Sage

I was having so much fun. The drive, the conversation, the campfire, the food we cooked ourselves, the look in Jax' eyes while he explained the little game we'd be playing. I was having the time of my life out there in the forest of Big Bear.

For how hard I fought to become independent from my father, and to do things on my own, I sure was enjoying letting Jax have all the control of my body. It was like an adrenalin rush to relinquish control to someone else. And I could trust Jax. I felt it as deeply as I felt that campfire warming my skin, and I trusted my intuition. My nose hadn't tingled once.

Not knowing what he'd do next, or how my body would respond was intoxicating. I was playing for spankings, something I'd never experienced outside of that erotic novel turned movie a friend of mine had dragged me too last year. I should feel degraded, according to polite society, but frankly, it was the opposite. I could see Jax' devotion in his eyes, feel it in the way his hands touched my skin. He was rough with me, which I loved, but he was also always careful to make sure it didn't go too far. And as long as he didn't cross the line into pain, I was good.

"I was ready the day I met you, lifeguard." The line was cheesy, but damn true. Besides, I wanted Jax a little wild, a little frenzied when he touched me. This wasn't a one-sided game. If he was going to try to drive me crazy, I'd do my best to return the favor.

He barked out a laugh. "I was ready to spank you the first day I saw you too."

Then pillow talk time was over, his body leaving mine as he sat back on his haunches. He placed his hands on my ankles, straightening my legs out and widening them on the blanket. I had the sudden urge to cover myself from his gaze, but caught myself, realizing how quickly the spankings would add up if I couldn't stay still in the first thirty seconds of this game. Besides, what could he really see since it was dark outside?

His finger trailed up and down my leg slowly, no other part of his body touching me. Without his warmth, I could feel the cold air on my skin, but felt like I was on fire anyway, too caught up in what we were doing to worry about a little thing like freezing temps.

A light flared to life in the tent, my eyes closing quickly against the glare, but not before I saw his arm up by the top of the tent. I'd forgotten there was a little portable lamp hanging there.

"I want to see every inch of that gorgeous body. Every goose bump I cause. Every mark I make on your skin." That velvety voice of his was saying all the right things to make me squirm, a desperate move to get closer, find friction, and put an early end to this drawn out suspension of pleasure.

I moaned, finding a sense of release through my voice that I couldn't find with my body.

Jax shuffled back, directing his attention to my left foot. He kissed the arch, then the top of my big toe, the ankle bone, the top of my foot. The scrape of his cheek tickled to no end but I was determined not to lose. I was competitive when it came to things I cared about and this definitely fit that description.

He moved to my other foot, repeating his kisses, but adding a firm swipe of his thumb in my arch, eliciting another moan from me. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down, not realizing that closing my eyes just heightened my other senses, namely touch. And with this new superpower, I felt his beard scrape up the length of my leg, ending with this hot breath on the center of me, the part that wanted him the most.

Of course, that would have been too easy, so he left the area, deciding to focus on my knees, which were surprisingly ticklish. Giggling and breathing hard, I felt him straddle my waist, his hands trailing up my arms above my head. He leaned forward to reach my hands.

Something hit me in the face lightly, making me pull my head to the side in a reflex.

"Uh oh, that's one spanking." Jax didn't sound at all upset about that.

I popped open my eyes and moved my head back into position, only to almost lose again when I saw that it was his erection that had hit me in the face.

"Jax!"

His only response was a smirk I desperately wanted to wipe off his face.

I narrowed my eyes at him, brain whirling with ways to pay him back. When he reached forward to massage my arms, his cock looming closer yet again, I was ready for him this time. When it hit me, I stuck out my tongue and snagged it, sucking the tip into my mouth before he pulled his hips back with a hiss.

I smiled, smug now that I'd gotten a reaction out of him.

