Chapter 2

“Hello Crystal,” Steve spoke when his phone rang at 5:30 Sunday morning.

“Good morning. Did I wake you?”

“Not quite. Where are you? I’m about ready to put the biscuits in the oven.”

“I’m at highway 123 and Strawberry Loop, across from Minnow Creek Cemetery. Am I close?”

“Real close. I’ll put the biscuits in now. Head north on the Loop and watch on your right for 3701. You can only turn one way – follow it about a quarter of a mile and look for a mailbox on your right that’s been shot all to hell and a road sign right beside it that’s just as bad. That’s my drive.”

“What are we having for breakfast?”

“Homemade biscuits, gravy, eggs, bacon and homemade hash browns.”

“I like my eggs over easy.” She was laughing at his big breakfast menu.

“I already knew that – you’re country.”

“I see your mail box. That thing is a mess.”

She sounded good early in the morning.

“I’ll send Dog out to meet you. That way you’ll know if he likes you or not.”

“What if he doesn’t like me?”

“I’ll get rid of him, I guess.”

“I see him. Damn he looks mean. Are you sure it’s safe for me to get out?”

“Come on in. I told him you were a good-looking woman who was going to spoil the hell out of him.”

“Bye.” She was laughing as she stepped out of her Dodge Dakota 4x4, onto the gravel drive.

“Hi Dog. Steve told me you’d like me ... Do you?”

She spoke to the mean looking dog approaching her. She backed up to her closed truck door, wishing it was open. For the first time in her life she was afraid of a dog.

He never wagged his tail as he walked straight toward her, head down, looking up with cold hard eyes.

She’s dressed in white jogging shorts, a white t-shirt with white Nikes. Dog walked right up to her and sniffed her crotch. He looked up and wagged his tail, then ran back to the house. When he reached the porch he turned and looked back at her, as if telling her to come on.

Steve was watching the whole time from the doorway. He laughed when Dog smelled her crotch. He wished he’d had a camera to take her picture. He watched as she walked toward him. She saw him, and she was smiling.

Her red hair is braided in one long thick braid down her back. She looks thinner today. Taller than he remembered. She looks good dressed in shorts and a tee shirt. Her long legs were lightly tanned from being outdoors.

“Hi. I bet you didn’t think I’d come way out here to see you, did you?” She wanted to hug him, but she didn’t.

“Well, you told me you were coming ... and I was hoping you would.”

“You really do live back in the sticks. I could see the bluffs behind your cabin when I drove in. I like this.”

“I like it too – it fits me. By the way, I like your wheels.”

“Yes it does fit you ... and thanks. I bought that little Dakota when I graduated from U of A two years ago.”

She followed him into the kitchen where he looked in the oven at his biscuits. When he stood and turned ... she was right in front of him.

“I want to hug you. Just as friends ... May I?”

As tall as she was, she was a head shorter than him. That was one reason she was attracted. But, that wasn’t the only reason.

He never said a word as he opened his arms to let her walk into his embrace. Her arms went around his chest under his arms, up high on his back and she felt his hard lean body beneath his thin, camo shirt. She slid her hands down to his waist and felt his lean, muscular back. The deep curvature of his spine and the muscles on either side made her want to slide her hands down over his buttocks. She forced herself not to. She knew she would though ... She knew he would have a fine, muscular butt to go with his rugged body.

Steve hugged her to his chest. With her breasts tight against him, he slid his hand down over her bra strap in back. She wore a sports bra. The band was wide and tight across her back. He slid his hands down her back as she had done his. She’s strong and muscular. She’s as fit as any woman he’s ever met. Even more so than the ones who trained as Bravo operatives. He loosened his embrace and she tightened hers.

“Let me enjoy this ... Please?” She hugged him tighter to her tall body, pressing her legs and belly to him. Not sexually or suggestively. She wanted to feel all of him.

“You feel good, Crystal. Maybe too good. You’re in better physical shape than I first thought when we met yesterday,” he told her and she pulled him tighter.

“You’re just like I saw you. I knew you would feel like this and it’s been so long since a tall man hugged me. I had to have more.” She confessed, the side of her face against his broad, muscular chest. She relaxed her arms and let her hands slide once more to his waist. Her hands were resting on his hips. She didn’t want to remove them.

“The biscuits are done and the eggs will be cold.” He stated.

He wanted to say more, but he wasn’t sure what to say or how to say it. He knew already, that he wanted more of her – all of her. But he wanted her as a person not as another piece of ass.

“Then let’s eat so we’ll have all day to visit. I want to walk with you. Will you show me your place?”

“Sure ... You drink your coffee straight, right?”

“Yes, you’re very good at knowing what I like. It makes me feel good that you already know.”

“You give off a lot of information – just being you.” He pulled her chair out for her to sit.

