Maker Girl Ch 02

Homework at Big Sur

Even with determination, it was hard not to think of the brainy, beautiful woman with whom I had suddenly fallen in love. Who happened to be my lab partner. Eric wandered in and suggested that Lisbeth and I could move on, while others filled in more blanks on the trail of the copper problem. We followed to his office and sat around the small conference table.

"Xilent needs a new direction. We've made a ton of money off the original design, but the market is saturated, especially with illegal Asian copies."

Lisbeth looked over and said, "Eric's been using that cliche about out-of-the-box thinking on me. He thinks new blood, meaning the two of us, can come up with something that will push the state of the art and make billions for Xilent."

I stifled a laugh, because Eric was looking serious. "I want the two of you to disappear for several days and come back with a list of promising directions. Do whatever you have to do to get your brains working overtime." He smiled, but the air was tense. He waved his arms. "Go. Get busy."

As we were leaving the room, he said, "Oh, I guess there has to be some of that loving stuff, too."

Lisbeth pushed me against the doorframe and delivered a hot kiss. "Yes, just a little of that loving stuff."

Between my first real job assignment and my first real love affair, I was literally paralyzed. I closed my eyes and groaned as she drove to the house. And lay on the down sofa and groaned some more.

Ceci said, "What's wrong with him?"

Lisbeth stood in her underwear, sipping a beer. "He has just been given the chance of a lifetime and is crumbling. We are taking him away."

"We?"

"Yes. He has been told to get his brain working overtime, and I think an Italian beating will help. We are going to that spa place in Big Sur. The two of us have to liberate his cock and his brain. Do you think we can do that?"

"There is a connection between the two? I could never find one."

I groaned anew. This was so utterly unfair. My prestigious research paper had not even been published and I was being sucked down a rathole of glorious sex and professional ruin.

I was not allowed to drive, but told to get in back, close my eyes, and think. The car was loaded with the women's idea of spa clothes, and various alcoholic and gastronomic goodies.

I took my medicine and thought about new directions for Xilent. Brainstorming sessions in the Valley were a dime a dozen. The VC's loved to sponsor them and passed around NDA's like confetti. It had been a while since one of the "next big thing" bets had paid off, and Harrington told me his friends in venture capital were in a funk.

Xilent had prospered by taking a tricky tailored chip idea of the founders and running with it. The small niche market they started had expanded tenfold, and the company grew with it. But niches are always hazardous. Success means the big guys will move on you, unless the uniqueness of your idea is well surrounded by patents. Xilent, fortunately for them and for my new job, had that.

Lisbeth asked, "What's he doing?" Ceci turned and poked me in the ribs with a finger. I groaned, seized the finger and sucked on it. My other hand sneaked up and undid her belt and propelled her into the back with me. She choked out, "He is being bad. Very bad."

I pulled up her tee shirt, unclipped the bra and fastened on a delectable boob. My legs were circled around hers, pinning us together. I said to Lisbeth, "You said Italian would help my thinking. I am checking that out."

The wiggling calmed and she kissed me. The little voice in my ear said, "Please think. Think chips, not sex. That is for later." More kisses and more soft woman on me. This was dangerous, I knew, because she was smart and tough and used to dealing with hard case males.

"We have to find another niche," I said. My fingers were caressing her boobs and tickling her ribs. "Like the niches in this Italian body."

She sat up. "You've already explored my niches. Are you going to dump me for someone with new niches?"

I maneuvered us both into the passenger seat. It was a tight fit and she required kisses as we wiggled into a comfort zone.

"I'm only driving on condition that you think. And not about sex, either. Stop molesting your other new girlfriend."

I did stop, and we did talk chip niches, rehearsing all the fixed design parameter limits, the low power possibilities, higher gate densities and other arcana of the business.

Ceci kissed my neck lightly and chastely. "Keep going, I love to hear you both talk about this stuff. Way over my head, but I'm just a biologist."

Before long, the package in my arms was asleep and I stopped talking. Lisbeth looked across and smiled. I reached and pressed her hand.

She mouthed at me, "I'm in love with you."

I closed my eyes and licked the back of her hand. "Can you stay awake long enough to get us there? I am not doing my duties."

"Have a nap yourself. Rearrange some brain cells or something like that."

