Natural Satisfaction (Au Naturel Trilogy Book 3)

by Anna Durand

  Well, if sexy little Heidi needed a friend… I volunteered for the job. As long as it came with benefits.

  I knew underneath those layers of khaki she had a killer body. Though she'd covered her head with a baseball cap, I knew those long, golden-blonde waves usually tumbled over her shoulders. Every time I'd seen her, I wanted to fist my hands in that hair while I fucked her. She was hiding her curves, but I'd seen every inch of that body the first time we met. She had spectacular breasts and a toned physique, but those curves softened her figure so she didn't look like a bodybuilder.

  Christ, I wanted to explore that body from head to toe.

  But Heidi had told me to buzz off. Not in those exact words. But yeah, I got the point.

  Fortunately, I'd never been that easy to discourage. The way Heidi licked her lips and her pupils enlarged when she looked at me, I knew she felt the same lust I did. But like I'd told Ollie earlier, I wasn't a total dick. I could sense when a woman needed some space, and for now, I'd give it to her. Ollie wouldn't tell me everything about Heidi, like why she threw herself at him when they'd only dated briefly. I'd ask Heidi about that sometime.

  Since I couldn't seduce Heidi yet, I decided to watch the naturists playing miniten. They kept trying to get me into their games, but I couldn't see past the wedge-shaped wooden boxes on their hands. They called those things "thugs." Now there was a friendly, fun-sounding word. The thugs looked like medieval torture devices designed to help the guy who wanted to lop off your hand get his ax lined up right. Not that I thought people actually did that with thugs.

  I kicked back on a lawn chaise so I could observe the miniten game. Most of the players I knew, like the senior citizens who came here often. Ruth and Sylvester Norris had basically taken up residence at the resort, and Eve and Val let them have a permanent lock on the bungalow behind the guest house. Anyway, I watched while Ruth and Sly led their team, the Silver Foxes, to victory despite the younger crew giving it their all. The old farts had stamina and the killer instinct, but the guests who were my age always underestimated the Silver Foxes.

  Heidi emerged from the guest house a few minutes after the miniten game ended.

  Unfortunately, that was right when I had to go to the office on the second floor of the guest house to perform my concierge duties. Guests left notes in the box beside the office doorway or they submitted their requests on our mobile app. Yeah, we had one of those now. Ollie created the app himself since he had all the computer creds required to do mind-numbingly boring stuff like that.

  So I schlepped up to the office and snagged the few pieces of paper that were in the request box, then I sat down at the desk and accessed the app. Not much going on. Nudists were surprisingly easy-going. They didn't have prima donna demands, which meant I had more free time than I suspected the average concierge at a normal resort might have had. I changed into my uniform and took care of every request, delivering bottles of sunscreen and insect repellent, dropping off extra towels and pillows, and finally, helping a guy my age get his locked suitcase open. The dude lost his key. Luckily, I knew a thing or two about picking locks.

  Strictly in case of an emergency. I wasn't a criminal or anything, though I did learn lock-picking from a pro. He was behind bars, but I didn't hold that against him.

  After completing every concierge task, I headed out to the lawn again.

  The Kitten Brigade was about to play volleyball, and one of Heidi's friends seemed to be trying to convince her to participate. Heidi hunched her shoulders and kept shaking her head.

  I remembered the last time the Kittens had visited. Heidi played every game with gusto—miniten, tennis, volleyball, whatever—and she didn't wear a sports bra. I'd followed the movements of her bouncing tits instead of the bouncing ball. Man, she had fabulous jugs. It was weird that I'd seen her completely naked, many times, but I had never so much as kissed her cheek.

  That was nudism. Hot girls on display, but no touching allowed.

  Heidi's friends gave up and started the volleyball game without her. Heidi shuffled over to an Adirondack chair, the one farthest away from the game in progress. Her chair sat under the bows of a large pine tree, so she had plenty of shade. Since nobody else was on that side of the lawn, she had privacy too.

  I marched over there and dropped onto the chair beside hers. "Thought you liked sports. Why aren't you playing with your friends?"