“I do?”

“Yes, I’ll tell you about it. Just sit there and I’ll serve you. You’re the guest.”

“If I want to come back again, will I still be a guest?”

She looked up as he put two eggs on her warm plate, then put two hot biscuits and four strips of crisp bacon beside them. He put the bowl of pepper gravy and a dish of hash browns on the table and poured each of them a mug of coffee.

“I’m not sure – I guess you’ll have to answer that.” He smiled as he spoke.

She smiled too. She knew what he meant.

“SO, it’s up to me to decide when I stop being a guest? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes. If you want to be a guest, I’ll welcome you as a visitor and enjoy your company.”

“And if I want to be more than just a guest?”

“Then the rest is up to you.”

“That’s not fair. I don’t know how you feel about me being here.”

She was trying to think something ... some way she could tell him that she wanted to be more than a guest. Even her first time to visit.

“If I hadn’t wanted you to come out here, I’d never have given you my number. I wanted to invite you ... But I knew you would’ve had doubts, so I left it up to you. You wanted to see me again just as much as I wanted to see you.

“You’re attractive, Crystal. VERY attractive as a matter of fact. You’re tall and sexy and your smile gives you away, no matter what your voice says. I like that about you.”

He talked slow as they ate their breakfast. Not in a hurry, but before it got cold.

“You just told me more about yourself than you did in our conversation yesterday, even up until now ... Julio told me you were very reserved, almost to the point of being secretive about yourself, and your feelings. Thank you for telling me that. I needed to hear those words and I heard more than your words too. I just wanted you to know that.”

She smiled when he did.

“ ... I wanted to say more but I didn’t want to say too much, too soon.” He still wanted to say more, but he didn’t...

He looked at her smile and he smiled again. The crows-feet at the corner of his eyes relaxing this time as he smiled.

“Can we just enjoy today? Let me explore your place as you take me back in the sticks, so I’ll feel like I’ve visited home again. You don’t have to tell me any more about you than you want me to know. I won’t invade your privacy, even though I want to be more than a guest.”

They finished their breakfast and drank more coffee.

She pushed her chair back from the table and sat facing him. Dog came over, looking up at her. He lay his head on her bare thigh just above her knee.

“I guess you just became more than a guest. You’ll have to get your own coffee, your own beer, or whatever, from now on. You’re welcome here now, dog likes you.”

He spoke, not mentioning what she had just said.

“You didn’t answer me. Will you?” she said and they looked at each other.

“I want to show you my place. I was glad you asked. I didn’t want to offer you a tour and have you refuse. There was someone else who lived here with me for a while. She hated it and I never showed her anything other than what you see ... I wanted you to know that. She was the first since I bought this place. You’re only the second woman to be here.”

When he told her that, she felt like she was invited into places few people have been or will ever be.

“So I’ll be the first to get the grand tour?” she smiled.

“Yes, but I didn’t it mean to sound like that.”

He smiled again and she liked his smile more and more.

“I’m proud that I’m already more than she was and she lived here with you. She was just a guest and she left. I’m not a guest and I want to see anything and everything you have here ... all of it. Not just your home and your land either. I’m already hungry, and not for food, Steve. I’m hungry to know about you, to know all about you.”

She looked at him as she rubbed Dog’s head and scratched his ears.

“You may not like me when you know all of that. I may have to hold back on you.”

He smiled as he talked. He wanted her to know. He wanted to show her, tell her, let her see firsthand.

“You better not hold back! I’ve already made up my mind that I’m not going to hold back anything from you, Stephen Everett Randall,” she grinned as she spoke his full name.

“How did you know my full name?”

“I asked Julio. I knew when you left yesterday that I wanted to come up here ... Not as a guest either.” She smiled at his blank look.

“But you don’t know me and you’re at least ten years younger,” he pointed out.

“I do know you. Remember – I’m country too and I know country people when I see them. I know when people are good. You’re good-people, Steve. As for the age, that’s nothing but a number and I don’t give a shit about numbers. You’re a MAN – yet, I don’t need just any MAN ... You’re tall, you’re handsome in a rugged, outdoorsy way. You’re world smart, you have the body of an athlete. Yet you move so easily, like a big animal stalking its prey. You probably know over a hundred ways to kill a man ... That turns me on, knowing that about you.”

“You do know country people don’t you? Do you feel stalked?”

“Not yet. But I think I’d like to know what it feels like,” she told him and they laughed together.

He was laughing as he stood up from the table. She picked up the dirty dishes and put them on the small counter. He started the water running and she put her arms around him once more, holding him loosely around his waist with her breasts on either side of his rib cage. His right arm was draped loosely over her shoulder as the water and soap bubbles filled the sink.

“You’re easy to like Crystal, and I like that part about you already.”

