He had been dreaming of a day like this for years. Ever since he discovered this place, he had known that someday he would bring someone special to see it. He enjoyed being outdoors - smelling the scents of the woods in the breeze, basking in the warm sunlight. And this place just had a different feel to it than any other place on earth for him. Here, he felt alive and free.
They had known each other for about six months, but had never done anything more than simple kissing and cuddling. She was the most stimulating woman he had ever met, both physically and mentally. She had been in a bad relationship before, so he never pushed the intimacy. He was happy with things the way they were.
A few evenings before, they had enjoyed a quiet dinner at a local Italian restaurant and then went for a walk along the downtown street where he grew up. Much had changed since those days, but there were still familiar trees and houses that reminded him of how simple life had once been. He told her stories of his childhood and showed her the place he kissed his first "girlfriend". They had only been ten at the time, but he remembered it like it was yesterday.
He drove her home and walked her to the front door as usual. He went through the typical clichés – 'had a great time', 'can't wait to see you again' – and then bent to kiss her goodnight. This time her kiss lingered a bit longer than he was used to, and when they broke, she looked up and whispered, "I think I want you to make love to me soon."
With that, she opened her front door and left him without another word or glance. For a few moments, all he could do was stand and stare at his reflection in the glass.
Did she just say what I think she said?
He had trouble sleeping that evening. Her words kept coming back to him over and over – "I think I want you to make love to me soon."
What did that mean? How soon was soon?
His thoughts raced around his tired brain until he fell asleep from pure exhaustion.
The next morning he woke up and wondered if he had dreamed the last five minutes of their night together.
Maybe she didn't really say that at all. Maybe that is what I wanted her to say, and I totally missed her real comment.
Even more troubling was how to proceed from here. He couldn't bring it up again. He would have to wait for her to make the next move if she really had meant what he thought she said.
Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long for an answer to his concerns. When he turned on his computer, there was an email from her titled, "Hope I didn't scare you away". He quickly opened the message and found a few simple lines.
'I can't believe I actually said that last night. It was just such a great evening, and I was so comfortable with you. I guess you know what I have been thinking lately. You have been so patient with me. I just want everything to be perfect. I think the time is right. I'll leave the planning to you, but I am ready when you are.'
An amazing feeling of exhilaration rushed through his body. He was sure this was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him. Sure, he had been sexually active with women before, but almost all of them were simple flings. This was the first time he actually felt a strong emotional attachment to someone who wanted to make love to him.
Planning???? How do you plan something like that?
It has just always happened before. Then, a feeling of calmness came over him as the secluded stretch of woods on his old family property popped into his mind. When he was younger, he used to go sit there, on the ground, for hours just looking up at the sky and thinking his random thoughts. There was not a more perfect place on earth…
The property had been in his family since before the Civil War. He had been told that Jesse James actually watered his horses there once on his way to a bank robbery. No one had lived on the land for years until his father retired and built a log cabin and dammed up the old stream to create a private lake. How many summers since had he taken vacation to visit his dad and just sit on the bank of that lake catching fish?
Long before that however, his dad had taken him for walks around the property and told stories about his grandmother's house and how they used to have a huge Christmas feast there every year. The house had burnt when he was fifteen and his grandmother died soon after. Her kids had all built houses elsewhere, so Mother Nature was the sole resident until his dad came back.
On one of those walks, they had come across an open spot in the middle of the woods. His dad said that this used to be a cornfield that his uncle had tended every year. For some reason, no trees had grown up in one small area despite many years of non-use. As he got older and began venturing onto the property himself, he adopted this area as his special place and used it as a sanctuary to meditate and clear his head.
On more than one occasion, he had masturbated to sexual fantasies while lying under the warm sun in his favorite place. Something about sex outdoors fascinated him, and he had spilled more than one load of semen onto the hallowed ground around him. Just feeling the breeze blow across his erection while he gently stroked himself to orgasm was one of the most pleasurable experiences he could imagine.
