Birthday Girl Ch. 07

"But Brian C'mon, Pit-stop?"

"I was watching F1 when I called. Vettel really needed a pit-stop, I was nearly screaming at the screen, so it was the first thing on my mind. When they asked what we would like to name it, I panicked. I blurted out Pit-stop without thinking."

I got a sympathetic look from Sally and even Melissa seemed to soften. Jenna turned to Officer Jeremy,

"Can we change the name?"

He shook his head apologetically, "I'm afraid once the name is registered, that's it. It's final."

Jenna turned back to me, fists clenched, unsure of what to do with me. Remember when I said I put people in peculiar positions, where they're torn between gratitude and all out hostility? I'd like to present to the court Exhibit B.

"Couldn't you name it anything else?" she asked in a defeated voice.

"What was I supposed to name it? Bambi? Dumbo? Simba?"

"Anything is better than Pit-stop!" she started getting angry again, then took a deep breath and calmed herself, "You know what? It doesn't matter. Today you've earned a get out of jail free card. You're forgiven. Now let's go meet the little girl."

She smiled and took my hand, and we started walking again. I could not believe my luck. Which side did the sun rise today?

"Gee thanks, peanut. That was surprisingly mature of you. And you'll see, Pit-stop isn't that bad a name, soon you won't even notice it, and you'll be like, why didn't I think of this, what a terrific name, I should have thought of it. And if you look at it the name fits. When you want a break in life, when you need to recharge, you can take your very own pit-stop and come out here and visit Pit-top. Imagine how-"

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Bill shaking his head.

"Dude, stop talking." He wisely advised me.

I looked to see Jenna's hands had turned into fists again and her lips were pursed. Sometimes I was my own worst enemy. I turned to Jenna again and asked quietly,

"Hey, you got anymore of those get out of jail free cards? I'd sure like to keep a few in stock, you know, for future use."

Do you need me to tell you the answer I got?

As we got closer the Mama elephant started getting agitated and pawing the ground, swinging her head this way and that. Another ranger, her handler probably, soothed her and spoke calmly until she settled down.

"You need to be quick," he told the jolly one who was with us.

We approached her cautiously and the ranger coaxed the little one out from under its mother whereupon it was smothered in oooh's and aaah's from the girls. They cooed over it and couldn't stop petting and cuddling it. She soaked it all up in stride, even holding her miniature trunk up to Jenna, who nearly melted into a puddle at that.

"Dude..." Nick called me as the others were distracted.

"Yeah?"

He gave me a fist bump, "Cool name."

Halleluiah! Finally someone gets it.

"I know, right?" I said enthusiastically, "I mean who wouldn't like Pit-stop?"

Bill joined us, "Hey man, nice name." he said quietly.

I was going to cry. I finally had a reason to live again.

"You guys could have stuck up for me back there you know?"

Suddenly they were very interested in petting little Pit-stop. Bloody traitors.

"What goes around..." I left it hanging and joined in with everyone else.

Fine, I'll admit it. She was cute.

******************************************

The moon was back up in the night sky, the crickets were at it again and we had a nice comfortable blaze in front of us. After getting back to the cabin we all got cleaned up and by then it was dark outside. We set up a few blocks of wood and made a nice sized bonfire, placing three logs of wood around it and huddling close to ward off the cold. The weather had turned surprisingly chilly as evening had set in and the fire provided a pleasant source of warmth.

Today almost everyone was too tired to cook so we had skewered hot-dogs on sticks and held them out over the fire to slowly roast them until they were a nice golden brown. Each pair had taken up a log and Melissa was right by my side, insisting on roasting her own 'dog. There was no cloud cover today and the millions of tiny stars overhead were crystal clear because we were far away from any city lights.

"So now tell us, how did you guys pull it off?" Jenna asked.

I looked over at Nick, "You tell them."

"No, you tell them," he shot back.

"Don't start that crap," Jenna warned.

"Fine," I relented. "It started the other night when we went out drinking,"

Jenna rolled her eyes and muttered, "How predictable."

"Tell me how many of your awesome stories started with you drinking a tall glass of fresh milk."

"That's not the point-"

"That's right. None. So shut up and roast your little hot doggie and listen to the story."

