Convenience and Compatibility (11 page)

Dean snuggles next to me and kisses me on the
cheek.

“Let’s go for a hike, I have somewhere I want
to take you.”

I stare at him incredulously – where does he
get the stamina? I nod yes, not sure exactly how I’ll have the
energy to hike this morning.

We drive about a half
hour away from
the ocean; the canopy of trees getting thicker and thicker. We
don’t speak much, Dean puts some rap-like music on loud and I look
at the window, lost in my thoughts. For some reason the beat of the
music, the car, and the view out the window seem to go together
well. It feels like I’m in a music video with the hot male actor. I
laugh at him as he sings to the music and caresses my thigh as we
drive up the road.

Dean turns off the highway and I’m totally
lost. The sky isn’t as overcast as it was at the hotel, but I still
can’t tell where the sun is and which way we are headed. He turns
off into the embankment and I notice there is a wooden trail
marker. This must be the trail-head. We get out and I pull my hood
on. It’s not really raining, more of a drizzle - the kind of
weather you would expect in a rainforest. It’s cold enough that any
amount of wetness will chill me to the bone and I’m ready to start
the hike and warm up.

Dean grabs my hand and we start our walk into
the woods. The trail is pretty narrow, but we are able to walk side
by side - barely. We meander down the trail, holding hands and
listening to the rain patter on the forest floor. I have a feeling
Dean wants to talk to me about something, noticing the way his body
is stiff and his silence as we walk. We hike uphill for a bit and
then turn to the left sharply and make a steady descent until we
get to a beautiful pond in the midst of the forest. Dean leads me
to a log that affords a beautiful view of the picturesque setting
and we sit close together.

“Mallory, I have this feeling about you that
I can’t explain.” Dean holds my hand with both of his, turning it
over and looking at the palm. “I’ve been thinking about what we
talked about last night at dinner. I have no control over my
parent’s behavior and opinion… but I can promise you that I will
always choose you first. If they don’t accept you I will cut them
off.”

Well that was unexpected. I’m a little
speechless and Dean turns to look at me. “Please, let’s give this a
try. Let them get to know you. I’m sure they will adore you as much
as I do.”

“Okay.” How can I refuse him? He adores
me.

Dean smiles, visibly relieved. “Thank you. Do
you want to walk around the lake?”

I nod and we start on the small trail that
encircles the water. This time there is not enough room for us to
walk next to each other. I have to talk over my shoulder for Dean
to hear me.

“Have you been here before?”

“Yes. I used to come out here with friends
and we’d go hiking. We stumbled upon this place a couple, er, I
guess it’s been about five years ago.”

I nod and imagine a younger Dean coming here
with friends. It must be strange to lose three years of your life.
I’m a little sad for him. The rain is coming down pretty hard by
the time we get to back to the trail. Under the canopy of the trees
it’s much better, but now my feet and legs are soaked.

“Ugh, Dean, I’m all wet.”

I look back to him and he’s smiling at me. “I
like wet.”

I can’t help myself; I roll my eyes at
him.

“You roll your eyes a lot.”

“You give me reason to roll my eyes a
lot.”

“Oh, really?” Dean grabs me and starts
tickling my tummy. I absolutely hate being ticked. I break free
from his grasp and start running back to the trailhead. Dean
follows and we are laughing and running in the forest until my
lungs hurt. I stop short and Dean plows into me, pinning me to a
trunk of a large fir tree. We’re smiling and laughing, still out of
breath, when Dean starts pulling down the back of my pants.

“What are you doing?” I laugh at him. He
can’t be serious. I look around for more hikers while Dean pays no
attention. He’s gotten my pants down and my shoes off quite
agilely. Sadly, I have a feeling he’s done this before. I’m both
aroused and nervous that someone will see us and contemplate
pushing him away. Then I think, fuck it, and pull my pants off over
my feet.

Dean fumbles with his pants briefly, then
pulls me up to him. I wrap my legs around him so my weight is on
his hip bones whiles he positions his cock under me. He enters
smoothly and I exhale as he fills me. Dean thrusts into me once and
takes a step forward so my back is against the tree. I look up and
grab the lowest branches with both hands, feeling sap stick to my
fingers. Somehow that turns me on. Dean adjusts his feet slightly
for the angle change and then starts pounding into me. I can feel
my back scraping against the rough bark of the tree, but that only
turns me on more. A brief thought enters my mind that my expensive
rain jacket is going to be toast after this experience. Fuck it,
this is thrilling.

