4. Tabitha
FOUR
tabitha
The next few weeks fill with plenty of dates. We see a few movies. A comedy show. We bounce between the city and Evergreen Valley freely, but it quickly becomes clear that we’re both more at home in the small town.
It’s all good. Fine, even.
But I can’t help but shake that something’s wrong.
As saccharine as it all is, it’s just us. We joked about meeting the parents when we first met, but he made no moves to introduce me to his, even after we had a nice enough dinner with my dad.
Dad did say that he liked Fox.
But he also wondered why Fox never talked about his own old man.
And that is where the seeds of doubt began to hit me.
I’m waiting at a nearby park for him to show up. It’s a cool summer evening, and there’s some folks doing a cook out not far from here. It makes me hungry, but Fox and I were preparing to roast some hot dogs when we were going to wind down on our own hike.
I yearn to be with him even more. His lack of openness isn’t the point where I want to tell him to put up or shut up just yet.
It does keep me wondering. Are his folks that vile? He seems to like his mother. Is his father just that repulsive where he fears I’m going to dump him on the spot?
Could there be something else?
Part of me just wants to get up and ask him, demanding a straight answer. But I’m also aware that it may well be a sensitive topic for him. He’s a strong looking guy with his head on straight, but it’s hard to grow up in today’s world without getting some trauma and something you feel anxious about not sharing with other people.
His truck pulls up, its persistent filth the proof he’s as much of an Evergreen Valley native as he says he is. He steps out of his truck, his hiking backpack at the ready. “You're looking absolutely as beautiful as ever.”
“Thanks. I think the brown boots and shirt with a million pockets really brings out the color of my eyes.”
“I mean, it’s more of you’d be absolutely beautiful in anything. Including nothing. Especially nothing.”
I giggle. “Wouldn’t mind seeing you in nothing myself.”
He offers his arm to me, an old timey maneuver meant to make me laugh. “Now where are we going tonight, m’lady?”
“First, never call me ‘m’lady’ again,” I say, pulling him along and heading down the path.
“I promise I will never seriously call you m’lady again, m’lady.”
I playfully pieface him with the palm of my hand. “Dork.”
“What, I can’t help but love the way you crack up.”
I had sold Fox on another one of my natural little getaways. While what I had dubbed as ‘Nature’s Cathedral’ was the most sacred of these spots to me, it didn’t mean that I didn’t have a fine list of a bunch of other fun little spots that I quite enjoyed.
Fox clearly didn’t do this as much as I did, but he’s settling into the hiking and outdoorsmanship hobby quite well. “Me and the boys used to do a lot of running around in the forests, but you take it to a whole new level, Tabitha.”
“I don’t expect many people to embrace being a bit of a flower child like I am. This was just my world through my teenage years and something I kept coming back to.”
We go deeper into the forests. It’s a bit past where the rangers say it’s safe for people to go, but I’ve always thought it’s more of a mark of ‘we don’t want to bother patrolling this far’ than any actual warning of its actual safety. Most people do obey such things though, and this means that I come across a whole lot of spots most folks would have never heard about before.
There’s no rush for either of us. We take our time, making sure to watch for any sudden branches that could trip us up, or poison ivy ready to punish us for daring to wear shorts today.
“Ah, there’s the stream,” I note aloud, and start using it as a marker for our path.
“Oh, we’re following the water today? Where could you be leading me, my dear Tabitha?”
Most of our destinations have been little clearings in the forest, or little hills that give us some fantastic views. Water usually isn’t involved.
Today, I lead him along this stream. A crystal clear one, the water fresh and with a unique taste I’d never been able to replicate. Soon, its sibling stream appears in my sight, letting me know I’m going the right direction. All until we finally reach our destination, a beautiful, secluded pool that I wholeheartedly believe hasn’t been seen by more than a hundred people in the past hundred years.
“Welcome to Old Gold Sifter’s Pond,” I say, my arms stretched out like I’m an overenthusiastic tour guide.
He cocks his head to the side. “Never heard of this place.”
“No one has. Someone found gold here once a hundred and fifty years ago. A bunch of people tried to find more. It wasn’t much of a gold rush, but it’s the most interesting historical thing about this little pond, so that’s how it got its name.”
He walks along to one of the smoother rocks perched along the creek. “Something tells me that you’re not here for the off chance of finding a gold nugget.”
“I mean, that’d be nice. I’d like to make a piece of jewelry with some raw gold,” I say, setting my bag down and perching on the rock beside him. “But this place? It doesn’t need gold to be beautiful.”
The moon is high in the sky. We’d been hiking for awhile, and the chill of the area is still nice and lovely. Just that point where it’s hard to break a sweat but you’re nowhere near thinking you ought to get a jacket.
It’s also bright enough tonight that we barely need anything else to see. It’s just the two of us, and no one else for miles.
“This is a pretty clean looking pond,” Fox says, looking down into it. He scoops some of the water into his hand and sips it. “You’d think it’d be tainted by one of the local factories.”
“It’s far away enough to escape that fate,” I reply, stretching out. “Nature as it is, and nature as it should be.”
“Just us two humans here being all unnatural. We’re ruining it,” he jokes.
“Hey, we’re animals. Mammals. Adaptable ones. We can enjoy and relish this place as much as any bear or beaver or bird.”
“I’d like to see some beavers,” he looks away from me, feigning innocence.
“You would, wouldn't you?” I swirl some of his hair in my finger, which has been getting longer. “Maybe I could do with some getting closer to nature too. Really sell that we’re nothing but mammals.”