So, now he had the "where" figured out. Next, he had to figure out the when and how. She had sounded rather urgent, both in her last words the night before – "I think I want you to make love to me soon" – and in her email this morning – "I think the time is right. I'll leave the planning to you, but I am ready when you are." Saturday seemed like a good choice.
His return email was short and simple:
'You can't possibly scare me off. I would wait until the end of time to be with you. How does a picnic sound for Saturday afternoon?'
Now, how to make sure "everything is perfect" and still remain patient just in case things didn't progress. He had blankets and a picnic basket for such an occasion. He would need to stop by the grocery store on Saturday morning to pick up a few things. A bottle of wine, strawberries, chocolate, cheese…
By Friday afternoon, the only thing that could have spoiled his plans was the weather. However, there was not a cloud in sight and the weatherman had promised that a high-pressure system was controlling the weather for the next few days. He could not believe this was really going to happen tomorrow!
They had not seen each other since the night she had whispered those sweet words to him – "I think I want you to make love to me soon" – but, he had been so busy trying to plan the perfect day that time had flown by. They had exchanged the usual emails, but nothing else had been said about her revelations.
He woke up early on Saturday and found himself as nervous as he had been at his first football sock-hop. Janie Newton had been sweet sixteen and full of energy, and he was afraid he would have no idea what to do at the dance. He had almost puked five minutes before he finally built up the courage to ask her. Now, those stirrings of butterflies were in his stomach again, but he found himself enjoying them.
He packed up his blankets and picnic basket and put some ice in a cooler in the back of his Jeep Wrangler. It was a beautiful day, so naturally he had the top off. He stopped off at the grocery store and then headed over to pick her up. She was waiting on the front porch step when he arrived and sauntered sexily out to his Jeep with a slight smirk on her face.
It was a two-hour drive to his parent's place, so they talked about work and listened to Tim McGraw on the CD player. When
"Let's Make Love"
began playing, things got quiet and they drove in silence for most of the remainder of the trip. Luckily, his parents were out of town for the weekend, so they had the place to themselves.
They arrived just after noon and quickly unpacked the Jeep and went inside to freshen up. She had been here on several occasions, but he had never taken her to his special place. Something had told him to wait and only show it to her when the time was right. It had been his place for so long, and now he was ready to share it with the woman of his dreams.
She looked at him with that smirk that was so much of her playfulness as they entered the woods with blankets, picnic basket and cooler in tow. He supposed she had assumed they would just eat out in the back yard and then move inside to fulfill her desires. The trip into the trees was surely a surprise to her expectations.
When they reached the clearing and walked into the open, she stopped and looked up at the endless sky for what seemed like an eternity. He knew how she felt. It was like being in a temple with nothing between you and God. Of course, he had stopped believing in God a long time ago, but he did believe in some deity and he was never closer to it than he was here.
When she finally looked at him, there were tears in her eyes as she said, "You've never told me about this place."
"I have been saving it for a special occasion," he replied shamefully.
"It is beautiful. I don't think I have ever seen a more beautiful place in my life," she responded.
His response was choked with emotion, "I was hoping you would like it. I've never brought anyone else out here."
As they spread the blanket and opened up the picnic basket, two Canadian Geese flew overhead on their way to the lake.
"They come back every year," he indicated, "A wildlife expert told us it was probably the same pair. They tend to mate for life."
At this, she glanced shyly to the ground. He took a good long look at her, and once again was amazed that a creature as beautiful as she was sitting right here with him. Her reddish-blonde hair hung like silk to her shoulders. Her eyes reflected the sunlight and glowed with emotion.
She was wearing a button-up, sleeveless blouse with the shirttail tied together just above her pierced belly button. She had on blue-jean shorts – the type you might call Daisy Dukes, and they accentuated her hips in a very seductive fashion. She had taken off her shoes and socks, so her cute little toes were hanging playfully off of the blanket in the warm grass. She was simply stunning…
He poured them each a glass of wine and laid out the cheese, strawberries and chocolate for them to munch on as they made small talk. He was having difficulty concentrating on conversation as the opening words to that song that had interrupted their chat on the way up kept dancing through his head:
