by Anthology
He scooted back to the middle of the tub but brought her with him, guiding her legs around his waist and lowering her, silky and super-heated, onto his waiting erection. By the time he did so, she was panting with anticipation. They hadn’t even turned on the jets but the surface of the water was lively and lapped up the side of the tub. Jessica’s legs were spread wide, one foot hanging over the edge and the other close enough to the window to feel the chilled air still clinging to it. Jessica bit her lip to keep herself from crying out while Anthony grunted softly with effort and pleasure.
They enjoyed the silent rhythm and spent time in a locked gaze while the soft sound of the playful water rocked back and forth. Anthony eventually turned her over so that her palms were flat on the smooth floor of the tub and she was looking at her moonlit silhouette in the water. He grasped her plump swinging breasts as he pushed himself deeper inside, causing them both to groan.
Anthony moved his hands back to her hips and pulled her onto him with each thrust. Her nipples skimmed the warm bath and tickled her as climax after climax ruled her mind and body.
Anthony was a perfectionist (and a bit of a show off) and therefore made sure she was good and satiated before fully letting go and treating her to a serenade of his gruff, vocalized delights. She flexed her muscles and squeezed him even harder with her body. She gasped with him until he erupted with warmth. The sensation of feeling him pulse inside her was something she never grew tired of.
Jessica spun around after he extricated himself and sat with her back against the sloped porcelain. She encouraged Anthony to rest his head on her chest, and he obliged, much to her great satisfaction. Lying there nestled between her dripping breasts and listening to the duet of her heartbeat and her breathing, he was glad he had overcome a fear and shared something so special with her.
Next time, he thought, I’ll need a pole.
“Anthony?” Jessica’s sensual whisper interrupted his thoughts.
He lifted a lazy hand from the water to massage her forearm. “Yes, my moon fox?”
She smiled at the invented nickname and took a quick moment to acknowledge it with a momentary tightening of her already pleasing embrace.
“You didn’t have to bring me all the way up here for a striptease. I would have been happy to watch you undress in my apartment.”
Anthony swallowed hard before answering. “This weekend is about more than that. I wanted us to celebrate our time together and break away from the routine.”
He lifted himself up so he could look into Jessica’s bright and happy azure eyes. He drew his hand away from her arm to caress her face.
“You’re so carefree, and I’m anything but,” he whispered earnestly. “Sometimes, I worry my … quirks will stop being attractive to you. That maybe one day you’ll find me boring. Or too irritating …”
Jessica’s expression turned serious and she covered his hand with her own. “If you don’t know how amazing you are, then I’m the one I’m irritated with. For not telling you more.”
Anthony was silent, but Jessica noted the continued worry in his eyes.
“Do you remember how quickly we fell for one another?” she asked him. “How we met in the park one afternoon and were locked away in my apartment, making love by the following weekend?”
“I think about it every day.” He kissed her tenderly for several long and erotic moments. Jessica savored the feel of his hard chest on her soft breasts.
“From the moment we met, you’ve proven to me that you’re a man full of passion and spontaneity. You’re shy, which means you’re selective about who gets to share that side of you and I’m grateful that you find me so worthy.”
“I was worried you’d think my whole dance routine was stupid.”
“Never.” She was horrified at the suggestion. “It wasn’t just about watching you perform for me. Dancing like that isn’t natural to either of us, but your confidence is sexy. From now on, whenever we’re together at some corporate event or some social function and you’re wearing those clothes, all I’ll be able to think about is how I got to watch you take them all off just for me. I’ll treasure this evening for the rest of my life. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he grinned in obvious relief of her continued acceptance and changed the subject. “The water is getting cool. Let’s dry off in front of the fire.”
Jessica nodded, and Anthony lifted himself up and out of the bathtub. He grabbed one towel, wrapping it around his waist with minimal fuss. He then offered Jessica his hand as she stepped over the side of the tub. Once her feet were safely on the bathmat, Anthony removed another towel from the nearby rack and wrapped it around her shoulders.
He followed her to the fireplace, where she paused to appreciate the enchanting warmth. Once he was certain she wouldn’t feel a chill, Anthony tugged the cotton away from her body and knelt before her. He patted away each droplet of water from her body with gentle precision.
Her lover’s caring touch and the heat from the fireplace quickly lulled Jessica in to a blissful place. “Hmmm. I like this,” she told him as her eyes drifted shut.
“My fastidiousness pays off.”
“I don’t think of it like that.”
“What do you mean?”
Jessica gathered her thoughts before opening her eyes. “You believe that your meticulous nature is a negative thing. I don’t, and I don’t want you to think that I need to be convinced to accept you for who you are.”
Anthony blinked. “Okay.”
“You’re thorough, and you’re patient. You care about my comfort and you want the best for me. You demonstrate your sincere love with every touch.”
Jessica ran her fingers underneath Anthony’s chin and waited for his green eyes to meet hers.
“I can’t imagine being in any better hands than yours.”
Anthony took Jessica’s hand in his. He turned her palm toward the ceiling so he could kiss her there, and then he returned to drying off her skin.
