Chapter 3: No Strings

-- NOVEMBER 7 --

"Mmm-wah! Bye, babe." Deedee kissed me before hoisting her backpack over her shoulder as she descended the porch steps and headed for the hills. Today she and some others would be doing maintenance on the trail to the Garden of Eden. They'd be trimming back branches and clearing out rocks, as well as re-carving part of the trail to curb erosion.

"Bye," I waved, leaning against the railing as I watched her go. A hand tapped my ass, causing me to jerk up and turn around.

"I still don't know WHAT that girl sees in you," Zoey scoffed with a smirk.

I shrugged and turned forward to watch my girlfriend depart. "She says I have big feet."

Zoey snorted before her eyeballs rolled behind her cat-eye glasses. Shaking her head, she asked, "So how are those snowballs doing? Still keeping them nice and toasty?"

I chuckled. Ever since my "relationship" with Deedee had become public knowledge (i.e. the following morning), Zoey had been giving me a hard time about my "snowball's chance in hell" comment of a month ago. I couldn't blame her. Even I could scarcely believe it.

"I don't think HIS balls are ones you should be worried about, girlie," Aaron drawled as he stepped alongside us and slipped his arm around Zoey's waist.

Zoey giggled and turned into Aaron's body, flipping purple bangs out of her face before tilting her head back to receive her boyfriend's kiss.

I sighed and averted my eyes just before their lips met. I caught Marie looking at me from the other side of the couple, and she mimed sticking a finger down her throat and gagging. Our respective roommates had carried on a love-hate friendship ever since meeting during orientation (mostly 'hate'), and in the last two weeks that friendship had turned into something more. They still squabbled like territorial alley cats, especially since Aaron wasn't exactly apologetic about continuing to letch after other hot women or about his various other character flaws. But I think they both got off on needling each other and they certainly had a rather combustible chemistry that couldn't be denied. And ever since they'd hooked up, the pair had not been shy about PDA.

Leaving my friends to their little embrace, I raised my eyebrows at Marie and jerked a thumb back inside, asking, "Coffee?"

She nodded. "Please."

I headed for the door, and Marie followed after. Coming out was a strapping young man named Caesar, and he head nodded to me while raising a fist. "Hey, sup."

I fist-bumped him and nodded back. "Sup," I replied and continued my way in without giving him a second thought. Two other guys inside noticed our arrival and nodded in greeting as well.

It had certainly been a different world for me ever since I hooked up with Deedee. The inquisitive stares had come flying from all over when she sat with my clique for breakfast the morning after our first booty call. You could practically hear the wind sucked out of the room as everyone gasped the first time she kissed me in public. And the bombardment of questions had begun about three seconds after she walked out of the room.

Aaron and Zoey had been the worst, whining that I should have warned them ahead of time. Marie, of course, had remained quietly detached.

The respect level for me had skyrocketed in the intervening weeks as my relationship with Deedee continued. Once it became clear that the hot blonde's newfound attachment to me was neither a one-time aberration nor an episode of Punk'd, I found that practically everyone at the camp was looking at me in a new light, some of them wondering what mystical knowledge of the female psyche I possessed and hoping that I could share it with them. The point is: guys who used to make fun of my weight now held me as an equal, hence the nods and fist-bumps.

Speaking of weight, I'd dropped another ten pounds, down to a very respectable 215. I probably would have weighed even less, but I'd put on quite a bit of new muscle mass, and my waist had gotten so thin that Marie had needed to sew my pants and shorts tighter.

Speaking of Marie, she'd been the one whose reaction I'd worried about the most. True, she'd professed a complete lack of jealousy should I hook up with Deedee, not to mention the assertion of her homosexuality. But even including Aaron, she was still the one person I'd come to spend the most time with as a friend, and I didn't want her to think I would abandon her now that I'd gotten myself a new girlfriend.

I still liked Marie, as a close friend if not romantically. And despite Deedee's beauty – not to mention the mind-blowing sex – when I asked myself which one I'd choose if forced to, I found myself leaning toward the reserved, wallflower brunette.

