by Ash Harlow
But I do recognize the realtor logo that I remember was on the sign.
“The property isn’t in here, but wasn’t it Mountain Realty on that old sign up there?”
“That was it.” She swings around to face me, eyes dancing with excitement. “Ring the office now. They’ll have a number you can call after hours. Go on. Please?”
Her enthusiasm makes me pick up the phone. A voice tells me the office is closed but I’m instantly transfered to someone’s cell. Selling real estate is like being a doctor. You’re on, 24/7. A man answers, identifying himself as Geoff. There’s laughter in the background as if he’s in a bar.
I tell him what I’m after and there’s a long pause as he obviously runs through the database in his head, trying to picture the property. When he says he knows it, he can barely hide the excitement in his voice.
“I can show you tomorrow,” he says.
“I know the place pretty well. Just interested in a price.”
“I’d have to check. Do you want to meet me in the office tomorrow and we can go through the details.”
We arrange to meet at ten, and when I tell him my name, there’s another long pause.
“I knew your father. Welcome home,” he says, finally.
I blow out a breath. “Yeah, thanks.”
After dinner I fuck Steffi in front of the fire. I need her tonight more than I’ve needed anyone in years. I take forever eating her pussy until she’s a dripping, trembling mess, begging to come. But I don’t let her. I’m on the edge of gaining control in my life, driving in the direction I choose, and tonight, I need to control Steffi.
My dick tries to control my brain. Every time Steffi begs, my dick begs, too. Fuck her. Give her what she wants. But I want it slow. I want to give Steffi an experience she’s never had. Every time I make love to her, I want it to be better, different than the time before. Maybe I’m fucked in the head. Maybe I’m the wrong person for her. Maybe I’m my old man and there’s something lurking in me that once unleashed, will make me damage people.
That’s why I’m a doctor. I took an oath to heal, not harm. That oath protects me.
“Why did you stop?” Steffi asks, panting.
I take my fingers out of her pussy and paint her lips with her juices, then I crawl up her body and kiss her mouth clean.
“Is something wrong?” She speaks the words into my kiss.
“Yes. You’re too perfect. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You can’t hurt me,” she says.
Such brave words, and I’ll do everything I can to make them true. My dick’s rubbing against her wet thigh. She cants her hips, trying to get me inside her.
“Turn over. Hands and knees.”
She scrambles, sighing as I fold myself over her, pushing her chest and face to the carpet. I take each of her arms and stretch them over her head. “Stay just like that.”
I sit back on my heels, staring at the flawless, heart-shaped ass. Her pussy lips are fat, tissues swollen, aroused, glistening in the firelight. I’ve never seen something so beautiful, or something I wanted so much.
I reach for my jeans, and pull out a condom.
She twists her head to the side and I can see half of her face. “Don’t,” she says. “No condom. I’m on the pill. If you’re okay with that, I want to feel you…just you.”
My dick throbs. I’m more than okay with that. I slide my finger through her sopping cleft, striking her clit. Her back arches then sinks, matched by the crescendo of her groan.
“I’m ready,” she says.
“I know you are, but I like playing with this pussy. A few nights ago you couldn’t come. We sorted that. Now I want you to get it under control.”
“No-ah!”
“Trust me, Steffi, this is way, way better. Let’s play a little game. I’m going to fuck you, and play with your tits, and stroke your clit, and you’re going to tell me when you’re about to come. This is new for you, so give yourself plenty of warning. No coming until I tell you to.”
“What if I come anyway?”
“Don’t do that. You won’t like the consequences. I’ll take you back to your dry spell, and the pleasure will only be mine.”
She curses me. “Are you always this cruel?”
“No, but I want you to experience something different, and if you simply grab the next orgasm on offer…” I pause. Her entire body’s trembling again, just from my stroking. “Is there something you want to tell me, Steffi?”
“Oh, god, please let me come?”
I take my fingers away. She pushes up on her hands, twisting her head around and scowling at me. I ignore that, but I press between her shoulders until she’s back in position. “What was I saying? That’s right. If you simply grab every orgasm that’s hovering close by, you’ll never experience what it’s like to control it. Try it. I think your mind will be blown.”
“Is it possible to hate you at the same time as loving what you’re doing?”
I’m running the head of my cock along the slickness coating her lips. I’m almost hating myself just as much, because all I want to do is plunge into her and fuck her hard. I tuck my finger inside her until it’s as slippery as the head of my cock, and tease her cute, tight little asshole as I continue to thrust along the furrow of her lips.
Steffi pushes back against me. I didn’t say she wasn’t to move, and it feels so damned good. “You’re getting close again, sweetheart,” I say, placing soft kisses around that sensitive place at the base of her tailbone.
“Yeah. Please? This time?”
I jerk away from her. “This hurts me as much as it hurts you.”
“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t like you at all.”
“That’s the spirit.” I run my fingertips up the backs of her thighs, making her shudder. “You have to tell me. Ask me to stop, don’t wait for me to suggest you’re about to come. That’s not the game, and you don’t get to win until you play by the rules.”
“Can’t we just fuck?”