Tires crunching on gravel woke Ceci and me. The sun was just slipping beneath a far off horizon as we parked in some cypress trees. "Stay where you are. I'll sign us in and find out where our room is."

"Just a biologist, eh?"

"Yes. I teach scads of undergraduates how nature works, and I keep a fistful of grad students busy doing research for their dissertations."

"I was going to ask you how come the two of us have such good chemistry, but you are not a chemist."

"You are teasing me and you are going to suffer."

The kiss was long and warm. We weren't finished when the passenger door popped open and a hand pulled Ceci out. "You are not to treat him as a private preserve. He is going to marry me!"

The bungalow was isolated along a stretch of the ridge, backed up by trees, but with a deck and a fabulous view on the ocean side. There was a modest hot tub, with the heater and pump already going.

The single large room, with a bath and a kitchen opening in the rear, had an enormous king bed. There was a rollaway in the corner, but I doubted it would be opened unless there was a terrible fight of some kind.

I dug out my sweats and changed. I wondered if sweats, running clothes, and nakedness would cover the clothing requirements of the next few days. How could any serious work get done here? Neither of them knew it, but my small supply of marijuana was in my duffel.

The driver tried to relax on the bed, but mother and I held her up, removing clothing and walking her to the tub. There were even headrests, one of which we fixed for her.

"Whiskey, beer or wine?"

"Wine. You realize this is going to knock me out?"

When I came back, Ceci was taking out pins and brushing the hair. With breasts underwater just enough, she was a fabulous ad for the tub. Blond, blue eyed. Relaxed and sultry looking.

I put my arm around Ceci and said, "You and I will do dinner while she soaks and naps."

We assembled stir fry ingredients and went to work slicing and dicing. I got a hip check and looked at her.

"You are being too nice and too competent. There must be a bad side somewhere."

"I used to pull our cat's tail."

"Are you an only child?"

"Yes. Having me loused up my mother's insides for more kids. They talked about adopting, but never got around to it."

"So you are spoiled, egocentric and narcissistic."

"That's from the book on raising problem children?"

"Lisbeth told you she and I have had our tough moments?"

"She did. Scared me to death. Why aren't you the ogre she described?"

Another hip check. "There's something about you that is reforming me. I've let my wall about men down since the first moments I met you. Why is that?"

We hadn't noticed, but a towel clad warm body was wrapping arms around us. Lips were being applied.

"He's done a number on us, mom. We are under his spell."

"Pretty nice spell, if he doesn't get a swelled head."

"There's room for two in there. Go get your own soak and I'll work on this."

The soak was nice, but there was a lot of crying. She had her arms around my shoulder and sobbed hard.

"Hey, whatever it is, let it all loose. Let it roll down the cliff and into the ocean. This is the place to clean house with all that bad stuff."

More sobbing and hugging. Lisbeth came and knelt down, working her fingers in Ceci's dark hair and kissing her face. I climbed out and let Lisbeth back in. It was warm in the kitchen, so I dropped the sweats and got my running trunks. The piles of meat and veggies were finished, and we could eat whenever the emotional temperature stabilized.

I got out three Chinese beers to go with the stir fry, and sat at the counter, sipping on one.

Two bodies in terry robes, arms entwined, approached and sat down. Eyes were red, but there was a bit of a sparkle beginning. Ceci rubbed her hands on me and asked, "May I punch you?"

I looked at Lisbeth, who nodded yes. "Go ahead," I said.

It wasn't one punch. It was a volley and went on for more than a minute. Hard, but not too hard. At the end she clinched me and said, "Son of a bitch, you are a good man. Don't know how or why, but you are. I was so scared and so overprotective of this one. I was a nervous wreck, afraid she was going to turn out like me, not able to deal with men."

From behind us, a voice hissed, "Ask him if I can deal with him. He told me he'd never had a chance to love someone and twelve hours later we were engaged. Now did I deal with that situation or didn't I?"

I herded them to the bed and we took turns beating the last of our aggressions on each other. I lay back and asked, "Did all that help"

They lay atop my thighs and rubbed on me. "Yes. Ceci has finally found a guy she likes and trusts. There is a small problem that he is going to marry her daughter and she can't have him all to herself."

