Rocs in Their Heads

Author's note:

As with Part 1 of this story, there are a few Australianisms and other minor references to popular culture, particularly music genres, bands, and a couple of local festivals, which may not be entirely clear as to their meaning. I've tried to explain some as naturally as possible in the text. However, I'll briefly mention a few closely related Australian slang terms which may not be entirely clear: 'arvo' - shortened form of 'afternoon'; 'the sarvo' and 'the sarvie' - shortened form of 'This afternoon'. These are quite commonly used during informal conversation in Australia, and maybe I'm pointing out the obvious, but if not, I hope my explanation makes sense. For any further explanations, a simple Google search will most definitely help the reader. I've conducted my own proof reading, and though I've tried to be thorough, any mistakes are my own. And, as per usual, all characters engaging in any sexual activity are over the age of 18. Enjoy!

~~~~ PART 2 ~~~~

~~~~ CHAPTER 3 ~~~~

July to November, 2016

Evelyn and Scott began seeing each other most weekends, and as Evelyn previously suggested, they'd alternate who planned their weekend activities. However, they rarely saw one another during the week, because it was not practical for either of them to do so. One weekend, Scott drew inspiration from the horse photos he'd noticed at Evelyn's house, taking her trail riding in the lush forested valleys of the Gold Coast Hinterland.

"I haven't been on a horse in years," Evelyn said. "Did you know I grew up with horses?" She was noticeably comfortable and highly adept with the big animals, while Scott, who'd only ridden a horse on two previous occasions, struggled to keep up. Evelyn grinned as she rode alongside him, and despite the docile and well-trained nature of their mounts, it was clear she was straining at the bit, so-to-speak, to compel her horse to gallop off. An old spark appeared to reignite within her.

After completing their trail ride, Scott took Evelyn to a secluded reserve, located a short distance down a dirt road, which, judging by the encroaching vegetation, appeared not to have seen a vehicle for a long time. A clear rocky creek babbled down the edge of the reserve, beyond where they set up their picnic rug under the shade of a sprawling fig tree. From a small cooler bag, Scott produced soft cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, and crackers with caramelised onion and roast garlic hummus.

Evelyn relaxed, closing her eyes as she sat with her back against one of the tree's enormous buttress roots. She smiled, soaking up the serenity, while occasionally picking at the delicious nibblies. Scott lay on his side opposite her, propped up by an elbow, while absentmindedly fiddling with a fallen leaf. He was truly enjoying Evelyn's company, and despite their twenty-five year age gap, he thought dating her was not so different than dating girls his own age. Experience told him women enjoyed picnics, and this was not the first time he'd brought someone to this location, and he was certain she was enjoying their date.

"I hope our date is living up to your expectations," he said with confidence.

Evelyn opened her eyes and smiled back at him. "This is perfect, my lovely. It's such a beautiful valley. Plus, I haven't ridden a horse since Bill and I moved to the city. It's so long ago now."

"Nic once told me you and Bill used to ride horses. She said Bill was a famous horseman, but was badly injured in a car accident or something, and he couldn't ride much afterwards, making him a grump. If you don't mind me asking, what happened to you two?"

Evelyn appeared to pause in contemplation for a moment, before proceeding to tell Scott a little of her former husband. "I'm sure Nicky used a stronger word than grump to describe her father. At least, back then when you were friends with her I know she often used strong language about him. But Bill wasn't always like that. He grew up with horses and loved them. I don't think anything made him happier than horses. See, Bill was a proper country boy, living and breathing horses from before he could walk. I wasn't considered to be a country girl by Bill and his mates, even though I grew up on a semi-rural block beyond the suburbs. But I knew how to ride, and so I fell in with them easy enough."

"How'd you meet him?"

She laughed. "Would you believe, we met at a bachelor and spinster's ball, not long after I started my country placement as a trainee teacher? They used to call B-and-S balls 'bucks and sluts' nights, but I hated that term. We were all young adults, simply having a blast. It was great fun. I remember Bill walking confidently up and asking me to dance. God, he was tall, rugged and very handsome, and I was young and naïve. Bill and his mates were a lot like you back then. Though, where you grew up riding pushbikes and skateboards around the streets, those country boys grew up on cattle and sheep stations, riding horses and ag-bikes from the moment they could walk. They worked alongside their parents and knew the ins and outs of cattle grazing before they could read or write. Bill was also a champion camp drafter and people spoke of him like he was some sort of magician with horses and cattle. Do you know what camp drafting is?"