“Oh?” He perks up.
I unbutton my shirt, and let it fall to the smooth rock, and let my bra follow. I’m a bit practiced at getting naked in a hurry here, so my boots, socks, shorts, and panties soon follow in swift succession.
“Ah, there’s the beaver I wanted to see.”
I roll my eyes. “You really are a dork, you know that?”
I lead by example. I dive into the pond, knowing how deep it is and showing that the water is fine.
Well, eventually. At first, the water is freezing cold. Powerful. Potent.
I love the feeling, the intensity of the coldness, and how my body adapts to the sudden shift of temperature. It wakes me up completely, it rejuvenates me, it’s just so absolutely amazing. I surface back to the top of the pond, and see Fox hastily following my lead. He’s by no means as trained at speed stripping as I am, as I watch him hop around on one boot and try to get those pants down, but I’m sure that in time he’ll learn.
Only a few moments later he's delving into the water beside me, overwhelmed by the sudden and powerful temperature change he’s experiencing.
He shivers but is woon wading right next to me, putting on a tough face. “It’ll get nice pretty quickly, don’t worry.”
“It’s already nice when I’m here with you, Tabitha.”
He wraps his arms around my waist, and pulls me close. We share another kiss. There’s been dozens of them, but every time they’ve been as electric as the last. He holds me close, his warmth overpowering the coolness of the water.
Being here with him, under the moonlight’s watchful gaze, us as naked as nature intended?
It fills me with a feeling of oneness. Oneness with Fox, oneness with the world, and oneness with the universe.
“God, this is too good. Too serene,” he says, nuzzling the top of my head.
“If we could just float here forever, I’d be happy,” I state without any hint of exaggeration.
“That’d be nice. But I can think of something to make it better.” We exchange devious glances with one another. I can feel his cock shudder and come to life, poking at my abdomen. Even through what would make most men shrivel, Fox is hard and ready for me. It’s all the proof I’d ever need that he’s madly in both lust and love with me.
“I see you want to do what comes natural to us, huh?”
“Why should only bears get to fuck in the woods? There’s plenty of space for them to share.”
Another kiss, this one more erotic than romantic, but in a way, that’s romantic too. Together, we wade toward another rock on the bank of the pond, and decide to go partially amphibious. I wiggle my ass in front of him, and give myself a playful little spank. “Come on. Fuck me like the mammal you are.”
It’s all a bit silly. But he’s totally in tune with me. I can’t stop laughing when I’m with him, feeling such immeasurable joy, even as I realize how lame it might seem from the outside looking in.
His warm hands clashing against the chilliness of the water is one hell of a feeling too. Him running that coarse touch down my form, God, it’s such a symphony of sensations. Him rolling my cold nipples into his hands, I shivered both in the traditional sense and in delight. The heat of his body pressed against my own, and I’m feeling his cock poke at my sex from behind.
“Take me. Fuck me. I’m your bitch in heat,” I say, shooting him the sexiest glare I can manage.
He growls seductively as he pushes himself in. All of our trysts have trained him just how to fuck me, just how to take me, and how to make me really like it. I relish the sensation of him buried to the shaft, and how our sexes are just so absolutely perfect for one another. I nibble my lip and moan on that first penetration, ready to let my pleasure echo through the night.
Fox knows how to set the pace. A strong start, nothing too tender, nothing too fast. He needs to make sure the fire inside of me is burning super hot. He kept a finger on my clit, rubbing it with every stroke he fucked me with.
All the while I bucked back into him. To show him I’m no pillow princess and that I desire him every bit as much as he desires me. Our lust should be equally insatiable for one another, something I’ve always felt is important for a relationship to truly blossom.
With how our libidos match and how we connect wordlessly on such a deeper level?
Goddamn does Fox feel like absolutely the man for me. At the heights of our passion, I can look past any worries I have for why he might not be.
Harder, faster. My back arches up into him, and he’s so quick to hold me close. I feel his heartbeat against my back, even through all the other intense sensations that we’re experiencing at that moment. I lean back into him, and turn my neck, just to get a bit more of the intensely sweet sugar that is his lips.
The ecstasy rising inside me is too much to contain, too powerful. I’m crying out for him, screaming for him, being pushed to my very limits. I’m panting, gibbering incoherently, and he keeps going. He keeps fucking me. He’s so dedicated. I love him like nothing else.
When I hit those final highs, I feel like I scream so loud that the entire world should be able to hear me. Searing pleasure overwhelms me so completely, this bliss somehow being even greater than everything I had experienced before this.
Fox is always right there with me, so perfectly attuned to my very being. His cock throbbing, pulsing, filling me with his very need. Its heat is always the cherry on top of something so utterly excellent.
Heavy panting, both of us covered in sweat so thick that it’s clearly not just water from the pond. We make no moves to break our embrace. A man holding his woman so closely after fucking her, seeding her, there’s nothing more natural that that.
Beyond the metaphors of nature though, I feel sanctuary in the arms of Fox. Our love has been wildly blooming these past few weeks, and we’ve spread it through the wilderness, etching our fabric in the deep forests of Evergreen Valley.
I wonder when we will be able to share our love with the people.
Because we aren’t just mammals. We’re human beings. Social creatures, with more people we love and care for than just one another. Friends, family, and so much more.
I can’t escape my worries. It feels like he’s hiding me, almost.
No. I push the negative thoughts away. I enjoy the love for what it is.
Because no matter what happens, I’m sure I’ll never forget the sheer joy and pleasure that Fox has brought to my life.