  She raised her brows. "You really don't believe in easing into a conversation, do you? It's straight to the intrusive questions."

  "Why not answer? Maybe I'll go away if you satisfy my curiosity."

  "Doubtful. You seem like the kind of guy who has an insatiable curiosity about things that are none of your business."

  I might've thought I'd annoyed her if not for the calm, almost sultry tone of her voice. Her lips curled up a touch too. And her blue eyes sparkled, even though the sun didn't hit them directly.

  She was beautiful. Was it any surprise I wanted to seduce this girl?

  "You're right about one thing," I said, leaning over the arm of my chair to get closer to her. "I am insatiable."

  "Hmm." She roved her gaze over my entire body. "Why aren't you dressed like a Dracula knockoff anymore? Thought that was your shtick."

  "I'm not a knockoff of anyone. I'm an original. Johnny Cash always wore black, you know, but he wasn't a vampire."

  She turned slightly sideways, toward me. "You like country music? I would've thought you'd be more into death metal."

  Her lips curled up even more when she said that. Heidi was teasing me. Score one for the Dracula knockoff.

  "I like good music," I said. "Don't care if it's country, classical, or jazz fusion. What about you?"

  "What music do I like?" She shrugged. "Not into music except at parties. Then I don't care what it sounds like as long as I can dance to it."

  Now there was the Heidi Mackenzie I expected to see. Except I wasn't seeing it. She told me she loved to dance, but she sat there in an Adirondack chair wearing khaki cargo pants and a baggy T-shirt. She still had that baseball cap on too. Carefree Heidi was still in hiding.

  I jumped up and held out my hand to her. "Let's dance."

  "What?" She drew her head back like she thought I might've been concealing metal spikes in my palm. "There's no music. And nobody else is dancing."

  "Let's be trailblazers. Maybe we can inspire other people to get off their asses and do the rumba." Not that I had one single clue how to rumba, but that wasn't the point. "Come on, Heidi. Have a little fun."

  She shook her head. "I don't dance anymore."

  "Why not? Did you join one of those cults where every guy has ten wives and the women have to wear ugly brown dresses?" I glanced at her clothes. "Or maybe the cult uniform is cargo pants."

  "I am not in a cult." She gave me the once-over, puckering her lips like she was trying not to smile. "You're the one who usually looks cult-ready. You probably want to sleep with me just so you can make me your satanic sacrifice."

  "People wear uniforms at work. It's not a cult thing."

  "I was talking about your fake-gypsy outfit."

  Fake gypsy? She was trying to annoy me, but I wouldn't fall for it. "Relax, Heidi, I'm not into sacrificing beautiful women. I might bite your neck, though, and suck on various parts of your body."

  "Celibate, Damian. I've told you already there will be no sex, no kissing, no anything that you're thinking about right now."

  I chuckled. "You read thoughts? That's supposed to be my shtick."

  "Don't need a crystal ball to know what you're thinking."

  How could I convince Heidi to have fun? Maybe I should've been asking myself why I cared if she didn't have any fun. It was a challenge, I supposed, and I'd always loved those.

  "Okay, no sex," I said. "But let's at least go for a walk. That'll be a lot more entertaining than sitting around watching other people have fun. And besides, I have a secret place to show you."

&n
bsp; "A secret place?" She said that like she thought I was going to drag her off to my satanic-sacrifice lair.

  "You'll like it, I promise." I held out my hand again. "Come on, Heidi, it's just a walk."

  She chewed on her lip for a few seconds, then she placed her hand in mine. "Okay. Show me your secret place."

  Chapter Three

  Heidi

  Damian led me around the edge of the lawn, where my friends were playing volleyball, and along the tree line until we came to a narrow trail that headed into the woods. He strode down that path. I'd never seen this trail before, despite having visited the resort many times over the years. Had I somehow missed it every single time I came here?

  The path might've been narrow, but we still managed to walk side by side. I didn't mind that. Company was nice, even if my new "friend" wanted to get me naked. He hadn't said anything overly suggestive since he tried to talk me into dating with a possible upgrade to sex.

