Chapter 23 #2
We stepped out onto bare rock, a shelf of granite that jutted from the hillside like the prow of a ship. The trees fell away on three sides, and suddenly the world spread out before us in the gathering darkness.
My breath caught in my chest.
Below and to the west, the cliffs of Chasten Cove caught the last orange light of sunset.
I could see the sea stacks rising from the water, the white lines of waves breaking against rock.
Beyond the cove, the houses and streets of Port Chasten spread across the hillside, and as I watched, lights began flickering on in windows, streetlamps glowing to life, the town transforming from a collection of buildings into a blanket of warm yellow points.
And beyond that, the ocean. Vast and dark and endless, stretching to a horizon that was dissolving into night.
"I found this place when I was ten years old," Scout said softly.
She stood at the edge of the rock shelf, her figure silhouetted against the fading sky.
"I was exploring, wandering farther from home than I was supposed to.
I pushed through that deadfall and stepped out here and I thought I had discovered the edge of the world. "
I moved to stand beside her, careful of my footing on the bare rock. The drop beyond the shelf was steep, nearly vertical.
"I come here to think." She pointed to a spot behind us, and I turned to see a mound of soft ferns covered by a wool blanket, forming a rough bed.
"I come here to read. Sometimes I just sit and watch the ocean for hours.
I make up stories about the people down there, in Port Chasten.
I imagine their lives, their loves, their sorrows. "
"It's beautiful," I said, though the word felt inadequate.
"It's my favorite place in the world. The only place I feel truly at peace." She turned to face me. "And I've never shown it to anyone before."
The implications of that statement hung in the air between us.
"Thomas." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I don't believe your arrival here was happenstance."
"No?"
"I believe you were meant to be here. At this moment. In this place. I believe there is a reason our paths crossed, a reason you bought that land, a reason you found your way to this corner of the world at this particular time. The mechanisms of the Universe conspiring to this moment."
I should have said something sensible. But standing on that rock shelf with the last light dying over the ocean and this strange, beautiful young woman looking at me with those fierce blue eyes, I couldn't find the words.
"I have deep affection for you," she said. "I don't know the proper words for it. I've never felt this way before, about anyone. But I know that when I'm with you, I feel more myself than I've ever felt. And I want to know you. Intimately. Completely."
Her hand found mine. Her fingers were cool and calloused and strong.
"Scout, I'm--" I swallowed. "I'm so much older than you. Twenty-four years. I could be your father."
"Age is of no matter." She stepped closer, and I could smell wood smoke and pine needles and the warm scent of her skin. "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."
Wuthering Heights. Catherine speaking of Heathcliff.
Scout rose on her toes and kissed me.
Her lips were soft and uncertain. I stood frozen like that first time she kissed me, my mind screaming objections, cataloging reasons this was wrong, this was inappropriate, this was...
She pulled back slightly, her eyes searching my face.
"Thomas?"
And something in me broke. Or maybe something finally reconnected. Here was this woman, this impossible woman who quoted Bront? on clifftops and carried a revolver and had never seen the inside of a shopping mall, offering me something I hadn't known I was missing.
I kissed her back. She opened her lips and drew my tongue in, our hands roaming each other's backs.
Scout took my hand and led me to the fern bed. We sat together on the wool blanket, the vegetation beneath us soft and springy, giving slightly under our weight. The last purple light of dusk painted her face as she turned to me.
I thought of Aimee. That afternoon in Chasten Cove, the seagrass beneath us, the salt air, her confident hands knowing exactly where to go. Aimee had been my age, experienced, clear about what she wanted and how to get it.
Scout was looking at me with something entirely different. Desire, yes. But underneath it, uncertainty. A wanting that frightened her even as it pulled her toward me.
I reached up and stroked her cheek with the back of my fingers. Her skin was cool from the evening air.
"Is this what you want?"
She nodded, her eyes never leaving mine.
"I want this very much." Her voice caught slightly. "I want you very much."
I kissed her again, slower this time, letting her set the pace. Then I eased her back onto the blanket, the ferns cushioning us as she settled onto her back. I leaned over her, my lips finding the curve of her ear, tracing along its edge.
She shivered as I moved to her neck, kissing the tender skin below her jaw. I cupped her breast and she gasped. The sound went straight through me.
Scout bit her lip as my fingers found the buttons of her denim shirt. One by one, I worked them open, spreading the fabric aside. Her breasts were full and firm, rising and falling with her quickened breathing.
I took a moment to look at her, taking in this gorgeous girl beneath me.
"Do you even know how beautiful you are?" I asked her. "That first time at the pond, seeing you naked in the water. It was like watching a nymph from a fairy tale come to life."
"'Nymph, in thy orisons / Be all my sins remember'd," she sighed. "Shakespeare. Hamlet."
"You're damned amazing, Liberty Scout Flint."
She sighed as I lowered my mouth to her breast, taking one nipple between my lips. I sucked gently, felt it harden against my tongue, then moved to the other.
