Sharp Turn

Laughing, she cut the wheel hard to the right and the car fishtailed onto the gravel road with a rumbling roar, rocks bouncing into the plume of white dust behind it.

"Are you trying to kill us?!" I was smiling in disbelief, knuckles white on the little handle above the passenger door.

She couldn't respond with her tongue pushed against the corner of her mouth as she dragged the wheel around to correct, overcorrect, correct. Finally, the vehicle leveled out and she let out a giggle. "What, you don't like sharp turns onto gravel roads?"

"I try to avoid them, I think." My heart was hammering in my chest. "What are you doing?"

"We're going to park this car and make out like truant teenagers."

That didn't slow my heart. I swallowed and looked out the window. The little car was making its way down a long, gravel drive to an empty lot hemmed in by sunbaked evergreens.

"You're serious?" I managed the question as she parked the car and rolled down the windows to let warm air tinged with the scent of pine in. I started to turn towards her but my eyes tripped on her legs, stumbled over the white shorts hugging her hips, flitted up and found her face at last.

The pink lips were pursed, eyebrows drawn down in an expression of mock disapproval, dark eyes glittering. "What do you think we've been doing online for the past month?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"And you think I drove an hour just to get lunch with you?"

"I mean, yes? I have work..."

"You can get back to work when I'm done with you." She leaned forward and I could see the pale crescents of her cleavage as she placed one hand lightly on the back of my neck. I opened my mouth to protest, but my breath caught in my throat when I saw her parted lips move in closer, the scent of her, warm and sweet and onrushing as she brought her face to mine.

Gently parted lips touched lips and my head exploded in dizzy fireworks, the culmination of longing nights spent gazing at three blinking dots on the bluelit phone screen. Her hand on my neck, warm; her lips on my lips, warm; only the sound of breathing and a single, soft sigh I'm not sure if I made as we held the kiss- and held it, and held it.

She pushed into me a little harder, fingers working into my hair as our lips shifted, tongues slipped gently into one another's mouths, the taste of her like candy and like something more animal as my own hands moved of their own accord. I cupped her cheek in my left palm and my right slid slowly down her back to rest at her waist. Our lips and tongues moved together, a dance set to the music of our breath and the soft rustle of the trees in the wind.

At last, I pulled back, breathing hard. I watched her slowly open eyes like big love crumbs, lips and face flushed. I became aware of the throbbing arc pressing against my jeans. I also became aware of the houses nearby and the faded display of the stereo's clock.

"I need to get back to work." I found myself saying in a soft voice, even as my brain screamed at me not to say it. My body ached with longing and desire.

"Not yet," she whispered, and my heart leapt as her lips again found mine. She shifted closer, throwing one leg over to straddle the center console as her hand snaked onto the bulge in my pants. The higher functions of my brain tried to make me protest, but all that came out was a base groan as I gently sucked her lower lip and felt the spine-tingling pleasure of her hand rubbing up and down.

I felt my own hand cup between her legs, fingers pushing into the soft mound I felt beneath the fabric. The breath of a sigh issued from her nose as we touched each other, and I began to feel her shorts grow damp beneath my fingers as she rocked her hips gently back and forth over my hand.

My thoughts redoubled and tried another heroic charge- the deadlines I had looming, the touch-base meeting I would be late to, the excuses I would need to supply- but a single, low moan from her scattered them like broken toy soldiers.

She climbed over the console and threw her legs around me in the seat, her weight bearing down as she pressed her electric body against me. My every synapse lit up with pleasure, and I reached into her long, dark hair and pulled her down into another kiss, my other hand moving to cup one of her heavy breasts. She rocked her hips again, and my eyes rolled back as I felt the damp shorts sliding against me.

"Fuck," I managed to breathe a whisper, "you feel so good."

I opened my eyes and saw the old man taking angry strides across the fresh-clipped lawn past the trees. He wore bibbed overalls over a sweat-stained undershirt, frown gathered like storm clouds on his lined face.

"You can't park here!" he squinted into the windshield, still a few paces away, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Fuck!" I yelped and pushed her off, too hard, so that she sprawled over the console and back into the driver's seat.

"What the hell are you...?"

"Drive!"

She saw the old man, twisted the key, threw the car into reverse at the same time. We blasted backwards and then forwards with another spew of gravel and left him in a cloud of dust. We laughed ourselves to tears, struggling to fasten seatbelts as we pulled back onto the main road.

---

In the office bathroom, I did my best to smooth my hair back down in the mirror, dabbed at the front of my pants with a damp paper towel, and tried to ignore the dull ache in my stomach. I thought about my excuse again and hoped my manager would buy it.

Before I stepped back out into the arena of cubicles, I pulled out my phone and composed a message. I stopped and smiled.

Her three blinking dots had lit up.