I'd told Marie as much from the beginning, and she waved off my concerns like the thought had never even occurred to her. In practice, Deedee didn't really take up much of my time, so Marie and I still got to spend a lot of time together. We still went for walks and hung out as friends. And with Aaron and Zoey hooking up, Marie and I found ourselves alone together more often than not.

We made our way through the staff lounge, greeting friends as we passed. While we ranch hands were paid a pittance for wages, the camp really took care of us when it came to food. Every meal was all-you-can-stand-to-eat, and high quality stuff too. And besides the soda machine in the lounge, ownership had sprung for a high-end espresso machine and gourmet beans for all us budding baristas here in the Pacific Northwest. The point is: Camp coffee was as good as any I could find in the Southland.

"What'll it be, Miss?" I inquired in an overly genteel manner as we stopped at the coffee station.

"Caramel Macchiato, per favore," Marie replied in a decent Italian accent.

"Molto buon, signorina," I replied with a smile and began whipping up her drink.

She watched my actions for a moment before commenting, "You're starting to get good at that."

"Practice, practice. I drank enough of these sorts of things every day from the Starbucks right around the corner from my office. Never quite realized how easy it would be to do it myself." I stopped for a moment and chuckled. "I wasted sooo much money on that stuff over the last year, even more if you count college."

She grinned as I finished up her drink and handed it over. I then poured myself some french roast coffee, black. Although I'd practically lived on the elaborate cream and sugar-injected "handcrafted beverages" for years and years, I'd sworn off them for the past few months while trying to get myself into shape.

I initially gestured Marie over to one of our usual couches, but she shook her head and waved toward the door, holding up two lids for our paper coffee cups. It wasn't uncommon for us to take our morning brew on the road and find somewhere less crowded to chat; Marie always seemed more at ease away from other people.

I followed her outside, across the porch, and then down onto the main trail. We walked slowly, taking sips of our coffee and being careful not to spill them. When she started walking us down the path toward the lake, I glanced over and asked, "No assignments this morning?"

She shook her head in agreement, swallowed her sip, and then replied, "Not until after lunch. You?"

"The new cabin, as usual. But we're not meeting up until 10."

"Nice. How far along are you guys?"

"Halfway it seems, but the easy stuff is over. Now we're getting down to the details."

She nodded. "George is going to start training me on horse-breaking this afternoon."

"Sounds dangerous."

"It can be."

"Did you know you were going to get this involved with horses before you came up here?"

She shook her head in the negative. "I liked them well-enough on previous trips to camp. Went for a ride on occasion, but nothing like this. Learn something new every day."

"I'll say. Word around is that you're one-eighth horse yourself, which is why you speak the language. Even Deedee's mentioned it."

She blushed and glanced at the trail for a moment. "So you and Deedee actually talk now, huh? Thought you two did nothing but screw whenever you're alone."

"Not always," I replied with a raised eyebrow. Marie was the only one who knew the truth about my relationship with Deedee, knew that I was basically just Deedee's booty call and the rest was only window dressing. For some reason, the first time I was alone with Marie I couldn't bring myself to hide it. I trusted her with the truth, and trusted her not to harshly judge us for it. For a month now, she hadn't shown any jealousy over my physical relationship with the other girl, but I detected an off note in her voice right now.

"Wait-wait-wait," I began, giving her a measured look. "You're not jealous of Deedee and me fucking, but you're jealous of me TALKING to her?"

"What? No. What gave you that idea?"

"You did. Just now. Tell me I'm wrong."

"You're wrong," she replied flatly and then looked away, a little too quickly I thought.

But then again, I might have been reading too much into things. I certainly knew I wasn't the best at sensing a woman's moods or intentions. Deciding not to press the issue, I shrugged and said, "Okay then. My mistake."

"What else did you guys talk about?" Marie asked, and then looked away again as if she wished she could take back the question. I gave her a knowing look, and she just reached a hand out and shoved me off balance, adding, "About ME. I'm not jealous of you banging the blonde; I'm just curious what everyone is saying about ME!"

