Copyright© 2000

She'd gotten off early Thursday afternoon for a doctors appointment. As soon as she was through with the exam, she headed for the hot springs. David and Ellen would be driving up together Friday afternoon.

Almost two and a half decades long, their friendship had been a gypsy sort of thing. Dave had been her housemate, then Ellen's boyfriend. That's how she'd meet Ellen. They'd done the sixties together, then they'd moved to follow the grad school path, while she'd taken her B degree and went to work. Corporate life had kept moving her every three or four year. Her marriage had come and gone, her present lover was going and she need badly needed some time at the springs.

She parked and got her pack on and made her way across the big rocks across the river and followed the path up hill towards the privately owned springs. The ka chunk! of an ax cutting wood drifted towards her as she walked up towards the camping sites. It was only when she rounded the last bend before the caretakers cabin that she could see the shirtless man chopping the wood. The long back muscles rippled as he whipped the ax through the air, ropy arm muscles pulling the double bit ax through the swing.

She paused to watch for a minute, catching her breath and easing the pack straps. There was an animal grace to his movement, the sinewy twisting of his body as he raised the ax and whipped it over his head and through the log, breaking it cleanly into halves. The muscles bunched and slithered up his back and arms, guiding the blade in its powerful arch. The old faded Levi's molded his butt and legs. She'd always had a thing for guys in Levi's. The way that they were faded more where he sat and the knees rubbed. She enjoyed watching him for a few minutes, until the too heavy pack (she wasn't going to be carrying it for miles, so she'd overloaded it deliberately) grew uncomfortable. She walked out of the shadows of the trees and into the small clearing, calling out a hello to him after he'd completed a swing.

He paused and turned, returning her greeting. His torso had a slick sheen to it, sweating in the cool fall air. A small patch of chest hair s trailed a thin line down his lean stomach past his navel to his 501's brass button.

"You a member?" His asked in a pleasantly soft voice, a voice that talked quietly because it didn't have to compete with city noises.

"Yeah. I'm here to set up camp early. David and Ellen will be getting here tomorrow." She felt strange saying that, telling a complete stranger that she'd be alone all night. But David and Ellen were the members here. "You're the caretaker?"

"Yup." He offered his hand. "I'm Steve. You've been here before?"

She took his callused hand, her small hand engulfed in his. "Suzie. Yeah... Is the campsite below the falls taken?"

"You've got your choice. Mid week in the fall, I'm usually the only one here. You need any help setting up?"

"I was a girl scout once. I still remember how to pitch a tent." She said dryly.

"Okay. We've had some rain so that the woods are wet enough that you can have a camp \fire. If you need anything, I'll be here." Not pushing into her space, just offering help in a friendly way. She wondered how old he was. Beards made it hard to tell.

"Thanks. When my friends show up, you'll tell them where we are?"

"Sure. David and Ellen, right?"

"Right. Thanks."

"Enjoy the spring."

She lollygaged setting up the camp. In her backpacking days, she would have had the tent put up and dinner done in twenty minutes flat. But this was a different sort of camping and she'd brought stuff she would have never have brought if she was going to be humping it for a distance. She made a sandwich and drank a beer with it, one of the three that she'd brought along. Then packed a towel, trail mix, flash light, sweater, clean panties and socks into a stuff sack and went up to the springs. It was totally deserted. It was the first time that she'd ever had the springs to herself and she welcomed the solitude.

Damn C anyway. After her marriage, she'd gone onto one temporary man after another. She'd experimented with women in her college days, usually with a man or men there, but it hadn't been her main thing. After the fourth or fifth temporary relationship folded, she'd wandered into a bar one rainy nigh and gone home with C. C who'd followed her to Seattle. C of the pale blond hair, pale gray eyes. Of the 'need some space for myself to grow in.' C, who insisted on monogamy, but who slept around.

Like the song said: Looks that would let her get away.

