by Alyse Zaftig
“Must be you. You’re magical.”
He thrust into me, and I realized that he was already ready to go again. He sat up and put his big hands on my waist as his mouth lowered to mine.
His hands traveled from my shoulders, down my sides, feeling the indentation of my waist, before going downwards over the swell of my hips. And then he went back up.
The whole time, he kept me rocking on top of him. I felt like I was on a bucking bronco, but I never wanted it to stop.
But I was only human, and my body had other plans. Lightning struck. My mind nearly went black with the intensity of my pleasure as I jerked against his body.
With a roar, he spilled himself inside of me a second time.
This time, I rolled off of him before he could hold me in place.
“I need to clean up,” I told him, feeling his seed running down my leg.
“I’ll come with you.”
Tub
Emilio
I followed her into the bathroom, all of my attention on the smooth sway of her beautiful hips. I knew that she felt tender because of the way that she was walking.
Even though it brought a smile to my face, because our time together had been very pleasurable, I resolved not to take her again tonight. She needed time to rest.
She climbed into the tub and turned on the water.
I climbed in and put bath gel on my hand.
“Come here.”
She came to me through the water that was rapidly filling the tub.
She looked like a goddess to me — curvy with smooth, soft skin that still had my bite marks on it.
I pulled her into my lap, legs on either side of me, as I sat down on the ledge in the tub. I rubbed her luscious breasts with a little soap. Then I washed her neck and back with my hand.
My hand slipped under the water to wash the space between her legs.
“Oh,” she sighed.
Her hips moved against my hand in a rhythm as old as time, her head coming to rest on my shoulder, her hair falling like a waterfall all around her, the ends tickling my shoulders.
Her mouth came to mine. She kissed me slowly and softly, her tongue gently exploring my mouth.
I didn’t know how much time passed while we kissed, only that we were lost somewhere that clocks couldn’t touch us.
Then she gently pulled my hand away from her core. I thought that she was done for now, but she settled down on the tip of my erection.
“Are you sure? I was going to let you rest. I know that you’re sore.”
“Very sure.” She slid the rest of the way down.
She slid against me in the soapy water. Her hands were wrapped around my neck as she picked up the pace, rocking us both.
She was glowing from the inside, as if there were some kind of light inside of her. She was stunning, here in the bathroom, riding me as if she had all the time in the world.
I put my hand between her thighs to flick her clit.
She screamed on top of me, her head thrown back as she crashed hard when the wave traveled through her body.
She clenched me with her wet velvet heat. I groaned as I felt her body milking mine, coaxing yet another orgasm from me.
As she rested against me, I had my arms wrapped around her. The two of us just lazily stayed right there in the tub.
Eventually, she took her head off of my shoulder and told me, “I’m about to fall asleep in this tub.”
Her eyes were sleepy, so I reached for a shower nozzle and cleaned both of us, rinsing the suds from our skin. I wrapped us in two towels, and then I carried her back to the bed.
After pulling the sheets up to cover both of us, I wrapped my arms around her towel-clad body.
“Sweet dreams, beautiful,” I murmured to her.
Her only response was to sigh softly. I knew that she was already halfway asleep.
I closed my eyes.
Even though I didn’t generally allow women to sleep with me, I loved sharing a pillow with her.
Guidebook
Naelle
When I woke up properly an hour later, the light was a little brighter.
The bed was empty.
I felt the sheets next to me. They were cold, meaning that I’d been left alone here.
“Hello?” I called out.
Nobody answered.
I got out of bed and looked at the sheets. There was just the smallest spot of blood, sort of like what happened sometimes during my periods.
I went to the bathroom and got a little bit of soap, then climbed on the bed and targeted the spot so I could put a little soap on it, hoping that it wouldn’t stain. The sheets felt very smooth and soft. I hoped that I hadn’t ruined them.
Early this morning had been incredible. I never imagined that my first time would be so sweet.
I thought that I’d be married to Brayden when I did it for the first time. I hadn’t really looked forward to it.
He’d slept with so many women during the first three years of college that I’d thought about asking him for a little medical paperwork showing that he was clean.
And now, thinking about it, he must’ve kept on sleeping with women during the last year of college, too.
I felt very cold, alone in this bed. I didn’t know if I regretted what had happened.
No, I decided, even though I felt like I was freezing now. I was glad that my first time had been like that. It wasn’t what I’d expected, but it was much nicer than what Brayden would’ve done with me.
And it felt like there was a knife stuck in my windpipe when I thought about Jenny with him.
I didn’t want to go back to DC for a while.
I looked around for my hastily discarded clothing. I should go back to the hostel. This morning had been very pleasant, and I was grateful that he’d taken care of me, but I was in a strange man’s house.
What had I been thinking last night?
Sober Naelle couldn’t understand Drunk and Hurt Naelle’s logic. I could have gone to a hospital, gotten checked out, and only thought of Emilio in my dreams.
