Water and Stone

"I love the way you look at me," she said. "It makes me feel like a sexy woman. Honestly I think that's the thing that's made the biggest difference for me. Not that everyone else you've done to me hasn't been phenomenal."

My stomach grumbled, and I realized I also had to take care of my body's own morning business. When I got back, Alexa was still sitting there, looking at the stunning landscape. I let her sit as I bustled around to make breakfast. Moving felt good, though my feet were really killing me. Stupid blisters.

Alexa was quiet through breakfast, smiling occasionally but distracted. As I slowly drank my second cup of coffee, I made a stab at it.

"Do you want to take the day again, go on a big exploration? I don't want you to feel stuck here with Mr. Sore-feet. Maybe I'm sharing your house, but it's big enough to get our own space."

Alexa slowly nodded. "Yeah," she said. "That's probably a good idea. I'm not really bothered or anything, but I guess I'm a little off-routine."

"What would you do today if I weren't here?" I asked.

She looked at me, then let her gaze travel up. A grin stole over her face.

"I'd try to make it all the way up there," she said.

I turned and stared. It was impossibly distant, lofty, snow-covered. This was truly Alexa, and she was so beautiful in this instant.

"Then I guess that's what you're doing today," I said with a bit of wonder.

She looked back at me, and then threw herself into my arms, nearly crushing me. Eventually she relented a bit and looked me straight in the eyes.

"This is going to work, isn't it? Us, I mean."

"Yeah," I said. "We're going to make it work."

Five minutes later Alexa was on her way, looking at her map as she easily strode up the hillside to follow the ridge. The crampons dangling from her pack testified that this wasn't a totally unplanned excursion. I watched her until she disappeared, and still kept watch. Glimpsing the fundamental limits of our relationship hurt, no doubt about it. She would spend the day alone with her first love, the one that would never be out of the room when we were together. If Alexa could do it for me, I would do my best to return the favor.

The truth was, I already understood some of what Alexa felt. A day alone, my thoughts stretching expansively, uncurling from my own body. It was luxurious. I found a spot of shade and sat reading my book, occasionally losing the thread of it and just existing for a while. I sent my thoughts to Alexa and hoped she was having the time of her life up there.

Alexa had hoped to be back by dinner, but the sun was getting low. Intellectually, I wasn't concerned about her, though her hike was completely out of my understanding. I was still getting fidgety. Time to make dinner and hope the smell hastened her home.

Just as I was finishing up, I caught a motion in the corner of my eye. There she was, coming back down the same ridge, looking just as strong as when she'd left. A part of me relaxed.

She was overjoyed, even more than from her hike the last time. Without even taking her pack off, she jogged the bit and nearly ran me over with a hug. When I got my breath I asked her how it was, and she pulled out her phone. There were some gorgeous photos from the top, including a panorama showing the basins on both sides. She also showed me a photo of herself lying stark naked in a snowbed up there. It looked like she'd made a snow angel.

"You wouldn't believe how good that felt," she said. "Must be the Swedish race memory or something. Oh god, that smells amazing. Thank you so much for dinner."

She dropped her pack and started eating right out of the pot. Well, it was basically done. I couldn't help but laugh.

"My manners are atrocious, aren't they?" she mumbled. "This is all I could think of the last couple miles. Trail mix is great but it only goes so far."

After she'd demolished a good chunk of the pot, she sighed happily and gave me another hug. I took the opportunity to feel up her ass, which felt like a solid mass of muscle after her day out.

"Mmm, squeeze harder. Harder! Phew, today was a good workout." She kissed me on my head. "Truth is, dinner wasn't the *only* thing on my mind the last couple miles. I think this morning's frustration is starting to boil over. I couldn't stop replaying yesterday, thinking about what else I -- Aaah!" She broke off as I'd just yanked her shorts down to her knees and continued my massage of her butt.

I looked up and she grabbed me, wrapping her arms around me and pressing her lips to mine. Her tongue danced between my lips briefly and she incoherently mumbled something encouraging. She rubbed her bare mound against my shorts, and I was rapidly getting hard against her.

