by Jaid Black
He thought she was perfect. He thought every man on the planet should be obsessed with having her. She didn’t agree, knew it wasn’t true, but such feelings on his part made her want him all the more.
“Yeah he did.” She smiled wryly. “Multiple times actually.”
Neil reached out and touched her hand. “Are you okay now?”
Her answer was important to him for a couple of reasons, he knew. He didn’t want her hurting and just as importantly he didn’t want her pining away for another man. Such a thought, he possessively admitted, was far from pleasant.
“Yeah I’m fine.” She grinned, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “At the time I was pretty upset. For three days I meandered around the house feeling dramatically tragic. But when the fourth day came and I no longer cared I realized that I couldn’t have been in love.”
“How so?”
She splayed her hands in a gesture that Neil took to mean he should have already known the answer. “I was over Alex in three days. If I’d been in love with him it seems to me I’d have walked around feeling tragic for at least another couple of weeks.” She chuckled. “Or at least another couple of days.”
Neil smiled, more elated by the knowledge that she hadn’t loved Alex than he should have been, than he had a right to be. He had no idea, after all, if Valentina planned to continue their affair beyond Strathy Point. Because such a topic didn’t settle well with him he discarded it, refusing to deal with anything other than the here and now. And right now he was here with her. It was all that mattered.
“So,” Valentina cheerily interjected, breaking him from his thoughts, “how long do you plan to vacation up here?”
Neil smiled wryly. “How long do you plan to stay?”
She laughed, remembering his earlier confession that he’d followed her to the beach. She supposed such an event should have frightened her somewhat, but it didn’t. Perhaps if there was something weird about him, or if the attraction wasn’t mutual, she would have been alarmed. But she most definitely was not alarmed. On the contrary, it made her feel terrifically sexy that Neil would go to such lengths to be with her. “I’ll be here another three days. Well not here exactly, but in the Highlands in general.” She shrugged. “I planned on leaving Strathy Point this afternoon and going camping on Cairn Gorm for a couple of days.”
“Camping sounds lovely,” he murmured, their gazes locking. Reality dawned for a fraction of a moment and his face colored slightly as he broke eye contact. He’d just all but invited himself along when she was most likely ready to be rid of him. “I meant to say that I’m certain you’ll have an excell—”
“You wanna come?”
His dark head shot up. “You want me to join you?” he asked tentatively, thinking he must have misunderstood her intentions.
“Definitely.” She grinned. “The question is do you want to join me?”
“If you don’t mind,” he murmured, deciding not to question his good luck.
“I don’t mind.” Valentina shook her head and smiled. “I don’t mind at all.”
* * * * *
“It’s beautiful up here.”
“Indeed. It truly is.”
Valentina glanced curiously up at Neil while they worked together to pitch the tent. Between checking out and returning her rental car, they had gotten a late start leaving Strathy Point so it was already close to midnight. Luckily it wasn’t totally dark outside for the sun never truly sets in the Highlands during the summer. “You said that almost nostalgically.”
Neil shrugged, but the gesture was far from casual. “It’s a shame, I’m well aware, but I’ve lived just a few hours drive away from here all of my life and never took the time to experience it for myself.”
“Cairn Gorm you mean? The mountain we’re on?”
“Yes.” He smiled, gazing down at her, his dark eyes raking over her clothed breasts, sweeping across her shielded mons before returning to study the tent they’d just erected together. “That and other things.”
Valentina’s body had an immediate reaction to his casual perusal and carnal insinuations. Her nipples tightened into elongated pink buds and a liquid heat infused her belly. She observed him through hooded eyes, very much turned on, very much wanting him. She shook it off, telling herself this was no time to be concerned with her libido. They had pitched the tent, true, but it still needed some fixing up on the inside. Besides, it was quite chilly out and they also needed to start a fire.
“Tell me about yourself,” Neil said as he began arranging kindling within the pile of logs. “Between our conversation in the restaurant this morning and our drive up to the mountains tonight I doubt if there’s anything left to tell about me. You, however, are still an enigma.”
