One Storm to Another

Tina Hamilton had thought when she had agreed to share a room with her friend Linda up here at Kenner Cabins (which didn't really have cabins, just hotel rooms, more or less) that they would meet men - which to Tina meant talk to them, eat dinner with them, tramp the woods with them, maybe some kissing and a little more, certainly give out phone numbers for use back in the city.

But Linda - well, Linda met someone on the first day of the two weeks they were scheduled to be in the resort and in 15 or 20 minutes went back to the room with him. Tina knew intellectually that they probably used Roger's unshared room about as much as they did Linda and Tina's shared one, but after a week it did not seem like it.

Every time that Tina stepped in there, Linda seemed to be at or swiftly approaching orgasm. If the room was empty when Tina walked in to get some rest, then she would be awakened by the sounds of passionate sex. Tins knew that they must stop to eat - though in another use of the term she heard plenty of that too - because she saw them at dinner, which they turned into a long session of foreplay.

All of which rather cramped Tina's style. If she felt like any degree of involvement with a man, she was going to imagine what might happen when she got alone with him. Since she wanted to keep some control of the situation (at least until the point where she might want to lose control) she wanted it to be in her room - and she certainly had inhibitions about being alone with a man while those two went at it. So she could not even daydream effectively.

This explains why Tina Hamilton was walking quite alone through the woods on a Saturday afternoon. She was not quite sure where she was, but she knew that the map said there was a road south of the woods, another one west of them, and that the road to the west went to Kenner Cabins, back north of the woods. If she could see the sun, and it was still mid-afternoon, she could not get too lost.

In theory. The way the practice was working out, she could not see the sun right now. Dark clouds had been moving in for a while, and she wondered if it was going to rain.

Tina saw a man maybe a quarter-mile away from her, and after thinking it over twice, decided to ask him for help.

"What's the fastest way to get to state road 23?" she called.

"Five miles and a little that way," he replied, pointing. "It'll take you over an hour; the storm is going to hit in two or three minutes. I know where there's shelter nearby, but I feel dumb not checking the weather forecast before I left my place."

Tina looked him over; blue jeans, bright red jacket - this was hunting season - and decided to follow him as he motioned her on and set a good pace himself.

The storm came in less than two minutes. Tina was drenched in another half-minute, then came ninety seconds of very cold wind before the young man stopped before some brush by a small hill and vanished. Then she saw his hand beckoning and she walked between two bushes and into a cave.

"The bear that used to live here moved out or got shot or something years ago," came a male voice. "My name is John Fallon, by the way."

"Tina H-Hamilton," she said, shivering.

"Looks like you're cold. Things will probably improve in that direction if you can dry out and the wind doesn't shift so it comes in the cave.

"I don't recognize you from around here," he continued. "Where are you staying?"

"K=Kennan Cabins."

"You are about five miles west of that and two south, almost as far as you could get from any auto traffic."

"I just kept walking, with no real plan. I came up for two weeks, sharing a room with a friend of mine, but she's mostly with a man she knows, but I went walking to leave them alone some." That seemed a diplomatic way to put it.

The conversation dropped off then, but the rain kept coming. And soon John's worry came true when the wind changed direction and the icy air came straight in. Tina sat up the ground to get out of it a bit, but that did not help much.

"Look," said John, "I realize you don't know me and this sounds bad coming from a man you don't know, but you would do well to get out of that soaked shirt or blouse or whatever you got. Stay low and the slacks won't be too bad.

"I can take off my jacket and shirt and give you the shirt, then put the jacket back on. I'll face the cave mouth while you strip and put on my dry shirt." And he began; the glimpse or two of his body looked above average, as far as muscles went.

Tina still felt chilly in the shirt, but much less so.

"These summer thunderstorms come up fast, but this one should be over soon," John said. "My place is maybe twenty minutes' walk from here. If you are willing, we can go there and I can drive you back to Kenner Cabins. It's a long walk but not much of a drive."

Tina though for a few seconds and reflected that if he were going to rape or kill her, they were already in the perfect place to have done it. Anything he tried that was much less than that, and she could always walk anyway. So when the storm and the clouds cleared, they walked.

His house was a small one, with an outbuilding, the woods to the west and a farm to the east across a long back road, which led down to state 15, leading in turn to state23. John unlocked the front door and led her in.

"If you don't have any reason to hurry back, I would like to put your blouse and slacks in my little clothes dryer with my jeans and give you a bathrobe to sit around here in. I don't get much female company these days, and I'd like to keep you here for a while if I can. I'll throw in dinner if spaghetti's good enough."