“You’re easy to like too Steve, even though you don’t want to be. I like you just as you are too. I won’t threaten your secure feelings here back in the woods. I like it here already.”

She washed and he dried, putting the dishes in the cabinet.

“Take me for a walk through your world, Steve. I want to see what you see, and feel what you feel. Will you let me be that close to you? My first time here, I mean?” she asked as they stood on the back porch.

The sun was coming up over the high bluffs to the east, the morning breeze ticked the leaves in the trees, making them shimmer in the sunlight.

He looked at her standing here on his porch. The sun was shining on her red hair, her breasts standing out so big and proud on her slender chest. Her belly was flat and her hips swelled out to make her butt look more inviting under her thin jogging shorts.

He took her hand and they stepped off the porch together. She stopped to look back. “Come on Dog,” she said and he leaped from the porch to run lick her hand. Then he walked in front of them, as if leading the way.

“He’s your dog now, he’ll follow you anywhere.”

“He’ll never be my dog. He may tolerate me and he may even like me, but he and you have something that no one will ever come between. Something that can’t be described – can’t even be seen. But I can feel it between you, when the two of you are close by.”

“Damn Crystal! You’re even better than I thought. I need to be more careful.”

“No you don’t! I’m not a threat!”

She reached for his hand again, and they laced fingers.

“I hear the roar of water. Do you have a water fall?” She looked wide eyed as she grinned at the thought.

“Yeah, a small one where the big spring comes out of the rocks and falls into a pool, forming a small creek that runs over to the Buffalo River. Come on and I’ll show it to you,” he told her and she squeezed his fingers.

They came up over a rise in the boulders and stood looking down in the solid rock basin where the clear water pooled below. To the right of where they stood, was the bubbling, rolling spring that poured from the tops of the jagged rocks and spilled down over the boulders, worn smooth from years of water pouring over them.

“How deep is it?” She pointed to the pool 20 feet below where they stood.

“Maybe 20 to 30 feet in the middle. Shallower on the sides — no more than 10 feet.”

“How cold is it?” She smiled again. A mischievous, little-girl smile.

“Probably 55 to 60 degrees year round,” he answered and turned to see her stripping completely naked.

“Crystal?”

“Come on. It’s been years since I’ve had the opportunity to do this. Get naked, skinny-dip with me. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

She was laughing as she dived. Her laughter followed her all the way to the water below. Her arms were extended in her dive, her big breasts free and proud, her buttocks tightened. Even more inviting than when she wore her thin jogging shorts. Her long tan legs were locked straight. This was not her first dive off a high bluff.

Steve was almost naked, he was pulling at his pants, finally stepping out of them. He followed her into the center of the pool where she had surfaced. She was clapping her hands and laughing as he leaped out from the rock with a perfect arc to his dive, knifing the water beside her. Showing off just a little, but doing what he was good at.

He surfaced right beside her. Her arms automatically circled his neck.

“This is cold Steve, but I love it. I bet you come here a lot don’t you? I would if I lived here,” she said as she looked at him.

His black hair was plastered over his forehead, across his face, and down his neck to his sinewy, muscled shoulders. Shoulders as broad as a weight lifter.

She ran her hands down over his back, feeling his muscles. Down to his buttocks that were rock hard as she cupped them. She felt a rough indented scar on his thigh just below his buttock. As soon as her fingers moved over it she knew it was a bullet wound. She ran her hands back up his side and felt another one above his left hip. Not as big, not as deep. She hugged him tighter. He felt good, but she hurt for him because he’d been shot.

He looked at her as they floated in the water, face to face. His hands went around her, under her arms, around her ribs where he held her smooth, muscular back. He let his hands slip down her back, down to cup a double handful of her full, round buttocks. She’s very muscular in her buttocks and thighs, like a skater. He ran his hands over her thighs and they were full and firm to his touch. He resisted the urge to slip his hands between her buttocks and pull her close.

She didn’t resist the temptation. She slipped her long slender fingers between his buttocks and cupped his firm butt cheeks, pulling him to her with all her strength. She could feel his cock between her thighs. She pressed herself against him and held him tight.

She felt him stiffen in the cold water and she loved the feel of him there. She clamped her thigh muscles and trapped him, squeezing his cock as they clung to each other.

He showed her where she could walk out without slipping on the smooth rocks. They walked out of the cold water into the bright sunlight beaming down like a warm spotlight through the canopy of the trees on the bluff above them.

“That will get your blood flowing. I loved it and I hope you didn’t mind that I pulled my clothes off.”

She wrung the water from her long braid, as she leaned her head to the side.

“I wanted to see what you looked like without your clothes and you showed me. I like what I see but we need to walk and talk before anything else happens ... Don’t you agree?” He asked as she stood in front of him, looking into his eyes.