"Shut up and listen to the story," she mimicked me in an exaggeratedly high pitch voice.

I was going to fire back when Melissa bumped my hot dog with hers.

"Continue," she said when I turned to her.

I let it go and continued,

"Nick told me he was going to propose so we got liquored up for the brainstorming session ahead of us."

I told them about the different ideas we had come up with and Bill actually liked the idea of lining up cars so that they would spell Will You Marry Me? But only if they were Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers. Jenna almost barfed at most of the ideas and even Melissa and Sally were surprised at a few of them.

"How drunk were you?" Sally asked at one point.

"I thought throwing Jenna out of a plane with no parachute was a good idea so, you can get a rough idea of how hammered we were from that."

"Then how did you come up with this idea?"

"It started as a joke actually. Nick said we should tranq an elephant and draw graffiti on it."

"Yeah, and it got stuck in his head," Nick said.

"My colleague had told me about this place so I knew the possibilities. After a few days I called and they were more than willing to go along with the idea. They thought it would be great for publicity since it's a new project and funds and donations are limited."

"So you guys just wanted to tranq an elephant?" Melissa asked with a sideways glance.

"Well...yeah," I said, looking at Nick for support. "But obviously that wasn't possible so the rangers arranged it with a veterinarian to sedate the elephants, then use a special dermatological dye to paint the question on their skin."

"That's all fine, but all this started just because you wanted to shoot a dart at an elephant?" Sally asked.

"Well, that's how it started off, I mean we were piss drunk. But along the line we saw the significance of it being an elephant. As I said, it was for its amazing memory and disposition to emotion that drew us in and made us realize that it would be a great idea, not just shooting an elephant in the ass," Nick said. He could always explain better than me. I made even Hi sound like a death threat.

"I can't believe we adopted little Pit-stop," Jenna said, hugging Nick's arm.

"That was pure luck to be honest," I said. "All the elder ones had been spoken for, Pit-stop was just born so she was the only one available. The park offered the mother-child combo if we agreed to sign a waiver for them to use the pictures on social media and stuff."

Nick stiffened, "What? You didn't tell me about this."

"Yeah, because I knew you'd go all ape-shit and refuse."

"I'm not going to sign it."

"Too late dude."

His hot dog almost fell into the fire.

"What do you mean?"

"I already signed it on your behalf. You're going to be all over their website. Their star attraction."

I knew he wanted to fling that hot dog at me. Nick hated social media almost as much as I did, and the realization that he would be displayed all over was driving him nuts. I knew retribution was on the way but I didn't really care at this point.

"I'll kill you," he started, "I'm going to stab you with a rusted knife, shoot you in both your knees, hack you with a blunt machete, bury you for two months under twelve feet of horse manure then dig you out, revive you and mount you on a stake to die all over again.

No one would complain of him not being graphic enough.

"So what you're saying is that you're embarrassed to be seen proposing to Jenna, is that it?"

Jenna lifted her head to look at him. This was going to be good.

"No, but-"

"Then why are you against the pictures being on display? Wouldn't you want the world to know you've proposed to the girl of your dreams, knowing that the publicity might generate funds to support future little Pit-stops?"

Everyone was looking at him now, waiting for his response. I had cornered him and he knew it, judging from the vein pulsing on his temple. He couldn't risk refusing, knowing Jenna would flip, and he didn't want to let me win either, which put him in a very precarious position. Yup, I was going to get it later.

"Fine," he said curtly and went back to his hot dog, which was completely charred on one side.

Jenna was trying to hide a smile and I noticed even the rest were very interested in their hot dogs. The tension was thick in the air until Nick finally spoke,

"Just laugh and get it over with already," he grumbled and we all broke out laughing at his misery.

"So you're the victim ninety percent of the time huh?" Melissa asked me.

I nodded vigorously, "This is one of the ten percent times. Every dog has his day you know."

"Uh-huh," she replied, clearly not believing me.

