Freeing Kirsty Ch. 04

Another round of suggested names followed, with Brian saying he rather fancied Sylvia.

"What, after that tramp you brought on holiday with us that summer after your second year at med school!" shrieked his mother.

Brian looked embarrassed and turning to Merrick whispered, "You gotta help me out, mate."

Leaning over to grab a bottle to refill his glass, Merrick grunted "Avon" without having a clue how that name shot from his mouth.

There was a gasp, then Stan started hiccupping uncontrollably, Kirsty looked very disappointed in Merrick, the grandparents glared at him and Brian drunkenly said, "What a bummer of a name, mate. Wait till I tell Marg, she will break off relationships with you, I'll bet my left nut on that."

"Brian!" censured his mother, now looking at Merrick as if he were demented.

An irritated tapping on his left shin – Merrick guessed that could only be from Kirsty although Brian also was seated opposite him, caused Merrick to shake his head to clear it. He pondered and with everyone was rabbiting on in a vocal melee he suddenly shouted, "Polly".

That got some support but was adamantly opposed by the grandparents, with Mary Raymond locked on to Merrick with a viperous gaze.

"Not a good suggestion, mate," whispered, Brian. "She later found out that while she was carrying me that dad was out popping a chick in his office called Polly Masters."

Well primed with liquor, Merrick turned to the still staring grandmother, winked at her and waved, "Howya doing, Mary?" Her reaction was to immediately leave the table.

"You've done it this time," Stan called to Merrick, grinning.

"Come, you drunken fool," snapped his mother to her husband.

Kirsty looked at Merrick and smiled, slacked-mouthed. "I think they are all pissed. What would you like to drink now darling? I've gotten used to that name Avon. But what a terrible name for a girl."

"I remember where it comes from," sniggered Merrick. "It's the name of a creek that flows through the centre of Christchurch City in the South Island. Kate and I lived there for a while."

"No wonder it's a bad choice," sniffed Kirsty, standing up to fetch two peach Bellinis.

Brian phoned Kirsty the next evening to announce mother and daughter were fine and he'd be collecting them in the morning.

"The parents will be here for lunch, but we want you two guys here for dinner - we shall eat in the lounge where I'll put mother and child on the sofa."

Kirsty said they would love to accept the invitation, but would leave early as Marg would be tired and she and Merrick were off south in the morning.

"Oh, by the way. The baby is going to be called Avon. Marg called me a insensitive idiot for not recognizing it as one of the most romantic names that parents could bestow on a daughter. Hospital staff must have got her medication mixed up. But if she wants Avon she can have it. I think you better reconsider Merrick's proposal of marriage Kirsty. He's a fucking idiot!"

"Come on, Brian; he's your best friend. You're sore because you favored Pearl. Don't you know Marg and I can stand pearls?"

"Huh?"

"See you around six tomorrow, Brian. Goodbye, daddy."

* * *

On the direct flight into the southern resort of Queenstown in the South Island, Kirsty with sunglasses perched on her head re-read the schedule of photo-story activities and their locations, together with a brief outline of possible photographic opportunities.

"I've said previously that this seems to be very thorough, covering the adventure highlights. But something is missing."

"What?" Merrick asked curiously.

"Originality."

Merrick grinned, called her smarty-pants and asked her for an original approach. "It's been done hundreds of times by real hot professionals coming in from around the world. Dream Resorts Magazine knows that and so does not expect to be gob-smacked.

"From memory, all reasonable expenses are covered in the terms of contract."

"Yes, what are you proposing?" Merrick asked encouragingly.

"Nothing yet, just read your girlie magazine while I think.""

"It's not a girlie magazine," said Merrick indignantly," showing the cover of 'Auckland Metro' to her. Kirsty merely grinned, having scored another wind-up.

She thought long and hard, and eventually creatively. Again she smiled, elbowing Merrick awake.

"You snore because you doze with you mouth open," she lied.

"Sorry - you must not let me do that," Merrick apologized. "Well?"

