by Nikki Wild
“I never want to leave this place,” I whispered to him. Birds chirped over our heads and the sun shone through the trees every now and then as it peeked out from between the clouds. It was incredibly cold, but the warmth of his hand and the heat rolling off of him as I leaned into his side kept the shivers at bay.
“Well, it’s not going anywhere. You can come back here as often as you want.”
“It definitely reminds me of home,” I said.
“Do you miss it? Home?”
I paused, contemplating his question before answering. Truth was, I hadn’t really had time to miss anything. Everything had been such a whirlwind since I’d arrived, and honestly I hadn’t really thought about much at all except Bear.
“No,” I finally answered. “At least not yet.”
He nodded, smiling at me quietly. We walked for a while, leaving the people wandering at the cliff’s edge behind us until we were alone on the trail. Our words fell away as we took in the majestic view below as we wandered along, the peacefulness of the wilderness washing over us. My heart slowed, my breathing steadied and the stillness of the forest seemed to seep inside me, capturing all the restlessness and anxiety and dissolving it until nothing was left inside of me but pure serenity.
We rounded a corner and the view changed, the valley below us twisting and turning. After a while, we came upon a huge house-sized boulder that jetted out at an angle over the cliff, the trail winding around behind it. We stopped to admire the view. I stood there in awe, mesmerized. Bear stood behind me and slipped his arms around my waist, leaning in and brushing a kiss against my neck. I moaned, arching back into his warmth.
“You look so beautiful out here in the wilderness,” he murmured.
I smiled, loving the solidness of him behind me.
“Thank you,” I said. “I’ve always been amazed to think that people used to live out here, surviving in such harsh conditions, barely shielded from the elements.”
“Yes, we’ve gotten soft as humans, haven’t we?”
“I suppose,” I replied.
We stood there for a moment, looking down into the valley, Bear holding me close. After a moment, his grip on me tightened and I felt his cock stirring against my ass. He let out a low groan and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Chloe,” he growled, “you make my cock hard as a rock every time I’m near you.”
“Hmm,” I murmured. “Am I supposed to apologize for that?”
He laughed and turned me around, kissing me hard before replying.
“No apologies necessary,” he growled. I looked up into his eyes and saw the rawness there. I swallowed hard, my heart racing as I stared up at him. “But you do need to take care of it.”
“Here?” I asked in surprise. “Now?”
“On your knees,” he ordered.
“But the snow…” I said, looking back down the trail. “The people…”
“Then just squat down and don’t worry about the people! Do as I say!” he barked, unzipping his jeans and pulling out his beautiful hard cock. I jumped into action, bending my knees and gripping his shaft, sliding it between my lips, his guttural moan my reward.
My nipples hardened as I twirled my tongue around the velvety skin of the head of his cock, sucking his hardness into my mouth. I couldn’t help but keep my eyes open, the fear of getting caught rushing through me as I frantically slid his cock in and out of my mouth. His hips moved, his hands holding my head tightly as he fucked his cock into my mouth, his hardness throbbing against my tongue deliciously.
“Stop!” he demanded and I jumped again, looking up to him. He reached for my hand, pulling me up and walking me over to the huge boulder we were behind and pressing me up against it. I faced the rock and he stood behind me. I looked over my shoulder, waiting for instructions.
Surely, he’s not going to fuck me right here, I thought.
I was so wrong.
He reached around me, unfastening my jeans and pulling them down around my thighs, exposing my bare ass to the freezing cold. I gasped as the frigid wind hit my skin.
“Bear,” I protested. “It’s so cold…”
“Not for long,” he said, smacking my ass with his warm palm, hard. It stung, sending shivers of pain and pleasure through me. He hit me five more times and by the time he was done, my ass was warm and tingling.
His fingers sank into my hair as he grabbed it and pulled back, whispering in my ear.
“I don’t like it when you complain,” he growled, before shoving his cock into my pussy fast and hard. I whimpered at his words, at his sudden thrust inside, but quickly, I submitted to him, opening myself up to him, lifting my ass as much as I could to allow him easier access to my pussy.
He moved against me, the force of his blows pressing me into the boulder as he fucked me harder and harder. His cock felt amazing and my ass was still stinging from the blows of his hand, the cold air blowing against the hot, red skin sending shivers throughout my body. The faint sound of approaching voices startled me and I turned my head, my eyes wild with fear.
A slow smile spread across his face as he whispered in my ear, his cock thrusting hard and fast inside of my quivering pussy.
“Are you afraid, Chloe? Are you afraid someone’s going to see what a nasty little slut you are? Are you afraid they’ll see your bare little pussy getting pounded by my hard cock? Are you afraid they’ll see who you really are?”
His words shot daggers of pleasure straight through me, my pussy spasming around his cock as I cried out.
“Bear, fuck me, please Bear!” my voice echoed through the canyon below.
The voices became louder and closer as he slammed into me, harder and harder, until he was coming too, his cock bursting inside of me as an animalistic growl escaped from him.
I shuddered, not from the cold, not from the fear of getting caught, but of the sheer strength of his thrusts and his orgasm ripping through me.