“An enigma?” Valentina glanced over her shoulder, momentarily distracted from her work of smoothing out the bottom of the tent. “I’d hardly call myself that.” She smiled, resuming her work. “What would you like to know?”
Everything, Neil thought. “Whatever you’d like to tell.” He located a box of matches and struck one against its grainy side, igniting it. “I gathered from your accent that you’re from somewhere in the southern United States, but I can’t quite pinpoint where.”
“Georgia,” she replied somewhat muffled, her face inside of the tent while she arranged things as she wanted them. “Atlanta.”
“Ah.” Neil smiled, absently noting that the kindling was now lit and the log settled on top of it was starting to go ablaze. He glanced over his shoulder. “A Georgia peach. I—”
He stopped mid-sentence, distracted by the sight of her lush derriere pointing skywards. She was down on all fours, the upper half of her body buried inside of the tent doing who knew what, the lower half of her jeans-clad body bared to the elements.
In a sensual daze he stood up, taking to his feet as he walked up behind her. He ran his hand over her buttocks, causing her to gasp as he slipped his fingers in between her thighs and rubbed her clit through the denim. “Take your clothes off,” he said brusquely. “Now.”
It occurred to Neil from somewhere in the back of his aroused mind that his voice had sounded a bit harsh even to himself. But he couldn’t seem to stop himself, couldn’t seem to tamper down his commands. When he was near her like this and his thoughts turned carnal he felt no more intellectually advanced than a Neanderthal, a caveman that wanted to rut inside of the mate he’d claimed. He’d never been like this before with any other woman and because of that fact he didn’t know how to control it. Nor was he certain that he cared to.
Valentina came up on her knees, turning around to regard him. Her light green eyes had gone wide, clearly having been surprised by the tone of his voice. But he offered no rebuttals, no apologies.
“Take your clothes off,” he repeated without so much as a flinch, his dark eyes narrowed in desire. “You may finish your work after you’ve removed them.”
Valentina’s nipples hardened instantaneously. She should have been outraged by his words, or at least offended by them, but she wasn’t. She liked playing the submissive to him on a sexual level, reveled in the way he dominated her body as though he owned it.
Neil Ross was an egalitarian on a social level, she knew, but on a sexual plain of being he wasn’t capable of higher thought. She’d never met a man even remotely like him before, one that not only wanted to dominate her body, but was incapable of doing anything less. When Neil wanted to fuck he turned primal, animal, rational thought discarded. She loved it.
Valentina stood up, suddenly feeling a bit shy and nervous. She smiled inwardly at the incongruity, thinking to herself as she unzipped her jeans and stepped out of them that this man made her feel anything but jaded. Her shirt came off next, followed by her bra and thong panties. When she was finished undressing she reached towards him, her crimson-tipped nails honing in on his zipper.
He stilled her hand. Her golden brown head shot up, wondering at such an action.
“I’ll take you when I’m rea
dy,” he said thickly, nudging her back towards the tent. “For now I want merely to look at you whilst you finish your work.”
He wanted to enjoy being aroused, she thought, knowing he could fuck her when his urge became too great. She found her own body responding to his desires, her clit swelling as she went back down on all fours face-first into the tent.
“Mmm very nice,” he murmured. “Spread your legs a bit wider apart whilst you fix up the tent. All I want to see is ass, thighs, and bald cunt.”
Valentina closed her eyes briefly at his words, intoxicating as they were. She imagined him staring at her swollen clit, at her puffed up labia, and felt liquid gather between her thighs as she did so. She knew his eyes were trained on her wet flesh, could almost feel them branding his name into her. She wanted him buried inside of her so badly that she ached for him, yet he didn’t so much as touch her let alone mount her.
Five minutes later she announced to him that the tent was ready. “I’m done,” she whispered, so aroused she could scarcely breathe let alone talk.