Despite our rather uncouth method of cooking, the hot dogs turned out pretty ok, and we finished nearly all the packets we had brought with us. I've found talking and eating at the same time makes you end up eating more than usual because you're distracted and don't pay attention to the signals your tummy is giving you. I burped as I finished the last hot-dog and Melissa hit me with her stick, calling me a gross Neanderthal. I told her, better to burp and taste it rather than fart and waste it. That got me whacks from all the girls.

I got us blankets from the cabin after we finished our dinner and we snuggled close together, shielding ourselves from the cold that was now really starting to set in.

"Guys," Jen started, "I want to thank you all for today. It was really one of the most special days in my life and I there is no-one else I would have rather shared it with."

"There is nowhere else we would rather have been Jenna," Melissa said.

"That's right," Sally said. "We are glad we could be there to witness it, it was really something else. You guys really pulled out all the stops huh?" she said looking between me and Nick.

"Anything for my fiancé," Nick said, to which Jenna giggled like a school girl and snuggled closer to him. She held up her finger and examined her ring again, something she'd been doing repeatedly since Nick had put it on her finger.

She looked at Nick and an unspoken message passed between them. Nick gave the fakest yawn in the history of mankind and stood up, picking Jenna up with him.

"Well guys, it's been a hell of a day and we are exhausted. Time for some well deserved sleep," he said as he put his arm around Jenna.

I snorted, "I didn't know they call it sleep nowadays."

Jenna almost blushed and Nick gave us a wink as he led Jenna to the cabin. As they walked away I made the sounds of bed springs squeaking and Nick lifted a finger behind him.

We chatted with Bill and Sally for a while before even they excused themselves to go to bed. The look Sally was giving Bill suggested sleep was the last thing they were going to do. At least for a while.

"So..." Lissy said, wrapping her arms around mine and resting her head on my shoulder.

"So..." I replied.

"Quite a day..."

"That's one way to put it,"

"What you guys did was really sweet, you know that?"

"Oh my, is that a compliment I'm hearing? You sure you're ok? I think you might have hurt your head when you slipped."

"You can be tough and gruff all you want Brian, I know you're really just a big teddy bear inside,"

I growled and attempted to bite her forehead, eliciting a chuckle from her.

We watched the fire die down until there were only embers left, and the occasional pop of the wood splitting. The forest was silent tonight and even the wind was minimal, though it was much colder as the embers cooled off.

"Shall we?" I asked.

"Hmmm..." she purred, "I thought you'd never ask."

"Just give me a sec," I said as I went and got a bucket of sand and made sure the fire was completely out, stomping on it a few times just to make sure.

"Come on," I helped her up and we walked slowly to the cabin and up to the loft, arms around each other's waists.

"So... you sleepy?" I asked when we got up.

She turned to me and grabbed my T-shirt, bunching it in her fists, and bringing her face close to mine, "You playing coy with me, mister?"

Putting my arms around her I pulled her forward to me and held her tightly against me as I kissed her senseless.

"Does that answer your question?"

She looked at me dreamily, "You ready to finish what we started in the morning?"

I most definitely was but I was a little worried about her foot.

"But Mel, your leg..." I started.

"Brian, if you deny me today I will seriously rape you," she said, going from dreamy to stern in a fraction of a second.

"No, it's not that Liss, I just don't want to hurt you. Strenuous activity, remember?" I tried to explain.

She took my face in her hands and looked me in the eye, "You won't hurt me, I promise. I'll even let you be on top for this one time only," she teased as she brought her lips to mine.

As we kissed I put my hands on her ass and pulled her off the floor and she put her arms around my neck and wrapped her legs around my waist without ever breaking contact. We kissed like that for almost a minute before I started walking towards the bed slowly. I tried to look where I was going but Melissa had no intention of letting my lips go so I had so navigate sideways to make sure I didn't run into anything. The last thing I wanted was to fall down with her in my arms. Talk about a turn-off.

Finally my shins hit the bed and I carefully put one knee on the mattress before lowering Melissa onto it, her still refusing to let go of my lips. She pulled me down with her and I let go of her ass to support myself on either side of her. Her arms that were around my neck travelled down and started pulling my T-shirt up. At last she broke our kiss to get the T-shirt over my head, then looked me over admiringly.

"Someone works out," she commented.

"I try." I shrugged.