His head lowered and a tug at my nipple turned into a sharp sting that was soothed by his tongue. It was like a straight shot to my gut, turning my desire into a living thing that ached sharply, needing release more than it needed breath. I'd wonder later how tip toeing across the line of pain had heightened my desire when I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that it wouldn't. But he repeated this on the other side, eliciting the same response, proof that I found the torment arousing.

I hissed and moaned, taking big gulps of air and blowing it out slow, trying desperately to remain motionless when all I wanted to do was grab him by the hair and force his head between my legs just to end the ache in my gut.

His lips kissed a wet trail down my stomach before saying hello to each hip bone. His tongue drew a line from my hip downwards, stopping to nip my skin with his teeth. Little bite marks I was sure he'd be pleased with later. He was so close, just a mere inch or two away from where I needed him.

"Jax, please. Please, please, please..." I was begging and didn't care. Every muscle in my body was tense, straining not from movement, but from the excruciating focus of stillness. I stared down at the top of his head, as if I had the power of psychokinesis and could make his head dip low enough. Make that tongue dart out. Make him feast on me.

Instead I got breath, the heat alone enough to make me gasp.

"Do you want to move, Sage?" If I hadn't been breathing so hard, I would have heard that his voice was losing its smoothness. A rasp had surfaced, a sign that he was as affected by everything as I was.

"No!" It burst from me. "No, I want you to fucking move!"

He chuckled darkly, his lips brushing my mound like the damn tease that he was.

"You have far more control than I would have guessed. Very interesting." His lips were lower now, brushing against my soft skin, literally touching where I needed him, but without enough pressure to finish the job.

Before I could beg again, his tongue darted out and swiped quickly, my hips jumping in response.

"Two," Jax informed me.

"Motherfucker..." I grumbled, jaw clenched tight.

My body was shaking, the trembling starting in my legs and moving to every part of me. The anticipation was like nothing I'd ever felt before. Hell, at this point, a mosquito could land on my pinkie finger and I'd orgasm.

In one quick motion, Jax scooped his hands under my hips and pulled me up so that my body met his face. And then he attacked me with his mouth. I was stunned into total submission, my mind still screaming at me to stay perfectly still even as he manhandled me in his rough, delicious way.

Tongue, lips, teeth, they all got in on the action, wrenching breathy screams from my throat. My body finally gave up the fight, too overcome by the fire lighting up my veins. My arms slammed down on either side of me and my fingers clenched, trying to find purchase on the shifting blankets below me. I didn't give a damn about our little game now, nor did he, since he didn't come up for air to call out my transgressions.

It took all of five seconds for my orgasm to come screaming up my body and out my mouth. Head thrashing, body trembling, eyes squeezed shut, I told the entire forest about the earth shattering explosion rippling through this tent. My muscles finally locked up, having spent all of their energy on remaining perfectly still under torturous conditions.

By the time I quieted down and felt sensation returning to my limbs, Jax had placed my body back down on the blankets and kissed his way back up to watch my eyelids flutter open again.

I smiled at him, the type of smile that's smug and sated, like after inhaling a huge meal when you'd been starving.

"You're up to at least three by now." His voice was serious, but his eyes crinkled in the corners, the way they always did right before he full out laughed.

"You can do whatever you want to me if it ends like that." I was nearly purring with satisfaction, willing to promise anything in my current state of mind, still floating on a cloud of post-orgasmic bliss. Good thing I wasn't still trying to buy his building from him. I would have lost now that he knew my weakness: silly sex games followed by outstanding orgasms in the middle of the woods.

His eyelids lowered and he leaned in even closer to whisper in my ear, "I'll collect those at a later date. Who knows? Maybe you'll tally up a few more."

The thought gave me a chill, my body shivering despite the heat from our bodies filling up the small tent. Then it was his scratchy beard moving down my neck to my breasts causing my shivers. I liked where things were going, this little camping sexcapade getaway, and I let him hold me down and have his way with me till late in the night when we both finally passed out.