“Then come sit beside me on the blankets,” he said hoarsely.
Valentina complied, her entire form emerging from the cover of the tent. She came down on her knees beside him, noticing at once that although he was still fully clothed he had released his swollen erection from the confines of his jeans and was stroking it. It stood up as though carved of flesh-covered steel, so gloriously hard and stiff. “May I suck on him?” she asked through passion-drunk eyes, meeting his gaze.
“In a minute,” he murmured.
Neil reclined back on his elbows, his cock poking straight up. Craning his neck and upper torso, he leaned into Valentina and curled his tongue around one elongated nipple. She shuddered, pressing her breast closer to his face.
Drawing the nipple into his mouth, Neil sucked at it leisurely, pulling on it with his lips, rolling it around with his tongue, as he took her hand and guided it toward his scrotum, instructing her without words to massage him there.
He released the nipple on a groan, loving the feel of her silky hand toying with the tiny balls inside of his sac. Falling onto his back, he placed his hands behind his neck to support the weight of his head, then watched her through glazed over eyes. “Suck on him, Tina,” he murmured.
She obeyed, taking him hungrily into her mouth as though there was nothing else on the planet she wanted more. She paid special attention to the head of his cock, sucking vigorously at it, knowing that because he was like most European men and therefore uncircumcised he would be especially sensitive there.
“Christ.” Neil gritted his teeth as his muscles instinctually clenched from the near-delirious pleasure. The sucking sounds her mouth made accompanied by the look of rapture on her face made the hedonistic pleasure damn near painful.
Breathing heavily, he tried to forestall her erotic efforts with his hand so he could mount her body and empty himself inside of her, but when he attempted to do so her mouth merely latched onto him tighter and she began to suck on him faster and more briskly. Clearly, she meant for him to cum in her mouth.
“Tina,” he ground out, his muscles cording, his jugular vein bulging, “I’m coming, sweetheart.”
That admission induced her sucking to become animalistic, moaning as her head bobbed up and down on his stiff erection. Long red nails wrapped around the base of his cock as full, swollen lips devoured the length of him, over and over, again and again.
“Jesus.”
Neil came on a groan, his eyes squinted shut, his teeth bared. He shouted out his satisfaction into the wilds of the Highlands, the echo reverberating throughout Cairn Gorm Mountain.
When Valentina had sucked him dry, depleted him of all that he had, her face bobbed up into his line of vision looking utterly adorably and more than a little mischievous. She was pleased with herself he could tell, pleased that she’d driven him to such vocalized lengths.
Valentina grinned. “Wow Neil. That shout could have put Tarzan to shame.”
He half laughed and half groaned. “I’ll work on perfecting my vine-swinging abilities a bit later.”
She chuckled, coming down on the blanket to lie beside him. He gathered her close, kissing the top of her head. Wrapping her hand around his warm, flaccid penis, she sighed contentedly as her head came down on his chest. “I’ve never actually seen an uncircumcised cock before,” she admitted with a smile in her voice.
“No?” He kissed the top of her head again. “American men are all circumcised?”
“For the most part, yeah.” She grinned. “I’ve only read about men like you in books.”
“In books, eh?” He considered that for a moment. “Is that also where you learned to suck an uncut man so well?” he asked acidly, not meaning to be brisk but unable to waylay the possessiveness in his voice, “From a book?”
“Actually yes,” she answered, unperturbed by his territorialism, reveling in it even.
Neil’s heart began beating again. He released a breath as he kissed her forehead, pleased more than he cared to admit by her answer. “Good.”
They lay there in silence for a protracted moment, both of them simply enjoying holding each other after the intimacy they’d just shared. After a minute or two of this nonverbal bonding time it was Valentina who spoke first. “You know,” she said confessionally, for some reason or another wanting to share the most inane things with him, “I’ve been thinking for some time now that I’d like to try my hand at penning an historical novel.”
One dark eyebrow shot up. He wondered why she’d been thinking of novels at a time like this. “I love the ones you write now. I’m certain you’ll excel at whatever you try,” he said truthfully.
