by Gabi Moore
A horn beeped outside and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I scrambled to open the gate and almost immediately they both blustered in. Little Nicky came skipping in first and stopped to stare up at me with a silly look on her face. Her mother followed behind her, placed her hands on the little girl’s shoulders and smiled at me.
‘Well look at this! It’s Mark! Why don’t we say hello, Nicky?” she said, and knelt down to give the girl a kiss. Nicky blushed and muttered “hello” and tried to squirm to hide behind her mother.
“Mark, is the one that made your pony for you, remember?”
“Thank you, Mark,” she peeped.
She was like a perfect replica of her mother. It was uncanny. It wasn’t just the violently copper hair though – the little one was a match right down to her cheekbones, her little hazelnut nose and the way her chin came sharply to a point. I knelt down as well, although it felt awkward as hell. I had avoided rugrats all my life. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure if I had seen one up this close ever before.
“Hey, Nicky, how’s it going?” I said, and extended my hand to hers. She took it matter-of-factly and shook it, like a miniature business woman.
“Wow! That’s a firm grip. Hope you liked your pony.”
She lit up.
“His name’s Gregory,” she said. “We can’t bring him to the mountains because ponies don’t like mountains.”
“Bummer.”
Kat laughed at her and hoisted her up in her arms and planted another kiss on her forehead.
“Mark is coming with us to the mountains, remember mommy said?” she said into her ear. Nicky idly chewed on her little pink fingers and nodded, staring straight ahead.
She seemed so …small. And fragile. How in the hell was she speaking? I reminded myself to take a deep breath. I could do this. I loved Kat with all my heart. And this was just a little Kat, right? If Kat loved her, then I loved her. That was just logic. It didn’t matter that I felt like I was in the most stressful interview of my life, I would figure out a way to win this little girl’s heart if it was the last thing I did.
Nicky was pointing to me with a quizzical look on her face.
“Oh, she’s never seen tattoos before,” Kat said, laughing.
Motherhood looked good on her. There was something really sexy about the way it was so simple for her to balance the little one on her hip before. I knew I would be seeing another side to her this weekend, but I didn’t anticipate thinking that side would be so …cute?
I rolled up my sleeves and showed her all my tats. She smiled and poked her fingers at them, then tried to rub them off.
“Nicky! Me!” she squealed.
Kat put her down and laughed. “Sure baby, you can have tattoos. Just as soon as you turn eighteen.”
Nicky ran off into the garden. Kat lifted curious eyes to me. They were eyes that were filled with vague, tender questions. She said nothing, just waited for me to speak.
“Only a woman so beautiful could make such a beautiful child,” I said, and then winced at how cheesy I must have sounded.
She grinned.
“Oh man, you look awkward as hell. She doesn’t bite you know” she teased, and poked my ribs.
She took a step forward and came up close to me, dropped her voice and grazed her lips against mine.
“Are you ready for this weekend?” she said with a naughty look in her eyes.
“Absolutely,” I said and softly kissed her lower lip, lingering there for a moment to wait for the electricity to build between us.
Even dead still, even with us both holding our breath, she was still the most wildly exciting woman to me. Slinking my hand to the back of her neck I pulled her in for a deeper kiss, tasting her tentatively, her little tongue caressing secretly against mine.
“Let’s get going then!” she said, and pulled away, smiled broadly at me and then grabbed my backpack and slung it over your shoulder.
“So we’re really doing this, huh? A weekend away with a four-year-old. Ok. All right. Tell me I can do this, Kat,” I teased as we headed for the door.
She turned and gave me a saucy look and a wink.
“If it all gets too much for you, don’t worry, the safe word is ‘Barney’”.
She called out for Nicky, who came running and we all bundled ourselves into the car to leave.