I laughed and then pointed over to the right. We'd nearly arrived at the lake, and I gestured us over to a set of picnic tables that stood back a little ways from the beach. We went over to them, climbing up and parking our butts on the table top, resting our feet on the bench below. Sipping my coffee while holding the cup with both hands for warmth in the cool morning air, I explained, "We didn't talk MUCH. Like you said, mostly we just hook up to get ourselves off and then go our separate ways. But last night, after we both were finished, we just got to talking about our work projects and everything. I told her a bit about the cabin we're constructing and she told me about the trail maintenance this morning. She said the team leads are really starting to specialize everyone, and we both had noticed how you're almost exclusively in the barn nowadays."

Marie nodded. "I really like it. Everything is so new and exciting. I feel like it's something I'm good at, and I can actually see myself doing this for a long while."

"What, like past the end of next summer? Or a lifetime career?"

"Oh, I dunno about that. Have to go back to school eventually; my parents would kill me if I didn't graduate someday. But for the rest of the Ranch Hand program? Sure, why not? I certainly wouldn't mind leaving here with some new useful skills."

"I suppose. Personally, I'm just trying to get through the next year in one piece, you know?"

"Ah, the infamous 'jail sentence'."

I smirked, staring out into space and thinking about exactly what Deedee and I had been doing last night before that conversation. "Nicest jail sentence I can imagine."

Marie sensed my thought pattern (probably by looking at my shit-eating grin), and said, "Speaking of whom, you two make any plans beyond next summer?"

I glanced over at her with an arched eyebrow. "What, me and Deedee? Yeah, right. I'm just a living, breathing dildo to keep her libido in check until we both get out of here. There's nothing more to us than that."

"And you're alright with that?"

"Sure, I guess. We'll do our thing, enjoy it while it lasts, and at the end of the summer go our separate ways. There are certainly worse ways I could be keeping myself occupied."

"But that's all this is to you, isn't it?"

I looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"Biding your time. Keeping yourself occupied. Just marking the days until you can go back home without getting arrested."

"Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Maybe you should be doing MORE than that." Marie sighed and stared out across the lake. "This is your fresh start, remember?"

"Yeah, sure."

"No, I don't think you do. This is a very big opportunity for you."

"Opportunity to do what?"

"An opportunity to really THINK about what got you here in the first place. An opportunity to step back from that world and consider the person you'd become. An opportunity to recognize, and then change yourself for the better so that it doesn't happen again."

I stared at her like her skin had turned plaid and she'd just spoken in Mandarin Chinese. "Okay, what the hell is in your coffee this morning? Because I think someone may have spiked it with weed."

"Dammit, Nick! I'm serious!"

"This isn't some grand metaphysical journey here. Sure, we're in a rustic retreat separated from the real world with no Wi-Fi, cable TV, or cell phones. But this isn't an Indian ashram with a yoga guru who's gonna help you find the meaning of life."

"It's still a place away from your old life where you've got both the time and space to reflect on who you are, and who you really want to be."

I still looked at her skeptically. "It's a court-ordered community service, without which I'd be drinking my coffee indoors in a nice lounge on the way to my high-paying job."

"Ugh, you're impossible," Marie grunted in obvious frustration and got off the table. Without a backwards glance she started walking back up the hill toward the main lodge.

"Hey, Marie!" I called after her, clambering off the table as well and following her up the path.

"Forget about it. You don't understand."

"What did I say?" Clearly, I must have struck some sort of nerve I wasn't aware of, because she was certainly overreacting. The things I'd said weren't THAT bad.

"Just leave me alone," she huffed without turning around. "Or better yet, go find your bimbo. After you two screw each other's brains out, maybe you can ask her."

"Marie!"

"Goodbye, Nick!"

I'll never understand women.

"Hey, boyfriend," Deedee greeted me warmly as she arrived at the table with her tray. Her trail-maintenance group had arrived late for lunch, and most of us were already halfway through our meals.

Priscilla and her camp boyfriend Hiro looked up and smiled. Aaron and Zoey did as well. Marie glanced up but quickly returned to shoving her food around her plate. The brunette had been exceptionally quiet during lunch today, and my casual attempts to start conversations with her had so far been rebuffed.