Slowly, he pulled out, slapped my ass a few more times and then took a step back. I looked over my shoulder at him, my hands up against the rock as I looked back at him, waiting for further instructions as the voices came closer.
He smiled, a slow, sexy smile spreading across his face as he nodded.
“You can get dressed,” he laughed, zipping up his pants.
I leaned down, pulling up my jeans and fastening them, just as the group of people rounded the corner. My face flushed hotter than my ass as we walked past them and back down the trail. Bear grabbed my hand and laughed.
“My name sounded pretty good echoing through the valley like that,” he teased.
I shook my head, laughing, the thrill of the moment still running through my veins.
Nineteen
The drive back to the city was stunning. The winding roads were lined with towering snow dusted pine trees with a stream flowing beside us almost the entire trip. Ribbons of pink sunbeams broke through the trees as the sun sank into the horizon, casting shadows across the blankets of snow that covered the ground —it was an enchanting winter wonderland and I never wanted to leave.
“It’ll be dark by the time we get back to the city,” Bear said. His hand rested on my knee and besides the few moments behind the rock, he’d been the perfect gentleman all day. He was quiet and calm, a little reserved even. I was starting to see that was his usual demeanor until his cock got hard, and then apparently, all bets were off.
It was a little hard to get used to, but I was trying. He flipped on a dime today and I had no idea that was coming. The old me never would have fallen to her knees like that. Outdoors? In public? When I heard those voices approaching, I almost had a heart attack.
He’s definitely keeping me on my toes, I thought.
I squirmed in my seat, my pussy still sensitive and swollen from the poundings he’d been giving me the past two days.
“I had a wonderful time,” I told him, as I gazed up at the sky, capturing the moment in my mind, drinking in every single detail. “Thank you for b
ringing me here.”
“I’m glad,” he said, glancing over to me with a smile. “I told you the helicopter ride would be worth it.”
“It wasn’t the ride that was so bad,” I laughed. “It was leaving the helicopter behind.”
“Goodbyes are never pleasant, are they?” he teased.
I laughed at his joke, shaking my head.
“Can I ask you a question?” I said.
“Oh, yes, the questions. We didn’t quite get to them, did we? Sorry about that.”
“We managed a few,” I replied.
“But not enough,” he said.
“I can’t imagine I’ll ever be finished asking questions,” I laughed.
“Good point,” he said. “I’ll remember that. So, we have a little less than an hour left on our drive. Ask away.”
I nodded, growing serious as I contemplated how to word what I wanted to know. It was simple, really.
“Why me?” I asked, my voice soft and shy suddenly. “Why is this all happening?”
He nodded, staring straight ahead at the road. For a moment, I wasn’t sure he heard me at all.
“Do you remember the first time we met?” he finally asked.
“Yes. At the restaurant, how could I forget?”
“No, before that, years before that.”
“Oh, right. At the company Christmas party. I’d just turned eighteen and Mom dragged me with her for the some reason. She’d always been so against me going. I never understood why she made me go that year.”
“I told her to bring you,” he said quietly.
“You did? Why?” I asked, my head spinning towards him. He looked straight ahead, his steely blue eyes hidden in the flashing shadows of dusk.
“I saw your picture on her desk one day,” he continued, his voice low and far-away. “Something about you made me stop and look twice. You were sitting in a crowd of people, at a party or something. Everyone was smiling and talking behind you, but you sat off to the side, with a book in your lap. You’d looked up at the photographer, and it was obvious you’d been interrupted. There was this ethereal light in your eyes, in that flash of a second. It was if you’d been captured—half in the real world and half out of it, as if you were lost in whatever book you were reading and suspended between worlds. Something about it charmed me. I asked Matilda about you.”
“Oh, I see,” I replied, thoughtfully. I wasn’t sure if that was weird or not.
“Matilda’s face lights up like a Christmas tree when she talks about you, Chloe,” he said. “She’s very proud of you.”
“Really? That’s surprising.”
“Is it? She loves you, it’s obvious.”
“Well, like I mentioned before, she’s basically been too distracted by her career my whole life to pay much attention to anything I’ve done.”
“She loves you,” he nodded firmly. “Anyway, I asked her to bring you to the party because I was curious what Matilda’s daughter would be like in person.”
“And? What was I like?”
“You were nothing like Matilda!” he said, roaring with laughter. “You were shy and quiet and withdrawn.”
“You asked me to dance,” I said, remembering the night clearly. He’d intimidated me. I was still a teenager and he’d seemed so much older and sophisticated than me. And he was so incredibly handsome. He was so far out of my league, I never once imagined we’d be here today. When he’d asked me to dance, I was mortified, but I’d said yes because I didn’t want to upset my mom.
“That’s right, I did. You remember?”
“Of course, I remember,” I said. “It wasn’t that long ago.” I’d never danced with a man before—only a few boys during high school dances amongst a bunch of other kids our age. It was always awkward and weird and we all avoided the slow dances as much as possible.