Her fingers found my hair, threading through it as I kissed down the flat plane of her belly.
She raised her hips without being asked, and together we worked her canvas pants down her legs. I took them carefully, folding them and setting them aside on the rock. I knew she didn't have many clothes.
Her panties followed, revealing the golden curls between her thighs. I ran my fingers through them, marveling at their softness, how they matched the pale hair in her armpits. Everything about her was natural, unadorned, perfect.
"I love the way you're looking at me," she whispered.
"Looking at you is even better than that view." I gestured toward the darkening ocean, the lights of Port Chasten twinkling below.
She hesitated. "I don't know what to do."
"You've guided me through these woods since the day we met. Every trail, every hidden path." I brushed a strand of hair from her face. "Now it's my turn to guide you, Scout."
She nodded, something loosening in her expression.
"I trust you," she whispered.
I nodded and gently pressed her thighs apart and lowered my head between them. Her curls brushed against my cheeks, soft as silk, as I breathed in the scent of her virgin pussy. Clean sweat and the deeper, muskier scent of her desire.
My tongue found her center and she jerked at the contact. I licked slowly, exploring the folds of her, tasting the slick warmth of her arousal. She was already wet, her body responding even as her mind tried to process these new sensations.
I focused on her clit, circling it gently with the tip of my tongue, and her hips bucked upward. A small cry escaped her lips. I pressed my hands against her thighs, steadying her, and continued my licking. Slow circles, then faster. Light pressure, then firmer.
Her breathing became ragged. Her fingers gripped the wool blanket beneath us. I could feel her tensing, building toward something she'd never experienced with another person.
"Thomas." My name came out strangled, desperate. "Something's happening."
"Let it," I urged her. "Let it happen, Scout."
Her whole body shuddered. She cried out, a raw sound that echoed off the rock face behind us. Her thighs clamped against my ears as wave after wave moved through her. I kept my mouth on her, gentler now, easing her through it until the tremors subsided and she lay gasping.
I moved up to face her and kissed her deeply. Her tongue met mine and I knew she could taste herself on my lips.
"I've climaxed," she said, half-statement, half-question. "That's what it is, isn't it?"
I nodded, smiling down at her beautiful face.
"You look so perfect right now," I told her.
She kissed me again, hard, her hand reached down between us, fumbling at the front of my jeans. Her fingers were clumsy but determined as she worked the button free and tugged at the zipper. I helped her push my boxers down. My cock sprang up, rigid and aching.
She touched it tentatively, running one finger along its length from base to tip. Her eyes were wide with fascination.
"It's so hard," she breathed. "And so soft at the same time."
A bead of precum had gathered at the head. She dabbed her finger in it, brought it to her lips, tasted.
"Salty."
She looked at my cock, then back at me, concern on her face.
"I don't know if it will fit inside me."
"It will. But not tonight." I stroked her arm. "I don't have any condoms, and I know you're not on birth control. We can wait until I have what we need."
She considered this, then nodded.
"I want to pleasure you. The way you pleasured me." Her cheeks flushed. "Can you show me how?"
"Yes."
She shifted down, positioning herself between my legs. Her hand wrapped around my shaft, her grip too tight at first, then loosening when I guided her.
"Like this?"
"Just like that."
She lowered her head and her tongue darted out, licking the tip experimentally. Then she took me into her mouth. Too much, too fast. I felt her teeth scrape along the sensitive underside and flinched.
"I'm sorry!"
She pulled back, horrified.
"It's okay. Cover your teeth with your lips. Use your hand on what you can't reach. You're doing so well, Scout."
She tried again, more careful this time. Her mouth was warm and wet and eager. What she lacked in technique she made up for in enthusiasm, her head bobbing awkwardly as she worked to find a rhythm.
"That's good," I encouraged her. "Just like that. A little more suction."
She moaned around my cock and the vibration nearly undid me. I felt the pressure building, the familiar tightening.
"Scout. I'm going to cum."
She clamped her mouth over my cockhead just as I started.
Her eyes went wide, bulging with surprise as the first spurt hit the back of her throat.
She swallowed convulsively, more cum dribbling down her chin, but she didn't pull away.
She stayed with me through every pulse until I was empty and softening.
She licked the globs of sperm from my lower belly, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Then she crawled up beside me and nestled against my chest, her head resting over my heart.
I stroked her hair as our breathing slowed. Above us, stars were emerging one by one, scattered across the darkening sky.
"Did I please you?"
I laughed softly. "The proof is in your belly."
She smiled against my chest. "I loved this. What we did. What you showed me."
She tilted her head up to look at me.
"I want more."
"There will be more." I kissed her forehead. "But there's no rush. We have all the time in the world."
She settled back against me, her body warm and soft. The lights of Port Chasten glittered far below. The ocean murmured against the distant rocks.
We lay there together, watching the stars rise over the far horizon.