Kirsty took a deep breath. "We devote the rest of today looking for two very athletic, personable, photogenic and cooperative couples. We ask them to be at our disposal for six hours for two hectic days during which time they will participate in activities at our expense in return for being photographed and interviewed. Then on the final evening they will be our guests for dinner where each couple will be presented with two bottles of French champagne in appreciation of their cooperation. The theme of our coverage will be: 'A Foursome Hot-dogging in Paradise'. Perhaps on that first evening we can snatch a few shots of them in a bar. What do you think?"

"It has promise - I like the concept of a foursome trying one adventure highlight after another. It gives continuity and perhaps will allow couples reading the article of doing exactly the same things. Yes! But in engaging people to perform in high-risk adventure, even without pay, we open ourselves to financial liability if any of them gets injured due to our mismanagement."

"Surely they will have travel insurance in coming into this area?"

"Yes, but it's unlikely to be enough if their claim falls into the hands of a commercial litigator."

"Then take out our own project cover - say for $l million. It probably won't cost a fortune if we agree to certain conditions such as only having our team take part in commercially operated and supervised activities. Those operators will also have huge public liability cover against misadventure or operator negligence."

"Right, I was thinking along those lines myself. You are not just a pretty face, are you?"

"If you say so. So as soon as we have booked in to our room we split, looking for two separate couples or a foursome. We'll meet back at our room at 2:00 and go to late lunch and compare notes. Then if required we go looking some more. We must aim to have the two couples tied up by nightfall and we may have to compensate them if they cancel their own bookings and don't get refunds."

"Yeah, but let's wait over that; some of the activities booked may fit into our coverage. Do you believe that one of us could find the two perfect couples?"

Kirsty was optimistic: "Anything is possible - just peer hard and keep the pace of the search up. Believe that the more you look, the more you will find."

"That's good advice, sweetie. I tend to work like that anyway."

They met over lunch: sandwiches and beer for Merrick, while Kirsty had mineral water and selectively picked over the fillings of her sandwiches, leaving the bread for Merrick to scoff. Kirsty had found one couple, but one of the women seemed timid. Merrick had done a little better, possessing the mobile phone numbers of three couples, all of whom would do "in a pinch".

"Not beautiful people."

"No, just average kiwis on holiday."

Success came just like it had been scripted. They walked out of the bar and Merrick walked straight into the butt of a young woman bent over reading the bar's food blackboard on the footpath. The long-hair blonde looked startled and the handsomely gaunt husband or partner moved possessively to her side, glaring at Merrick. An even prettier blonde and a heavily built man with dark brown curly hair joined them.

"I am ever so sorry, madam," Merrick said politely, aware he was looking at a near-perfect foursome.

"It is of no consequence," she said replied in accented but excellent English. "I am not hurt and have retained my dignity."

"Are you visitors?" Merrick asked.

"Yes, we have just arrived if that is any business of yours," said the man built like a weightlifter.

"It could be to your and our advantage," Kirsty said, stepping forward and passing one of Merrick's business cards to each of them.

"Would you care to join us inside for a drink or a cup of coffee while we put a proposal to you?"

After a brief whispered conversation the blonde woman Merrick had bumped, identifying herself as Adina, announced they would accept the offer of just one drink.

Adina was Austrian, her partner Malcolm was a Scot, the 'weightlifter' was Canadian and his partner was Monika, also Austrian. They were touring the country with a busload of twenty-something tourists from various countries.

The next morning, after a riotous night with the visitors and three more of their larger party, Merrick and Kirsty met three of the original foursome. The Canadian had continued on partying and had only just arrived back to the motel, barely able to walk. He was substituted with Al, a handsome American who was already holding hands with a delighted Monika.

A snapshot photographer since childhood, with probably better than average understanding of the principals of photographer, Kirsty had received a crash course in lens changing and camera features to operate the second camera at a different location and this worked very well.