Her head shot up. She searched his face. “You read my books?” she murmured.
He bent his neck a bit so he could kiss the tip of her nose. “Yes.”
She smiled, strangely contented by his answer. “The reason I brought the subject up to begin with is because I wanted you to know that when I write that historical I’m going to name the hero after you.”
Neil’s body stilled. He thought that the most wonderful compliment a woman had ever paid him. “I would be honored,” he said, his brogue a murmur.
Valentina cleared her throat, realizing that the moment had grown too serious. She just wanted to enjoy Neil’s company for the time being, not ponder all of these inexplicable feelings of affection she was developing towards him. “I wonder what I should name it,” she said on a smile.
Neil sensed her shift in mood and let it go with good grace. He realized that now wasn’t the time to push his own agenda onto her. And so, thinking on her statement a moment or two, he squeezed her gently and grinned. “How’s about ‘You’ve Got Chain Mail’?”
Valentina’s light green eyes widened brilliantly right before she threw her head back and laughed.
Neil smiled, secretly wondering if it was possible for a man to be any more contented than he.
Chapter 6
The next two days were to be the happiest and most poignant hours of their lives. It was on top of this mountain, after all, where their affection for each other grew in unnatural leaps and bounds and both of them came to realize what it meant to truly care for and about another person.
Many, many years from now, when both of their heads were silvered and neither of them had a natural tooth left in their mouths, it would be back to the two days atop Cairn Gorm that their minds would forever wander, remembering the glory of having first discovered each other.
They wiled away those few precious hours on the mountain making love, taking long walks through the forest, eating meals over a campfire, and simply talking. Valentina’s stories about what life was like growing up with two hippies for parents amused Neil to no end, while Neil’s stories about his awkward childhood and adolescent years had the opposite effect on her and saddened Valentina for the pain life had unfairly dealt him. She never said as much to him, just held his hand and listened, sensing somehow that he
r silent affection and validation was all he needed or wanted.
But inevitably, just as all of life’s magical moments do, their time on Cairn Gorm came to an end. Two days became one, one turned to none, and before they had quite realized the trip to Paradise was over, they were side by side in Neil’s Lexus headed back to Edinburgh...and to reality.
Neil couldn’t quite squelch the brewing restlessness that stemmed from not knowing what would happen between the two of them when they returned to civilization. He wondered at what she’d think of his sensible, ordinary life and the other pretentious, stuffy professorial acquaintances he was forever forced to endure at one university function or another.
Little did he know Valentina was staring out the passenger side window worrying her lip as she fretted over the same thing, though with a different twist. She was wondering whether or not Neil had room in his life for a feisty, passionate artist type when his own life was already so well structured and so visibly lacking in the very characteristics that comprised her personality. Perhaps that had been on purpose, she thought somewhat sadly. Perhaps he had looked at his time with her as a rendezvous and no more. Perhaps when they reached Edinburgh he wouldn’t want anything more to do with her.
Half an hour later the Lexus cruised down Princes Street and came to a halt in front of The Balmoral. Neil’s eyes flicked over the hotel where Valentina was staying before flicking back to her. “Well,” he said, trying his best to tamper the sound of disappointment he was certain was laced in his voice, “we’re here.”
Valentina smiled over to him as she opened the passenger side door. “Thanks for the ride.” She grinned. “Thanks for everything. I had a terrific time.”
“So did I.” Neil’s gaze fell to her lap, his dark eyes taking one last appreciative sweep over her fertile form. He took a deep breath and expelled it on a resolved sigh. A woman like her, so vital and full of life, would never be happy with a man like him, a man who for all intent and purposes was her antithesis.
She might enjoy him for another day or two, perhaps even for the whole of her stay in Scotland, but inevitably she would leave him and he wasn’t altogether certain he’d be able to deal with it. He was going to have a difficult enough of a time returning to his mundane existence as it was.