I kneeled and helped her step out of her shorts, and then took a hand, leading her towards the tent. But she stopped partway and put one leg up on a slab of rock. She gently ran a finger along her slit, shuddering as it brushed her clit.

I needed no more encouragement, and I knelt on the rock in front of her, displacing her finger with my tongue and lips. She was sweaty, musky, and slick with juices. I couldn't believe how erotic it was, her body on display in the dimming evening, a hand pushed under her shirt to tweak her nipples. She seemed to want a lot of attention to her clit right now, and I gave it, varying my strokes until she gasped and nodded. I gently began to stroke the length of her pussy with a finger, and when it was slick with her I ran it back further to encircle her asshole. She tensed a bit and then gently took my hand.

"Not today, Kev -- still a little sore from yesterday."

To my delight, she then started to stroke herself, mingling her fingers with my tongue. Without warning, she plunged one finger into her vagina, pressing herself harder against me. I briefly sucked her engorged clit in my mouth, and she cried out.

In my years eating out Lisa, I'd gotten to identify a subtle change in taste as she approached orgasm. I was pretty sure I was noticing something similar, and my dick throbbed with the thought of getting her off like this. But we continued for a long time, Alexa seeming slightly more agitated, but not quite coming. I took a quick break and gently rubbed her with my fingers.

"Sometimes it took Lisa a really long time to come," I said. "I can do this as long as you like it. And if it would be exciting to talk, ask me things, fantasize, whatever, you just say it."

I went back to licking her and she moaned happily. But she didn't say anything for a while.

"How, uh, how long did she usually take? Lisa. If you don't mind --" Alexa trailed off nervously. I took another break with my mouth.

"Well," I thought. "As fast as a couple minutes with her vibrator sometimes. As long as, well, it must have been close to two hours one time I was licking her. But she begged me to tease her as long as I could."

Alexa sighed. "I've probably spent close to that long on myself a couple times. I would keep thinking: just a little longer -- but no. Not until you. You really ate her out for two hours? What was that like?"

"Tiring," I laughed. "My tongue was in a lot better practice then, but I still had to take some breaks. But it was so worth it when she came. I thought she was going to break the bed."

She really did seem to be getting turned on by this stuff. She pushed my head back down and I started working hard on her again.

"OK, this is turning me on, but I want you to keep eating me. Can I, uh, ask you some questions and you nod or shake your head to reply? Just don't do anything if you don't want to answer."

I nodded, letting my tongue run up and down her, and she shivered in pleasure.

"Did you guys ever just watch each other masturbate?" I nodded, and she ground her clit into my tongue.

"Did you, uh, watch porn together?" I nodded again. "A lot?" I shook my head.

As she asked, I tried to file her questions away. Some of them seemed surprisingly dirty to me, but I never had trouble telling her the truth. Soon she was starting to ask about our fantasy life.

"Did you ever talk about what it would be like with other people?" I nodded. "Did you ever do anything with that?" I shook my head. "Did you two ever, uh, imagine what it would be like with another person watching? Joining in?" Nod.

Alexa fell silent for a while. Then she started to talk about a fantasy of hers. As she talked I could feel her trembling with the building excitement.

"Either I'm a guy, or I have a strap-on dick myself. Well, in my dreams I think I'm a guy, because I can actually feel what it's like stroking myself. And there's always this woman who I'm just devouring with my mouth. The same one, I think, but I never see her face. Gorgeous pussy, shaven clean. And I know I'm going to penetrate her, with my dick or my substitute dick, and it's driving me totally crazy. But it almost always falls apart when I get to that point in my head."

She went silent a while. "I don't know if I really want to do that with a woman. But thinking about it is getting me so fucking hot. And maybe if the opportunity ever ..." I nodded vigorously and she moaned. "What about -- what about with you? If, well, if I got a strap-on like that," she was breathing raggedly. "Could we maybe ..."

I nodded again and sucked her clit into my mouth. And all of a sudden she came in my mouth, crying out in surprise and pleasure. I kept licking her and her orgasm intensified, her body shaking as she put a hand down to stabilize herself. Her body clamped around her finger and I stroked her hand as I kept licking. "Oh god Kevin, ohgodohgod, please..."