All I can hear is Dean’s heavy breathing in
my ear. If any hikers came upon us now I’m sure we’d be oblivious.
I’m close and I let it all go – who’s going to hear me? I cry out
with my orgasm, louder than usual. A few thrusts later and Dean
comes as well; collapsing against me. I can barely breathe pinned
between Dean and the tree. Dean lifts his head from my shoulder and
swiftly kisses me on the cheek. He pulls me away and places me on
the ground.

I’m at a loss as what to do with the sap on
my palms and the trickle of wetness going down my leg. I look up at
Dean, who’s doing up his pants, with a look that says ‘help
me.’

He starts laughing. “Looks like we have a
problem.”

“You don’t happen to have a tissue on you by
chance?”

He searches though his pockets and comes up
with nothing. I guess I just deal with it. I pull my pants over the
cold wetness and put my wet feet into my wet shoes. Ugh,
disgusting.

“Dean, we really need to plan these moments
better.”

He laughs at me again and I can’t help but
join him. We meander back to the car but Dean doesn’t take my hand
this time. By the time we reach the trail head, my pants have glued
themselves to my leg. I take off my rain jacket and inspect the
back. Just what I thought – it’s not rain-proof anymore.

Dean takes it from me. “I’m sorry, I’ll get
you a new one,” and kisses me on the top of my head. “Let’s go
clean up and have some real breakfast.”

We drive back to the hotel and do a quick
clean up and pack up. We decide to find something to eat along the
way home. We head north this time, our plan to drive up and around
the Olympics, then take the ferry at Kingston. The drive may take a
little longer, but it’s more picturesque than the freeway back to
Seattle.

Dean and I drive into
Forks and find a
logging-themed restaurant to have breakfast. I look around and
smile, you’d never get away with this in Seattle. There are old
pictures covering the walls of massive trees being cut down,
lumberjacks posing proudly next to the logs. I’m guessing the place
hasn’t been redecorated in over fifty years.

We both order the lumberjack breakfast, even
though it is almost noon. I figure that I need to eat something
hearty to keep up with Dean – his appetite for sex seems limitless.
I smile thinking that he will probably try to jump me again today.
He decided to sit next to me in the booth, on my right, so he would
have his less dominant hand available to caress my leg. By now I
know his M.O. – this man loves to touch.

“I was thinking… remember I mentioned that I
have dinner at my parent’s place every Wednesday?”

“Yea?”

“Well, um, I was thinking that it would be
nice if you came with me. For them to get to know you a little
better.”

I raise my eyebrows at Dean, giving him a
look like, ‘are you fucking kidding me?’

He smiles but otherwise ignores me and
continues, “Come on, please? Believe me, once they know you better,
they will love you like I do.”

Um, what? He loves me now? I pretend I didn’t
hear that last part and focus on the main subject.

“You really think that is a good idea?”

“I do. Please come.” Dean is rubbing my leg
again. He must know that my weakness is his touch. I clench my legs
together and feel the stirrings of arousal. He moves his fingers
onto the inside of my leg, “Please?”

“Okay.”

“Really? Great! I’ll pick you up after work
on Wednesday and we go over then. My parents like to eat late.”

“Alright Dean.” Man, he can be persuasive. I
roll my eyes and he squeezes my knee.

“I saw that Mallory. Be careful, or I’ll take
you out back and spank you.”

“Shhhh.” I punch him playfully on the
arm.

We finish brunch and head up the highway; the
trees are thick and everything is green. I’m going to miss this
next week when I’m back in the city and surrounded by concrete.
Dean pulls of the road, onto a small lane, telling me he wants to
show me something.

“I’ve already seen it twice today.” I roll my
eyes at him again; I love his reaction to this gesture.

Dean rolls his eyes back at me. We pull into
a large parking lot, surrounded by trees, not far from an old
house. We get out and I shiver; it’s colder here.

“It’ll take just a minute, then I promise
I’ll turn the heater on high back in the car.”