******
Anthony and Jessica spent the night in one another’s arms amidst the generous amount of fluffy white pillows occupying the oversized bed. They ordered a room service breakfast of French toast and bacon and stumbled onto The Goonies on television. The movie had just begun, (Chunk hadn’t even done the truffle shuffle yet) and they quoted lines back and forth as they ate.
Eventually they dressed and decided to explore other areas of the resort. Anthony and Jessica toured the lodge, hand in hand, and even took a brisk walk on the grounds. Mt. Hood chaperoned the otherwise solitary couple as they left the populated ski area in favor of a small trail that led them through the foothills of the white Goliath.
“How many credits are you taking next term?” Anthony asked as the crisp air filled his nostrils.
“Twenty, but I might drop one class,” she replied.
“Oh well, that’s not too bad,” Anthony said. “I might just see you more than three nights a week.”
“You live too far away from campus,” she reminded him. “And you never want to stay over at my place.”
“Yes, but in my defense, neither do you.”
“I love the Maryann.” Jessica objected with mock gusto.
Anthony smirked. “It smells like old books.”
“You said that you loved the smell of old books,” Jessica retorted quickly.
“I do,” Anthony admitted. “In fact, I associate it with our summer afternoons together so strongly that whenever I go down to our records department, I get hard.”
Jessica’s musical laughter chased the breeze through the white trimmed trees. “A book boner? Believe it or not, I know exactly how you feel. I smelled your cologne in Lincoln Hall last week, and by the time I got home I was so wet I needed a lifeguard.”
Anthony’s mouth sprung open in shock a moment before swimming into a dopey grin. “It sounds like we need to see each other more often.”
“I would like that very much.” Jessica squeezed his hand as they walked
for a while, listening to the snow crunch under their feet.
“You’ll be finished with school before too much longer.” Anthony said as he admired her pretty profile. “You’ll have to leave the Maryann after graduation, no matter how much you love it there.”
“True …” She could tell he was leading toward something. He’d framed his statement like he was addressing someone on the witness stand.
“Whenever you’re ready, you’ll have a home with me.”
Jessica’s step faltered under Anthony’s surreptitious gaze, but only for a moment. “Is that what you want?” she asked him, her eyes riveted to the snow at her feet. “For real? You’ve seen my place. I can be sloppy.”
“Did I freak out about the towels on the bathroom floor last week?”
“No,” she confirmed. “But you did get out of bed to hang them up before you fell asleep.”
“You saw that?” He laughed.
“Well, even if I didn’t, wouldn’t I have seen them hung up the next morning?”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“And didn’t you have a dream recently that involved the joys of hanging towels?”
“No.” Jessica stopped to glare at him for using his lawyer voice again.
“I see,” he remained undeterred, really getting into character. “Then was it perhaps a dream about the benefits of having a dry towel when you get out of the shower?”
“No.” Her face remained stony, as she turned to crunch up the path some more.
“Isn’t it true that you took a shower that next morning?”
Jessica thought about it for a brief moment, “No, I didn’t”
Anthony stopped. “Oh.” Whenever they spent the night together, he usually left before her in the mornings. He was hoping his line of questioning would lead him to his goal, but it backfired.
He shrugged his shoulders, turned to her and almost popped the question right there.
He even puckered his mouth to make the “W” sound before he stopped himself. This wasn’t the place or the time. He didn’t want his proposal to appear spontaneous or anything less than the most important question he had ever asked in his life.
“Wanna go skiing?” Anthony improvised.
“What? Really?”
Anthony was utterly flabbergasted at his own suggestion, but he gulped and smiled at Jessica with a feeling spreading through him like brandy. “Why not? Let’s have an adventure together.” He cleared his throat. “We’ll stick to the kiddy slopes, of course.”
“Of course,” she repeated with a quizzical smile. “Have you ever skied before?”
“No. Why? Have you?”
Jessica’s laugh lingered in the woods. “Yeah, my sister and I used to ski all the time as kids in Nevada.”
“Come on! There’s no snow in Nevada.”
“Yes there is! Mount Rose, Diamond Peak, Lee Canyon …”
“Okay, I withdraw the statement.”
“Do you really want to go skiing?” Jessica didn’t want Anthony to do anything he’d regret.
He paused only for a second before nodding his head. “More than ever, actually. Now you can teach me and I don’t have to worry about you getting hurt.”
“Oh, I can still get hurt. So can you.” All the frivolity left Jessica’s voice. “Skiing is serious business, so if we’re going do this you do exactly as I say. Is that clear?”
“Yes ma’am.” Anthony answered smartly.
Wow, I might enjoy this more than I thought, he thought.
“Good. Let’s go.”
They turned and strolled back the way they came, but a bit quicker than before. Within a minute they were jogging. By the time they could see the lodge again, they were sprinting like kids to the playground.
Being inside Timberline Lodge was like going back in time. They had to search for the ski shop, which was kept tucked away across the parking lot. The bleep-blorp music, neon colors, and shiny metal broke the spell of strolling through the 1940s but Anthony was quite delighted by the selection of clothes and equipment.