  Damian was hot, but I had a plan and I would stick to it. Maybe it was more like penance than a plan. I had some serious penance to do to make up for all my mistakes.

  So yeah, no sex. Not with Damian. Not with anyone. No kissing either. And absolutely no flirting, not even if Damian started it.

  "Where are we going?" I asked. "I've never seen this trail before."

  "That's because it didn't exist until recently. I talked Eve and Val into starting a pilot program for something new we can offer to our guests. It's still in the developmental phase."

  "I hope you're not taking me to your secret sex house."

  He chuckled. "Interesting that your mind went straight to sex. But no, this is G-rated entertainment."

  "Okay. That's good." I considered him for a moment while we kept strolling down the trail, and my brain kept dreaming up questions I wanted to ask him. Before I did that, I needed to decide if I wanted to be friends with Damian. If not, then I didn't need to ask him personal questions. But my curiosity was pushing me to find out more about the man who liked to dress like a sexy vampire. Not that I would ever admit to him that I liked his Dracula-gypsy shtick.

  Right now, he was wearing his work uniform. But damn, he looked hot in that too.

  Stop thinking about how hot he is. No sex for six months, remember?

  "You look like you want to say something," Damian told me. "Go on, I don't mind. You might've noticed I'm not shy. Shameless might be a better description."

  "No kidding? I never would've guessed, Mr. I Love to Talk Dirty."

  "Would you want me to lie and say all I want to do is hold your hand and recite sonnets to you? I'm honest and upfront about what I want. You can feel free to slap me if you don't like it."

  Feel free to slap him? Damian was the weirdest man I'd ever met.

  "No thanks," I said, "count me out. Emotional torture is more than enough for me to handle."

  He raised his brows. "Torture? I don't want to do that."

  "Oh. Good." Maybe he meant that, maybe he didn't. I had no idea. But my brain kept urging me to ask questions and satisfy my curiosity, so I gave in. "What did you do for a living before you took a job here?"

  "I was a corrections officer at a state prison in Idaho."

  My feet stopped moving. My eyes refused to blink. I stared at him for several seconds, trying to digest his response. Damian seemed like the type of guy who would be a massage therapist or the owner of a cigar shop, not a prison guard. Maybe I had misjudged him.

  "Wow, that sounds crazy stressful," I said.

  "It could be, but there were never any incidents at the facility where I worked." He smirked. "You expected me to have some kind of sleazy job, didn't you?"

  "No, I was thinking either massage therapist or cigar shop owner."

  "Hmm. That's better than what most people assume I would do for a job." He swept his gaze over me from head to toe and back again. "What do you do? For work, I mean."

  "I'm a pharmacy technician."

  "Really? I never would've guessed that."

  He didn't sound disappointed like most men were when I revealed my career choice to them. They often responded by lamenting the fact they'd hoped I was a model or a stripper.

  Damian studied me again, tipping his head to the side. "I would've guessed geologist."

  "Ha-ha."

  "Not joking. You seem smart, and the last time you were here, I noticed you kept picking up pebbles on the beach and examining them like you were figuring out what kind of rock they were. Everybody else was swimming in the lake or relaxing on the beach, but you were busy with rocks."

  He noticed that? Weird. Either he'd been stalking me or… I didn't want to think about the other option. It meant he was interested, and I didn't want to attract anyone's interest right now.

  "I do love rocks," I said, "but it's a hobby, not my job."

  The fact that he assumed I had a serious job instead of being a stripper gave me an odd sensation in my tummy. Not quite fluttering. Something similar, but not that. It didn't mean I liked him.

  "Here's the deal," Damian said. "I'm attracted to you, Heidi, but I won't push it. You made it clear you think you don't want to date, so I'll respect that. But we can be friends. Right? Just friends."

  "Um, okay. Friends might be nice."

  "Awesome. Now, let me show you my pilot project."

  Damian wasn't a jerk who only cared about what his dick wanted. Huh. I never would've guessed that, but I supposed my checkered past with guys had colored my outlook. Having a new friend sounded kind of nice.

