The Lost City Ch. 01

He paused. "But I suppose that running away is also part of it. Your problems get left behind a little when you travel. You get to reinvent yourself. They'll still be waiting when you get back, sometimes worse than before, but for a moment you get to hit pause. And you can stretch that moment out for a while."

Irene didn't look like she approved but Mira seemed thoughtful, staring out over the ocean.

"Don't hog the bottle!" said Michal to Irene, who passed it back down the line to her.

They talked and drank for almost an hour before Josef announced that he was going for a swim. He took off his shirt, folded it on the log and walked down towards the water.

"I bet I can swim farther out than you!" Irene had stood and was lifting her dress over her head. She strode by him wearing only her bra and panties. "Well?"

"Alright," he said. "Let's go!"

They both ran into the pleasantly warm water. Josef quickly realized that he was drunker than he had thought. Irene seemed to be feeling no such limitations and she took four long and efficient strides before launching into a clean dive and disappearing into the glistening black.

Josef tried to imitate her grace, but somehow his dive turned into a stumbling leap and instead of piercing the water, he belly-flopped and ended up with a mouthful of sand. He rose spluttering to the sound of peals of laughter from the beach behind him.

His next attempt was both more successful and more subdued and he carefully dog-paddled his way out between the fishing boats that crowded the shallows until he was treading water and staring out into the open ocean. Irene was nowhere to be seen.

He heard her voice from behind him. When he turned, he saw her standing on a raised platform on one of the fishing boats. The moonlight turned her long body silver, and, as Josef watched, she raised her arms over her head and threw herself into a front-flip. She hit the water without a sound.

He maneuvered his way over to the boat and used it's anchoring rope as awkward leverage to pull himself aboard. He climbed to the platform Irene had used as a diving board. Facing back towards the shore he could see the scattered lights of Taganga reaching up into the blackness of the hills beyond. From the hillside club he could hear a familiar rising beat"One, two, three, four, uno, dos, tres, quatro."

He managed a fully adequate dive off of the boat and made his way back towards shore. He couldn't see any of the girls on the shore, and he began to wonder if he'd been abandoned. Then he felt hands on his shorts, and before he could react they were around his ankles.

He spun around. Michal rose from the waist deep water laughing. Her breasts were bare and she wrapped her arms around him.

"How are you going to skinny dip with a bathing suit on, silly?"

"If I'd realized we were skinny dipping I would have skipped losing a race to Irene."

"Yeah, I hope 'swimming' isn't anywhere on your resume. Because if it is, you better stay down here and sell friendship bracelets for a living."

"Hey, I think I could medal in the senior olympics with my dog paddle. I churn water with my hands like it's nobody's business."

"Keep telling yourself that." She had wrapped her thighs around his right leg and was slowly grinding against him while she smiled up at him. It took him a moment to realize that she wasn't wearing underwear or a bathing suit.

The music from the club was louder this close to shore."Tu tiene la boca grande, dale ponte a jugar."

Her mouth was actually quite small, but Josef did want to play. His hands slid down her back to the top of her ass. Her mouth was on his throat and he could feel her moan softly. Her hands traveled from his lower back to his cock. One caressed his balls while the other gripped his dick.

"You're not seriously going to fuck here are you?"

Irene emerged from the water next to them, running her hands through her hair. Michal jumped and squeezed Josef uncomfortably.

"Jesus Irene, you scared me! And no, I'm not going to do anything with you swimming around us like a shark."

Josef reached down and found his shorts around his ankles. He pulled them back up and looked around. He could see Lee floating in the water twenty yards to their left. She was staring up at the stars, seemingly entranced. He couldn't see Mira anywhere.

"Do you guys know where Mira went?" he asked.

"She said she was going for a walk along the beach," answered Lee, still staring into the sky.

"Ok." Michal was still rubbing her groin against his thigh and her hand had snaked up the leg of his shorts.

Josef closed his eyes and tried to master his pulsing head. Stars flickered on the blackness of the back of his eyelids. Michal's tongue traced a tingling trail up his neck and began to dance in the entrance to his ear. Her hand caressed his balls and her middle finger rubbed along his perineum.

"Jesus," he exhaled without thinking. His hand drifted down until his middle finger found her asshole. She groaned into his ear as he rubbed.