At the bungy jump she was down below photographing the retrieval of the four jumpers while Merrick took the tougher role up top of trying to capture the mixture of expressions ranging from pumped up ecstasy to something bordering on terror of the foursome, and then individual shots of each of them.

Similarly with the jetboat ride through the rapids, Kirsty positioned herself to photograph the cheerfully waving foursome taking off and returning while Merrick positioned himself aboard the craft to get a series of very dramatic shots, using a water-proof camera. That teamwork was repeated two hours later in the whitewater rafting adventure.

Kirsty went ahead in an earlier helicopter lift to the summit restaurant. When the foursome and Merrick arrived the pilot cooperatively hovered long enough for Kirsty to capture a magnificent shot of the helicopter with Lake Wakatipu and snow-capped mountains in the background.

After late lunch the party went down in the gondolas to end a tiring day.

On the final day a helicopter was chartered to ferry the foursome for photographs skiing and snowboarding, abseiling, quad-biking, tramping - all crammed in to five hours. Some much time was spent on getting geared up and receiving instructions for the activities that the foursome had a frustratingly brief time engaged in each activity. But all agreed that the series of helicopter rides made up for that.

At the dinner that night the visitors made a joint presentation of appreciation to Merrick and Kirsty– a silver photo frame – and each couple whooped as they received their bottles of champagne.

Adina as spokesperson declared that in her opinion Queenstown had earned its audacious claim of being the adventure capital of the world, a declaration that was wildly cheered by the group joined by people at neighboring tables.

The group partied and later Kirsty had to use all of her strength to pull Adina off Merrick. The Austrian was babbling on about wanting to demonstrate her gratitude to Merrick more fulsomely, with Merrick attempting to explain to Kirsty he had no idea what Adina was trying to tell him as she kept lapsing back into mother tongue.

"Well, by the way she was physically tonguing you her intent should have been as clear as the Queenstown air," Kirsty snorted.

On the flight back to Auckland the next day the two weary journalists agreed they had a wonderful time and should have amassed more than enough quality material.

"I hope my photographs will come out OK," Kirsty worried.

"They will," she was assured.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because the camera I gave you is idiot-proof," replied Merrick, earning himself a clip over the ear.

After a three and a half day exhausting assignment Merrick had assumed this would be one night without sex, but he'd under-estimated the recuperative powers of a fit twenty-five year old.

Earlier he'd diverted on the drive from the airport to drop off the films at the professional processors and in his studio workroom he attended to his cameras, checking on 'professional quality' film supplies in the fridge and then completed his diary notes on the trip and checked that he'd recorded all expenses and clipped all credit card slips together and put everything into the box file marked 'Dream Resorts Project'.

Merrick told himself approvingly, "Good boy." knowing from long experience that the only efficient way to complete the file on any project was immediately it ended. Otherwise time spent on searching for credit card slips and tying up other loose ends was time wasted.

Merrick was now ready to waste time leisurely as he was finished work for the day. He'd make coffee and chat to Kirsty, but that reminded him that Kirsty, who'd gone off to check out what they would have for dinner, had not appeared with the regulatory cup of coffee.

Hmmm. He found her asleep on the comfortable bench seat under the windows of the breakfast area at the end of the kitchen. After lovingly fingering a lock of hair on the middle of her forehead, he covered her with a throw rug from the living room and went for a bath.

It seemed like a minute but it must have been an hour when Merrick awoke. Christ, he'd fallen asleep in the bath. What a dumb thing to do. Dimly he'd remembered turning the tap mixer with his toe. After running in more hot water, he turned off the tap and was soon was dozing again.

Merrick heard a noise, looked up and there was Kirsty smiling at him.

She began swaying to the phantom beat of strip tease music and began shedding her clothes as he lay back with very watchful eyes. This was not the first time she'd danced provocatively for him, not by a long shot. But somehow this time her sensuality was reflected by excellent timing and subtle gracefulness, causing Merrick to feel a deep stirring beginning it seemed at the base of his brain and radiating to his groin.

