by Zoe Chant
Jessica bent down to pet Grace's neck. "Thank you," she said. "That was amazing."
"I'm glad you had fun! Ready to head back?" Alan asked.
"I could keep doing this all day," Jessica said. "But yeah, let's. I'm pretty sure my legs are going to be sore as it is."
They took it way on the way back, and then gave the horses a quick rub-down before leaving them happily chewing their feed in the stable.
Squeak had woken up by the time they came back and was loudly protesting the lack of food. Jessica fed her with the pipette again. Alan watched her with a smile. She was so patient and gentle with the little kitten. He couldn't help but imagine what she'd be like as a mother.
Getting way ahead of yourself there, he admonished himself sharply.
"You're going to have to drive me home," Jessica said, once Squeak was peacefully asleep again. "We didn't really think this through. I could have followed you to the farm with my rental car."
"Yeah," Alan said, a little belatedly. It was an awfully convenient excuse to spend a little more time in her company. He hadn't planned it that way. It just hadn't even occurred to him that they might drive separately. The idea of letting his mate out of his sight when he'd only just found her made his stomach twist.
Keep it together, he told himself. You're going to scare her off if you get too intense too quickly.
He wouldn't be the first shifter who'd made that mistake with a human mate.
At Sally's farm, Jessica clambered out of the car a little stiffly. She twisted around to rub at the back of her shoulder, grimacing.
"Did you hurt yourself?" Alan asked. It was easy for an inexperienced rider to strain a muscle.
"No, it's fine," Jessica said. "I always have problems with my back. Too much time in front of a screen. I don't think my body knows what to do with all this, you know—" she gestured around them. "Sunshine, good food, healthy exercise. Not what I'm used to."
"Would you like a massage?"
"Oh God, yes," Jessica said. "Really? You don't mind?"
Alan smiled. "It would be my pleasure."
Jessica threw him a shy little glance over her shoulder as she undressed in the bedroom. They'd had sex in this very bed just last night, but Alan had already gotten the idea that Jessica wasn't all that comfortable with her naked body, which was a shame. She was as beautiful naked as she was clothed, all sensual curves like a modern-day Venus, round hips he wanted to cup in his hands and cute little dimples on her thighs.
Jessica stretched out on the bed on her stomach, naked except for her panties. Alan's eyes caught helplessly on the creamy skin of her back, the soft swell of her hips and ass. God, she was gorgeous.
He let himself place one quick, chaste kiss on the back of Jessica's shoulder. "All right. Try to relax, okay?"
***
Jessica closed her eyes as Alan's big warm hands ran down her back. There'd been a very nice scented lotion in the bedside table, which felt silky-smooth and nice on her skin. God, when was the last time she'd taken the time to go for a massage?
Alan was finding every one of the tight, unhappy knots on her back and slowly, gently rubbing them out with his thumbs. Jessica let out a long, contented sigh. She could feel herself going limp. It felt like her whole body wanted to melt into the sheets with pleasure.
Alan slowly worked his way down her back, from the rock hard muscles at the top of her neck down to the painful knots at the edge of her right shoulder blade, which always cramped up when she sat at the computer for too long. And then the small of her back, where she hadn't even realized she was tense until Alan slowly, patiently worked the tension out of her.
He went further down, to the back of her thighs. The muscles weren't as badly cramped there, but it still felt heavenly. A tingling warmth was growing between her legs. Jessica let out an involuntary little sigh. She felt herself blushing at the sound.
Alan's touches started to change, less massaging than stroking now. His fingers ran gently up the sensitive inside of her thighs. Jessica shivered.
"All right?" Alan asked quietly.
"Please," Jessica whispered, and let her thighs open further.
Alan gently nudged her until she rolled over onto her back. Her whole body felt loose and warm and relaxed, but her pussy throbbed in time with her heartbeat.
Alan pushed her thighs a little wider and lay down between them. When he buried his mouth between her thighs Jessica let out a long groan, her back arching. She was close already. With Alan licking and sucking her skillfully, it took no time at all. Climax soared through her like a wave, leaving her limp and blissed out.