"Ok, that's my cue to leave. Lee, are you coming?" Irene walked towards the beach. Lee popped her head out of the water.

"Are we leaving now? Alright. I think my clothes are by the log." She stood upright, wiping her wet hair back from her forehead. Josef realized that she was also completely naked. Lee turned and looked at them.

"What a beautiful night! Aren't you so glad that we're here?" She smiled, and then followed Irene out of the water and onto the sand.

"Pose... Pose... Pose..."

Michal's other hand found it's way into to the top of Josef's shorts and began stroking him again. He groaned, tilting his head back and enjoying the flashing feeling of blood traveling from his brain to his crotch. He moved his left hand down Michal's stomach until he could feel the knotted tip of her pussy. Gentle rubbing produced an immediate hiss in his ear, and his other hand sensed the tensing of the muscles between her legs.

"Oh my god. Just do that for a little bit, it won't take much...."

Even as she spoke, he could feel her spasms begin. The very tip of his right middle finger was gripped by the pulsing ring of her asshole while her thighs clamped down and held his left hand in place.

"Oh...."

She pulled her arms free and wrapped them around his shoulders, suspending herself in the water while she came.

"Tu movimiento lo siento, me esta quitando el aliento."

They stayed like that for a minute, swaying in the gentle tug of the water.

"We should find Mira," Josef said, returning to himself.

"Hmm, I guess. Are you sure you don't want me to return the favor?" Michal leaned against him.

"Oh, you can definitely return the favor, but not right now. I'm getting cold, and I give us fifty-fifty odds that our clothes haven't been stolen from the beach. I mean, I have my shorts, but it's going to be a long, naked walk back to the hostel for you..."

She shrieked and ran out of the water to find her dress and underclothes. Luckily they were still there.

Josef peered down the beach as he emerged from the water. He spotted Mira sitting on the sand fifty feet away and headed towards her.

"Everything ok?"

"Yes. Don't let me intrude. I can find my own way back."

He smiled. "Don't be ridiculous. Let's walk back together. I'll worry if you're out here on your own."

She looked at him seriously. "I can manage just fine."

"Tell that to your bag," he laughed, then paused. "No, that's not fair. I know you can. But I would like it if you walked back with us anyway."

"Why?"

"Because it would mean we were a step closer to becoming friends instead of just people who met on a bus this morning and might never see each other again."

She looked thoughtful and then stood. "Ok."

Michal was dressed and waiting for them by the log. She took Josef's right hand in her left. He put his left arm over Mira's shoulders and together the three of them walked back into the town.

Josef awoke the next morning with gritty eyes and a sticky mouth. Irene and Lee were packing.

"Mmm," he groaned, stretching. "So you guys are off to find Atlantis?"

Irene groaned. "Pretty sure you're a few continents off there, buddy."

"Seriously, whose city is this and why was it lost?"

Lee turned towards them smiling.

"I've been reading all about it. Apparently it was a group of tribes called the Tairona. That's where the park gets its name. They think the city itself predates Machu Picchu and the other Incan cities by hundreds of years. It was probably abandoned when the Spanish came."

"Ah, the Spanish. Saving los estadounidenses from the full hatred of Latin America for at least a hundred years," muttered Josef.

"Yeah, too bad for you they didn't have any colonies in Asia," replied Irene.

Josef raised his hands in denial. "Hey, my people were Irish. We were too busy wondering where our potatoes went and being shipped off to penal colonies in America and Australia to colonize anyone else.

"How is Josef an Irish name?" demanded Irene.

"Nerdy parents. Kafka?"

"Oh. K." said Irene.

"Right."

Just then Michal stirred awake in her bunk.

"Mmm. I had the best dream just now."

Her eyes opened and settled on Josef. She smiled.

"Oh. You are real!" She looked at her friends. "When are you guys leaving?"

Lee laughed. Irene frowned.

"We're meeting Shane at ten. Don't do anything stupid after we leave."

Michal grinned. "Josef, are you stupid?"

"I like to think not."

Michal nodded. "I won't Irene."

Irene shook her head in frustration.

Thirty minutes later Irene and Lee had their backpacks on their shoulders, the door to the dorm room was closing, and Michal and Josef could hear their footsteps descending the stairs.