I'm no Arnold Schwarzenegger or anything, but I go to the gym two to three times a week so I keep reasonably fit. No matter what I try though, I can never gain mass so I basically looked like a swimmer who lifts a few weights here and there.

Melissa scooted back to the pillows then crossed her arms at the hem of her top and pulled it off, throwing it at me. She was wearing a pink bra underneath and it pushed her breasts up until I was just expecting her aureole to peek out over the cups. I was already drooling. She spread her legs and beckoned with a finger for me to come over to her. I would run into a burning building if she beckoned to me like that.

Kicking off my flip flops I walked across the bed on my knees, between her legs, and dropped down on all fours in front of her.

"You summoned, princess?"

She raised an eyebrow at the endearment and I wondered if maybe it had been too much, but then she smiled and fell into character.

"I have need of thy services, my lord," she said.

"Ask, and you shall receive."

She made me straighten up and reached for my shorts.

"I am unwell my lord, and I have heard lore that you possess a magic sword that may cure what ails me."

I held in a laugh and tried to think of something to keep the conversation going. It was then that I thought of protection. Crap, I had forgotten to bring any with me and I doubted there was a pharmacy anywhere within a radius of fifty miles where I could run and fetch some. Loathe as I was to bring it up, I knew I had to.

"Milady, you would do well to be wary of that sword," I played along, trying to warn her in the process, "to err with it may cause unsightly swelling for nine moons. Shall we not wait for a proper sheath for such a dangerous tool, lest we make a foolhardy mistake?"

She stopped tugging my shorts down and looked up to see the concern in my eyes. She knew what I was talking about.

"Fear not O' noble sir, my physicians have provided me with the necessary herbs to protect myself from such wayward errors. And besides," her voice turned sultry, "you need not worry, I have the perfect sheath for this sword... My lord."

Shit. I fell back on my haunches at that. I was rock hard and she hadn't even touched me yet. This was not good. I wouldn't last if she kept up with that level of seduction and there was no way I would be one of those guys that would get his rocks off in two minutes then roll over and go to sleep. Two minutes? Who was I kidding? I'd be lucky to last thirty seconds.

I took hold of her hands and spoke,

"Milady, if you will so permit me, I have heard fables and bards sing of a cure that must precede the ritual of the sword. I would not leave any stone unturned in my quest to relieve you of your ailment, kindly grant me leave to provide you the best remedy I can."

I could see in her eyes I had thrown her off balance. She didn't know what I was getting at.

"Fine," she said haughtily, waving her hand with flair, "you have my permission."

I bowed and bent down, taking possession of her lips as I ran my hands up her legs, caressing the undersides of her thighs. I had made big claims but the truth was I had nothing to back them up with. I'd just have to read her body language and go with my gut instinct and hope for the best.

I dragged my hands lower and started drawing circles on the soft skin at the back of her knees. She giggled into my lips and tried to moves her legs away, and I assumed it was a ticklish spot for her.

"Stop that," she murmured, but I could tell it was turning her on as well.

She pushed me back and came off the pillow, supporting herself with her hands behind her and jutting out her chest at me.

"Take it off," she said, looking down at her bra.

I swallowed and nodded, going back to kissing her and putting my arms around her to find the hook at the back. Finding it was easy enough, releasing it was a whole other ball game. It wasn't rocket science, it was infinitely more complicated than rocket science. She laughed as I tried and fumbled again and again without success. Solving a Rubik's cube was easier than this.

"You'd think an engineer could figure this out," she said against my lips, then reached behind with one hand and guided mine to snap it open.

I wanted to retort but I held my tongue. I'd use it to get back at her in a different way, if you know what I mean. After helping me release the hook she once again left me to my own devices, leaning back on the pillows and waiting for my next move. I pulled the straps off her shoulders and slowly took the garment off her, exposing her to me for the first time.

I was spellbound. Her breasts were magnificent. They were medium sized, capped with small nipples that were already growing hard in the cool air and they fit her frame perfectly. Other adjectives sprang to mind but it'd take too long to list them out here so just be content with uh-freaking-mazing.

"Are you just going to stare at them all night?" she asked after a few moments.

"They're beautiful," I said, not realizing what I was saying.