If he thinks he can seduce me with dry clothes and free food, she thought to herself, I've had less tempting offers. She agreed. At least to what was directly offered. Anything else, she could wing it.

She changed to his bathrobe, then he changed to other clothes. While she waited for him to come back from his bedroom, she looked around. A small television, with no cable or TV satellite dish and 5 or 6 broadcast stations. A radio with AM, FM, and weather band. Maybe a hundred books, haf about computers, a couple dozen other references, the rest science fiction or detective. A computer with a wireless setup. Why not cable TV, then? Maybe he didn't use it enough.

She asked about that, as she sat in his kitchen and watched him make dinner.

"I keep thinking I should sign up for dish service, but I don't get to it," he said. "Back when I lived inn the city, I had it."

"You stay here full time, then?"

"Yes. I'm a software engineer and I telecommute, going in for meetings a couple of times a month. It does not do much for my social life - I mentioned not having a woman around as much as I would like, didn't I? - but I avoid some things I don't like, too."

"I could see that," Tina said thoughtfully.

"I can't really say I want that much of a social life," he admitted. "I would rather read or talk to somebody than chase women, at least in the plural. All I would need to be happier is to become a consultant - it pays better too - and marry somebody to do the book-keeping and the billing. Failing that, get somebody to move in out this way."

"Not interested myself at the moment, but I like your priorities. I can't say I'm satisfied with my data-entry job, but I have a line on an accounting firm."

The spaghetti (with a side vegetable) was oddly flavored but pretty good. They headed back to Kennan Cabins after sunset. As they got closer, he turned to her, obviously hesitantly.

"Look, um, are you planning anything for tomorrow? I know this is short notice, but I would like to spend more time with you. You mentioned that you are sharing a room with another woman. You could bring her, and her boyfriend, if that would make you more comfortable."

Tina though of how to say that having them around would make her less comfortable, but decided not to. She wasn't sure how long the two of them could stay off each other's bodies.

"There is a Methodist church near the cabins," she said. She had not planned before this to attend services, but it sounded good now. "I will be out about eleven. Or if that's too early for you, I could call you."

He handed her a business card. "That would be fine. Take this in case there's a problem." And he let her out at the door.

She turned and watched him drive off, and the thought came to her that John Fallon was someone whom she would not mind seeing a lot more of, and it was something of a pity that he lived so far away from where she normally was. It would not be at all difficult to find herself getting involved with a man like that.

On the way back to his cottage, John pondered the chances of anything coming of today's chance meeting. He found Tina interesting and intelligent, and the fact that she walked to woods meant that she was to some degree athletic as well; he wondered if she would also be athletic in bed - he liked that in a woman. Not, he reflected, that he was likely to find out if she was going back to the city fairly soon.

Tina was tired enough from the day to drop right to sleep, even at nine o'clock. But she was awakened later (and again at eight in the morning) by thumps, moans, and cries of "Roger, Roger!"

Tina tried her best to think charitable (even pure) thoughts about Linda and Roger during the church service. John Fallon showed up only minutes after things had ended, and she found that some of the congregation greeted him.

She grabbed a small travel bag with woods-walking clothes from her room (Linda and Roger were gone, she was glad to see, since she could go a day or so without seeing her legs on his shoulders) and they drove off. John showed her a lot of interesting and beautiful spots in the woods, and by the middle of the afternoon they were resting under a tree, she leaning against him. He tried to kiss her and she turned away - then turned back and cooperated.

"That was very nice," she whispered, "but don't do it too much. And don't let it give you ideas."

"The ideas come with the package," he replied, "but I'll try not to act on them too quickly."

She grumbled at that, but admitted that he was honest.

Towards sunset, they went back to his cottage. It looked like another storm was gathering, less violent than yesterday's but more likely to last.

As the two were discussing what to have form dinner, or maybe drive to a diner, the storm hit. It was less sudden, but there was lightning and thunder and one of the first strikes of lightning took the power out. John right away kissed Tina on the forehead and went to change into old clothes, saying he had to start up the backup generator.

"Look, John, have you got more stuff I can put on?" Tina said. "I won't know much of what I'm doing, but another pair of hands might be useful. And I really don't want to sit here alone in the dark and wait for you to come back."

John pulled out some clothes and handed them to her. The shirt cuffs had to be rolled back, as were the pants cuffs. The waist was held in by her own belt, and ballooned out below. She looked a bit absurd, but he liked it, and liked her attitude.

