If a Bree calls in the forest, does she make a sound?
Not with a red scarf crammed tight in her mouth. She was tethered to the trees when I found her.
I was roving the paths on my hundred acres of property, enjoying the cool North breeze, when I heard a smothered yelp. I paused, filtering the sounds of the woods – the creak of branches, the shush of leaves, the rustling of squirrels and chipmunks – until I heard the sound again, to my left. I followed the trail to the first clearing and there she was, bound to a clump of four young, sturdy maples.
I recognized her. She was Bree Donlan, one of the three young women who rented the Barnes farmhouse for the month of June. I had already encountered the young ladies several times: twice in the general store, once when I caught them trespassing on my property a week earlier, and the night before in the only bar in the nearest town. After the trespass I had been insistently clear, or so I thought, regarding my desire for privacy. They assured me they got turned around in the dense woods, and that it wouldn't happen again.
I didn't believe their story about being lost. When we met while shopping they told me they were college students; even worse, they were Lit majors. Though I’ll refrain from dropping my name, let’s note for the record that I have a modest national reputation as an author, along with a moderate local rep as a lech.
So, I've had my share of drop-ins and groupies. This unwanted attention was flattering when I was young and starving - for women as well as food. But that was years ago. These days I crave my three months of solitary confinement every summer. No phone, no friends, and (most emphatically) no women.
I said as much to the girls, and hoped it had registered.
Unfortunately, I said much more to them the night before, after many rounds of vodka and beer. It’s a lonely life, the writing life, and it's been almost a year since my last divorce. Over the intervening months I have abstained from females. I suppose this thorny fact has taken a horny toll.
We sat together for a few hours, drank, flirted and cavorted in the mildest sense – a pinch here, a grope there. The two sisters, Lucia and Maryanne, were a handful.
Literally - not just figuratively. Maryanne’s breasts kept “accidentally” bounding out of her halter-top, and Lucia’s roaming fingers and stunning green eyes had me hard on the verge of spillage once or twice.
But gentle Bree was quiet; hence, for me she was the most alluring of the tree …
Ah, I meant to say three.
By closing time we were swapping sexual escapades and fantasies. I slightly remember swampy conversations about the most daring places we had given or received oral sex, who liked to spank whom …
And about tickling – who was, who wasn't, and where.
Bree laughed along with us, blushing at our most outrageous jibes. But she offered no scenarios of her own, so Lucia offered several that came to her teeming imagination.
“I know for a fact that Bree’s verrry ticklish, right hon?”
Bree went from blushed to scarlet in an instant. Maryanne joined the fray, adding:
“Yeah, remember the first night we all roomed together. How she screamed when I grabbed her …”
“Enough – Okay?” Bree interrupted with some force, and the two sirens took the cue and were silent. For a moment, anyway.
“I think he’d like to make you scream,” Lucia said, grinning wickedly at Bree as she raked her long nails over the apparent swelling under my khaki shorts.
“Like the lady said,” I managed to grumble irritably, drunk as I was, “enough.”
We finished our drinks and were soon on our way - to our separate dwellings. While I concede I am by no means ancient at fifty-five, I figure having the twenty-year-olds is at least a decade behind me.
Besides, despite my enduring reputation, I'm actually rather shy.
A romantic at heart.
Ha!
Regardless, my cock and balls were more than a shade blue by the time I arrived – having driven only once off the road - back home.
I woke after noon with an apocalyptic hangover. It had taken most of the day, and a gallon or two of juice and water, to resurrect myself. In the meantime the girls had apparently been back, and they had left me a novelty gift – a breathing sex toy.
Bree was tied to the bunched trees, hands over head and feet together. She was nude, except for the red scarf and a note pinned to one of the outer maples:
DO NOT FEED OR TICKLE THE BARE.
Must have said more than I remembered last night.
Or maybe it was that urgent bulge in my lap?
Bright, funny, horny girls. The bane of my life.
~
Bree averted her glance when she saw me, mumbled and groaned, twisted and tried to turn her body, but she could barely move. Her friends had done a thorough job.
Poor Bree was spread and yoked fast to the maples.
I took a moment to relish the sight of this delicious, sun-browned dryad as she struggled vainly against the bonds of her mock crucifixion. The noble thing to do, I immediately thought, would be to release her from this embarrassing predicament, from this ticklish situation.
But as the word crossed my mind for the second time since seeing the note, I felt a wave of heat surge through my body. This was warmth no summer breeze could dampen.