If you had told me a year ago that I’d find myself heading off for a family getaway with a smoking hot redhead and her toddler, I would have asked you to pull the other one. And yet here I was. And it was …kinda nice. She looked fresh and happy and relaxed in a white and blue dress, and as she smiled over to me as I buckled up, a new sensation washed over me. We were on a different adventure. It hit me like a revelation: I didn’t care whether we went to massive S&M party or whether we went for a good old fashioned farmer’s market on a Sunday morning. All that mattered was that it was with her. The only thing better than seeing that beautiful smile plastered on her face was the thrill of knowing that if I played my cards right, the reason she’d smile would be me.
Deep down, I was all sorts of fucked up. I was immature; a child myself, to be honest. Going on this damn weekend would be the single most nerve-wracking event of my life. But to hell with it. I’d learn to be better about it. I’d learn to do the whole stepdad deal. Really. And though it scared the shit out of me, I could be a dad figure, if she wanted it. Till I figured out how, though, I’d just keep making wooden ponies and hope I picked it up along the way.
Chapter Twenty-Three – Kat
I tried my best to hide how nervous I was. I didn’t want to be one of those women, the kind who introduced their flaky-ass boyfriends to their children, only to break everyone’s heart when he ditched them all.
But to my surprise, Mark actually seemed to be getting on with Nicky. It was around an hour in and we had hit a long, flat road, and to my amusement they both settled into a long, totally stupid game of eye-spy.
“Something ‘ginning with zee!” Nicky yelled from her car seat in the back.
“With zee? Is it a zeeeeebra?” he yelled back, and she howled with laughter. Then she suddenly went serious.
“No, silly, there’s no zebras.”
“Ok, I give up, what did you choose?”
“I choose car!” she cried.
“But car doesn’t begin with z?”
“No it doesn’t!” she said and I felt her little legs kicking the back seat.
He turned to me.
“Kat, I don’t want to alarm you, but I don’t think your daughter knows how to play eye-spy” he said and raised a cute eyebrow at me.
“I’m not surprised, I don’t think she knows what letters are, so…”
“Mummy! Mark doesn’t know how to play eye-spy,” she yelled.
The two carried on, Mark leaning back to defend his case and Nicky trouncing him utterly with her watertight four-year-old logic.
The nerves had died down and now, yes, I was enjoying myself. Two of the most important people in the world to me were in the car right now, and they seemed to be getting on like a house on fire. I almost didn’t want to say anything for fear of jinxing it all. He turned in his seat and faced forward for a second. God he was good looking. How the hell had I managed that?
“I see you and little pipsqueak over there are getting on well,” I said, smiling at him.
“Crazy, huh?”
“Well… I was worried you guys wouldn’t bond, but you’re just perfectly on one another’s level,” I said and pulled my tongue at him.
He playfully swatted my knee but it was though we were both magnetized to one another and he just kept it there, squeezing the top of my thigh just so. We couldn’t do any more than that. Not while I was driving. Not with Nicky right there. Of course not….
And yet, just his touch was distracting enough. I let my knees float apart a little. I know he noticed, even though he said nothing and kept staring straight ahead. One hand on the wheel, I put the other on the hem of the skirt and sl
id it up, just a few inches. Without skipping a beat his hand followed, cupping the warm, exposed flesh in his broad hands. It drove me wild.
We were at least another hour away from out little mountain camp site. But with Mark, somehow less was always more. This was, after all, the man who had first made me come with nothing more than a puff of air. The thought alone made me squirm and readjust in my seat a little. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like Mark’s ninja sex skills were the perfect match for life with a toddler. He was a very, very creative man. He knew how to make me melt with a look. He could have me wet and begging with just a few kisses on my wrist. If anyone could squeeze in a few secret orgasms around the chaos of Nicky’s schedule, it was him.
By the time we found the place and pulled up to reception, I was desperately hot and bothered. Mark smiled, cool as can be, and hauled all our stuff out the car, went to fetch our key and bantered with Nicky all the while, who was now following him like an excited puppy.