Focusing my attention on Deedee, I tilted my head to receive her friendly peck on the lips and then scooted over as she took the seat beside me. I asked how her day had been going, and she shared a few unimportant details that nevertheless entertained the table for the next five minutes or so. The conversation then followed a tangent over to another topic. And all in all, we finished the meal amiably.

Marie was the first to leave. Without commenting or really even looking at anybody, she got up and hustled off to bus her tray. Still feeling uncomfortable about the way we'd left each other's company this morning, I resolved to track her down and get us a one-on-one chance to work things out.

But before I could do so, Deedee slid her fingers through mine and gave me an intense look right into my eyes. "Got some time to get away?" she asked almost breathlessly.

Immediately I felt my shorts tighten. Checking my watch, I replied, "Uh, yeah, actually. Joe is doing some electrical work with Edwin and I'm not needed until after two."

"Perfect. I've got a free afternoon. C'mon!" Giggling like a schoolgirl, Deedee started running out of the room, pulling me along with her.

I glanced back, looking around for Marie. But my quick scan didn't immediately find her. And telling myself I could always talk to her later, I simply let my girlfriend drag me off.

We more or less raced into "our" cabin. Deedee had charmed some higher-up into giving her the keys, and we'd started to leave some niceties in the room to make it more comfortable. The bed was now fully made with sheets and pillows. We'd moved in one more lamp to improve the lighting. And we'd also dragged into the bedroom a sturdy armchair that had been the location for more than a few wild and crazy sex acts. Only a handful of people knew we were boinking in that cabin, but we weren't going out of our way to keep it a secret any longer. Heck, I was pretty sure more than a few other couples had designated cabins of their own. I only worried what we'd do when springtime came and the guests returned.

But that was a long ways off, and Deedee and I had more pressing things to think about, like the most efficient way for getting her polo shirt off or whether or not she could unfasten my pants with one hand, leaving the other wrapped around the back of my neck to make sure our lips didn't come apart as we attempted to simultaneously undress and make out.

I took charge today, grasping the hem of her shirt with both hands to rip it over her head and then reaching behind her to unsnap her bra. She turned around in my embrace to face the bed and shoved her ass against my crotch while twisting her head back to keep kissing me. I yanked the bra down her arms and then raised my hands back up to palm her big tits, squeezing them and grinding my bulge into her butt crack.

Having successfully unbuttoned me, Deedee now reached her hands back and pulled down my zipper. I took the hint and dropped my pants, taking my shorts down with them. Then I pushed Deedee forward so that she had to plant her hands on the mattress to keep from falling. And with her so bent over, I grabbed the sides of her khaki work pants and dragged them down with her panties as well.

That put my face right behind her ass, and as the heady aroma of aroused pussy wafted into my nostrils, I grabbed onto her thighs and pushed my busty blonde lover onto all fours on the bed. Standing on the floor behind her, I then squatted and pried apart her asscheeks so that I could stick my nose into her crack and begin licking at her peach from behind.

"Ohhh, yeah..." Deedee groaned as I went to work on her. She hung her head and then spread her knees a little wider to give me better access. I introduced first one finger and then another into her snatch, pumping just a few times to wet my digits before pulling them out and curling them together to bracket her clit and give it a few loving strokes.

She writhed and wriggled on my tongue for only about a minute, but then rocking backward with her butt to push my face away, she looked back at me upside-down and between her own legs to order, "Enough of that. Get up here and get inside me!"

"Yes, ma'am," I replied with a smile. My neck couldn't hold that position very long anyway. Standing up, I ripped my shirt over my head, leaving myself as naked as she, and then stepping up to the edge of the bed, I grabbed onto her hips and pulled her down into alignment with my waving prick.

"Oooh, yeah..." Deedee crooned as she felt my thick prod separating her folds. The sheets bunched up in her hands and she arched her back while accepting each inch after penetrating inch.

