew and listened to her last words hang in the air.

  She nervously glanced up to see that James was smiling. “I might like you a little too much too,” he revealed, squeezing her hand into his. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “I know you think I’m an unenlightened simpleton, but you may be surprised at what I’m open to.”

  “Really?” Sarah questioned, relief washing over her. She was finding it hard to disguise the beaming smile that had just spread across her face.

  “Try me,” he dared her.

  “Alright,” she replied, thinking wow, this is the perfect segue way. “My girlfriend Rachel, who is even more wild and uninhibited than me, has requested that I bring a date to her birthday dinner next weekend. You game?”

  He nodded. “Girlfriend, huh?” His blue eyes were glittery with all manner of devious ideas.

  Why am I not surprised that *girlfriend* was the word that resonated with him? she mused, wondering what he would think of Rachel. “Just for the record, I don’t think of you as an ‘unenlightened simpleton,’ not at all,” she clarified, patting him on the leg, then adding as a word of warning: “But oh, baby, you have no idea what you’re in for....”

  James just smiled, brushed her hair out of her face and lifted her chin to his. Once his lips were on her again, nothing else mattered.

  ***

  Chapter Seven

  Uphill Battles

  I’m climbing...always climbing... I’m so far up that all I can see above me are gray rocks and cloudless blue sky. It’s the kind of blue that’s so intense it makes your heart skip a beat. There are no plants or trees; I don’t even see snow. Just gray and blue. And I’m sure as hell not looking down. My knee bangs against a sharp point on the wall in front of me and I wince. I still don’t look down but I can feel the warm blood trickling down my leg. I imagine it dripping off the side of the canyon and falling to the earth below.

  So now I’m climbing and bleeding. It feels like the wound is still opening, like my blood won’t coagulate. It’s throbbing and tender and I keep hitting it on the side of the mountain as I struggle to ascend. I’m envisioning all of these germs flooding into the open gash as it spreads, eating my flesh and turning it black. My hands are shaking as I continue to lose blood but I’m still climbing. Always climbing up into the gray and blue.

  Her mind was in playback mode before her eyes began to open. Her whole body felt weak and damaged and then there was the pounding, the incessant pounding in her skull. She smelled coffee and...bacon? Were the kids using the stove? Her eyes jolted open and she found herself in a strange bed covered in gray and blue sheets. She wanted to call out, “James?” but she was languishing. Her vocal chords felt sewn shut.

  She heard footsteps in the hall followed by a perky Polish morning greeting. Oh, it’s Pawel, she thought, not even trying to disguise her disappointment. She thought her lips would crack if she forced them into a smile.

  “How are you feeling?” the good doctor asked, laying his palm on her forehead. “You still feel a little warm.”

  It all came back to her now. She and Pawel had gone to dinner the night before and she’d begun to feel bad around 10 PM, so ill she wasn’t sure she could drive home. Oh yuck...an extremely vivid flashback to the contents of her stomach being spewed onto the concrete sidewalk was suddenly unleashed in her brain. Food poisoning, she was pretty certain. She felt like she’d been hit by a truck.

  “I don’t think you’re ready for coffee yet,” Pawel determined. “I’m going to give you some ginger ale, okay, darling?”

  Sarah pulled the sheets around her and realized she was wearing one of his t-shirts and her clothes were neatly folded on the chair beside the bed. Four dates, he finally sees me naked, and I wasn’t even awake to enjoy it, Sarah mused, or as close to musing as she could muster, under the circumstances.

  “I feel so weak!” she moaned to Pawel, who was opening the curtains on the other side of the room. Suddenly the space was filled with bright light that made Sarah squint and want to hide under the covers.

  “Well, I think you evacuated your entire digestive tract,” Pawel explained.

  Oh my god, thought Sarah, I don’t even want to know what he means by that. She didn’t embarrass easily, but she cringed thinking about what all his statement might entail. “Thanks so much for taking care of me,” she managed weakly as Pawel took a seat on the bed beside her. “You have a really nice bedside manner!”