I leaned against the car and tried to catch my breath. This was never what my happily-ever-after looked like in my mind. Mark was younger than me, covered in tattoos and made his living making sex toys, for heaven’s sake. And yet …this felt more right than anything I’d done for a good long while.
We set up camp and Mark helped Nicky unpack her stuffed toys and her coloring book. I hovered on the sidelines like a hungry jackal, waiting for the moment I could finally pounce on him.
“Ok, mom, I’m ready now,” she said and stood before me in her frilled pink swim suit and little rubber shoes.
It had taken ages to organize this little vacation, but it all centered around a sweet two-hour period where Nicky would have a group swimming lesson in the lake and Mark and I would sneak off and …well, it almost felt too naughty to think of while she was right there, staring up at me with those cartoon character eyes.
“What about your pool ring?” I asked.
“Mark has it,” she said and gestured to him, following behind her like the world’s unlikeliest butler.
He had also changed, into a shirt he knew I liked the best. It was a little tighter across the pecs than his other ones, and showed off all his ink to perfection. Call me shallow, I guess. I put on my flip-flops to join them to the lake but they both stopped me.
“Mom, Mark is taking me only,” Nicky said and lifted her eyebrows at me. I glanced at him, he shrugged and smiled and off they went. They were cute together, that was for sure.
Once they had disappeared round the bend I sat down on a log in silence and marveled at how hard my heart was beating. He’d be back in a second, and then we’d leave. I knew all the routes and paths in this forest, but with Mark, everything had a way of feeling strange and new.
I was wearing a bikini and a printed sarong knotted over my breasts – not exactly PVC and black leather, but somehow, it felt just right. I went to the tent and rummaged around for everything we’d need and packed it up in a little satchel we’d take with us. Suddenly, I was tackled from behind and flung over to my side. I yelped and burst out laughing.
“Mark! You scared me!” I said as he leaned over me, grinning like an idiot.
“That was fast,” I said.
I was flat on my back with him propped up on top of me, both of his strong legs clamping round mine. He said nothing, just slowly lowered himself down for a kiss and then back up again to give me another loaded look. I smiled up at him.
“Well, come on! We haven’t got all day!” he cried and lifted me up and out the tent, and I scrambled after him, laughing and clutching the satchel.
We stole away into the forest like a pair of naughty children who’ve slipped form the adult’s watch and now were running to do forbidden things in the woods.
“We’re like dirty Hansel and Gretel,” I giggled as I led him skipping over the old familiar stones and paths deeper and deeper into the woods.
I had chosen this spot because of how secluded it was. I was sure I was the only person in the world who knew about it at all. Ten minutes of excited running later I tugged his arm off the beaten track and we ascended a rocky crag, pulling ourselves up with bendy yearlings, the beginnings of sweat on both our brows. The thought of him following close behind sent a hot, urgent ache to that spot between my legs. I knew he was watching me from behind with every step. I turned me on to think how that was definitely running him on.
We walked on in silence, no path, no nothing.
“Kat,” he said from behind me, “you’re a swell girl and all, but I’ll be mad if you kill me out here or something, ok?”
I turned to flash him a devilish grin.
“Pipe down back there. You’d be flattered, anyway,” I said and picked up the pace. I could hear his low breath and chuckle as we ascended higher still.
Then, the brush thinned a little and, just like I remembered, the trees seemed to stop all at once, in an almost perfect straight line, leaving us out in the middle of a beautiful, deserted clearing. Just a few yards off, again exactly as I remembered them, were four trees huddled together in a secretive clump, the shade between them looking dark and delightful. He shielded his eyes to look at where I was pointing, then looked at me, then dropped his weight and in an instant had sped off, sprinting as hard as he could to the trees, kicking his heels up high as he yelled behind him, “last one is a rotten egg!”
I shrieked and took off after him, but couldn’t catch him. By the time I reached the cool shadows of the trees, he was waiting for me there with strong, open arms, and I ran straight into him, panting and laughing, him closing his arms around me and tumbling us both down to the floor, giggling like preschoolers the whole way down.
