Rising Heat (12 page)

Again, she did as directed. She wrapped her arms around my waist, her breasts pressed gently against my back. My dick reacted immediately, and I tried to ignore it. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her away. I glanced over my shoulder. “Ready?”

She nodded, her eyes wide, her lips pressed together. Almost as if she wanted to say “no, I’m not ready,” but she didn’t. Perhaps, underneath all that work ethic and studiousness, she did have an adventurous spirit. And if she had an adventurous spirit, I wondered what kind of an effect that sense of adventure would have on her in bed. Again, I pushed such thoughts out of my head.

I started the bike, adjusted the throttle, shifted gears, and pulled out of the parking lot. I squelched a smile as her arms immediately tightened around my waist. We weren’t even going ten miles an hour, and she already had a death grip on me. I felt her legs tighten around my hips, her knees pressing against the outside of my upper thighs. I never had a girl like her on my bike. I wasn’t putting her up on a pedestal or anything like that. She was just different than the girls I was used to taking out. Again, I shook my head. Didn’t want to go there.

All I wanted to do today was enjoy the weather, take Kathy for a ride, enjoy a casual dinner someplace, and then see what the evening would bring. Did I think about sleeping with her? Of course. It was natural to think it, at least for me. Not that I was planning on it, but if it came up, I wouldn’t hesitate. I wanted to know what it felt like to touch her skin, to kiss those lips, to feel her hot breath on my—

“We’re not going to go fast, are we?”

I smiled and shook my head. In deference to her uncertainty and worry about going too fast, I didn’t head for the interstate. I didn’t want to scare her to death before we even got out of town. Being her first time on a motorcycle, any speed would seem fast, and taking her on the interstate would just be ludicrous. I slowly meandered toward the mountains.

“You okay?” I said, turning my head so she could hear me. I wasn’t going so fast that I had to shout too much.

“Yes! This is fun!”

I grinned. As I left the city behind and the road wound higher into the foothills, coiling its way like a snake into the distance, I accelerated a bit. Not too much, but enough to give her a thrill. Remembering my first time on a motorcycle, I was trying to provide her with the same sense of freedom.

The faster I went, the harder I felt the helmet press closer and her breasts squish tighter against my back. Her thighs squeezed against mine. No way in hell was I going to make it up to Aspen sporting a hard-on the entire way. I decided that we might head toward the Flatirons above Boulder. Not too far. She wouldn’t worry about being so far away from downtown Denver, but it was far enough to let her feel as if she were out of the city.

After a while, I finally pulled off into a large dirt turnout. Above us, the hills rose up toward the sky, the afternoon sun glinting against the rocks shooting straight up from the ridge. Below, the entire valley spread out below us, and beyond, the plains. Off in the distance, I could see Denver, and make out what I called the “cash register building” silhouetted against the gorgeous blue sky. Off to the north were the dark brown buildings of the University at Boulder.

I turned off the engine. Kathy struggled to undo the buckles of the helmet. She finally gave up, grabbed onto my shoulders, and stepped off the bike, focusing again on the straps holding the helmet in place. I watched for a moment, then reached to help.

“Here, hold still. Sometimes the straps will tighten up.” My fingers began to work at the buckle, brushing against the soft flesh of her jaw and then her neck. Once, my hand accidentally brushed up against the soft flesh of her upper breast. She sucked in her breath but didn’t move. My cock did. In fact, I wasn’t sure if my jeans would be able to hide the signs of my hard on.

Maybe she wouldn’t notice.

She sucked in another breath, and I realized she had. Kind of hard to miss, the bulge extending downward from the crotch of my jeans. She didn’t say anything, just stared at it, then up at me, and then pointedly looked at something over my shoulder as I continued to work at the straps. The moment I got them unfastened, she yanked the helmet off and set it on the bike’s seat. Then she was gone, walking quickly to the outer edge of the overlook.

I gave her a moment by herself, willing my dick to behave, then casually moved to stand beside her. “Don’t get too close to the edge,” I warned. “Sometimes they give way without warning.”

She took a step back. “It’s a beautiful view,” she said. “I’ve been in Denver for months and months, but this is the first time I’ve really gotten out of the city and had a chance to visit the mountains.”

