Author's Foreword: This series has themes of romance, sex, friendship, humor, safe and consensual BDSM, and above all, intimacy and the concept of memory. Any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental. I want you, reader, to come away with more empathy, appreciation, and joy for yourself and others than you began. As I did when writing this.
Note on Part 10:
I accidentally wrote the end of this series, but for a lot of reasons I wasn't ready for that. There's more to tell on the way there. Not a lot, but enough. So I plucked what I needed, shelved the rest, and wrote this part instead.
If you want a refresher on where Luke and Erin are and what happened the first day at the cabin, have a look at Part 07. Also, while both Part 07 and Part 10 have a little more BDSM and power role play than usual, I've tried to make it clear that it's between two happy and consenting people who care about each other. It takes a little time to build. And we see Luke as he is today, briefly.
I hope you enjoy it! As always, your comments, ratings, and follows encourage me to keep writing in the little free time I have, and to do as good of a job with it as I can.
***
***Mid-Summer***
For distance, the hike up to the alpine meadow above the rental cabin wasn't a long one, but the incline had made it a real leg-burner. The small, relatively flat place was a patchwork of grasses, lichen, and heather, covered in a riot of small wildflowers and drifting butterflies. Erin immediately declared it perfect and I gratefully dropped my pack. Naturally, I was the one carrying everything. She spread out the large picnic blanket and a few other things while I took off my sweat-soaked shirt and laid it over a low shrub to dry, then went walking around to look at it all.
The sun was warm on my back and shoulders, and the small cotton-ball clouds that scooted in front of it for a few seconds at a time cooled me down just enough that I was glad when they moved on. I looked back at where Erin had flopped down and could only make out her breeze-dancing hair peeking over the side of my backpack. A thought occurred to me, and I started hunting around to make a small bouquet.
One or two flowers here, one or two there. Not too many to hurt anything or steal too much from the little rodents that made hay in the short summer for a long winter. A piece of grass to tie it together. The flowers looked kind of limp and spindly already, but what did I know about making stuff like that?
You sap, I thought as I walked back to Erin, what are you, some 'young lover' in a story?
Maybe, I reflected, but so what? I was young, after all, and I'd never gathered wildflowers for a 'lover' before. Besides, it felt... right, somehow. At the very least, if I was already laughing at myself it would definitely get a laugh out of her. When I got back to Erin, I paused to admire the view.
She was sunbathing face-up in the nude, the bikini lines on her peach-toned skin stark yet endearing, her full-body covering of freckles looking like another carpet of wildflowers to me. Without opening her eyes, she smiled at hearing my wolf-whistle.
"What?" she murmured drowsily at me, "Never seen a girl get some vitamin D before?"
"I thought you got plenty of that last night," I teased, "Not that I'm complaining about you getting some more right now. You are absolutely... lovely."
"Mmm," she agreed, still dozing, "I certainly feel lovely right now. Where've you been?"
"Making a bouquet for you," I said, placing the flowers into her open hand. She cracked one eye open and shaded her face with her other hand, then beamed and sat up to look at it.
"Very pretty," she said, beckoning me over for a kiss, "Thank you, Luke."
"You're welcome." She paused to take a good look at the rest of me.
"That's one hell of a farmer's tan," she laughed, "Pretty sure you're blinding people on the space station. Strip and lay down here with me for a while."
"A short while. I don't tan so much as burn."
"Fine." She echoed my whistle from earlier once I had everything off. Laying on the blanket next to her, I could smell her sunscreen and clean sweat, the summertime scent of healthy skin in fresh air. Her hand drifted to mine to slowly dance and trace on my fingertips, like butterflies moving from flower to flower, clouds moving from peak to peak. The feeling of contentment stretched in front of us like a sapphire sky.
I go back to that place in my mind sometimes, but only when I desperately need to remember the beautiful parts of my life, or when I am so full of happiness that I can give some back to it. Flowers grow sparingly that high up, and it's best not to pick too many of them at once. Wild places, especially the ones in the soul, need to stay wild.
Erin leaned over and nuzzled at my jawline.
"What are we doing when we get back to the cabin, hm?" Her hand slid slowly up my leg as she rolled over to her stomach to look at me, showing off the rest of her body.
"I had some ideas," I hinted, "Maybe a 'quiet' afternoon and evening. If you know what I mean."
"Perfect," she said with a smirk and a sudden bite to my shoulder. Briefly, she contorted herself to take me into her mouth, then returned to level with me in moments. I tried to sit up but she pushed me gently back down.
"I think I want you a little fired up and frustrated," she said, stroking me languidly with one hand, "You're always more creative and devious at Silence stuff when you are. God, I love how hard you get. So quickly. Over and over."
"Careful," I said, "I wouldn't want to have to remind you of how to behave."
"Oh hush," she said after another quick, yet decidedly longer and hungrier bout of fellatio, "You're not the one who had to change their panties a couple times a day the week before we got here. You and your goddamn instructions."
"I'm still very impressed you managed it," I admitted, "You're a good little Kitten, aren't you?"
"Meow." She sat up and swung one leg across my chest, hands splayed over my shoulders, scratching patterns with her fingernails. She reached behind to give one more massage to my rocklike hard-on.
Her body smelled faintly like pollen and glacier-dust blowing in from the high passes. She smiled eagerly down at me as she scooted her knees forward to my ears. It was part invitation, part demand. Erin's face betrayed a little of the shyness she still held on to when I went down on her, but I adored her for coming to trust me to perform as I did. And she was more than worth it, from taste to touch to all other sensations and feelings. I ran my hands along her sweat-slick thighs, ass, and back. Her small, lithe, feline body was everything I wanted in that moment. She looked away down the mountains and sighed when the breeze toyed with her hair, then groaned as my tongue dragged firmly through her lust-soaked valley.
***
"Oh my fucking GOD, it's hot," Erin complained as we stumbled back to the cabin by mid-afternoon. To be fair, I'd done my share of bitching all the way back down as well. We were both covered in dust and scratches, and a tad grumpy from what amounted to a controlled fall to get off the mountainside and back to the rental. I chose to say nothing about how she hadn't had to carry anything the whole damn time, up or down. I also chose to say nothing about how much she'd teased me, stopping on the trail several times to edge me with her rapturous mouth without any release. I was more than resolved to teach her a thing or two about revenge.
After a long trudge in the sun, we made it to the shaded area under the porch that wrapped around the downslope view of the cabin. I still think of it as a cabin, but really it was more of a well-appointed chalet that could have comfortably fit six or even ten people, with views and amenities that would satisfy anyone. The porch was about eight feet above us and supported by heavy log columns, and there were benches set against the house. It was only marginally cooler under there but blessedly shady, with thin strips of light coming down through the deck boards. A garden hose sat near the door to the finished basement level, with an admonishing note to one side to not come in with boots on, or without rinsing off dirt.
