I did it the way Karen liked it, and that probably made her suspect that something was up.
I kissed her mouth, squeezed her against me and pinched her nipples. She had such nice, big tits. The curls between her legs were warm and wet even before I slipped my fingers into her slit and teased her until she couldn't talk. I lifted her knees, dragged her hood between my teeth, and flicked my tongue over her firm button. Karen thrashed when she came. She held my face against her and kicked her heels on my back.
Karen knew what would come next when I turned her on her elbows and knees. I pushed my cock into her—slowly at first then all at once—and forced a gasp out of her. She gripped her pillow in both hands and used it to muffle herself while I grunted sweet nothings in her ear. "Fuck you feel good," and a few other sensitive things like that. I slapped my hips against her soft butt and felt her cunt tighten while she came again, and then I went blank. I flattened her on the bed and let it all go inside her.
It was my plan to soften her up for the news I was going to give her.
"You're kidding, right?" she said. I wasn't kidding, but the pillow talk didn't go the way I wanted.
"You know I've always wanted to get back into biology." I told her. "I only started landscaping because the jobs were so hard to get and keep. The job is temporary, but it gives me a chance."
"Jim," she said, "you don't need a chance, and you really don't need some entry-level environmental job. You're thirty eight. You have a boatload of money from selling the business and time to start a new one. You could buy a new house, or pay more attention to me."
"It's only for the summer," I told her. "I'll be back before the end of August."
"That means I'll be alone for almost three months," Karen said. "What am I supposed to do while you're gone?" She had a frustrated edge to her voice, and her body was tense with anger.
I grinned at her and said, "That would be just enough time for you to clean out my garage."
Maybe I should've taken her more seriously. Karen hissed like her cat. Her cat hated me.
We were done when I hit the floor. She rolled me over, kicked my butt out of bed, and made me glad that we'd never gotten married or even moved in together.
That's why I was unattached when I sat down with Theresa May—my new employer—and three other members of the survey crew around a small conference table in Dr. May's office. "Our client is Rare Resources," she said. "They proposed a major new mine to produce rare earth elements. Our job is to complete a botanical census of the potentially affected areas for the Environmental Impact Statement."
Dr. May looked over her glasses at her motley crew and said, "You're going to be living together for the next ten weeks. The mine area is remote and your base camp is a small hunting lodge on the property, so try to get along."
We spent the rest of our first day pouring over maps and photographs and getting to know each other.
It was Lilly Berands who first caught my attention. She was—like Karen—in her mid-thirties. Lilly flipped her shoulder-length hair back and asked, "Have you done this before?"
"Yeah, but not since I was twenty five," I said. "It's hard to make a living this way, so I started my own business instead." Lilly's body language told me that she was thinking about sex, but not with me. Her attention was on Ryan Hanson. I felt like I was intruding on her thoughts when I asked, "What's your background?"
She looked away from Ryan long enough to say, "I have a biology degree, and I teach high school science in Minnesota. My husband and I split this last winter, so this job is a way to stay busy over the summer. I hope the experience will let me give my students a different perspective."
Lilly touched my arm as she stepped past me to talk to Ryan. She was a good-looking woman. If she'd been my high school science teacher, then she would have been the center of some pretty adolescent fantasies.
I could see why Lilly was interested in Ryan. He was a little taller than me and broad in the shoulders. He had big hands and a big laugh. I heard her repeat the same question she asked me, "Have you done this before?"
"I did a survey last summer," Ryan answered "before my senior year. But that was a lot different from this." He gestured toward the retina-burning desert sunlight outside the office window. "That was in Canada."
I could only wish Lilly good luck in her pursuit because Ryan's attention was on Robin Sanders' butt. Robin stood by herself, studied a topographic map of the proposed mine access route, and ignored Ryan. She seemed annoyed when I asked, "Do you know Ryan?"
Robin had dark hair that was bobbed below her ears and dark eyes that matched her hair. Her expression was guarded when she answered, "We went to school together—both in biology—so I've known him for a few years." She couldn't have missed the way my eyes traveled while she answered. They went down over her narrow shoulders and small breasts, and over the lines of her arms and legs.
"It doesn't look like you appreciate his company," I said.
Robin glanced past me to where Lilly still talked with Ryan. My eyes followed hers in time to see Ryan laugh out loud and Lilly step back from him. "He can be a jackass sometimes," she said, "And that's probably what just happened there. I try to avoid him." She eyed me in about the same way I eyed her then said, "I haven't done a survey like this before. Have you?"
"Yeah, but not in years," I answered. My gut wasn't very big, but I sucked it in and puffed out my chest. Robin was attractive—young, but attractive—so my reaction was automatic.
Our introductions began a week of preparation that ended with the three-hour drive to the lodge. It was at the end of a rutted trail along the edge of a national wilderness. The trail climbed from desert grasslands to hills dotted with junipers and up rocky slopes to where piñons gave way to ponderosa pine.
Dr. May spent a week with us before she had to get back to her other clients. The night after Theresa left, Lilly tugged on my arm and whispered, "I need to talk to you outside."
The air cooled fast when the sun went down and the contrast with the heat of the afternoon made it seem nearly cold. I followed Lilly into the starlight then after the door closed behind me she turned around and stepped close. "I need something from you," she said and paused. I could hardly make out her expression in the dim light when she continued, "I need sex."
I was surprised. I laughed and asked, "What's the occasion?"