“I’d love to walk with you, and talk ... about us. Do we have to dress? I love being naked with you out here.”

“No we don’t have to dress. I love seeing you naked.”

He smiled as he looked down at her body in the sunlight. He looked down to her small puff of red hair above her crotch. It was shaped and clipped neatly.

“If I let it run wild, it looks all wiry and scruffy down there. I hope you approve,” she told him as she saw him looking her over.

“I like the way you look – all over. I like the way you groom yourself too. I’m very happy to see you’re a true redhead.”

“Thanks. I absolutely love being a redhead. I’m glad you approve ... I mean, if I’m going to be more than a guest,” she told him...

Holding hands, they turned to walk between two trees out onto a trail the animals of the forest travel, coming to drink from the pool.

“So, you’re comfortable being here in the wilderness, naked with a man you just met?” he asked as they walked side by side.

“Yes. You seem comfortable with who you are and how you look naked. That makes me even more comfortable,” she said as she glanced down at his manhood.

“You’re big,” she said, pointing to him. Grinning up at him when he looked her way.

“You’re big too.” He pointed to her breasts and both smiled as they walked.

“Yeah but ... I mean, don’t you have trouble getting that inside a girl?” she asked, looking down at him as they walked.

“Some. But if they want it, they’ll find a way to make it work. So far anyway.”

“Please forgive me, but I have to know this. I can’t stop looking at you. How big are you when you’re erect?”

“8 inches,”

“That’s really big, not that I’m an expert. How big in circumference?”

“7 inches.”

“That’s huge, that’s larger than a soda can.”

“Smaller.”

“You know these as exact measurements?”

“I’ve been measured.”

“I may want to take my own measurements ... one day, just for my own reference.”

“I may let you ... one day.”

“I like you Steve. I like you a lot. Normally, I’d never do what I did yesterday at the bar and I have NEVER called a man and asked if I could see him again. I did all that because I liked you when I saw you ... Then I got up before daylight and drove up here to see you, took my clothes off and dived into a pool of cold water. Here I stand, naked and loving each moment of time that passes...

“Besides all that, you don’t need anyone, you’re content. I wanted to meet a man who wasn’t needy. I’ve dated a few needy mother’s boys and I wanted a man.”

“Do you date a lot?”

“No, I just moved here last month and we’ve been busy with getting the plant up and running. I never dated a lot in college, but it seemed like my boobs were magnets for the boys who needed a mother figure. I just wanted a normal boy/girl date...

“Just in case you’re wondering, I’ve only been with two boys in my life. One in high school and it hurt like hell ... then another in college and he was through and getting dressed before I had my shoes and socks off – and that’s no lie,” she told him, laughing at the last part.

“So here you are, walking through the Ozark National Forest naked, with a man you just met, and asking about his cock. Are you sizing me up, so to speak?”

He laughed at that and she did too.

“I guess you could say that. But I already wanted you way before I saw your cock. When you told me the size, I wanted you really bad.”

Steve saw Dog suddenly stop dead-still, looking ahead on the open trail under the tall trees. His hackles were up and he stood as if he were stalking.

Steve grabbed Crystal’s arm and stopped her.

“Look! Up ahead in the trail,” he whispered and pointed.

“Oh wow! I’ve never seen a Black Bear in the wild and she has two small cubs. I hope she doesn’t think we’re a threat to her babies,” Crystal whispered as they watched the bear amble across the trail, then come back out to walk away from them.

“Come on Dog.” Steve called him and they turned to walk back the way they had come.

“Are there a lot of them up here?” she asked as they walked back toward the falls.

“I guess you could say there are a lot. There’s a season on them and they issue a certain number of permits each year. They’re hunted just to control the population, and of course, to make money off the permits. There are maybe, 30 to 40 a year killed just in each of Newton and Johnson Counties alone.”

“Is it safe to even be out here? With the bear, I mean?”

“As long as we’re together ... I wouldn’t want you being out here by yourself at first.”

“What about Dog?”

“He can take care of himself. He knows not to mess with the bear, even as big and mean as he is.”

“Are you mean too?” she smiled.

“When I need to be – when I’m provoked.”

“So, I don’t need to provoke you ... Is that what you’re saying?” she asked.

“The kind of provoking you’d do wouldn’t lead to violence.”

He laughed an easy laugh and she smiled as she grabbed his hand and held it, walking slowly with him back to the falls.

“Steve, are we going to make love?” she asked suddenly, turning to look up at him.

“Not today. But do I want you already.”

“I want you too and I want to make love today.”

“We’ve swum naked, walked naked through the forest and we’ve held each other close as we stood naked. All on the first day we’re together. Crystal, I won’t say no, if you keep asking, but I hope you’ll wait.”