The generator needed to have gasoline added to it, and the gasoline can needed to be opened with a monkey wrench, which was in a tool cabinet with a door half-rusted shut. Then several places on the generator had to be oiled or greased.

By the time the generator was going well and the light in John's kitchen was on, both of them had large black spots all over their clothing and most of their exposed skin. John rubbed her forehead with a rag and kissed the partially-cleaned spot.

"I like the way you smell," he said, "but you would still be improved by a bath."

"So would you," she replied, "and I don't much like the odor of gasoline."

"Want to save water and shower together?"

She lightly slapped both cheeks. "A bath, not a shower, and soaking for a while."

"Well, it was my duty to ask, I figure."

She soaked while he got everything out for dinner and he soaked while she cooked it in a bathrobe. Just before dinner she changed back to the outfit she wore to church. When Tina opened the bathroom door to pass him his bathrobe, he kissed her hand and started working his way up her arm until she jerked it back.

By the time they finished their delayed dinner, it had gotten late. The thunder and lightning were long gone, but the steady drizzle had not, and it seemed likely to go on for hours yet. Tina peered out the window doubtfully.

"That looks like a mess. I almost hate to ask you to drive me back."

He shrugged. "Fine with me if you don't. It's not often I get a beautiful woman in this place, and it's a lot rarer that I get one to spend the night."

She turned with her brow knit, prepared to give him another light slap.

He caught her hand. "More seriously, it really would be slippery out there, and the couch can be slept on comfortably. Your choice of that or the bed."

"You are serious."

"Quite.."

Tina thought for a minute and nodded. She used his telephone (that line had stayed up) to call Kennan Cabins and tell them where she was and leave a message for Linda saying the same. She wondered if Linda and Roger would notice that she was gone; they ignored her presence when she was in the room.

She sat on the couch with John after the sheets and blanket were laid down, and sipped wine and kissed. They progressed to fondling and petting, more than she felt she should be comfortable with. But they had been through a lot in the last 36 hours or so, and bonded more and more quickly than was usual.

Around midnight John got up and headed to the bathroom, then to his bedroom. He turned at the door and called, "Last chance," and she shook her head and waved goodnight.

She turned out the light and lay there. The stillness of this house should have put her right to sleep, she thought, after the intermittent cries and moans from the other bed in the room where she had spent the last week. But it didn't.

Indeed, she started thinking about how long it had been since the last time that she had been completely satisfied by a man. She was not a virgin, but she liked to think that she was picky, and maybe she was a little too much so lately.

By any reasonable standard, John Fallon was am good man, and if his seductive banter was only half-serious, it did mean that he was interested in her. It was worth considering, if not this soon. But the fantasy came of itself of having that muscular body over hers and spreading her legs open and having him enter her with skill and force and bring her to a wonderful completion. So she dozed off.

Two or three hours later, she awoke again. The rain had stopped but a wind had arisen. It was coming through the spaces around the front door and putting a draft right across the couch. The blanket was not going to help much..

John would not have known about this, since he had never slept on the couch, she was sure, and probably it only happened from time to time. Tina thought a while.

She got up and took off the outdoors shirt that she had worn to bed, then stopped in the bathroom and walked into John's bedroom, completely nude.

Tina lay beside him and learned very quickly that he did not wear pajamas to bed. He did not awaken even when she snuggled up to him, though one arm went around her bare shoulders.

The next thing that she felt was a kiss on the side of her neck. Her eyes fluttered open to the morning light.

"This is an unexpected pleasure," he whispered.

"It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind," she replied, as she turned towards him.

"I am not sure if last night's offer is still extended or if it still stands," he said. She moved her hand. "I can feel it extending right now, and well on the way to standing."

"I would say you have a definite but delicate grasp of the situation. I might even say you have me by the short hairs."

"Well, close to them, but I don't want to pull anything loose."

Then she released him for the price of a kiss, which asked for another, and then his hands found her breasts and roamed on. His lips found her nipples, his fingers her labia, then his lips followed his fingers. After a while her mouth was where her hand had begun and he moaned more eloquently than Linda had been doing all the past week.

He moved over her and words of assurance and reassurance were exchanged, promises of security and safety, and then a mutual sigh, followed by her cry of wonder at his thickness. She felt that each moment and motion was better than the one before, until she felt the tension and release of orgasm, over again, and at the last his hot seed inside her. She lay there with a happy if silly smile.

For the second week that she shared the room with Linda, Tina was there only to grab clothes. Linda met up with Roger back in the city, but did not see much of Tina, who was brushing up on her book-keeping.