The next morning, I woke to an empty tent and a chill in the air. I poked my head out of the sleeping bag to see that Jax had woken before me and stepped outside. I rummaged around in the blankets to find one of his t-shirts, putting it on, stretching and yawning, feeling deliciously sore from our tent gymnastics. My hair was a tangled mess so I put it up in a messy bun on top of my head.

I unzipped the tent flap, then crept out, realizing quickly I would need shoes when my feet encountered the rough ground, so back in I went to find the boots I'd brought with me. I climbed out, sure I looked a mess: hair in a rat's nest, naked except for big boots and Jax' oversized shirt. Before my first cup of coffee though, I couldn't find the energy to care.

Plus, I had to pee something fierce and I didn't recall seeing any little girl's rooms in the area last night. Back in the tent once more, I grabbed a packet of travel tissues from my backpack, congratulating myself on remembering to bring appropriate toiletries. As I left the tent yet again, I snagged my hair on the zipper and had to wrestle with it for a few long minutes before it let me go. Who knew tents could be so dangerous?

"Wishing you were in a fancy hotel room yet, heiress?"

Jax' drawl from across the fire pit scared the bejeezus out of me. I nearly dropped my packet of tissues in the fire pit.

In all my traipsing in and out of the tent so far this morning, I hadn't see him sitting there, still as a tree, a travel mug cupped in his hands. He looked delicious, another flannel shirt complimenting his dark beard and the panoramic view of pine trees behind him.

"Nowhere I'd rather be, lifeguard." I smirked before spinning around to find a private bush to relieve myself behind. I didn't embarrass easy, but the thought of my repeated not-so-graceful exit and re-entry of the tent without any underwear on while Jax just sat and watched the show, made me feel like finding a hole and hiding. My gynecologist probably hadn't even seen as much of me as Jax just did.

"That ass looks good in my shirt!" he called after me, making me blush harder. Growing up my father taught me to show no weakness when cornered. So I reached back and flipped up the bottom of his shirt, letting him get an unobstructed view of my fine ass while I picked my way through the woods. And really, a body wasn't something to be embarrassed about, or to hide away. It was just a shell that covered who we really were. If he wanted to stare at my booty and do naughty things to my body, I was happy to let him.

Once I'd taken care of business, Jax shared his coffee with me, made me breakfast, and then waited patiently while I got dressed and attempted to brush out my hair. Then we went on a flat hike around a portion of the lake, the views so beautiful I had to constantly stop and take pictures on my old Nikon.

If this restaurant thing didn't work out, maybe I could do something with photography. I loved capturing beauty from behind the lens. I could focus on the tiniest of things, the everyday things that were overlooked, and bring them into focus, highlighting them and showing off their beauty.

Jax was the perfect gentleman, helping me over logs, waiting for me to take pictures, even pointing out things he thought I'd like to stop and see. He told me about the area and we discussed local conservation efforts. He held my hand or touched my back or pushed the hair out of my face. His constant touching was sweet, and though normally I'd be irritated with someone that close to me all day long, with him, I couldn't get enough of his attention. I could feel him watching me the whole time, his gaze heavy, like a constant buzz of attention running in the background. I craved his touch, his thoughts on subjects, his smile, his gaze.

"So, Mr. Stern. I've told you a lot about myself. Maybe even some things you didn't want to know. Now it's your turn. Tell me about the girls you've dated."

We were sitting on a large flat rock, the lake at our feet, the sun high in the sky. Jax handed me an apple, taking one for himself and taking a big bite before turning to me and answering my question.

"There's really only been one woman." He didn't look happy about this turn in the conversation.

"Ahh...sounds serious." I bumped his shoulder, trying to keep it light.

"It was. Or, I thought it was. We dated for a long time and then she decided she couldn't handle dating a continually broke guy. Left for richer pastures." He shrugged, like it was nothing, but I knew from Bailey that it was definitely something.

"Did you love her?" The idea of Jax loving someone else was weird and repulsive. The idea that someone could leave him over money was also repulsive. I hated this woman already, but was thankful she'd been of so little substance. She'd left him single and available for me.

