Prologue

Clear blue sky. A few clouds of pure white, slowly moving across the azure dome. There's one that looks like a rabbit. Another that is clearly a heart. At least until seconds later when their shape would alter and then become something else. The air was warm - probably low eighties - although I knew that it would become quite cool in a few more hours. High up in the Rockies the thin air makes for rapid changes of temperature, but for the moment it was quite comfortable to lie here on the green grass, the scent of evergreens flooding my senses, and a blue alpine lake only ten yards distant.

The sun warmed my naked body and that of the man lying beside me as we dried from our recent swim. This all seemed so natural and yet so very, very strange. Two weeks ago I had been a virgin. I hadn't been skinny dipping since I was a kid and never thought I was the type to ever do so again. I was the "good girl" who never did such things. A month before I had barely met the man beside me - now my lover - and two months before that I was still in high school and had never experienced or even imagined that all I've done in the last few weeks was anywhere in my foreseeable future. How wonderful the world can become in so short a time!

The two of us were backpacking in the mountains of Idaho. Actually we had hiked into this spot and fallen in love with it and had been here for the past four days. Well off the beaten path, as much as any path is beaten in this remote region of the National Forest, we had seen no one since well before we had even reached the trailhead. No cars for many, many miles of the last of our drive and absolutely no one after we took to the trails. We might have been completely alone in the whole world - and I don't think either of us would have minded. I know I wouldn't have.

We had come upon this small lake, clear and calm, a small steam flowing in and another flowing out. It was located in a small bowl between mountain peaks. The forest came down almost to the edge of the water on three sides, the other being a small meadow leading up to the sharp slope up another peak. We had found a campsite on a level area some thirty feet above the lake, a small clearing surrounded by tall evergreens. We had checked and fires were permitted as long as the weather didn't become too dry and we had had several showers since we had arrived, although nothing too heavy or lasting.

We filtered the water for drinking, just in case, although it looked crystal clear. True it was quite cold but that just meant that after we did swim we just needed to find some way to warm up when we emerged. Lying in the sun as we now were was one way, but we had tried several others. In fact, even now the sun was just a second stage - we had first warmed considerably making love on the nylon ground cloth we used for a "beach blanket" out here.

Two weeks ago I was a virgin. Oh, I wasn't totally without experience. I had done my share of necking and petting. I had even given blowjobs - well, two of them anyway. But I had never gone further. Now I decided that being a virgin was much overrated. Well, maybe not really, but I had lost my virginity in a most wonderful and romantic way and had also discovered the fantastic pleasures offered by such activities.

While many of our activities are tender and romantic, some are more so than others. But the others are just as wonderful in their own way. We make long, slow love at least once or twice a day but we also have hot, pounding, animal sex quite often. We fuck. A word I never (well, hardly ever) used before. Now I find I am just as ready as any man to engage in such activities. At least with my current lover. I haven't been counting but I think we are probably having sex at least three, four or five times a day and sometimes even more. All I know for sure is it has never been more than I wanted.

Now I was lying here beside him, his hand resting on my thigh, feeling sated, at least for the moment, and thinking how wonderful the whole universe was. I must have dozed off for a little while because I suddenly became aware, as Matt leaned over and gave me a deep kiss, that the sun had dropped much lower in the sky. I also became aware that, despite the hot kiss, the air felt a little chilly on my bare skin.

"Good nap, Beautiful?" he asked.

I smiled and gave the kiss right back to him. "I think so. I guess I fell asleep."

"Well, really, I think we both did. It seems to have gotten a little cooler and, although I love looking at you like this, I expect you'll want to put something on besides that lovely smile."

I looked up at him. "Actually, I don't WANT to but I think I'd BETTER get dressed. Matt, I still find it surprising that I've come to like being naked so much. That is just not like me, or at least not like the me I was a few weeks ago. But with you I love being dressed just in skin."

"You will certainly get no argument from me on that subject. Lauren, you are a beautiful girl and I love looking at you. Not to mention all the other things we can do without clothes."

I gave a little laugh. "Yes, and we certainly have been doing them." I turned serious for a second. "Matt, I want to thank you for making it so wonderful for me."

Matt interrupted. "Definitely no more than you have for me. You are one very sexy girl."

"No, Matt, I mean especially the first time. I know a lot of girls don't find the first time so great. I've heard a number of them at school tell about how they lost their virginity in the back seat of a car and how it only lasted a few seconds. They didn't really get a lot out of it. But you made it wonderful for me. Thank you."

"I still don't think I did that much, but you are certainly welcome if you think so."

We shared another kiss and then headed up to the tent where we pulled on jeans and shirts and our boots. When we came back out of the tent Matt looked around at the sky and remarked, "We probably should be starting to think about supper. It does get dark quickly here."

"OK, let's see what we have left." I went over to where we had our food hanging high off the ground some distance from the tent and lowered it down. Matt came with me and we opened the sack to observe the contents.

"Looks like we have a choice of beef stew, spaghetti, chili or chicken-rice," he said as he held up the remaining freeze dried dinners.

"Any of those is fine with me," I replied but the thought that filled my head was that this meant that we only had three additional nights here before we had to start back.

I think Matt caught my thoughts because he said, 'Yeah, I guess Friday is our last full day out here. Well, Lauren, we know we have to leave sometime." Then he turned me towards him and added, "We'll still have another couple of days on the way home and then in another week we'll both be at OSU. This isn't the end for us unless you want it to be."

"No! I don't want that. It's just so wonderful out here with you."

He smiled at me and gave me a quick kiss. "Then we'll just have to do it again sometime. Maybe next summer."

"Yes! Let's plan on that. Maybe we could even make it longer."

We picked the chicken-rice dish and pulled the remaining food back to it's lofty resting place and moved back over to where we had a fire ring just beyond the edge of the woods near the lake shore, stopping on the way to get the cook kit and small camp stove.

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