Scott sat up on the rug. "I've spent enough time in the bush to know about camp drafts, but I've never been to one. When I was working out west in the mining industry, straight out of uni, many of the other blokes were country boys who sometimes talked a bit about camp drafting. Isn't it a competition where a stockman selects a cow from a herd and guides it around a cattle yard, or something like that?"

"Yeah, mostly. The rider has to cut a heifer or steer from the larger mob of cattle, and then, like you say, they herd or guide it around a circuit marked with posts called pegs. It's popular in the country among families growing up with horses and cattle. Bill was a very skilled camp drafter, and like I said, everyone spoke of him in glowing terms. Of course, I didn't know all this when I first met him, but when everyone in town found out we were together, which didn't take long, they'd all gush how lucky I was to be with him."

"And then he was injured in a car accident?"

Evelyn sighed. "Yes. It was terrible. You see, those boys truly pushed themselves, working hard and playing hard. They'd spend all week, from dawn till dusk, working their mobs of cattle and sheep, mending fences, fixing bores, clearing scrub, etcetera. Then on the weekend they'd drive all over the state, and sometimes even across the border, to some camp draft competition, or rugby, or cricket match. Anything sports related and they'd be there. Bill and his mate, Joe McGinty, drove off one Friday evening, to a camp draft to be held on the Saturday in Goondiwindi, several hundred kilometres away." Evelyn pronounced the town of Goondiwindi as 'Gunda-windy'.

She paused and tightened her lips, a look of sadness coming over her. Scott was about to tell her she didn't need to continue, but she proceeded before he could open his mouth. "They were in Joey's ute, towing the horse float with their best stock horses on board, and about an hour up the road from Gundy, they left the road, flipped in the table drain and hit a tree. Bill thinks Joey fell asleep at the wheel, or maybe he swerved for a kangaroo or feral pig, but he said he couldn't remember much of the drive. He came to in the wreckage, with poor Joey lying dead next to him. Their horses were also killed in the accident." Evelyn began to tear up, but managed to continue as she wiped the moisture from her eyes. "I was supposed to go with them, but I was marking school assignments that weekend. Sorry, I haven't cried over this in a long time."

Scott reached out and put his hand on hers and spoke gently. "It's okay. You don't have to keep going."

Evelyn sniffled. "No, I'm okay. It was a lifetime ago now, but I still get emotional when I think about it, that's all. We'd only recently become engaged, and the whole incident came to define our marriage in some ways. You see, Bill was very lucky to survive, but he never thought so. The doctor said his spine was cracked and he was lucky not to be a paraplegic. He had a broken arm, facial fractures and a couple of his ribs were broken. Bill spent a long time recovering, but I don't think he really fully recovered. Joe was like a brother to him. They grew up on adjacent farms, and he was going to be one of Bill's groomsmen at our wedding, so Bill took Joey's death terribly." She looked down and was silent.

"Are you okay? You really don't have to go on." Scott sat up and squeezed her hand.

She looked at him and smiled weakly. "I'm okay. I've not thought about this in years, that's all, and the memories are still painful. Joey was a friend and these events effected the way Bill approached life after we were married. See, he's always been a glass half empty kind of person. Not long after our wedding I was offered a job in the city, and it seemed like a good idea to get away while Bill was recovering. I think Bill resented having to move to the city, and perhaps he always assumed we'd end up back in the country. Then Nicola came along, plus he'd begun working as a civilian driver for the Air Force out at the base, so we stayed. At first he accepted our situation, but I know it grated on him over time. I think fatherhood was also testing for him at times. However, in the end it was his gambling habit that broke us."

Scott held her hand. "I had no idea about all this. Do you still talk to him?"

"Maybe once a year. Mostly just to discuss something about Nicola or whatnot. He's kicked his gambling now and taken over running his parent's property, where he grew up. Would you believe he and the local vet in town got together, and she recently gave birth to a baby boy? Nicky has a baby half-brother!"

"Wow, I didn't know any of this. Do you resent him?"