He shook his head slowly. "I thought I did, but looking back, there were a lot of other signs too. I'm happy for the experience so now I know what I want and what I don't want."

"And what do you want, Jax?"

He looked up at me then, his piercing blue eyes looking into my soul, rendering me motionless, on the edge of my rock, as it were, needing to hear his answer.

"I want a partner. Someone who understands my need to work hard and to preserve my father's legacy, even if it'll never make me a ton of money. I want a lover and a best friend I can build a family with."

I nodded, just then remembering the similar statement he'd made that first day we'd talked in The Shack after I'd rented a surfboard. I gazed back at him, hoping I fit the bill, even though we'd started out on opposite sides and seemed so different on paper. "I don't think that's too much to ask when you're planning to spend the rest of your life with someone."

Jax leaned in to pull a strand of hair out of my face, his fingers trailing down my cheek and then behind my neck to pull me in for a sweet kiss. We broke apart and finished our apples before hiking back to camp, all serious talk over for the time being.

I lobbied hard for an afternoon siesta, with Jax pulling out all the stops to take me fishing. Back at our campground, we compromised on something else entirely when I started stripping before we even made it to the tent. I only had my boots left on my body when Jax picked me up and sat me down on the end of the wooden picnic table next to the tent. The wood was weathered and rough, making me wince at the thought of splinters in sensitive areas. Jax, of the ever-present-gaze noticed, of course, and unbuttoned his shirt, lifting me up so he could put it under me.

He dropped his shorts and boxers, grabbing for his wallet then spreading my knees and pulling me to the very edge of the table. I bent my knees and placed my boots on the edge of the table, thankful for the grip the heavy tread provided. No time wasted on teasing, he put the condom on, lined himself up and thrusted, filling me. My arms went around his neck and my head dropped to his shoulder.

Damn, he felt so good. Like he was both splitting me in two and putting me back together. All my attention zeroed in on the center of my body where we were connected. His hands gripped my hips in a tight grasp, his body retreating and slamming back quickly.

Then he stopped entirely, which forced my head up, being that I was ready to beg him for more.

"Lay back."

The command was back in his voice, his need to tell me what to do when we were naked together. I kissed his neck, his ear, his cheek and finally a quick lick across his bottom lip before I laid back on the table, leaving my feet where they were. It was broad daylight and I was splayed across the picnic table, like a feast ready to be eaten.

It was worth it, to see his jaw clench and his eyes dilate. He still didn't move and I tried to take matters into my own hands. Literally. I palmed my breasts and pinched my nipples, wiggling on the table to get the friction I needed.

"Touch yourself." Another gruff command. His hands pushed my knees further out to the sides. "Lower."

His intention was clear and though I'd never done something so brazen in front of a lover, and especially not out in the open for anyone to see, I obeyed. One hand trailed lower to feel where he penetrated me, the quick squeeze enough for him to start moving again. A growl and a dark look had me moving my hand a bit higher to touch right where I knew he wanted me.

Only then did he pull almost completely out, hovered there for an agonizing second, then plunged back in all the way. Then again, almost out, barely dipping in, then back out again, ending with a hard thrust back in. He continued in this way, teasing me even as my desire ratcheted higher. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore and I begged him for more.

"Faster, please. Please." My hand was rubbing fast, my breaths coming out in pants and moans.

He gave me what I needed, letting out a loud holler the same time I arched my back and saw the stars. His heavy body lay over mine, his breath hot on my neck. I looked up and saw a bright blue sky with wispy clouds floating across. The breeze hit my skin and I smelled the forest, that natural scent you just couldn't bottle up. I wasn't sure how I felt about heaven, but I had to think this moment must be what it was like. Absolutely nothing could have made me happier than this. Right here, right now.

Except maybe a hot shower. I was feeling mighty hot and sticky. I wasn't a snob, but a girl had her limits.