It happened so quickly it was though we both had no control over it at all. Our bodies, close enough and already hot and slick with sweat, simply found their well-worn way to one another, already well-programmed on the old dance we had practiced so many times before. My mouth was on his in an instant. I found myself desperately grinding against his hip bone, frantically trying to relieve the tension put there from a whole day of frustrated glances and flirty smiles.
Fuck, I wanted him.
I wanted him so badly it nearly burnt.
Gasping lips firmly on mine, his greedy hands clutched and grasped at me, like he couldn’t decide what he wanted to grope first. It was hot, fervent fumbling of two horny teenagers, fucking outdoors in a stolen bit of time. He rose up to his haunches and towered over me, clumsily tearing at my sarong and unknotting it. My bikini flew off without any protest and the sarong was tossed aside without any ceremony either. My head flopped to the side to see them both hanging limp in the long grass all around us; grass long enough to bend under us and mold a little secret bed all around us, grass whispering almost as eagerly as we were.
“Kat! What’s that?” He pulled back and looked at me, stunned.
I flopped back down on the soft grass, threw my hands up over my hand and looked at him provocatively.
“I got it a few days ago,” I said. “Do you like it?”
His hands went down to touch the plump skin at the top of my thigh. A thick, black band of solid black circled me there, striking in the contrast.
“You got a tattoo…” he said as he passed his tanned brown fingertips over the spot again and again.
“Do you like it?” I asked and looked at him coyly.
“I fucking love it,” he growled and leaned it to kiss me passionately again.
Soon his clothing came off too, and the sudden heat of his hard body against my skin kindled the ache between my legs into a full-blown blaze. I squirmed hard against his hips, like every part of my body wanted to feast on every part of his. His fat cock bobbed hard and swollen against the now naked skin of my stomach.
“Let’s do it now,” I breathed into his ear. It looked like it took the most monumental effort to tear himself away from me.
“I’m ready,” he said, and gave me a look that was almost intoxicated.
I reache
d over the wisps of grass and found the satchel. Inside was a little box. I took it in my hands and handed it to him. We sat opposite one another, completely naked in our temple of grass, his dick so hard it was straight up and nearly flat against his stomach.
I opened the box and took out one of the rings. He had made them both from three bands of different colored hardwoods. I gave it to him, and he took one in his hands too.
I had thought long and hard about the words for this moment. The gestures. But the more I did, the more I realized that that would only cheapen things.
Eyes misty, I simply took his hand and slid the ring onto his finger. He did the same to me, hands trembling. The grass whispered around us, and the sky was clean and fresh and open all above us. We held hands for a moment, together, knees touching, stripped of everything and with no audience except four lonely, generous trees.
He leaned forward and planted a kiss on my lips, and lingered there. Again our bodies folded into each other, easily.
It had been hard, some of the lessons we’d endured, but we had learnt one another, slowly but surely He had studied all the little signs and signals fluttering on the surface of my body, and I had taken the long and punishing path of learning how to accommodate the total, punishing heft of his oversized cock, again and again and again, until I felt completely re-sized, molded and shaped for him and him alone.
I could tell he was a little at a loss without any steel or leather to restrain me, but why bother? He had me so completely that he could pin me to the ground with just a look. I knew our original shared instruments had been cruder ones, made of bolts and ropes and buckles, but under these trees, in this wild air and sunshine, we were stripped of all our old props, of our clothing, of our pasts, of everything. It was just him, me, and the sordid things we were about to do to one another.
I leaned forward to take him in my mouth, gliding a wet tongue round his ample head and quickly swallowing down as much as of that smooth, hard length that I could. At first I had struggled to get even half of him inside my throat. But the desire to please him – and several expert lessons later – he had trained me to open up fully to him. He groaned and whimpered, pressing up his strong hips to meet my mouth.