There was a long moment of silence.

"So....," said Josef.

"So," answered Michal, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

She bounced out of her twisted sheets and flopped down on Josef's bunk, resting the left half of her naked body on top of his. Her head found its way into the crook of his neck, and her hair spread out across her back and his chest.

She smelled a little of alcohol and sweat, but mostly she smelled warm and aroused. Her lips tickled his neck.

"I think you deserve some payback for last night," she whispered into his ear.

His hands had come to rest on the swell of her hips, and he began tracing light patterns across her lower back and buttocks. She shivered.

"Mmmm..."

She rose up, smiled into Josef's eyes for a moment and then began to kiss her way down his chest.

Her hands hooked into his underwear as her mouth reached his abdomen. She pulled his boxers down past his ankles and paused with her hands on his thighs, looking him over.

"Not bad."

He laughed. "Do me a favor, please never say that to your future patients."

She quirked her head sidewise, smiling. "Why not? The brain plays an important part in healing, what's wrong with a little ego stroking?"

She started a different sort of stroking with her right hand.

"I... mmm... think there are laws about that."

"Whatever."

She knelt back down and began kissing her way up the inside of Josef's right thigh. He groaned again, raising his knees and spreading his legs wider. Her kisses became licks as she neared his groin. Her hand pumped his dick and her tongue squirmed into the space between his testicles and his leg. The curls of her copper hair spread out across her back and Josef could feel them brushing his thighs even as her tongue scampered across his balls. She raised her head and met his eyes as she took the head of his cock into her mouth. He hadn't fully appreciated the lake-water blue of her irises until that moment.

It quickly became clear that she believed in enthusiastic blowjobs and had no respect for her gag reflex.

"Oh my god," Joseph mumbled as he entered her throat.

Michal settled into a rhythm. She would swirl her tongue around the glands on the underside of his cock head before sinking down until her lips touched his close-cropped public hair. She would pause there for a moment letting him savor the feel of her throat before raising up again to tease the tip of his dick.

"Holy fuck," was all he could manage.

She smiled and pulled her lips off him.

"Maybe later."

"I think you get an unfair advantage from all the anatomy classes," he muttered.

She smirked.

"Well, I did have to learn all about the prostate gland."

Her mouth returned to his cock and her right middle finger slipped down to stroke a line between the bottom of his balls and his asshole.

His back arched a little and he threw his head back.

She used her left hand to form a ring around his cock underneath her mouth and then she began pistoning her head up and down.

Josef could feel himself lose control. He began to thrust back to meet her. Every time his hips rose, Michal's right finger would drift a little lower. His grunts merged with the wet sounds coming from her mouth and throat.

He'd had enough. He sank his hands into her curls and held her head in place as his cock began to empty itself in her mouth. Michal moaned happily into his cum. Her fingertip found his asshole and she rubbed. His orgasm reached a second level and cum began to leak from her mouth. He could feel her swallow around his dick. Finally, his hips returned to the mattress and his eyes closed.

When he opened them a few seconds later she was licking up the cum that had escaped her mouth.

"Wow, that was unbelievable. Thank you."

"I owed you one. Plus, just between the two of us, I totally get off on that." She looked at him without embarrassment. "I'm not submissive in the least in my real life, but gagging on a dick or being held down while I'm being fucked just does it for me. Who knows why? I blame society, but I'm going to enjoy it whatever the reason." She shrugged.

"I'm certainly not complaining," Josef replied.

"I would think not."

"Shower?" he asked.

"Yes, and then breakfast. I'm starving."

They squeezed into the bathroom together. Michal sat primly on the toilet and peed while Josef examined the Frankenstein showerhead distrustfully.

"Those things are crazy. I didn't shower for the first two days I was here because I was sure it was going to electrocute me," Michal said as she wiped and disposed of the paper in the trashcan next to the toilet.

"Yeah, they call it the suicide shower. I guess it's more efficient to heat the water in the shower head, but I've been shocked by them before and it's no fun."

There were no obviously exposed wires, so Josef reluctantly stepped under the lukewarm water and started soaping himself. Michal slid in behind him, pressing her breasts against his back and running her hands up his chest.