Dean takes my hand, leading me past a large
house that looks like it was built in the twenties. It’s set
practically on the beach of the most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen.
Just past the house is a dock, about twenty feet long. We walk out
to the end and I look around. The lake is surrounded by hills
covered with dense fir trees. I look down at the water and am
surprised that I can see down to the bottom, it doesn’t look very
deep.

As if reading my mind Dean interrupts my
thoughts. “It’s deeper than you think, the water is just so clear
that it appears to be shallow.”

I look out and can see logs under the water.
The lake is beautiful, but I think it would be a little
disconcerting swimming in it and being able to see the bottom.

“Why is it so clear?”

“Not a lot of pollution, the lake is
surrounded by a National Park.”

I look across the lake and notice the lack of
houses along the shoreline. I do see a few and ask Dean about
this.

“You can rent the land, put a house on it;
but it never belongs to you.” He shrugs his shoulders, and I shiver
again. “I wouldn’t want to do it. Ready to head back?”

I nod and Dean takes my hand and leads me
back to the car. On the way back I notice a row of cabins along the
beach that I hadn’t seen before. “What are those Dean?” I say with
a nod of my head.

He follows my gaze, “You can rent a cabin
there, or a room in the house. We should do that sometime this
summer. I love it here.”

“Yea, I’d like that.”

We get in the car and Dean turns the heat up
like he promised.

“What is the name of the lake?”

“Crescent.”

“I love it too, thank you for taking me
here.”

“Sure. Just part of the tour ma’am.”

We head up the highway again and are in Port
Angeles within a few minutes. We don’t stop and drive through to
the ferry. It’s mid-afternoon now and I’m anxious to get home and
rest up before my three twelve hour shift marathon that starts in
the morning.

We get to the ferry terminal in Kingston and
there is more than an hour wait – pretty common on the weekend.
Dean suggests we go get some coffee, so we leave the car and walk
up the street a bit to a quaint coffee shop. Dean gets his usual
black coffee while I get tea and we walk back to the car holding
hands.

“Are you hungry?” he asks.

“I’m still full from the lumberjack
breakfast.”

“Yea, me too.”

Dean reclines in his seat and I take a good
look at him. He’s really hot when he’s dressed as a hiker. He
didn’t shave this morning and I look at the stubble on his face,
wondering what it would feel like between my legs. My mind wanders
to the moment we had by the lake and I smile thinking of the sex up
against the tree. That was both surprising and amazing.

I frown, I don’t want this moment to ever
end.

“What’s up Mallory?”

“I just don’t want to go back to work
tomorrow.”

“Don’t you like being a nurse?”

“I do, really. I just don’t like the
unpredictability of it sometimes. Some days the patient load is
almost unbearable. I hate my job then.”

“Why don’t you do something else then? Like
work in another department.”

“I probably will soon. I just wanted to be
there a couple of years, really hone my skills before I move
on.”

“I could talk to my mom. Maybe they could
make some changes in the department?”

“Thank you, but I don’t think so.” The last
thing I want is to owe Jeanette Collins anything. But maybe when I
know her better…

The cars in front of us are moving and we
board the ferry, finally.

The drive from Edmonds to Laurelhurst is
quiet. I’m lost in my thoughts, sad that I won’t see Dean for a few
days. I can only guess that he is feeling the same. We get to my
apartment building and Dean parks the car.

“You don’t need to walk me in Dean, it’s
cold.”

Dean takes my hands in his and I turn to face
him.

“Thank you for a wonderful weekend.”

Dean nods but doesn’t speak, he looks down at
my hands. “I wish you didn’t have to go to work tomorrow. I want to
keep you all to myself.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow night?”

Dean nods again, then pulls me to him and
kisses me deeply. I know where this is heading and I pull away. I
feel bad when I see Dean’s face – he looks hurt.

“I’ll call you tomorrow.” I peck him on the
cheek and grab my bag from the backseat. I get out of the car and
walk to the door of the apartment. I unlock the door and look back
to Dean and wave; he has a frown on his face, but gives me a little
wave anyway. I deliberate going inside versus going back to his
car. Empathy wins. I drop my bag inside the door and walk back to
him.