  Pawel smiled graciously. “It’s easy when I have a patient as beautiful as you are,” he grinned. Then his demeanor grew serious. “I know this is sort of an awkward time to bring this up, Sarah, but I feel like we’ve reached a new level in our relationship. And it’s really a conversation I aimed to have with you before you stayed the night, although I never imagined your first time spending the night would be under these circumstances!”

  He reached under the covers and drew out Sarah’s hand, which was ice cold. He rubbed it a little between his palms and noticed that Sarah’s skin still had a greenish cast to it.

  She felt even less at ease now after hearing that they needed to have a “conversation.” I don’t know that I’m ready to explain my freaky side to my colleague, she worried. She started to mentally prepare a speech about how she was just dating around and didn’t want to get serious with anyone. She was hoping her Auto Pilot would kick in and steer her through the awkward conversation that was sure to transpire. Why would he want to do this while I’m so sick? she wondered, annoyed.

  “I don’t know how to tell you this exactly,” Pawel began.

  Funny, Sarah thought, that’s usually how I begin these conversations. Like with James. Just a few days ago. She just nodded and let him continue, too tired to argue with him.

  “I’m actually married,” he said matter-of-factly. “My wife is in Poland still, and doesn’t prefer to travel.” Pawel noticed that Sarah’s expression had remained unchanged and started to panic a bit. She was dissecting his odd English-as-a-second language sentence structure, but he sensed a judgmental undertone. “Oh, I’m not cheating!” he quickly clarified. “We have an open marriage. We opened it up several years ago actually.”

  She smirked a little bit at his overuse of the word “actually.” He was visibly nervous to broach this topic, but this information couldn’t have made Sarah happier. She kept her poker face and simply replied, “Oh, that’s wonderful,” without very much inflection.

  “Seriously?” Pawel asked, incredulous that Sarah would be so calm after receipt of this information.

  “I’m seeing someone else too, and prefer to date multiple people, actually,” Sarah admitted and finally smiled to let him know she really was perfectly alright with his admittance. So there, things were out in the open. Why did people keep these secrets when it was so much easier to just put things out there?

  Pawel squeezed her hand, “I just knew you were a kindred spirit, Sarah.”

  She smiled back at him and then, overwhelmed with s
udden exhaustion, closed her eyes again. Instantly she was transported back into her dream. Gray and blue. Blue and gray. Climbing…climbing…still bleeding.

  ***

  On the way to her house, Pawel explained the series of events that happened the night before. She’d gotten sick, thrown up, and passed out. Pawel knew she was expected home but was in no condition to go, so he took the liberty of finding Kathy’s number in Sarah’s phone and calling to explain the situation. She came over right away to take care of Abby and Owen and got them up and ready for school the next day. The next morning, Pawel called Sarah’s department chair and managed to send out word to cancel Sarah’s Friday classes.

  Sarah was stunned by his initiative and kindness. “I really don’t know how to thank you,” she said as he kissed her on the cheek goodbye.

  “Promise me that the next time I see you naked it will be under better circumstances,” he laughed and waited for her to get inside her house before backing down her driveway.

  Sarah was welcomed home by a very concerned mother, daughter and son. The three of them took one look at Sarah’s pale skin and dark under eye circles and immediately sent her back to bed. She took a stack of papers to grade and her phone. Rachel called to check in and soon as she’d gotten settled in her bed, all propped up with pillows.

  “You still going to be able to make it tomorrow night?” she asked bluntly. Sarah rolled her eyes behind the safe disguise of the phone. She knew her friend was concerned, but she had a funny way of always making things about her.

  “Of course,” Sarah replied. “I’m fine. I just need some rest and rehydration.”

  “Alright, Muffin,” Rachel said, relieved. “I’m glad you are okay. Wow, Pawel is quite the hero, huh?”

  After they hung up, there was a little knock at the door and Owen appeared, a huge smile lighting up his face and his hands full of a crystal vase with all sorts of blooms springing out the top in purples, pinks and whites. He carried it to the nightstand and set it down triumphantly. “These came for you!”