“We’ll have to buy our ski pants, and you’ll need a jacket,” Jessica informed him, “but we can rent the skis, poles, and boots.”
“What about helmets?” Anthony asked, turning away from a yellow and black jacket he had already targeted on the rack.
“They rent helmets too,” Jessica answered promptly.
“And safety goggles?”
“And goggles.”
Anthony went with black and yellow, and when Jessica picked out something hot pink to spare her Violet Beauregarde jacket. Anthony resisted the urge to find something that matched. In the end, his desire to maintain consistency with their outfits was not as strong as the urge not to look like a gumball.
Jessica picked out scuffed but solid K2 equipment for the pair of them. Anthony tried to get her to change his skis to a sleek pair that matched his pants but she stopped him with a look.
“They’re bigger. Isn’t that safer?” Anthony fished.
“They’re cross-country skis.”
“Isn’t that what we’re doing?”
“No. We need downhill skis.”
“That already sounds too fast,” he protested.
“It won’t be. These hills are almost flat.”
“Then why can’t we get the cross country skis?”
“Downhill skis are easier to control. You can turn and stop better. Don’t you want the skis that help you not fall down?”
“Oh, I won’t be falling down.” Anthony declared, sticking his chin out.
Everyone within earshot erupted into laughter. The rental agent, who had been monitoring their exchange, wiped his eyes as Jessica finalized their order. “We’ll each need gloves and goggles please. And do you have a helmet in either black or yellow?”
He did, and Anthony handed him a credit card in exchange for the headgear. Jessica was given a green helmet. It went horribly with her ensemble, but Anthony held his comments until they had paid and gone outside.
“You’re dressed like an olive sticking out of a cotton candy martini.”
“Yeah?” she laughed. “Well, you look like the Bumble Bee girl from that Blind Melon video.”
They attached lift tickets to one another’s jackets like a corsage and a boutonniere at prom. Next, Jessica showed him how to wedge his skis to help him stop and how to hop turn using his poles. They practiced for about ten minutes and when she was sure he had the basics down, they made their way to the ski-lift.
Getting on and off ski-lifts was the stuff YouTube videos were made of, but Jessica guided Anthony to their proper spot in the lane and when the Ferris wheel bench swung towards them, they sat down with ease. Much to Anthony’s delight, a safety bar was then lowered.
They were pulled away from the lodge and swept into a silent aerial tour of Mount Hood.
“This is nice,” Jessica spoke with reverence, as though they were sitting in a cathedral. “We could still just ride it up and back if you want. We don’t have to do much, if any skiing.”
“I want to ski,” Anthony said as he glanced to the ground below their feet. “But are we really going to ski down the entire mountain?”
“No. There are a few small slopes near the top that we can have fun on, then we’ll ride back down.”
Anthony look relieved. “Bummer.”
Jessica giggled and took his hand. They were as close as they ever would be to experiencing a magic carpet ride and Anthony considered proposing to her as they wafted through the chili air.
“I hope we can do this again sometime,” he told her.
“Let’s just see how you like it first.”
“I like this. Being up here all alone with you.”
“Don’t get any ideas.”
“Don’t worry,” Anthony laughed. “I bet I couldn’t even find it at the moment.”
Jessica nodded. “We should be wearing long johns, but I don’t think we’ll be out for long.”
There weren’t many people riding the lift down, but it was still early in the day. The two of them were secluded and leaned in to kiss for a moment. When they sat back, the giant swing carried them up what was known as the Miracle Mile. The scenery was like something glorious out of the movies, but Anthony kept looking at Jessica.
“I’m so in love with you,” he told her, feeling a little drunk.
She turned her sparkling eyes to his. “I love you, Anthony. I’m glad you’re happy. You are going to need that positive energy once we get up there.”
“I did all right down at the lodge. Didn’t I?”
“You did great.” She even patted his arm. “But now we’re going to add one very important element.”
“What’s that?”
“Gravity.”
When they reached the top, Jessica gave Anthony some advice about their ski-lift dismount. “Just keep your skis straight. Put your feet down and let the lift push you along for a while. If you fall, keep your head down or the chair will hit you.”
“It doesn’t stop?”
“Have you felt it stop?”
“Should we hold hands?”
“God, no!” she said, instinctively pulling her hand from his.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you pulling me down with you.”
“Oh. Good point.”
Anthony didn’t fall. Their dismount went smoothly and they scooted out of the way to consult the displayed map showing over forty different trails they could choose from. Behind them, a few people fell down like toddlers while the couple picked out a nearby bunny slope.
“Use your poles and your turns to slow down. Don’t wedge your skis unless you have to.” Jessica’s last helpful hint was met with a curt nod as Anthony positioned his goggles over his eyes and pulled his hat down farther over his ears.
Their first slope was about fifty feet long. Definitely a beginner’s hill but one that demonstrated just how much speed one could build up to in a very short amount of time. Anthony’s first half hour went surprisingly well. He had good balance and maintained a conservative approach, which kept him out of the snow but did little to satisfy his sense of adventure.