Evelyn smiled. "No, not at all. He and I were young when we got together. And so much water has passed under the bridge since he left. Nicky and he are working on repairing their relationship. He still doesn't approve of her sexuality, or her veganism for that matter, but their personalities are actually very similar, and I think if they tried to understand one another they might be able to be friends."

"I wonder what Nic would think of us if she found out? I mean, if her dad met a younger lady and now has a kid, and she doesn't mind, what about us?"

"Oh, I don't want to find out, Scott. Not at the moment anyway. It's still early days, so let's just keep this under wraps for now. Nicky's volatile at the best of times. Plus, I'm not sure how your parent's will take it if they found out. They are good neighbours to me and I don't want to change that."

"I think Mum and Dad would be okay with us. Maybe not at first, but they'd come around. Nic might too. Sure it's early days, but we can't be each other's dirty little secret forever."

"Let's just take it easy for now. I think that's best."

"No worries, Eve. I'm sorry if I sounded like I was pushing the issue. I was just wondering about things."

Evelyn held Scott's hands, leant forward and gave his lips a long kiss, and whispered, "Like I said, let's take it easy and not over complicate things, my sweet, gorgeous lover." He pulled her onto him, embracing on the picnic rug, kissing and cuddling between the tree's enormous roots. They could have been kissing for ten minutes, or perhaps half-an-hour, time becoming meaningless to them, and after a while Evelyn pulled her lips from his and whispered breathily, "You really are a sweetheart, Scotty. Plus, you make me throb down below."

"That'll complicate things for us," Scott whispered back with a smile. He slipped his hand down the front of her jeans, fingering her softly.

"Nah, it's not complicated at all. I have the solution," she whispered, and gently pulled his hand away. She deftly loosened his belt, and he helped her pull his jeans down past his thighs, freeing his cock, which sprang rigid from his groin. Taking her bottle of sex lubricant from her bag, Evelyn squirted a dollop onto the glans of his cock, before removing her jeans and nickers. Leaving both their shirts on, Evelyn straddled Scott's legs and gently lowered her vaginal lips around the head of his dick, sinking all the way down, completely enveloping him. She maintained eye contact with Scott the entire time, rocking ever so gently to maintain their pleasure as they joined, without trying to take either over the edge.

Without speaking a word, they gave themselves to each other on the picnic rug, with only the fig birds in the tree above for company, whistling and bickering while they fed. Occasionally a half-eaten dry fig dropped to the ground around them, and beyond their picnic bower came the calming rush of water over a small cascade in the creek-bed.

Scott took Evelyn's hands, holding them up with fingers entwined, between their faces. Raising his head upwards, he kissed the tips of each of her fingers where they emerged from between his own knuckles. Evelyn's light brown hair was tied up in a short pony tail and he thought she looked fifteen or more years younger than her fifty-one years. She smiled at him, and for some time, while they concentrated on sharing each other, the world around them no longer mattered.

Eventually Scott released Evelyn's hands and gently pulled her down onto him, allowing them to indulge in sensual wet kisses. They embraced, connected in the most intimate manner, at both mouth and groin, joined in a slow grind, her body close up against his. Only her plaid flannel shirt and his grey tee-shirt came between them. They increased their humping, slowly at first and then gradually harder. Evelyn ended a long kiss by sucking Scott's lower lip out, her pleasure increasing as their movements became faster. Scott placed his hand at the small of her back, pulling her lower half towards him, increasing the pressure of her body down onto him. Her bottom lip now lightly touching his lower lip, as they maintained close eye contact, and their breathing increasing with the tempo of their rhythm.

"Ooh, ooh, ohh," she began to pant with involuntary cries.

"Oh, Eve, oh, oh Eve!"

Staring into each other's eyes at the very moment their pleasure reached its crest, they sent each other over the edge, together, in waves of pure throbbing bliss release, their bodies tingling in orgasmic delight. Evelyn gripped Scott hard, both with her arms and cunt, her inner pleasure regions twitching vigorously as she leant forward and groaned into his ear "Ooooh my goodness, Scotty! You're insane."

He cuddled her, giving her gentle kisses on her lips, her cheek, ear and then neck, while she buried her face tightly into his shoulder. Except for the sound of their breathing slowly returning to normal, they were silent as their pleasure subsided. Only the whistling and nattering of the fig birds in the tree above them, and the water cascading down the creek beyond, punctuated their surroundings in the mid-afternoon stillness.