She wrapped her arms around Alan and pulled him on top of her. "Come on," she said.
Alan untangled himself for a moment to quickly slip a condom on, and then slid inside her in a single smooth stroke. Her body welcomed him eagerly. He moved in her with slow, powerful thrusts, waiting patiently while her arousal built and built, and then finally sped up at just the right moment, taking them over the edge together.
Alan pulled her over onto her side, the two of them still entangled tightly. Jessica buried her face against his chest.
"Thank you," she muttered sleepily.
It was still only early afternoon, but she could feel sleep coming on fast.
Well, she was on vacation. She could allow herself a nap just this once.
She closed her eyes and fell asleep in Alan's arms.
***
Two hours later she woke up to a mouth-watering smell coming from the kitchen. She felt refreshed, her entire body more relaxed and happy than she could remember being any time in the last ten years.
She came into the kitchen just in time to see Alan pulling a big pan of lasagna out of the oven, still sizzling hot, melted cheese bubbling on top. A big bowl of colorful salad was already waiting on the counter.
"Oh, gosh, you didn't have to cook for me again," Jessica said, embarrassed. "You should've woken me up, I could've at least helped!"
"You looked like you needed the sleep," Alan said. "Here, sit down."
He placed a big piece of lasagna and a bowl of salad in front of her. He'd made some sort of vinaigrette for the salad that was bright and tart on the tongue, and it had all kinds of fresh herbs from the garden, some of them things she'd never eaten before. There were even some colorful flower petals in there.
"I didn't know you could eat violets," Jessica said, tentatively lifting a bright purple flower on her fork.
"You can!" Alan said. "To be honest, they don't taste like much of anything. But they look really fancy in a salad." He grinned.
Jessica took the first bite of lasagna and felt her eyes roll back in her head with pleasure. "God, this is good," she said.
She couldn't help but remember the horrible convenience meal lasagna she'd microwaved after work last week. The contrast couldn't have been more stark. The two dishes didn't really have anything in common beside the name. She had no idea how she was going to go back to eating terrible microwave meals alone in her tiny kitchen after this.
They had a glass of wine on the porch after their meal, the cicadas chirping all around them, and ended up falling into bed together again. Jessica could hardly believe how good it felt. It was like all of her senses had suddenly woken up from a long slumber, and now her body was clamoring for sensation, touch and food and sex. Everything felt fresh and bright and new.
The next few days felt almost like a dream to her, but she'd never had a dream as vivid as this.
Alan taught her everything he knew about beekeeping. If you'd told Jessica a month ago that she was going to end up with strongly-held opinions about the various different types of beehives, she'd have laughed, but now she found herself caught up in Alan's enthusiasm about the topic.
Alan kept cooking for her, stews and risotto and Coq au Vin, potatoes from a neighboring farm with sour cream from the cows that grazed the slopes of Kingshead mountain; food like nothing she'd ever had before.
In the af
ternoons he'd show her around the neighborhood, or they'd stretch out in the garden and read. Sometimes she'd take a nap on one of Sally's comfortable lawn chairs, letting the sun warm her through and through, Squeak curled up on her lap.
Alan started teaching her how to ride—really ride, not just follow along behind another horse while the rider in front took care of all the steering. It turned out to be a whole lot more difficult to get Grace to actually obey her commands than it was to just sit on her back while following Alan and Arrow around. She usually ended those lessons exhausted and covered in sweat.
But Alan was endlessly patient with her, and the fact that it was difficult only made it more satisfying the first time she steered Grace through a perfect slalom course across the entire length of the paddock. She let herself drop off Grace's side straight into Alan's arms.
"I did it!"
"You did it!" They shared a triumphant high-five, both of them beaming.
She got to know Joel, the old man who'd been working on the farm for three decades, long before Alan had bought it, since the time it'd still been a dairy farm. He was friendly to her in a gruff, tentative way, and endlessly, patiently kind with the animals.