For some reason, that makes me laugh. “Since you asked so nicely,” I say, easing into her, one agonizing inch at a time.
Bare.
No condom.
Slick wet heat, skin on skin.
Fucking heaven.
“Oh, boy,” she moans, “that’s the spot.”
“The rules still apply. Tell me you understand.” I hope I can keep to them myself.
She groans again. Frustrated. “I understand already.”
I stop when I’m buried balls-deep in her hot pussy and reach beneath her to find her nipples. They’re tight, sensitive, and when I squeeze them her pussy clenches over my dick. “Ahhh, yes,” I hiss, sliding back out and slowly entering her again. I run my hand over the smooth skin of her belly and between her legs, rolling her clit between my thumb and forefinger.
“Noah… stop, quick.”
I let my hand drop and slip my dick out of her. “Well done. Tell me when it’s passed.”
“You’re insane.” She’s panting.
“You’ll thank me.”
“Do it again.”
I go back to the same movement, slowly fucking her, rolling her clit, feeling the tremors running through her body, stopping when she gets too close. I have to concentrate so hard not to blow my load. “This time,” I tell her, after she’s stopped me again. “This time, tell me when you’re close, and I’ll fuck you hard.”
“Okay.”
I drive into her with more force this time and her pussy grabs me as I withdraw. I barely have to touch her clit and she’s moaning my name.
“I’m close,” she warns.
With an arm slung across her belly, I hold her tight against me and start fucking hard. My fingers work her clit and her entire body trembles. “Let go, sweetheart, come with me.”
A long wail leaves her lips as her body shudders and pulses, over and over. The tremendous ache in my balls gives way to ecstasy as I finally release my load, buried as deep inside her as I can get.
We collapse together on the floor, breathing in long gasps.
“Consider my mind officially blown. That was fucking awesome,” she says.
“You were fucking awesome,” I say.
Tonight, she took everything I gave her, then stole a little piece of my heart to go with it. It’s hers, forever. I don’t want it back.
17 ~ Steffi
Geoff, the real estate agent, takes us into his office. Noah’s almost pulsing with nervous energy and I’m surprised the agent doesn’t get a belt of static shock when they shake hands.
“I remember your father,” Geoff says.
“He leaves a lasting impression,” Noah replies.
“Right.”
Geoff hands over a bunch of papers detailing the property. I watch Noah’s face as he reads through them, trying to get an inkling about whether it’s a workable deal or not.
“The land is freehold?”
“Yes, it is. The bank will probably negotiate on the price, but nothing too ridiculous. A couple of parties have tried to get it for next to nothing. But the bank wants something out of it.”
“Draw up a sale agreement,” Noah says.
“You don’t want to go and look at it?” the agent asks.
“I think I know it pretty well, but I’d like to go up there today.” Noah squeezes my hand beneath the level of Geoff’s desk.
“Sure. I have some free time this afternoon. I can take you up there.”
“It’s okay, we just want to look around.”
“That should be fine, but I can’t give you a key to the house unless I accompany you.”
“No problem,” Noah says. “I doubt the house has done much more than decay since the old man died. We just want to walk around, check the boundary fences and such. Put the usual conditions in the agreement and I’ll have a lawyer look it over tomorrow. Offer three-fifty.”
Geoff smiles. He’s obviously confident the bank will accept that offer. “Is that subject to finance?”
“That’s cash. But I want to do due diligence on the land. Make sure there’s not a massive subdivision going in next door, or a mining company starting drilling over the back. You’d know about that. Heard any rumors?”
Geoff holds up his hands. “Not a thing. It’s all quiet up there as far as I know. Land’s so steep you’d have to be a mountain goat to want to live up there. Sorry. Obviously you’re not goats. What I meant—”
“We feel its remoteness is part of the appeal.”
Geoff looks as if he wants to tell us we’re crazy, but he has a commission riding on the fact he’s good at assuring Noah he won’t regret his decision to buy a piece of a steep-sided mountain that can’t support much more than a couple of goats and a few rabbits.
As we leave Geoff’s office, Noah’s words are banging about in my head. He said “we” when he talked about the deal. We. Inclusive. Together. I’m sure it was a slip of the tongue, a figure of speech, not a lifelong commitment.
I can’t believe I’m having these thoughts!
I drag Noah along the road, telling him we need a few supplies for the day. “Food, drink, a board game and a pack of cards in case it rains,” I tease.
He laughs. “I’m so keen to get back up there, I wasn’t thinking. We need good food, Steffi. I want champagne to celebrate, but I don’t want to jinx the deal.”
“Are you superstitious, Doctor?”
“I’m prepared to do anything to make sure that deal goes through.”
“I’m getting some ideas.”
“Do they involve sex? I might have to fuck you in the wilderness for luck.” He takes my hand and it’s a while before I realize we’re walking through central Queenstown holding hands in full view of everyone, and what that could mean. I tug my hand out of his grip.
“I have heard that sex in the wilderness is tremendously lucky. Goddesses in the heavens look upon it with much favor. However, holding hands in the middle of town in full view of everyone is probably not so lucky.”