When I was fully seated, we both paused to catch our breath. That was the way Deedee usually liked it. Things could be hot and heavy, fast and furious as we got to the point of initial coupling. But once we were completely joined, she liked to pause and just get used to the feeling of being so full. I liked to think it had something to do with the thickness of my dick, but really I think she especially savored those first few moments.

Like always, we started out slow, taking long enjoyable strokes before speeding up to our climaxes. Deedee rocked back and forth, controlling the tempo while letting me hold onto her hips or tits to make sure we didn't become dislodged. After a few minutes, she began to speed up and even reached back with one hand to finger her own clit, humming in rapturous pleasure until she had to put that hand back down for balance and let me take over rubbing her love button while we kept fucking.

With the steady pace, I was usually able to hold out through at least her first orgasm, something Deedee more than once told me that she appreciated. This afternoon was no exception, and after she got her starter climax, she pulled off me and then turned to lie comfortably on the bed with the pillows supporting her head. I followed her onto the bed and moved between her legs. She spread her knees to the sides to accept me, and met my cock in her pussy with her tongue in my mouth.

Sucking on my lips, she crooned as I began to speed up my thrusting. I felt her nails scratching at my back before her hands fastened onto my shoulders. I braced my elbows on the bed beside her and pushed myself up to look down at her gorgeous face, finding her smiling at me proudly as my penile-pumping brought her the pleasure she was looking for.

Raising her legs, Deedee refastened them around my waist as I added more force. I ducked my head down to suckle at her upright nipples and bury my face in her abundant titflesh. And then I picked my head back up to give her a wet, open-mouthed kiss as the ecstasy intensified and I felt us both approaching our climaxes.

"Ngh! Ngh! Ngh!" she grunted into my mouth before twisting her face to the side so she could breathe. "Fuck me, Nick! Harder, now! Harder! Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!"

I was fucking her. Ramping up to full speed, I let the full weight of my body drive her ass down into the mattress before rapidly pulling back and doing it again. Harder and harder I hammered her while she thrashed and bucked beneath me, throwing her hips up to slam against mine as she whipped her head left and right while screaming out her ecstasy.

I had to close my eyes lest her fine blonde hair scratch them out. But I held on and focused on driving her up the proverbial wall while holding back my own orgasm. Over and over I pounded her while she alternately yelled, "Fuck me" mixed with "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

At last, she screamed, "I'm cumming!" not caring who might be outside to hear. Her back arched and she threw her head back, a strangled gasp coming out of the throat as all sound suddenly cut off. And as I felt the erratic muscle spasms of her pussy begin to clench around my cock, I let myself go as well.

With a roar, I deposited my delivery deep within Deedee's depths. She started laughing as she felt my load hose down her insides. And as she returned to Earth from her momentary high, she wrapped both arms behind my head and pulled my face into her cleavage once more, sighing happily as both of our bodies went limp and she felt my weight settle down onto her torso.

"Nngaahhh..." I sighed as every fiber of my being relaxed post-ejaculation. Despite my protestations that I was too heavy for her, Deedee insisted that she liked feeling my weight on her after sex. I smothered her for a little bit before setting down my knees and elbows to support the majority of my bulk. But after another minute or so, I realized that the cabin's heater wasn't turned on, and my adrenaline and arousal were no longer keeping me warm in the November Sierra cold.

Rolling off her, I reached down and pulled the thick furry blankets over our naked bodies. Deedee complained for a moment about not being surrounded by my body's warmth, but she quickly snuggled her face into my chest and waited for our collective heat to warm the space beneath the blanket.

"Mmm, this is nice," she murmured. "Wish we could stay in here the rest of the day instead of going back to work."

"Sounds like a plan to me." I glanced down and cradled her body with my left arm and began to stroke her scalp with my right hand.

"That's nice," Deedee commented at my stroking. Nuzzling her nose against my chest, a dreamy smile spread across her lips. Still with her eyes closed, she added, "I can almost believe we're guests and not workers here. This is our cabin, our little retreat together away from the real world. Nothing for us to do but enjoy the great outdoors and then crawl into bed to fuck and cuddle."