She rolled over in the hottest pool and brooded, chin on the mortared stone lip of the pool. Why was she going through this again? The good sex had been over for months. Why didn't she just kick her lying ass out? Maybe she was trying to hold onto something familiar in her new surroundings. Maybe she was just scared of being lonely. Maybe it was just that she didn't want to have another failed relationship on her record. Maybe...

Well. It's tough letting go, but this weekend was hers. She needed some pampering, but didn't want to unload on her friends. Not all of it anyway. Soak it out, then sort it out.

She watched the sunset going on in the sky, the horizon hidden behind the almost mountains she was in. The golden steaks in the clouds told her that that someone was having a glorious sunset. The trees became monochrome and she lit her candle lantern as the evening became night. The splashing of the water felt good on her. The tight muscles had loosened in her neck and a gradual jellification had set in. She eased into the cool pool, letting the water flowing out of the upper pool slide down over her.

She thought about the great massages that David used to give. She smiled to herself, remembering what the massages had usually led to. And how well he did that, too. She knew Ellen wouldn't mind if he gave her a massage. Ellen had been there when he'd done a lot more than that. Ah, the good old days. Twenty years of every three or four years having some casual sex together. Such great casual sex!

It was after her husband Sam had left and before Ellen's late term miscarriage. They'd gotten together for a week. Shopping and shows and dinner, showing her places. But no sex. Then Ellen confided that after the almost baby it had gotten bad between David and her. The clumsy doctor had sewn her up so badly that she was loose as a goose. And while cunnilingus was fun, it only went so far. While Davids cock still went deep enough, it just didn't go wide enough. Suzie remembered Davids cock. A pink banana that was about all her small figure could take comfortably. A monster, no. Respectable, yes. Poor David, she thought. Poor Ellen. Remedial surgery wasn't covered by their health insurance. With that and Chrissy there being 'monogamous', it wouldn't be okay to have sex in the casual way they were used to. Still, she would think of some of the things that they'd done together over the years and get herself off.

Her fingers had been idly poised over her mons, cupping the hot water to her pussy absentmindedly. She noticed how her nipples were sticking up on her small breasts. I'm horny, she thought in mild astonishment. What with the Chrissy situation, it had been a while.

She turned to the rock face and clutched the splashing water to her. She directed rhythmic splashes against her furry lips, while her other hand skinned back her clit. Oh yes, little pearl, you need a good rubdown too. She closed her eyes and moved against the warm rough rock, grazing her nipples against it under the warm water. She thought again of the times that they had been together, the three of them so inventive and fun. She worked three of her fingers inside herself, remembering how David had fucked her while Ellen ate her that special, sweaty Saturday afternoon. She felt the tensions building up in her legs as she encouraged the water with little pats. She arched up against the warm rock. It had been so long since she'd had more than a quick twiddle in the morning under the shower. This one she let build and build. The water sloshing into her cupping hand and she beat it up into her... Oh yes!!

She yelled out as she came, the force rushing through her caused her knees to slump, banging against the rock. Her eyes flew open as her balance started to go. And past the candle, she saw a flashlight retreating back up the trail.

She lazed in the yellow light in the nylon tent. While it had been embarrassing, there was a sneaky kind of turn on about having someone (not a rapist, thank God!) watching her get off. She thought about the time that she set her husband up to get seduced by Ellen where she and David could watch. That wasn't a bad memory, she thought. But thinking about the stranger watching her get off... Ohhhh.

She slid her hand down and welcomed the morning.

It was almost ten when she got up to the spring.

She saw the jeans hanging on the peg in the lean to clothing shelter first. It was on thing fantasizing about someone, but running into them not an hour later... and especially after last night.

His head was lying in his arms, eyes closed, wearing one of those slack, soaked out looks. She figured, what the hell, and went in the lean to and started taking off her clothes, tying to be quiet so as not to disturb him. A shoe fell on the plank floor and she glanced over quickly, in time to see his eyes open languidly.

"Hello," he murmured.

"Hi. Sorry to disturb you. Attack of the clumsies. Nice day, isn't it?" She babbled nervously.