They arrived back at Scott's place late in the afternoon. Scott considered himself handy in the kitchen, and so he cooked their dinner; a simple meal of grilled Portobello mushroom stuffed with garlic and herbs, plus a side of steamed buttered broccolini. He'd perfected the dish several years previously while dating a vegetarian, and now Evelyn was his latest girlfriend to be impressed with his culinary skills. Well, he thought to himself, Evelyn was actually his lady-friend. Either way, he liked the thought that he and Evelyn were a couple. At least, that's what their new relationship felt like it was developing into. Coupledom. It was almost perfect, but he couldn't help but wish they could spend more time together during the weeks.

After dinner he accompanied Evelyn to her car. Before she left him, he held her around the waist and gave her a prolonged kiss. "I wish you didn't have to go," he said.

"I'm sorry, but you know there are several things I need to do at home tomorrow. Plus, I can't keep dropping Salty to Trish's every weekend. It's not fair on either of them."

"I know, it's okay. I enjoyed your company today though." He wanted to add how he would miss her, but he decided not to, concerned she might consider his sentiment as further pressure to see her more.

"I really enjoyed today too, Scott, my sweetheart. We'll see each other next week. I'll be in touch." She gave his face a gentle caress and his lips another kiss before climbing into her car.

Scott watched her drive off, lamenting they wouldn't see each other until the following weekend. The sex with Evelyn was a million times better than his fantasies could have even imagined, but he enjoyed her company equally as much. By the end of each week he found himself excited by the prospect of their next outing. Furthermore, when it was his turn to organise their date, he looked forward to surprising Evelyn. He found himself enjoying watching Evelyn enjoy herself, inspiring him to make a little game of it, trying to impress her with something novel and exciting each time.

However, their dates went by so fast, and Scott frequently found himself thinking of Evelyn through the week and wished they could spend more time together. To take his mind off his longing for her, he needed distractions, and because the following day was Sunday, and having no prior plans, he went surfing. It was one of his hobbies that helped take his mind off most things going on in his life, even if only temporarily.

~0~

The following Monday, Scott and his colleague, Jacqueline Murphy, were required to conduct a site visit with a new client's architect and builder. As a geotechnical engineer, it was Scott's job to organise soil profiling samples and bed-rock tests on land where construction was to take place. Tests required drilling, and sometimes digging trenches, into the ground at various depths. Scott would use these tests to identify the various properties of the soil, bedrock, hydrology, plus potential hazards including faults and landslips. After interpreting the results from his analysis, he'd liaise with the civil engineer, who in this case was Jacqueline, about how best to construct any footings, retaining walls, paved areas, drains, etcetera, for the structure or building in question.

When he arrived at the office, Scott noted Jacqueline's bag on her chair in front of her desk, so he assumed she'd likely be down in the garage with the work vehicle. He quickly checked if he'd received any emails over the weekend, in case any needed urgent attention, and because there weren't any, he dumped his work bag on his chair and headed down stairs to the garage. Happily for Jacqueline and Scott, the client's property was an hour's drive down the coast, and they'd be out of the office until after midday.

"Hey, Scotty, how's it goin? How was your weekend?" Jacqueline was always cheerful when she first greeted Scott after a weekend. She was inspecting the contents in the back of the Ford Ranger duel-cab utility. Their meeting was a preliminary site visit, to discuss and reconnoitre the block of land with the architect and builder, and therefore they wouldn't require any serious equipment, but it was always a good idea to bring along a hand auger and spade at a minimum. Scott pre-loaded the ute with a few tools the previous Friday, and there was nothing extra they required.

Scott, too, was always happy to see Jacqueline, having known and worked closely with her for two years, forming an excellent professional relationship. On any occasion when they were together outside of the office, they'd banter like old friends, often making jokes at each other's expense. Jacqueline had a knack for sarcasm, but never came on too strong. Scott greatly respected her as an engineer, admiring the fact that she was a strong female in a male dominated industry, recognising she was exceptional at her job. Furthermore, she always treated Scott as an equal, even though, after two years, he was still relatively junior in the company.