Here I was, the morning after, all on my own. Had I really expected it to go differently? He had been kind enough to feed me breakfast, which was definitely a nice touch. I needed to go now. In the light of day, all I felt was profound embarrassment.
I dressed quickly before I went downstairs and headed for the door.
Before I got there, though, there was a soft, “Excuse me?” in Spanish behind me.
I whirled around. There was a short lady who had closely cropped black hair.
“Hello,” I said in Spanish, figuring she probably didn’t speak English.
“Are you...” she trailed off before beginning again. “Señor Emilio’s novia?”
“I’m not his girlfriend, no,” I said.
“Ah, I was mistaken. I’m sorry.”
“It’s nothing,” I told her. I hoped that I had all of my things, because I was heading out to the hostel. I’d grab the Ecovia. I’d stay away from Finn McCool’s from now on. I could only imagine the embarrassment of running into him again. I’d go to the hostel, journal about tonight, and move on.
I felt so free, freer than I had ever felt in my entire life. I didn’t know why I felt so empowered, but I knew that a new door had opened for me.
Maybe I could have sex like that every night...it seemed easy enough to haunt bars and take men home. I was pretty enough, I supposed.
I snorted. One step at a time. It wasn’t like having sex for the first time was going to turn me into a raging nymphomaniac.
I climbed the steps up to my room, and then went into the shower at the hostel to clean up, feeling sore in places that I didn’t know that you could be sore.
I changed into fresh clothing after my shower, because I didn’t want to wear yesterday’s clothes.
What would I do today? I opened up my laptop to check on things.
My mother had sent me several more emails, but they were less panicky. She figuratively sh
ook her finger at my impulsivity, but she said that she had talked to my dad about what had happened and she understood why I had gone. She said to take whatever time I needed to heal.
I sighed. I was afraid of my mother in a way that I’d never be afraid of my dad. He’d never be disappointed in me, but she frequently was very disappointed in my choices. At least she’d leave me alone about ditching Brayden.
I didn’t know what I would do here, half a world away from my family. Ecuador was almost like another planet. I could still talk to them easily — call them if I wanted to — but I was far, far away from Brayden, Jenny, and the mess that I’d left at home.
I needed to find something to do while I was here.
I thought about going back to the alternative school, but I discarded the idea, I’d worked there and loved it, but it was weird to go back without a huge group. They’d probably push me out.
I wasn’t going to stay in a hotel room for the whole time that I was here. I flipped open my guidebook.
What should I go see while I was in Quito?
There were a couple tourist sites that I wanted to check out. I’d already been to the famous church Iglesia de la Compañia, a Jesuit church which had a ton of gold in it.
The last time I was here, we hadn’t had time to go up to the TeleferiQo, which was one of the highest points in Quito.
I opened up my laptop and checked out TripAdvisor. Apparently there were horses up there and I could eat lunch at the top of the mountain.
I went down and hailed a cab. There were more yellow cabs than normal cars. As soon as I stuck my arm out, a taxi came screeching to the curb.
TeleferiQo
Naelle
“TeleferiQo, please,” I told him.
“No problem, niña.”
I then went on one of the most terrifying car rides of my life.
My taxi driver had no problem cutting off other cars. There were loud honks every time that he did it, but he ignored them as if they were pleasant flute music.
I was gripping the seat in front of me and afraid to scream, in case he got distracted.
The drive through the city was harrowing, but when we finally got to the base of the mountain, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was pretty sure that the ride had taken at least 5 years off of my life.
He actually drove sensibly on the nearly deserted mountain road. We went higher and higher as I could feel myself beginning to pant.
Quito had a little bit thinner air than DC, but the TeleferiQo was even higher. I had mild asthma, so I was struggling to breathe as we got to the top. I cursed myself for forgetting to bring an inhaler to Ecuador. I’d left so hastily that I hadn’t packed it.
Oh well.
When I got out, I paid the insane rate that was displayed on the taxi meter and walked into the TeleferiQo office.
There were two rates: one for locals and another for tourists. I paid the tourist rate and got a ticket to take the cable car up the mountain.
The line to go up wasn’t too crowded. There were only four people in front of me. I stepped quickly into one of the slowly but steadily moving cars when I got to the front of the line.
I was by myself inside of the car. I was mildly acrophobic, but somehow dangling from this large cable car, I didn’t feel scared. I liked looking down at the city, feeling as if I were in a sci-fi movie, floating above the Quito landscape. We were so far away that I might as well have been in the clouds.
It wasn’t easy to breathe now, but I did finally get to the top. I got out and was out of breath when I walked around.
It was difficult for me to see very far. I really was among the clouds, which blocked my view from the very top of the TeleferiQo.
I was not going to make it around the area surrounding the TeleferiQo. I was a little disappointed, because I’d just paid for a ticket and a taxi ride all the way up here, but I was going to go back down.