“Yeah,” I said, trying to ignore the desire burgeoning in my groin. “Sometimes it can be hard to truly appreciate where you are when you’re smack dab in the middle of it.”

“What’s this place called?”

I grinned. “Lookout Point. Lover’s Lane. Make-out Turnout. Take your pick.” I paused, glancing toward the far side of the turnout where a couple of picnic tables were situated. “Wanna go over there and sit down?” I didn’t wait for her answer but moved toward the picnic table, hoping that my hard-on wouldn’t frighten her. I couldn’t help my arousal. And I
was
doing my best to keep my distance.

I sat down on the bench, leaning my back against the table, stretching my arms out against its rough surface. I didn’t make an attempt to hide what was going on in my pants. It was what it was. My legs were slightly spread, my feet extended and relaxed, my boot heels digging into the dirt. I took in the view, inhaling the scent of pine, dirt, and a slight hint of skunk.

“What’s that smell?”

She sat down on the bench beside me. Not really close, maybe a few inches apart. That was a good sign. She could’ve sat on the opposite side of the table, refused to sit down altogether, or purposely sat at the opposite end of the bench. I glanced at her with a lifted eyebrow. “You’ve never smelled skunk before?”

Her eyes widened a bit as she glanced around. “There’s a skunk here?”

I gestured with my chin down into the trees. “Could be down there. The rumble of the motorcycle might have alarmed it.”

It was quiet up here; the whisper of the breeze moving through the tops of the pine trees. Birds chattering. In the trees I saw a couple of squirrels scampering, chasing each other around and around a tree trunk. Kathy also watched the antics, smiling. When she turned to me, her eyes were shining with excitement.

“Thanks for bringing me up here, Ash,” she said. “I know I need to get out more. I want to, really I do, but I don’t like to go out alone.”

“That’s smart,” he said. “Denver’s pretty safe, but it always pays to be cautious.” She looked at me. What did she see?

“Yesterday, I asked if you came from around here and you said no, but you didn’t elaborate. Since we’re on what I would, in any other situation, consider a date, don’t you think it’s about time we got to know each other a little better?”

I hid my surprise. She considered this a date? Did she really want to get to know me better? “I came from back east a few years ago. That’s a start, isn’t it?”

She made a face. “I have a feeling that dragging any kind of information out of you is going to be a challenge.” She turned her face into the breeze, several loose strands of hair blowing around her eyes.

I barely resisted the urge to reach up and tuck those wayward strands of hair behind her ear. “Sorry, I’m just not used to—”

“I get it, Ash,” she said. “I don’t talk about myself much either. It’s not like I have any friends I go out with. Sure, I know the people at work, and a few people at school, but I haven’t really made friends with any of them. Not the kind of friends that you hang out with after work or school, go out dancing with, that kind of stuff, you know?”

“You’re a loner,” I said, and she nodded. “You feel perfectly comfortable being by yourself. Once in a while, you yearn for companionship, but you’re not necessarily lonely.”

She blinked. “You’re a loner too.”

I nodded.

“What do you do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, where do you work? What do you do for a living?”

How to answer that question without seeming like a total flake? “I’ve just been bumming around the last couple of years,” I admitted. “I came into some money and decided to take a road trip.” None of that was exactly a lie. There was a bit of truth to both of those statements. I
had
been bumming around, but it had lasted more than a couple of years. I
had
come into money, but it wasn’t from an inheritance. I was born into it, a trust fund baby. My bank account was fat. Money was something that I would never have to worry about, and I hadn’t spent much of it in the past decade.

She frowned, apparently finding the idea difficult to wrap her head around. “So what do you do all day? If you don’t have a job, what do you do with all the hours in the day?”

I shrugged. “Sometimes I come up here. Sometimes I go camping. Hang out with a few friends.” Okay, that was an exaggeration. I had one friend.

She turned back to look at the view. “Don’t you get bored?”

Did I? Come to think of it, I didn’t. I rarely got bored.

She turned toward me, her knee brushing up against my leg. I didn’t move and neither did she. The contact sent sensations racing from my thigh and once again initiated niggling movements in my cock. Her eyes searched my face. Looking for what, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t turn away, allowing her to take in her fill. I got the feeling that she was looking for something deep inside that I’d been looking for myself.