"I guess I can't tease the two of you. I just have to say I am on a marvelous ride somewhere with two fantastic women, and I hope it doesn't end anytime soon."

Ceci sat up and said, "This is totally gushy and we have to behave better. Let's have dinner."

As her mother walked to the kitchen, Lisbeth whispered to me, "Thank you, we'll talk later."

I started to heat the oil for stir fry and realized none of us was hungry. We were all drained and drooping. I wrapped everything up and put it in the refrigerator and shepherded bodies back to the big bed. "Lisbeth was going to be up early anyway, so let's go with her program."

It's nice having warm bodies on either side in bed until one of them pokes you and says, "Wake up."

"What unearthly hour is it?"

"Three. We can have coffee and toast and talk."

"You are crazy, but ok."

I ran my fingers up and down Ceci's back and said, "Stay here. Early bird is up, but you don't need to be."

Now it was cool and sweats were needed. Maker girl had on the fluffy robe and felt great. We watched the coffee water heat and she said, quietly, "You have done something incredible to Cecilia. She really did flush thirty years of hostility down the drain last night. She told me she was on probation and if her good behavior lapsed, I was to beat her. Said she meant it."

I kissed her neck. "Don't give me too much credit. She comes to visit and discovers her daughter, all on her own, has found a guy and hooked up with him. Didn't need her mom after all. Then the guy hits on her with daughter's help, and she discovers she hasn't lost her sex life either."

The water was boiling, but we were hugging and kissing madly. A whisper, "Ceci is right, this is too too mushy."

We doused the lights and walked out on the deck with our coffee. Noise from the surf washed up the hillside. Stars were bright and headlights from Highway 1 wound back and forth in the distance. She hugged me and said, "There is a run out here, isn't there?"

"Yes. Once a year in the spring, they close the highway for half a day and everyone runs from the state park back to Carmel."

"I asked about running at the desk. They said the highway is too narrow to be safe, but there is a trail that leads up the ridge for miles."

"What about your knee?"

"Trails are better than pavement. I have one of those articulated brace things to keep the joint where it belongs."

"You are as tough as they come, and don't look the tiniest bit of it."

"When I played, I concentrated on the nice girl act until I got them in close under the basket. Play me one on one some time, and I'll demonstrate my elbow technique."

"Let's go back to bed until it gets light, then take a snack and go up the trail to a sunny meadow and talk chips."

She kissed me and we crawled back in with Ceci.

There was a clerestory window above the bed, and the morning sun played on the window wall opening to the ocean. I was awake and hard and they were torturing me.

"These young ones are good for a go almost anytime." One licked while the other stroked.

"That thing you are playing with is a wasted asset, Ceci. It needs to recharge. Lisbeth is going to lead me up the trail across the road to a sunny meadow and talk chips. You are welcome to come, but maybe you can find a book about local botany and give us pointers when we get back."

She stared at me and cradled her breasts with their two stiff nipples. "Yes," she said slowly, "pointers when you get back."

To Lisbeth, she said, "Don't work him too hard up there."

That morning, we escaped the standard Big Sur fog bank and warmed quickly on the steep trail. The pack was heavy with beer and extra water. The needed grassy hillside materialized around fifteen hundred feet and we found a hollow with a view and some privacy. I unfolded the blanket and Lisbeth dumped her clothes and lay out on a big towel.

"Are you just going to leer at me, or can we talk about our homework assignment?"

I stripped myself and lay on another towel, face down. "If I don't have to look at you, maybe some inspiration will occur."

She had a tube of lotion, but spent more time kissing my skin than putting sunscreen on it.

"When are we going to get married? I still haven't done anything about birth control."

I turned her over and applied lotion everywhere that had sun on it. "Maybe we need to tighten up some. Babies are a big deal."

"Yes, I agree. Where do we want to be in our lives before one of your sperms catches my egg?"

"If we don't talk about work, there won't be any money to support a baby." I pulled her hair and she punched me.

"It's too hot to sit here. Let's put our shorts on, a top for me, work up the trail and talk."

Our homework output slowly took shape. To prosper, Xilent had to continue to be a first rate technology company, but it also needed a broader and deeper customer franchise. All of the critical leadership factors, such as time to market, required an analysis of customer needs that was faster and better than the competition.