Finally she subsided and I gently drew away. She was leaning her upper body on the leg she'd propped up, breathing heavily, glowing.

Alexa made a small noise of frustration. "Oh, God, that was so much better even than yesterday. But I need more. Fuck me, Kevin, right now, right here."

This time I went to retrieve the condoms, returning to see Alexa pulling her shirt off and starting to masturbate again. I got out of my clothes as quickly as possible, my dick springing free and beyond ready for her as I got the condom on. I wasn't sure how this was going to work, but Alexa didn't seem interested in changing positions, and she pulled me to her.

The end of my dick bumped into her pussy, and she bent her legs more, grabbing my dick ungently and trying to press herself onto it. She was too tight, or the angle was wrong, but she obviously wanted it, and I tried to help her.

"Lex," I murmured softly as she pressed against me, trying to open herself. "Want to try another position? We can take our time." But she didn't respond.

Then she squeezed my shoulder once and sat, thumping her bare ass heavily on the slab of rock. I winced. She was shaking her head, not looking at me.

"Sorry, Kevin," she mumbled. "I'm too nervous. Too impatient. Too, I don't know. And I'm hungry again."

There was a pause, and then she started to laugh a little.

"Uh, want some more dinner?" I asked.

She nodded her head, and I quickly went to fill a bowl for her.

As she ate, Alexa started to relax.

"Sometimes," she said, watching the mountains disappear into dusk. "Sometimes, I think I do hard exercise just to remind me that my body really does work well, for most things. I think there's some serious debugging left to do, though."

I thought for a while. "I spend a surprising amount of energy telling smart people to just take the time they need to debug the code. And back in the dark ages I did plenty of that work myself. So, I hear you."

Alexa took my hand and looked at me for a while.

"See, I was right. I knew you were good with people."

We cleaned up and packed away our things in preparation to leave the next morning. I was already missing this time together.

As we lay cuddled against each other in the tent, Alexa stroked my hair.

"It's going to be hard to be back in the city," she said.

"Yeah," I agreed.

"I don't know if I could ever move in with you," she said.

I stayed silent. I hadn't been thinking anywhere near that far ahead.

"I might not even be able to sleep over, or vice versa," she continued. "It's different out here. There's never enough space in the city."

"I haven't even been thinking about things like that," I said. "I'm just looking forward to our next trip."

We lay there, and I gradually relaxed towards sleep.

Alexa tensed, and I kissed her chest lightly.

"What does that even make us?" she asked. "I don't know what I can even promise you."

"Friends," I mumbled. "Lovers. Partners. Whatever we want."

* * *

Four months later

"I don't even know if I got it right," I said as we walked. "I spent all that time trying, but maybe it's not even from the right region --"

"It's wonderful," Alexa said. "They're lucky I didn't eat them all before we could get out the door."

"I wanted to do this earlier," I said. "I kept putting it off. I thought things had changed, that I could just be social like anyone else --"

"Ssh," she said. "We're here already."

I knocked on the door. Zhang Li answered, carrying the baby. She looked tired, but her face brightened when she saw me. In the other room Jin took a break from chasing Xiaohui to give us a wave. The girl peeked out from behind his legs.

"Kevin!" his wife said. "Hello."

"I brought some food," I said awkwardly. "Oh, Zhang Li, this is my partner Alexa. I made dumplings. Lots, so you can freeze them. And some treats for Xiaohui." I held out my bag, and her smile broadened.

"Hello, Alexa, pleased to meet you. And, oh, thank you!" she said. "Smells like home. Come in, please. Would you like to hold this little fussy thing for a minute? Since last week he insists to be the center of attention."

Before I knew it I was holding him. He stared at me with his brown eyes for a few seconds, then looked at the doorframe with about the same intense curiosity. I was smiling through a few tears, and Alexa put her hand on my back. The pain was there, but he was a beautiful child. A warm, jeweled fragment of the future.

I wondered what unexpected thing was going to happen tomorrow.