On Wednesday, Alan organized a big barbecue at his farm so she could get to know their neighbors—"neighbors" being everyone from the surrounding farms, some of which were as much as a couple miles away. But out in this remote area, everyone seemed to know everyone else. The whole gathering had the air of a family get-together. People laughed and joked with each other, telling stories about common acquaintances and stealing food from each other's plates.
"There's three other people living on the same floor of my apartment building, and I don't even know their names," Jessica said quietly.
"Well, that's the city." Alan shrugged. "Out here, we have to be able to rely on each other. We've gotten snowed in more than once in the winter. We help each other out."
Gwyneth, the spry old lady who owned the closest farm to the west, gave a loud cackle. "What Alan means is, he helps all of us out cause he's a bleeding heart." She reached over and gave his shoulder a quick squeeze, her face softening into a smile. "I don't know what I'd have done without him this winter, if he hadn't helped shovel my yard. You made a good choice with that one, honey. Men like that are hard to find."
"Oh, um, I don't—We're not—"Jessica stammered. She had no idea how to define what Alan was to her right now. Were they even dating? Could you call it that, when it had only been a few days, and they both knew she'd have to go back to the city at the end of her two weeks?
Already the thought of leaving hurt like the prick of a needle in her chest. She didn't want to leave this place, the peace and beauty of Sally's farm, and she sure as hell didn't want to leave Alan.
Don't think about this now, she told yourself. You're on vacation, of course everything seems better here than at home. You love being a lawyer. But the thought rang hollow. Right now, it was hard to remember what it was she'd used to love about her job.
***
On Thursday they took the horses up to a scenic overlook partway up the mountain. Alan left Arrow and Grace to graze, tethered on long lines. He set up a picnic on a blanket in the grass. The valley stretched out below them, the river running like a sparkling blue ribbon through the soft green meadows. Up above them, Kingshead mountain rose to a cragged peak.
Jessica ate crusty bread, aromatic cheese and tender ham until her stomach felt fit to burst, and then she stretched out on her back on the soft blanket, her head pillowed on Alan's thigh. She blinked up at the top of the mountain with a comfortable sigh.
"Can you ride all the way up there?"
"If you know what you're doing," Alan said. "It's a pretty steep trail. Not really a good path for a beginner. But yeah, it's possible." He carded his fingers gently through Jessica's hair. She let her eyes slip closed in pleasure. "Actually, I'm pretty sure that with a good horse you could get up there more quickly than with a car. The road winds around the mountain, and then you have to walk the last part of the way because it doesn't go all the way up. But there's a little trail that leads pretty much straight up, right to the entrance of the cave system, and a horse could manage it easily."
"I didn't know there's caves up there!" Jessica said, leaning up on her elbow to look at him. That sounded exciting.
"There's a whole cave system," Alan said. "If you know what you're doing, you can climb around in there for hours. Don't ever go up there alone," he added, his voice suddenly deathly serious. "It's all soft sandstone up there, and it gets washed out by the snowmelt every spring. There's caves collapsing all the time, and new ones opening up."
He shook his head. "Every year we get a few idiot tourists who ignore the warnings and get lost spelunking up there, and half the time they never even find the body. There's a couple locals who know their way around the place, but even with a guide it's too dangerous to go in half the year."
"Aww, that's a shame," Jessica said, her vision of a romantic expedition through a stalactite-studded cave dissolving.
She leaned her head back, feeling the warmth of the sun on her closed eyelids. She could hear bees buzzing in a flowering bush nearby. The wind was carrying the scent of honeysuckle and thyme. Alan's thigh was warm and solid beneath her cheek.
She reached out blindly for him until the bent down and kissed her.
Alan stretched out next to her on the blanket. They made out for a long time, exchanging long, leisurely kisses, their hands roaming lazily over each other's bodies. Sunlight warmed the back of her neck. Heat gathered between her thighs, building up so gradually it was almost a surprise to pull back from Alan and realize that she'd been rubbing against him for a while, that her panties were soaked through.