“You’re right. Damn. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.”
“I wish it was. I hate sneaking around.”
“So do I. Don’t worry, it won’t be for long.”
I want to stop him right there and kiss him.
Once we park Mabel off the road by the broken gate, we gear up for our excursion. We lace ourselves into hiking boots, check hats and scarves, jackets, an extra layer for each of us tucked into the pack. We know the area well, but we also know how fast the weather can change. Our first stop is Noah’s old home.
Yesterday when we were up here, his body language screamed tension. Today, his stride and shoulders are loose. He pokes a pen knife into a window frame.
“The hut might look fit for demolition, but there’s no rot in this timber.”
“What are your plans for this place?”
He watches me for a couple of beats. “Restore and renovate, for starters. I’d like to get it habitable as quickly as possible. Then I want to excavate into the mountainside and build a house that’s part cave. Not big. I don’t like big. Something cozy where winter will still feel like you’re living outdoors. Then, maybe another hut like this one. They can interconnect through covered pathways. Live in the cave part, and have the other huts as guest houses. What do you think?”
“I think it sounds fantastic. You’ll have your very own man cave,” I tease.
He tackles me to the ground, and straddles my hips. “That man cave will be very useful come winter. We can hibernate in there when the snow falls.”
There it is. That we word again. He’s smiling, looking so happy.
“You said ‘we’,” I whisper.
“I meant it. You said yesterday you’d happily live up here. I want you here with me.”
“I think my heart just burst.”
He leans in and I feel his lips brush against the shell of my ear as he speaks. “Don’t worry, I can fix that. I’m a doctor.”
I smack his chest. “How often have you used that cheesy line?”
“Been waiting my whole life to use it on you.” He kisses my neck, then my mouth. My body heats up fast and my fingers find the zipper on his jacket, but he clasps them in his and moves them away.
“Not here,” he says. “Not yet. We’ll christen this place once my name’s on the title.” He swings off me and pulls me to my feet. “You promised you’d show me something I’ve never seen.”
“Honestly, Noah, I think you’ve seen every inch of me,” I smile.
“Steffi.”
“Oh, right. That. The wall of stars. Let’s go.”
Not far beyond the hut, the track becomes steep. We’re hampered for a while with our clothes constantly catching on the thorny matagouri bushes. Noah is crouched, freeing my jeans from a clump I tried to push through and failed.
“I’m glad these are still up here. Matagouri is disappearing from a lot of places. They’re eradicated to improve pasture, and have to fight the gorse and broom. Even these small bushes could be over a hundred years old.”
“And here I was going to suggest you take them out to clear the path.”
“There you go, all free,” he says, standing. “We don’t need to take them out. If a certain person wasn’t in such a hurry, she’d learn to go around them instead of trying to bulldoze her way through. The wilding pines, though, are a different matter. I’m waging war on those things.”
It takes forty minutes to reach the upper boundary of the property and cross over into conservation land. The bush has changed to a mixture of beech and pines. I look around and laugh. It’s a while since I’ve been up here, and I’ve never approached the track from this direction.
“We need to link into the Snare Track,” I say, hoping for a hint.
“Lead on, Guide Steffi.”
“This way, do you think?”
“Where’s your map?”
“I don’t have one.” Stupid mistake. I thought I’d recognize the way once we reached the edge
of the property. I pull out my phone. “I’ll grab a map… Oh. No signal.”
“How long have you lived in the mountains?”
“Noah, that’s not helpful.”
“I hope you don’t usually hike by guesswork.”
I cover my mouth to hide my smile. By the tone of his voice and the look on his face, he appears to be telling me off. “It’s okay. I know my way around.”
“People die getting lost in these mountains.”
“Yes, Noah.”
“You’ll find the Snare is up this way,” he says, pointing slightly more east than the direction I’d suggested.
“I was close. If we’d continued, we’d have come across it—”
He takes hold of my ponytail, turning me to him so our foreheads touch. “I don’t want you ever taking stupid risks up here. Understand?”
“Yes,” I say. “Will you kiss me now?” He does. Passionately.
“You distract me,” he says when the kiss ends. “That’s enough of a risk for both of us.”
“Got it. Maybe you can lead us to the Snare.”
We find the track quickly, but it’s tough work at the start. Trees have come down in one of the many recent storms and we have to detour a couple of times. At last the terrain becomes familiar. Time means nothing. We’re completely alone, surrounded by mountains, the lake now out of view. Noah continues talking about his plans for the hut, working out how he can make it habitable in the shortest possible time.
I stop Noah when I see my track marker. It always amazes me how much can change up here after one storm. A massive slip, fallen trees, the path of a river shifting dramatically because of something that’s occurred further up the mountain. And, paradoxically, how little changes. Years ago, I built a small rock cairn in a beehive shape to mark the turnoff to the wall of stars, and it’s still here, unmoved by nature and all the chaos that has taken place around it.
“This way,” I tell him.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m ignoring that comment.”
I know the way from here. Every turn and landscape feature is imprinted in my head. I take hold of Noah’s arm when we’re almost there.