Dancing with a handsome man I barely knew at a luxurious grown-up party wasn’t something I was prepared for. In fact, I remember being so irritated that Mom made me go, that I put a book in my purse, expecting to sit in the corner by myself and read all night. I’d done just that until Bear had walked up out of the blue and asked me to dance.
“Do you remember the song?”
“Some slow Motown thing,” I said.
“It was ‘Oh, No’ by the Commodores,” he said.
“I can’t believe you remember that,” I said, looking over at him. “I just remember thinking the lyrics seemed overly sappy and romantic.”
He laughed loudly, making me laugh with him.
“I guess they were,” he said. “I didn’t think about that too much then. To me, you didn’t seem like a child, Chloe. You were already eighteen, right?”
“I was,” I said. “But barely. What does this have to do with my question?”
“I’ve been thinking about you ever since then, Chloe,” he said, growing serious again.
“You have?” I asked, my voice raising in bewilderment.
“It started when I saw your picture. Then, when I met you, something about you captured me. It was like a switch went off. Like I’d finally found something I didn’t realize I was looking for.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Yes. I know it doesn’t make sense,” he said, “and you were way too young, too shy, too quiet. You were about to start college, I knew you had so much ahead of you.”
“I don’t really know what to say,” I replied, my mind spinning.
“There’s nothing to say. I’m just answering your question. When I saw you again that day at lunch in Portland with Matilda, the feelings I’d had before were only reinforced. But when you so passionately dug your heels in about moving to New York, I saw something else in you that I hadn’t seen before. A spark. A quiet determination and yet there was so much more. You seemed lost and wild, like maybe you were looking for someone to guide you. I acted solely on my intuition. I took a huge chance that day. You could have run out of that room screaming. It would have been a huge embarrassment for me. But something else happened, didn’t it?”
“Yes,” I answered quietly, remembering, “it did.”
“Something magical, if you ask me,” he replied, squeezing my knee. I looked over at him, a million more questions in my head. I nodded in agreement, quiet again and lost in my own thoughts.
What had he seen in me at eighteen? I had no idea who I was back then. Was I wild and lost? Maybe I was. But isn’t every eighteen year old wild and lost?
The thought that I’d been on his mind all this time had completely taken me aback. How was that even possible? I had no idea I was even on his radar. Everything had seemed so spontaneous and random. To think that it wasn’t—well, I just didn’t know what to think about that.
“I’m sure this comes as a surprise to you,” he said.
“That’s putting it mildly,” I said. We were close to home now, the city sparkling like a blanket of stars stretching out in front of us.
“What did you think of me that night?” he asked. “You were polite enough and danced with me, but I could tell you couldn’t wait to get away.”
I nodded quietly, remembering, his words putting me right back there in the moment. Mostly, I remembered his hands.
They’re so hot! I thought. Mr. Dalton’s hands radiated a heat like nothing I’d felt before.
One of his hands was holding mine and the other one was pressed against the small of my back and somehow created the distinct sensation of making the fabric of my dress melt away. It felt like skin on skin, just like the skin of his palm that was touching my palm as we moved together on the dance floor.
He was leading. I’d stepped on his foot twice already, once the left, lightly, then the right, so hard that he’d winced, the skin beside his eyes wrinkling up in deep crow’s feet. I could only manage a very quick glance, because his dark blue eyes seemed to be trying to pierce right through me and it was making me nervous.
From the way his hands felt against me and the way he was looking at me, I felt like I was ha
ving that dream again that I used to have. You know the one—where you’re giving a presentation in class and you look down and suddenly you’re naked and everyone’s laughing and pointing at your private bits.
It was like that.
Only, Mr. Dalton wasn’t laughing or pointing.
He was looking at me the way I looked at that frog in biology my Freshman year in high school. I was so curious back then—I wanted to know everything about it, see every single intestine and ligament and organ. I focused on it like a laser, drinking in every detail.
I couldn’t look at him, but I could feel his gaze on my face. My eyes stayed averted and I looked everywhere but at him. I just wanted the dance to be over. Why in the world would a man like him want to dance with a girl like me?
He was enormous—not just his body, but his presence was overwhelming, too. Way too much for eighteen year-old me to even begin to have the skills to process.
I mean, he was incredibly handsome, built like a god, don’t get me wrong. But with every word he said, the low rumble of his voice seemed to vibrate directly to my gut. I didn’t really hear a word, I was so focused on getting away from him.
He was like a flame that I was being made to touch against my will.
“Chloe?” he asked, pulling me back to the moment. “Do you remember?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I was just very overwhelmed by you, that’s all I really remember.”
“I got that impression,” he said. “That was unfortunate. But understandable. You were young.”
“I’m still pretty young,” I shrugged.
“That’s true, but there’s a big difference between eighteen and twenty-six.”
“I suppose,” I said, my mind trying to process all of this information. I’d barely given him a second thought since that dance. To think that it meant more to him was bewildering. And a little unbelievable.
He was rich and powerful. He could have any woman he wants, why would he waste two seconds thinking of a naive, inexperienced, shy girl he barely knew?