Jessica drew in a shuddering breath. She pressed her forehead against Alan's shoulder, grounding herself against his warm, solid body, trying to calm down. They were an hour and a half from either of their bedrooms, even if they rode quickly. So she was just going to have to pull herself together, as impossible as that seemed right now.
Alan wasn't any better off. His chest was heaving. She could see the bulge of his cock outlined against his jeans. Jessica ran her fingers over it, unable to resist. She could feel the heat of him even through the thick fabric of his jeans.
Alan shuddered. "You know, no one ever comes up here on a weekday," he said slowly.
Jessica looked at him, wide-eyed. "We can't just… Out here? Alan!"
But even as she said it, a wicked little thrill coursed through her at the idea. She'd never had sex outside before. The idea was incredibly tempting, doing it out here with the sun and the breeze on her naked skin.
She ran her fingers over Alan's cock again, considering. Alan groaned and let his head drop back against the blanket. "Keep doing that, and I'm definitely not gonna make it all the way down to the valley."
Jessica grinned "Yeah?" She tightened her grip, feeling the big heavy shape of him through his pants. She rubbed her thumb back and forth over the head of his cock, until Alan was thrusting his hips against her touch, tightly contained hitches of his hips.
"God, you're a tease," he said with a pained little laugh, and Jessica realized that she'd already made up her mind.
"I'm not teasing."
They'd seen no one all day, riding up that overgrown little path, and even if someone did come by, they were sheltered from view by a thick stand of trees.
But even so her palms got a little sweaty when she started unbuttoning her blouse. It felt like she'd never been this sensitive before, as if her very nerve endings were exposed. The sunlight on her naked breasts was an almost tangible caress, and the slightest hint of a breeze made her nipples tighten into hard little points.
Alan watched her with his eyes turned dark and wild. He stroked his hands up her thigh and rubbed her through her pants. Jessica pressed into the caress, gasping.
She yanked his shirt buttons open impatiently, baring his chest. Alan's skin looked
impossibly smooth and golden in the sunlight.
Jessica struggled put of her pants and panties, completely naked now, out under the noon sky. The thought shuddered through her with the force of an earthquake, sending tremors down to her aching pussy. She yanked Alan's fly open. His cock was deeply flushed, hard as steel in the circle of her fingers. Alan's eyes glazed over when she started stroking him.
Alan reached for her. She was so wet his fingers slid easily inside her. She clenched around him, moaning, and pressed her clit against the heel of his hand.
"I want you," she said.
Alan guided her hips until she was straddling him, his cock nudging the inside of her thigh. Alan pulled a condom out of his wallet and quickly smoothed it on. She sank down on him with a long sigh of relief. His cock stretched her perfectly, filling the aching hunger inside her.
She braced her hands on his chest and started rocking, a little clumsily at first until Alan put a guiding hand on the side of her hip. Suddenly they were in perfect sync, moving together. Alan thrust up into her, and her own body rocked down to meet him.
It was all Jessica could do to bite down on the noises that wanted to escape her. She bent down to press her lips to Alan's, muffling her moans, and came with a long, shuddering gasp. She felt Alan tense beneath her as he reached his own climax almost at the same time.
They lay side by side on the blanket, both of them gasping.
Jessica cuddled up against Alan's side, catching her breath. She stroked her hand down his thigh. He had an old scar there, almost too faint to see, but long and jagged.
"What happened there?" Jessica asked.
Alan lifted his head, peering down at her hand on his thigh. "Souvenir from my days in the military. It's a long story. I'll tell you some other time, if you want."
His tone made it pretty obvious it wasn't a story he liked to talk about. Jessica hadn't even known he'd been in the military, and couldn't help being a little curious, but she let it go. The day was far too nice to spoil by dragging up dark memories.
Alan wrapped his arm around her, holding her tightly. It was a long time before they even found the energy to struggle back into their clothes. When they finally climbed back onto their horses to ride home, Jessica had to struggle not to let Grace's rocking gait lull her to sleep. Her body felt comfortable, deliciously spent, still thrumming with satisfaction.