She finished with a belly thrust towards him; her eyes appeared to be incredibly luminous. Was he dreaming - no way! He could feel his heart pumping, his erection stiffening.

This Salome moved quickly between his sprayed feet and slid into the water, facing him so he could gaze at her full breasts and enlarged nipples.

"I feel like sex, we haven't done it in the bath, apart from me doing a few administrations on you with my feet. That was true and with dismay Merrick heard his spontaneous rebuttal - "There isn't room to be comfortable."

Merrick Jamieson – who fancied himself as a minimum of once a day sexo – turning down the chance of getting a shot away? This was unbelievable. He was about to negotiate when she smiled, and said, "I understand, then how about this!"

She leaned over the edge of the bath, reaching over and pulling up his towel for a cushion between her tummy and the bath edge. She'd spread her legs, opening herself to him. Merrick was already hastily getting to his knees when she cooed, "You'll like this, my tits are drooping clear of the bath; use them to hold yourself steady."

Merrick was in danger of blowing there and then. Breathing heavily he sprawled over her back, pushing against her to let her know everything was at the ready. She turned her head and they kissed deeply.

"Christ, this is sexy," she said. "I'm already heavily self-lubricated. Why don't you put it in?"

Merrick took hold of her left breast, and she groaned. He swiveled slightly on his left hip and guided the most eager part of him into the right crevice, knowing at this angle there was not a big margin for error. She remained motionless as he fed it in but as soon as she felt he was fully home she began slowly rotated her ass to one side and then back to the other side, increasing the sensation as he stretched around to grab her right breast and started to pump.

Kirsty half-turned her upper trunk and bit his right arm, the sharp nip causing Merrick to wince and increase his tempo.

"Ooh, this is s-o-s-o fantastic," she groaned.

Merrick scarcely heard that because his was reciting 'Flying mice over the wheat fields in South Australia'. The discomfort of the hard surface of the bath was simultaneously performing a useful role of seducing his brain against triggering the signal for a full ejaculation.

Kirsty switched from ass rotation to thrusting her hips forward and back in time with Merrick's movements, also raising and lowering her ass as different times to managing the delivery of internal sensation, and squeezing her vaginal walls with practiced control to increase the friction for both of them.

She began gasping.

With Kirsty's gasping now advancing to an almost continuous flow of panting his right hand slipped under her hip and his finger circled her clit, not quite completing the second revolution when her body stiffened and she screamed, drawing a simultaneous discharge from him.

Panting to a stop, Merrick was aware that semen did not pump out by the 'bucket loads' as some writers quote their sex-machine characters as thinking, but he felt as if that had been a good half of an egg cup. He imagined right then he was so spent that he would not manage to haul himself to his feet. So he began massaging both breasts, causing Kirsty to groan, "That's nice darling."

A minute later she made an announcement connected with a decision they agreed on six years ago that she should come off the pill.

"I'm sorry that I cannot be more accurate, but my productive cycle was due to start either yesterday or it could be today or tomorrow. The way I felt as I was doing my dance was that I was in a reproductive mood."

"Well, I send a huge flock of tadpoles up you to go looking."

"Shouldn't that be schools or swarms of tadpoles, darling. Birds flock and I don't fancy having a flock of birds up into my cervix."

"Huh?"

"It's all right dear. You just provide the tadpoles and I'll look after the rest. I've got a thick piece of juicy steak for you for your dinner, carrots and heaps of greens. Then I think I'll serve you a heavy rice pudding.

"You go out if you wish. I just want to stay still here for a few minutes more. No need to make it any more difficult for those tadpoles of yours if today is the day. If it's a boy, perhaps we'll call him Frog."

"He'll forever be mumy's boy from the day I tell him who gave him his ghastly name."

"I'll counter than by informing him who gave mummy the tadpole."

"Huh?"

"It's all right dear, I don't really think that Frog depicts the image I have of my son."

To Be Continued...