  I could keep my libido in check. No problem.

  He reached for my hand, then pulled his away. "Sorry. Force of habit."

  "Don't worry about it." Wasn't I the one who said no sex, no kissing, no fondling? Now I'd just excused him for attempting to touch me. Well, hand-holding wasn't exactly a felony offense. But it did imply intimacy, so yeah, he shouldn't do that. I might've been flip-flopping on the whole touching thing. Not on the dating thing, though. No way. So no touching either, just to be safe.

  But I had always loved going for walks hand in hand.

  Cut that out, girl.

  I followed Damian down the trail, trying very hard not to stare at his ass. Men's tushes had never been my favorite part of the male anatomy, but I'd seen Damian's naked rear a few months ago when he'd first visited the resort. He walked around in the nude for a long, long time. Even while I'd been insanely determined to win Ollie back, I couldn't stop myself from admiring his best friend's bod. I mean, I was a heterosexual woman and Damian was a hot man. He must've worked out. Not so much that he had giganto muscles like Val Silva. Damian's physique was somewhere between Ollie's subdued muscles and Val's totally ripped body.

  His ass flexed under his pants with every leisurely step he took. The fabric clung to his glutes, accentuating every movement of those muscles.

  Why did I say I wouldn't have sex for six months?

  Because you don't want to make a fool of yourself again, you idiot.

  Right. I had this plan that involved celibacy. But I could still ogle Damian's tush. No harm in that.

  Damian moved to the side as we entered a grassy clearing that was ensconced in the forest. Two horses grazed inside a large field that had a wooden fence around it and a metal gate. Part of the field nearest to us had been fenced off to form a small, round paddock.

  "What is this?" I asked.

  "My pilot project." He swept his outstretched arm to indicate the entire clearing. "I want to offer riding lessons and horseback tours. Val and Eve suggested I try it out first to make sure having horses out here is feasible, and to make sure I really want to do this. I know I do, absolutely, but I respect their opinions. That's why I started my pilot project."

  "You ride horses?"

  "Of course. I'm a gypsy, after all." One side of his mouth ticked upward. "Oh wait, that's wrong. I'm a low-rent Dracula knockoff."

  "I'm sorry I said that."

  He sh
rugged. "I've been called worse. Dracula's cool, anyway. Must be, considering how many movies have been made about him and his kind. Vamps are supposed to be very erotic and enticing to women." He bared his teeth. "Want to find out if it's true? I'd love to bite your neck and suck on it."

  "There you go again, mouthing off. And I was just starting to think you might be a nice guy after all."

  "It was a joke. I'm not a total dick, you know."

  "Doesn't change the fact that I'm celibate. No kissing, fondling, or neck-sucking."

  He sighed. "Is this no-sex thing permanent? Or can I make a reservation to seduce you on the day your celibacy plan ends?"

  I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't help laughing. "Is this how you prove you're not a dick? It's less than convincing."

  "Okay, I give. Let's go play with the horses."

  My gaze shifted to the horses out in the field, chomping on grass and swishing their tails. They looked serene right now, but I tried to steer clear of the big four-legged beasties. My history with horses wasn't pleasant.

  "I'd rather not," I told Damian. "Horses and me… We don't get along."

  "These two are sweethearts. You'll like them."

  Staring out at the horses, I suddenly realized I was hugging myself.

  "Are you afraid of horses?" Damian asked.

  "Um…maybe. A little." I forced myself to lower my arms, and instead, I stuffed my hands in my pants pockets. "I got bitten by a horse when I was eight."

  "You're with me this time, and I won't let anything happen to you."

  I might've thought he was being arrogant when he said that, but his tone of voice belied that. He sounded like he genuinely meant to protect me. Once upon a time, I'd loved horses and wanted to learn to ride. After the biting incident, I hadn't gone near a horse ever again, not even a miniature one.

  "How about this," Damian said. "I'll go in there and catch the boys, then bring them over here so you can pet them over the fence. We can call it a soft launch for your riding lessons."