“So what is it you do when you’re not bumming around? What do you want to do with your life…?”

I shrugged. “I haven’t quite figured that out yet. I envy you your ability to focus on a specific career path. But I just haven’t found a place yet. Where I fit in.”

“You have family out here? In Denver?”

I shook my head.

“No family in Colorado?”

“No. You?”

“No, mine are in Southern California. My parents, I mean. I’m an only child. What about you? Did you leave a big family?”

“Not really,” I shrugged. “My parents and a twin sister.”

Her eyes widened. “You have a twin sister? Identical or fraternal?”

“Uh, fraternal,” I replied, wondering if she was pulling my leg. “Why?”

She grinned. “I was thinking that if you guys were identical, she’s awfully tall and awfully handsome.” She laughed, and I was relieved to know that she was smart enough to realize that only same sex twins could be identical. I was worried for a minute.

Her face flushed deeply at her joke, or was it because she called me tall and handsome? Whichever it was, she turned beet red. I couldn’t help but laugh. She looked adorable. She looked sexy. And that made my sudden urge to kiss her all the more overwhelming.

I leaned slightly forward, my face closer to hers. She didn’t pull away. I studied her for a moment, then looked down to her lips, then back up again. Her breath hitched. Her pupils dilated. Then, probably unconsciously, her tongue moistened her lips. In anticipation? I had no idea, but she hadn’t rebuffed me, so I leaned closer. When my lips almost touched hers, she closed her eyes in expectation. I hesitated only a second, then succumbed to my desire to explore those lips, to see what kind of reaction I would get.

Our lips touched; warm, soft, tentative at first. Then I deliberately deepened the kiss. I sensed her body shift a little, but she didn’t pull away from me. No, she leaned a bit closer, placing her hands on my shoulders. A low, growling sound erupted from deep in my throat, and I deepened the kiss even further, gently urging her to part her lips. When she did, my tongue dipped inside, slowly at first, gauging her reaction. Again, she didn’t pull away, but instead opened her mouth a little wider, offering me access. I dove in.

My tongue traced the line of her teeth, then touched her tongue, swirling around it, tasting her deeply. Capturing it with my lips, I sucked gently, taking my time. She responded in kind. Slowly at first, maybe even hesitantly. I wasn’t sure if that hesitance was born of inexperience or if she just wasn’t that into the kiss. I redoubled my efforts and knew that I had succeeded when her fingertips dug more deeply into my shoulders. She moaned as she again shifted her position, scooting closer to me on the bench.

Without breaking the kiss, I wrapped my arms around her, pulling until her breasts were against my chest. I felt her heat. I felt those glorious mounds of flesh rising and falling, heard her sudden intake of breath. She gave back as good as she received.

My cock hardened and lengthened as her hands began to roam over my shoulders, squeezing my biceps through my jacket. I broke away only slightly, briefly, gazing into her face. Her cheeks were flushed again, but that flush wasn’t caused by embarrassment. No indeed. Her pupils were still dilated. I wondered if mine were as well. No doubt we had sexual chemistry. We clicked, at least our bodies did. My heart thumped with desire. Hers raced. I saw the pulse throbbing in her throat. She didn’t say anything, but tightened her grasp on my shoulders and leaned in for more. I obliged.

Ever so slowly, I traced my hands down her spine, then back up her sides. She stiffened when my fingers moved to her right breast. I waited for her to resist and when she didn’t, I cupped it in my palm.

She moaned into my mouth as I kneaded her soft flesh, tracing the outline of her bra. Even with the layer of clothing, her nipple hardened beneath my ministrations. It got me hotter. So hot, a small surge of liquid oozed from the tip of my penis. God, she turned me on, and so quickly too.

As my palm caressed her breast, she leaned even closer, wordlessly demanding more. I broke off another passionate kiss just long enough to place my hands along the lower edge of her ribcage, urging her to straddle my legs. She did, her knees planted firmly on the bench outside of my hips, her breasts now snuggled closely against my chest. I edged the fingers of my right hand underneath the bottom of her t-shirt and caressed her hot skin as they slowly moved upward, my fingertips exploring every inch of her warm, silky smooth skin.