Then I noticed a sign that said that they offered donkey rides.
Beside the sign, there was a short man with dark grey hair and a wool cap on his head.
I realized that it was a little chilly up here, even though the sun had been up for several hours. I wished that I had brought a jacket with me when I came here.
I looked to the side. There was a little girl who was standing behind a table full of scarves and jackets.
When I came closer, I realized that they smelled strongly of llamas. I knew what llamas smelled like because my elementary school had had a llama farm next door. I lived in fear of windy days, when the stench blew towards us.
I had a clear choice here. Either I could freeze up here, or I could do as the Romans did.
I went to the little girl, who definitely should’ve been in elementary school, and I paid her a few dollars for a pretty, colorful scarf that had rainbow stripes and a green jacket that smelled so strongly of llama that I expected myself to begin to crave grass.
When I wasn’t incredibly cold anymore, I walked back to the guy who was standing next to the donkey ride sign.
“I’d like to take a ride.”
He looked at his watch.
“The next one leaves in 5 minutes. Let’s get you a saddle.”
He motioned to someone I hadn’t noticed before.
There was another kid with black hair and tan skin that matched the guy who was running the donkey ride business.
He gave me a once-over, as if he were measuring me. Then he went to the fence and pulled off a saddle. He pulled a donkey over and fastened it.
“Try this,” he said in heavily accented Spanish.
I looked at the donkey. It wasn’t very tall, but I wasn’t, either. How was I going to get on top of it?
I’d ridden horses in the United States a couple times, and there was always a mounting block. But there wasn’t one here.
I looked around, as if it were hidden somewhere, but I couldn’t see anything.
“Excuse me, how do I get on the horse?” I hoped that I didn’t sound like a complete idiot.
But he snorted and pointed to the fence.
I could feel my cheeks heating up. Of course you used the fence to get on top of the donkey. He acted as if it should be extremely obvious, but I’d never done that.
I brought my donkey over to the fence and clambered on top of it, hoping that I wasn’t hurting it.
When I was in the saddle, I yelped as my donkey began to amble towards the feeding trough.
The donkey leaned down and began to eat, making me slide forward. I held on desperately to both the reins and the donkey’s neck.
The boy was snickering as he gently pulled the donkey up and away from the food.
The donkey snorted at him, but he did as he was told.
He brought me towards a group of people who were obviously tourists. They had cameras in their hands and were pointing at the different landscape that you’d find up here in the páramo.
I tried to focus on speaking quietly to my donkey, trying to make friends, but all my donkey did was flick his ears at me.
I didn’t have to sit there for very long, though. Our guide was soon leading us out on a short ride around the páramo.
I was happy enough riding around on top of the donkey, and it was a little easier to breathe now, as my body got used to being at this altitude.
As I felt the stocky little donkey slowly and steadily walking along with the group, my heart soared. I just loved being up here in the clouds, far away from the city. I was cold, yeah, but it was great.
I felt like my worries in the United States were a bad dream. My reality was a simple life here in the Andes, smelling like a llama and riding a donkey on a mountain.
When I was done, I’d go back down the mountain and just chill in my room after I got the smell of llama off of me.
I smiled when I thought of what my mother would say when she saw me like this. It was a good thing that I didn’t bring a camera like the tourists had, because she’d faint.
The ride was over too soon
. I saw that a bunch of the tourists were heading towards a building that smelled like food.
But I’d read the reviews on TripAdvisor, and I knew that I didn’t want to eat anything up here.
So I went walking towards the main building to get a cable car down.
But as I went downward, I noticed that there was a little cabin with steam or smoke coming out of its chimney.
Cabin
Naelle
I felt shy going towards the cabin, but the smell that was coming out of it was freshly roasted Ecuadorian coffee, which I could definitely use since it was so cold here. I figured that I could pay them for a cup.
I knocked on the door. Nobody answered.
I thought about walking away and just taking the cable car down, but I was really cold.
I’d never do this in the United States, but I opened the door and stuck my head in to say, “Is there anybody in here?”
Silence.
I knew that I should’ve backed out then, but the coffeemaker was right next to the door, and there was a stack of disposable coffee cups next to it. Surely they wouldn’t be too angry if I took some.
I opened my purse and took out a $5 bill. If it was enough to pay for Starbucks in America, then it was enough to pay for coffee here.
I drank the hot coffee and closed my eyes while I drank nearly all of it. It was liquid bliss, the warmth spreading throughout my body.
“What are you doing here?”
My eyes flew open.
I turned around and saw Emilio standing there, with just a towel around his waist. His arms were crossed.
“Did you follow me here?”
I stammered, “No…what are you doing here?”
I dropped my coffee cup. Both of us looked down at it as it spilled just a little bit of coffee on the ground.
“Sorry,” I said, grabbing a napkin and wiping up the spill.
“Why are you here?” he asked me.
“I just wanted to go up the TeleferiQo…I had no idea that you were here.”