Chapter 12
"Isn't this a fabulous day, Angel?" Joe remarked happily, raising his voice into the wind. His irresponsible good spirits moved him to reach over and give her leg a playful squeeze.
Carla nodded and smiled in response to his question. She snuggled closer and draped her arm affectionately around his shoulders.
They were barreling south on Highway 137 in his well traveled Chevy convertible. Past Lemay now, they were entering the rolling foothills country of the Ozarks. Joe'd been stealing as many sideway glances at her as reasonable road safety would permit. How lovely she was today, all shiny and golden in a powder blue, brocaded sweater with matching slacks, and a frilly white blouse that pertly emphasized the points of her breasts. The bright sun sparkled in her hair, and the wind puffed stray locks into fetching billows.
"Hey, there's a good spot," he exclaimed. He indicated a high, grassy knoll off to the right up ahead. A winding dirt road led up and over the top where a gnarled, spreading oak tree perched picturesquely-Some kindly farmer had left his rickety gate open, permitting access.
"It looks fine to me, darling," Carla agreed.
Joe slowed, pulled off the pavement and began the ascent up the rutted lane. He felt as free and clean today as the cloudless blue sky above them.
The surprising encounter with Karen yesterday had triggered something within him. By some magic chemistry it had induced a new self-acceptance. The pall of gloom and foreboding he'd been living under had just gone poof. Of course, there could never be any kind of love relationship between he and Karen. He didn't want it, and had been delighted to realize that, true to her word, neither did she. Still, he felt he'd found a friend in her. He certainly owed her a debt of gratitude. However unwittingly, she'd not only brought him peace of mind, but enabled him to recapture a measure of his sadly sagging self respect. She'd freed him to let loose and really enjoy what he and Carla had together. A good kid, that Karen. Yes, she could come to him for love lessons any time. Without the slightest trace of guilt, he rather hoped she would ... He braked to a stop just beyond the rim of the hill, out of sight of the highway.
Grabbing the picnic basket from the back seat, he said: "Get the blanket, will you, hon?"
Carla did so and they spread the blanket in the grass under the old shade tree and began unpacking and sorting the contents of the basket. So what did it matter if it was all delicatessen food, as opposed to the home-fashioned delicacies an Annie, for instance, might have packed? He'd resolved as of yesterday that he was out of the judgment business for good, either as applied to himself or others. Most especially, he would henceforth be tolerant of the minor foibles of this darling, golden-haired girl at his side.
"Oh, Joe, look at the view," Carla enthused.
His gaze swept an undulating vista of green, spreading out for miles from the lee side of their hill. Yes, it was beautiful. So was she, he admired lovingly, his eye returning to her fragrant, exciting presence. They might last for a week or a year or a lifetime. He didn't know. For however long it might be, he was going to enjoy it to the hilt. Personally, despite the obvious practical problems to be countered, he thought they had a fighting chance to make it all the way on this, their second time around.
Carla laid down a miniature salami and nestled close to him as he sat. She wriggled her precious head snugly into the hollow of his neck and shoulder. Together they contemplated the bright horizon.
"Want to know something, Joe?" she asked pensively.
"What, Angel?" he replied contentedly as his hand hefted the sweet firmness of her hip.
"I think I'm falling in love with you again."
Just the tenderness with which she said the words produced a warm, jellied sensation deep inside him.
"Every time we're together, darling," she continued tenderely, "it feels more and more like it did the first time. I loved you then too, Joe. I really did. Did you know that?"
"I was a beast, wasn't I?"
"Yes you were, you rat," she said without rancor. She squirmed about and pushed him slowly to his back, gazing closely down at him, her blue eyes open and shining. "But I'm awful glad to have my big rat back again. I missed him, so terribly, for so long. Are you glad to be with your little mouse again?"
He answered by engulfing her powerfully in his arms, one hand cupping a ripe cheek of her tight buttocks, the other moving on the graceful, sensuous curves of her back. There was a brief pause in which their faces traded happy, peaceful, nose-to-nose smiles. Then their lips met in a sweet, unhurried kiss. Yes, oh yes, I'm happy to have found my little mouse again. My little golden mouse, his heart sang, as he drank in her softness, luxuriated in her heady fragrance.
When their tongues met at last, just tippingly at first, the languorous kiss commenced to assume more emphatic dimensions. As her tongue darted flickingly between his teeth, in and out, deeper and deeper with each thrust, Joe found himself riding a rising tide of arousal. He clasped her more tightly, his strong hand kneading now at the roundness of her cheek, trying to cup all of it at once.
"The ants will get our lunch," she warned teasingly.
"I hope they enjoy it," he growled. His mind couldn't have been farther from thoughts of Swiss cheese and pickles as he wrestled her forcefully over and gazed lustily into the willing blue depths of her eyes. God, how she turned him on, he marveled-She could send him soaring with a mere word, a touch, even a coy batting of those long lashes-He placed his open mouth fiercely upon hers, as she received his tongue with wet, sucking abandon.
As his hand pulled the tail of her blouse from her waistband and found the smoothness of her flat tummy, she broke the kiss to coo breathily:
"Oh, Joe, this is turning into an even better picnic than I hoped. You're feeling mighty good today, aren't you?"
Yes, yes, he was feeling good, he rejoiced, fumbling urgently with her blouse and sweater. She helped him, and soon her creamy pink ripeness was naked to the waist. Carla laid back and sighed her pleasure as he lovingly attended her. The soft swell of her breasts as she lay, were twin pools of enticement to him. Shimmering in the centers of the creamy pools, cherry-colored nipples floated, already throbbing under his gaze. Like cherries atop a rich ice-cream sundae, he might have thought. But these pools, while creamy, were anything but icy. No, they were warm, excrutiatingly warm and yielding to his touch as he bunched them together for close examination. He tongued one of the rubbery red points tickingly and saw it pucker and spike in an instant. Oh, those spectacular nipples of hers! He took the trembling antenna suckingly in his mouth, loving the fleshly bulk of it as he manipulated it with tongue and teeth.
"Oh, God, Joe, that makes me so hot," Carla gasped, her fingers compulsively clawing about in search of his masculinity.
He continued to belabor the hard nipples in turns, while their hands clutched urgently at each other, goading their passions onward. Carla now made many small female sounds with each shuddering breath she drew.
Breaking suddenly, Joe rose powerfully to his feet, muttering, "Let's really get some sun, Angel"
As the means to that end, he scattered his own clothing on the grass and helped Carla out of the rest of hers. They encountered each other nakedly then, he standing with feet planted apart, his staunch masculinity lancing the sky, she lying in the trembling-soft, yearning vigil of her femininity. Their eyes wandered hungrily over each other's nudity. Had she ever been more lovely? The precious golden girl opened herself to him there on the grass and he could restrain himself no longer.
He went to her with loving tongue and taut hips. Guiding him, she rose to meet him and they were deeply together, moving with ecstatic sweetness.
As their rhythms assumed ever more breathtaking nuances, Carla gurgled brokenly. "I love it, Joe. Don't stop, ever."
The ants on the blueberry muffins, being a discreet, civilized breed, took only passing notice of her remark, and went on about their business.