Normally trekking through an old growth oak forest would be the cat's meow for me. After all, I am an ecology major just on the verge of graduation. The thought of graduation reminded me once again why I was here in these woods and my ire rose. Damn art requirement and damn counselor who had realized I was missing it! I hate art. I can't even draw stick figures well for goodness sake.
I had figured my safest route was a class called "Art in Nature". I love nature...plus it was reported to be a fluff class, easy A. As fate would have it, the professor I was expecting was replaced at the last minute. This was no longer a fluff class and I was just skating through by the skin of my teeth. The only thing saving me were things like learning to make paper from natural ingredients and learning to press and dry flowers and plants. Now we were on a scavenger hunt/hike through the woods with a partner looking for plants from a list we had been handed as we left the bus.
I was pretty much a loner. I had never liked working with a partner, ever. They only ever slowed me down. This time my partner would not slow me down but promised to continuously distract me. I had been paired with the object of my desire through my entire college career, Jake Peterson. Jake was hot enough to melt chocolate but also kind and polite, the whole package. He was also slated to slide into a cushy management position at his family's nationwide pharmaceutical company after graduation. There were two things that annoyed me about Jake: 1) He was always surrounded by a flock of gorgeous women and 2) He had talent! Jake could draw and paint wonderfully without apparent effort.
"Hey Carly, wait up!" Jake called out from behind me.
I grudgingly slowed my pace and let him catch up.
"I don't know what I did to piss you off Carly, but you need to chill. We have to work together to get this assignment done. I need this art credit and this project is half our grade. You and your attitude aren't going to mess this up for me."
"I just don't like working with partners," I half lied. "They are always unreliable and I need to pass this damn class," I answered sharply as his words soaked in. "Wait. What do you mean you 'need this art credit'?"
"I mean what I said," he answered. "My father has never allowed me to take art classes, not till now when he found out it's required."
"But you're so good at everything we do. You have real talent Jake."
"Doesn't matter to my dad what I want. All business courses, no fluff, no fun."
"Come on, Jake," I laughed, letting go of my anger. "I've seen you. You have fun constantly. Always hanging with, oh, everyone!"
"You've watched me?" he asked in apparent amazement. I felt a red flush creeping up my neck to my cheeks as he stared at me. "Carly, I don't hang with everyone, they hang with me. They aren't my friends, I don't actually think I have any here."
He looked so sad suddenly that I put my hand out to him reflexively to comfort him. "What are you talking about, Jake?" I asked. "You have tons of friends."
"Not really," he replied. "It's all fake. They're all fake. They only hang around me for my family name and money. I can't seem to find anyone real. I thought I had, but can't seem to get anything to happen there."
"I think you're selling yourself short Jake. You are a great guy. That can't be the only reason they like you. I can think of a ton of reasons why someone would like you, and not one deals with your name or your money."
"Do you realize, Carly, that this is the most you've spoken to me in four years?"
"Jake..."
"What?"
"Let's get started on the hunt."
"Mmmm. Okay, but I don't know anything about plants."
"Then it's good that I do. Jake, I don't know anything about art."
"Yeah, I've kind of noticed," he answered with a chuckle. "I'll make you a deal. You lead us to the plants, I'll take care of the art piece afterwards with a little Carly thrown in."
"Deal!" I was so excited I threw my arms around his neck hugging him. I released him again just as quickly once again turning red. I spun on my heel and headed down the trail to hunt us up some plant samples. As I walked away I thought I heard him mumble something that sounded like, "She's real." But I couldn't be sure.
Jake and I spent the next three hours tromping through the woods. I was enjoying the warm spring day, the sun filtering gently through the canopy overhead. As we found sample after sample to check off our list we listened to the sound of birds chirping overhead and talked about our time in college and our plans for afterward.
At one point, Jake held his hand up signaling me to hold still and stay quiet. He pointed out in the distance and I saw a doe and fawn enjoying the new spring grass. I smiled at Jake and he smiled back. As we watched the pair, Jake leaned down close to my ear and whispered, "I was out in these woods last fall, during mating season. I came upon a buck and doe rutting. It was the most amazing sight, so raw and powerful, and wild. I'll never forget it. I want to have sex like that with the right girl. Seeing Mamma and baby so idyllic and gentle reminds me of how nature can be, gentle one minute and rough the next.
Jake's words struck a cord in me. With his warm breath against my ear and neck, I felt a stirring in my loins. My mind conjured up a picture not of deer in rut, but Jake and I in rut, him behind me ramming into me wildly. I bit my lower lip to stifle my groan and hoped that Jake, standing so close beside me, could not feel me shiver in excitement. We turned from the sight to continue the hunt for specimens.
After another 20 minutes of searching, I was quite to the point of exhaustion and our sample bags were just about full. There was only one plant we had not found, the bonus plant. "What do you know about it?" Jake asked me.
"I've heard of it," I answered. "All I know is that it grows by ponds."
Jake pulled out his phone and started fiddling with it.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Checking the GPS in my phone," he answered. "I know there is a pond near here, I saw it on the satellite images just two weeks ago."
"What were you doing looking at satellite maps of this area Jake? And for that matter, what were you doing out in this forest last fall anyway? I didn't think you were a big nature buff."
"My dad has a bid in to buy this forest. It's supposed to be my graduation present. For me to build on, my own branch of the company." He looked ashamed.
"You're going to ruin this forest?" I asked in total shock. I felt a cold chill run through me. The Jake I had come to know today would not do something like that.
"Oh God Carly, no, never, I'd never dream of that, especially not after today. This place, it's, I don't know, the most real place I've ever been, and I'm with the most real person I've ever known."
I stared at him in shock and awe. He reached out and pulled me close as his lips pressed a gentle kiss to mine, as if testing my reaction. "Mmmm," he whispered. "You taste delicious, like strawberries," he kissed me again, "and chocolate? Chocolate covered strawberries? Why do you taste like a coveted treat?"
"It's my lip gloss," I giggled. "I love chocolate covered strawberries so this way I can taste them all the time."
"Let's get to that pond, shall we? I feel the need to work off some excess energy," he said with a wink. I glanced down and blushed as I saw that his erection was pushing painfully against his designer jeans. "It's just a half mile west of here."
He took my hand and we hiked in companionable silence, each lost and alone in private thoughts yet joined together in awe of our surroundings and company. I loved the feel of my smaller hand in his large one. I liked Jake, period, end of story. He was humming cheerfully as we burst out into a clearing and onto the shore of a quaint pond.
"This is gorgeous!" I said excitedly taking it all in at once: the buzzing bees and fluttering butterflies, the sweet scents of blooming flowers in the air and the croaking of frogs on a lazy spring afternoon. "God Jake, I could stay here forever," I sighed dreamily. "Wouldn't it be amazing to live somewhere like this, to be part of it every day? The unspoiled cleanness of it just makes my soul sing!"
"Yeah," he answered quietly. "I know what you mean."
I turned my gaze on him and meeting his eyes realized that he was staring at me, not the scene before us. He pulled me close and lowered his lips to mine once more, this time more demanding. I opened mine under his probing tongue and moaned as it slipped inside to explore. My arms slipped up and around his neck as my fingers tangled in his sandy hair pulling him even closer, not wanting the kiss to end. I could feel my whole body coming alive, thrumming and zinging with need. I had never felt this way before.
"Jake," I whispered against his lips. "What are you doing to me?"
"Loving you," he answered. "Or I'm going to, if you'll let me. I've wanted you for so damn long Carly. You've haunted my dreams since we first met."
"Wait...what?" I was so astounded that I stopped kissing him cold turkey. "You've what?"