"Would be nice," I agreed.

Deedee hummed happily and smiled even wider. She looked so pretty and at peace, I couldn't resist bending down and pecking her forehead tenderly. Deedee cooed at the touch, and then tilted her head back to look up into my eyes. She looked at me dreamily for a few seconds, but then her eyes sharpened and she took on a more thoughtful expression. By now, we were both plenty warm beneath the blanket, and after a few more seconds, she turned to prop herself up with her forearms on the mattress beneath her chest. And canting her head to the side, she gave me a questioning look. "Does it bother you that we haven't become a closer couple?"

I raised my eyebrows. "What do you mean? Naked and cuddling for warmth would generally be considered pretty close."

"I mean as boyfriend/girlfriend. Yeah, we've told the whole camp that we're together, but behind closed doors all I've really wanted is to get regularly laid. I don't talk to you all that much or do all the regular girlfriend emotional stuff."

I shrugged. "I'm okay with that. You made your intentions quite clear from the beginning: we're fuck-buddies, no strings attached. If you're wondering whether or not I'm feeling used, relax. I don't. If anything, I feel like you actually DO treat this like a regular relationship, albeit a casual, low-pressure one."

"You don't mind that we don't go out on dates, or take long walks, or do anything really romantic?"

I shrugged again then let my hand slide upwards underneath her body, palming and then squeezing one of her big breasts. With a smug grin, I replied, "I'm pretty good with the current arrangement."

She rolled her eyes and lightly slapped my forearm. "Hmph. Maybe -I- should be the one feeling used." She quickly added, "Kidding, kidding" to my momentarily abashed look. And then she grabbed my retreating hand and put it right back on her breast.

Taking a deep breath, she gave me a frank look and said, "I just want to make sure that you're cool with the way things are going. I like you, Nick. I really do. You don't pressure me, you're very obedient when I want something, and of course I love your big ... feet." She giggled with a deeply satisfied look. "I just don't want to mislead you into thinking that anything is going to grow out of this. I'm not looking for a serious relationship and while I'm perfectly happy with the status quo as it's been for the last month, we're not gonna last forever and get married or anything."

I paused for a moment to squeeze the breast in my hand and give her my own deeply satisfied grin. "We're on the same page, don't worry about that," I told her. "Honestly, it was never my choice to come out here, to Morris Camp. I'm just biding my time until this ranch hand thing ends and I can go back to my old life. I'm marking time, doing my best to stay occupied until then, and I frankly can't think of a better way to do that than with you."

"Enjoy it while it lasts and then go our separate ways, huh?"

"Yeah..." I nodded my agreement, but even as I did so, I found my thoughts turning elsewhere. Laying my head back down on the pillow, I stared up at the ceiling and started to wonder what Marie was doing right now.

I had felt so sure of myself when I said the words about marking time and staying occupied. I wasn't lying; deep down, I knew those words were perfectly true. I really DIDN'T want to be here, and if given a choice whether to have come here or to have stayed in LA this entire time, I would have gladly chosen LA, despite the friendships I'd formed or even this wonderful hookup with Deedee. I missed the internet and cable TV. I missed my old friends. I missed the hotties that would bend over and let me ogle their cleavage for the price of a cocktail or two.

But I found myself thinking of the last time I'd told someone those words, only hours before. Marie had gotten quite indignant with me over them, even though I felt like I'd told her the same thing many times now. Why had she gotten so upset, and why now? That girl was an enigma to me, so quiet and reserved in public and then perfectly at ease when alone with just me. She could be funny and even a little flirty one moment and then closed-off and insistent about her lesbian sexuality the next. She was calm and almost serene amongst the crazy, childish antics of some of the other ranch hands, but then she was prone to emotional outbursts that defied my attempts at understanding.

Even now, Marie was mad at me for something ... and I found that it really bothered me not knowing why.

"Earth to Nick. Earth to Niiiick..." Deedee's voice floated into my consciousness.

I blinked rapidly and jerked my chin down. Deedee was resting her cheek on my chest, looking at me curiously.

"Where did you go?"