Chapter 14

"I'm going to have to get back to town some day," said Mike a week later. He and Ellie were laying by the side of the lake. They watched the swallows that flew high above them, darting quickly after insects. For the past week Mike had delayed his return to L.A., while trying to gain Ellie's confidence. He wanted to take her with him, but Ellie, shaken by her encounter with Burt Conroy, was as skittish as a doe when she was around him - or any other man except Doc Reynolds. Doc Reynolds had spent long hours with her, teaching her how to fish, and it seemed as if the peaceful, quiet fly-fishing and her long conversations with him had brought back the sweet and pleasant disposition that she had been known for.

As for Mike, the days were painful for him. From day to day he saw more and more of Ellie, but never did he so much as touch her hand. She needed rest, she needed to regain her trust in people. He had been utterly surprised when, one day, she suggested quietly that they go up to the lake and sunbathe. Now they were there. Ellie had borrowed one of Cindy Wheeler's bathing suits, a brief, two-piece affair that was a deep purple in color and revealed her graceful curves nicely.

Ellie sprawled on the hot sand, a quiet smile on her face. For a long time she didn't reply to Mike's remark about going back to town. Then she finally spoke. "This was actually Doc Reynolds' idea," she said. "He wanted me to be alone with you. Even though it was his idea, I'm glad I did it. You've been good to me, Mike. You know - " She was silent for a moment, trying to get the right words together. "I had a real crush on you. I really did."

"You -!" Mike stared at her.

She nodded. "I really did. I hung around hoping I'd bump into you."

"But you never went anywhere with me. And I asked you a number of times."

She shrugged. "I was timid. I didn't know what to say when I was around you. I was afraid I'd say the wrong thing."

"You - you said you had a crush on me. Does that mean -?"

"Not necessarily," she said, looking up at him. "I - oh, I don't know how to say it. I just like to be around you."

He took her hand and kissed it, feeling an extraordinary tenderness toward her, a feeling of immense well-being. Looking up at her he saw that her lovely face was wreathed in smiles. Her lips were slightly parted. When he took her in his arms she didn't resist, but let her body relax against his. He could smell the faintest scent of wisteria at her throat.

"I - " Then she stopped talking and pressed her lips to his. With a frantic, awkward eagerness she kissed him. Mike prevented himself from reaching down to touch her, to fondle her breasts or touch the creamy flesh of her lovely thighs. "I - " she said again.

Again she stopped. "Mike - "

"What is it?" he asked.

"Doc - well, he thinks that - he said."

"What?"

"He gave me some advice. About us."

"I hope he told you to go off and live with me happily ever after. Is that what he said?"

She looked away from him. "He said - he said that we should, well, have an affair. Oh, Mike, I'm so embarrassed, but - but I just - I'm just so afraid, and Doc said I might never get over it if I didn't experience sex now, with someone who won't hurt me, who liked me."

She hid her face in her hands.

For a long time neither of them spoke. Mike felt an immense sense of well-being and felt himself growing aroused. "Okay?" he said.

She nodded and looked miserable. He reached around her gently and undid the strap of her bikini top, letting it fall away. Her white breasts were exposed, soft and lovely, with plump nipples that crinkled in the slight breeze that blew over them. She looked down at them as if surprised.

Mike was unsure of himself - wanted to go slow for her sake - but when he hesitated she reached down and slipped out of the bikini bottom, then blushed a deep red when she saw him looking at her soft clump of golden pubic hair and the pink slit beneath it.

He touched her breasts gently. She reacted involuntarily just for a moment, then lay back on the warm sand and closed her eyes. Her body was fresh and lovely and had a faint smell of wisteria, and when he leaned over and kissed her breasts, the nipples turned harder. She kept her eyes closed, revealing only by a deep blush that she was still conscious. He let his hands wander over her, down to the white flesh of her thighs, which parted as he touched them.

Then he brushed her pubic area briefly. She shivered as his fingers touched there, coming by her crotch on the way up to that flat belly where he let his cheek rest. From a few inches away he could smell the lust there, the liquid that gathered in the lips of her cunt.

He kissed her everywhere, coming within an inch of her cunt, where he could see the cream pearling on the lips. When his finger finally touched, then entered them, she shuddered and gasped from the intensity of the feeling.

Finally he could stand it no longer. Moving quietly, as slowly as he could, he got down to where he could get between her legs. She lay there quietly, cooperating even when he brought her legs apart and ran his hand up to the slick patch of skin between them. When he lay down on her, with one hand guiding his cock up to her cunt, she didn't resist at all, but remained quiet, even a bit nervous.

When his cock slipped by the slick lips, missing the hole, she reached down, blushing furiously, and guided his cock herself. Then she left her hand there, cradling his cock, feeling the way it jerked and thrust up into her body, while her cunt, tight and inexperienced, gave little rhythmic surges, as if protesting. Mike came twice in a few minutes - helpless to stop himself. Later, when he was kissing her gently and fucking rhythmically, slowly, he felt her tighten suddenly. Her eyes came open and she looked startled.

"What -?"

"It's okay," he said. "Just let it happen."

Then her breath was short as he thrust hard into her and he felt her cunt convulsing while her hands gripped him tightly.

"Oh," she said when it was over. "I - I didn't know about that - that anything could be so good." Suddenly she realized that he was staring at her, unable to resist her youthful beauty, her loveliness. She blushed again and turned away.

Mike moved to her and kissed her on the neck. "Was it really good?" he asked.

She nodded. "I guess I had some pretty bad ideas about what it was like, after all that with - with - "

"I know," he said. "But that's all over now. You're starting fresh, remember?"

"I know," she said, and, turning to him, kissed him for a long time.