In less than an hour, we were ready to begin writing and turned around. Smiling, Lisbeth took my hand and danced us in a circle. Too late, she looked down and saw we were in knee deep poison oak.

"Oh Brian, I'm very susceptible to it. We have to get to the shower quickly!"

You would never know she had a bad knee from the race down the trail. I sat on the tile in the shower and scrubbed ruthlessly on her feet and legs, while she moaned and swore at herself.

I patted her dry with fresh paper towels and brought a beer. She sat on the deck in front of the view and moaned some more about stupid women. I went inside and outlined our paper. She had stuffed a small printer in the car. I took the outline to her and went back to work.

By late afternoon, we had more than a dozen pages and were happy with it. Ceci had wandered in and out, and took the car away for an exploring trip on the highway.

Between the morning hike and the tension of hours pounding on the computer, I was a smelly mess and headed for the shower. When I came back, they were discussing dinner choices.

Ceci pointed to the pile of paper and said. "You have done well. Let's drive to one of the good fish places in Monterey and forget work for the rest of the day. I will drive and you can imbibe."

Lisbeth looked at her pink legs. "I will know in the morning how much trouble I am in. But no clothes on those tonight. I can wear shorts, or my minidress."

Ceci and I looked at each other and laughed. She said, "I will put her blond locks in a sexy braid and you can flirt, complaining that she keeps turning you down for a date."

Lisbeth looked like a freshman in college, and a saucy one at that. I got to play her uncle, holding my fake niece's hand as Ceci and I gave her terrible cliches about college guys and how careful she had to be.

"Oh, how is a girl supposed to have any fun with advice like that!"

Ceci said, "Jeremy, can't you talk some sense into that addled brain? How will she ever finish if all she does is think about boys?"

The waitress thought it was for real until Lisbeth leaned over and gave me a hot kiss.

"You aren't her uncle are you?"

"I tried to give her a ring and she said no, she wasn't that kind of fiancee."

Lisbeth stared at the waitress's ample chest with a hot look that would have melted an iceberg.

"He's marrying me for my money." The waitress bought that too, until she saw Ceci laughing.

"You three have a lot of fun. Are you going to eat anything?"

Dinner was great and the waitress got a big tip. Lisbeth and I walked out arm in arm, back to acting like college kids. We climbed in the back and Ceci drove, watching us in the rear view mirror. I had my hand under the minidress and Lisbeth was complaining, "Not here, not in front of your mom. What will she think?"

My pants were being undone and he popped out, nice and hard. Before I realized what was happening, her legs were over the seat backs and I was guided straight in. I was shocked, but my cock was in heaven. Lisbeth humped wildly and cried to Ceci, "Mom! I've never had sex in the back seat of a car before! Oh god, this is so bad! Harder!"

If it was tension relief, I wanted more. We thrashed around and said dirty things to each other. My lover was coming, and then not stopping, just squeezing and howling and pulling my head down for wild kisses. I held back until finally expanding tight into her and blasting away.

Ceci handed a fistful of tissue over the seat and said, "There better be some left for me. Stuff this between her legs to save the seats. If she's not pregnant after that, I don't know what will do the trick."

I maneuvered us around so my loving woman was on top, giving me little kisses and mumbles in my ear about how I could have her in the back seat anytime. I whispered that there was something wrong with me because I had never done it in a car either.

At the bungalow, in the big bed, with surf noise coming through the open door, mother was very demanding. And loud.

"You young people are so shallow. A few humps and it is all over. You need a mature body to make love to, one that appreciates a fine cock and works him over for hours."

Lisbeth sat next to us in a lotus position and said, "Hours? There would be nothing left of your insides!"

Ceci giggled and pulled Lisbeth into her arms. "You're right. But it sounds exotic, doesn't it?"

She had me in her, moving gently and not beating up the tender flesh. Lisbeth licked my neck. "You are doing a good job of keeping us both happy. She told me that being a nanny for our baby is a fine idea. She has enough years to retire."

I got myself against the headboard and Ceci down on me, facing Lisbeth. "Maybe she is too smart for that. She will rule the household. Take our paychecks and control the finances."

I got a hard squeeze. "Yes. Control everything."

We were back in missionary and I was driving hard. "You have a problem, lady. This cock controls itself. It finds warm places and takes charge."