"How long are you planning on staying here?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. I was thinking of signing of for one of the lost city trips. It sounds like fun."

"Weirdo. What, pray tell, sounds like fun about crawling through the jungle for two or three days dodging tigers and spiders just so you can see some really old rocks covered in grass or dirt or whatever?"

"Is this a trick question? Because that's exactly what sounds fun about it. Plus, no tigers in Colombia."

"Jaguars, then. You're cute, but dumb as a box of rocks. Oh well, at least I don't have to worry about taking you home to meet my parents."

Josef turned around and kissed her. Their tongues flickered together and his brain translated the contact as a tingling on his scalp and in his groin.

"I don't think the next trek will leave for at least another couple of days, so you're not rid of me yet."

"I suppose I'll suffer through it somehow," she said. The lukewarm water streamed down between them as she rubbed herself against him.

They collected Mira from her room somewhat later. She wore the same outfit she had the day before, and Michal offered to lend her some clean clothes.

"I'm fine for now, but maybe I'll come grab something after we get back from breakfast. We're close to the same size, I think. And then, Josef, maybe you could come help me shop for replacement gear this afternoon?"

"When you say 'help me shop for', you really mean 'carry all the stuff I buy' don't you?"

"Maybe," she smiled.

They found a ramshackle cafe for breakfast. The coffee was excellent, the fresh baked bread less so. They sat at a table outside watching the steady flow of foot traffic. The early morning cool had been tattered by the sun.

"So, tell me about yourselves," Michal demanded. "You know why I'm here, but I want to know why you guys decided to travel to Colombia alone. I always imagined that 'backpackers' were druggie degenerates, but you both seem pretty together to me."

She smiled at Josef. "And yes, normally 'tell me about yourself' precedes me blowing someone, but I guess you just got lucky."

Mira's lips pursed in disapproval and she avoided Josef's eyes.

"I guess I'll start," said Josef. "The short version is that I was engaged, but we broke up about six months ago. I was working at a law firm but after the break up I realized that I sort of hated my job. Eventually I quit and decided to come down here for a while. I took a similar trip after law school and found it was a good way to clear my head. Plus, you know, hot girls and beaches."

"Careful who you call a beach, mister!" admonished Michal.

"How 'bout you, Mira?" asked Josef.

Mira grimaced.

"More or less the same, I guess, minus the breakup."

Josef laughed. "That's kind of like saying 'This movie was exactly the same as Star Wars, except not in space."

"You could totally say that," said Mira, indignantly. "Star Wars was based on a Kurosawa movie about feudal Japan!"

Josef looked at her skeptically.

"I think I've heard that too," Michal jumped in helpfully.

"To rephrase for the pedantic," Mira scowled at Josef, "I was dissatisfied with my life, and so I decided to leave for a while.'"

He raised his hands. "I concede to your superior nerdiness."

They sipped coffee silently for a few minutes.

"This macho idiot apparently wants to abandon the relative comfort of our dorm beds and follow my friends into the jungle," Michal complained to Mira, indicating Josef with her thumb.

"Oh! The Lost City trek? I was reading about that online last night. It sounds amazing!" Mira leaned forward in her seat.

"What is wrong with you people?" Michal asked despairingly.

"I was going to stop in at the tour company office later today; maybe we can do it together after you finish shopping. If you want to join me, that is?" Josef asked Mira.

Mira assented, and they paid their bill and returned to the hostel.

The afternoon was an over-hot blur for Josef. Mira was a systematic and determined shopper. She insisted on negotiating over the price of almost every item on her list, and he was forced to interpret for her. To his surprise, the Colombian shopkeepers seemed happy to encounter a foreigner who wanted to haggle and Josef began be amused by the expressions of shock and sounds of disgust that they and Mira would emit whenever he translated a counteroffer.

Finally, she was satisfied with her haul and permitted him to carry it all back to the hostel.

"Make sure you don't drop anything," she admonished. "It's the least you can do since you failed to find my backpack."

Josef made a rude noise through the pile of clothes in his arms.

Once Mira's purchases were safely stowed in her room they sought out the storefront they had passed advertising the "Magical Lost City Trek." The next tour was leaving in two days and they reserved their spots.

"This is going to be amazing! I've never done anything like this." Mira was practically bouncing as they made their way back.