Returning to Ana, I feel relaxed and surprisingly calm. Sex is a great release, sex in the wilderness is incredibly hot, and sex with Ana was better than I could have imagined. My gaze scans over her form. She’s still lying naked across the sleeping pads. Her skin glistens in the pale moonlight. She reminds me of the woman from which Titan must have modeledVenus. Or in a different lifetime, she could have been Botticelli’s muse. Tendrils of her long dark hair had come loose from her braid and framed her face. I take in her perfect body lean, smooth, and incredibly sexy. I’m used to seeing her in hiking clothes. She looks much more feminine when she is naked with the glow of sex over her skin.

She’s shivering from the night air. I spot her hoodie. Not that I want her to cover up...that’s okay, we have all night and tomorrow. I’ll get plenty more chances to look.

I crouch down and gently kiss her full bottom lip as I drape her hoodie over her arm. After a quick search around our campsite, I find my long-sleeved shirt and throw it on. I pick up my pants, but decide to not to wear them. My plan is to pitch Ana’s tent and get us in there for another round of sex. The fewer clothes I’m wearing, the quicker we can be together. Naked.

The tent goes up quickly. After cleaning up what’s left from dinner, I realized that I still need to get the pads in the tent.

“Not yet ready to move?” I ask.

She answers with a nod.

“I guess that will limit trail sex.”

“Is that why they don’t want women in combat?” she utters, drunkenly sitting up.

“If your soldiers are having sex with each other, you’re not doing your job.”

“I guess it only leaves thinking about sex.”

“Out in the middle of nowhere, it’s surprisingly how often you think about sex.”

“Is that boredom or age?”

“Both, guys in their twenties think about sex even when they’re not bored.”

“What about guys in their thirties?”

“We still think about it.”

“What are you thinking about now?”

“I’m feeling pretty satisfied right now. But I’m looking at a damn pretty, naked lady. So, yeah, sex is still on my mind.”

“Even so, you’re over there, and this naked lady is over here.”

“I’m the practical one, the leader. It’s cooling off, and the pretty naked lady has yet to move.”

“It’s a good thing one of us is practical.”

Lazily she stretches before getting up to search for her boots. I watch as she pulls them on, unlaced. It’s even sexier when she moves, I can see a flash of her boobs and naked ass when the moonlight hits them.

“You don’t have to move on my account. I’m enjoying the scenery immensely. Now you’re covering up all the good stuff.”

She smiles coyly in my direction, then walks, with flapping laces up to me, halting my movements. I was about to grab the pads and throw them in the tent. Instead, I wrap my arms around her. Our lips meet as my hands gravitate to her naked ass.

“Once the pads and bags are in the tent, you can get comfy,” I explain.

“Not helping? Just lying around naked?”

“Yes.”

“You sure are smiling a lot,” she purrs.

Is she reading my face or is she reading my mind?

“I just had sex with a pretty lady,” I tell her.

“That’s what it takes to get more than a nod.”

To answer, I pull her close and kiss her deeply as I squeeze her naked butt cheeks. Hopefully that’s a good enough answer. Her legs part and she rubs her naked crotch against my flaccid dick, causing it to spontaneously twitch. Good, it’s almost ready for more. As we pull apart from our kiss, her smile turns sassy, which I hope, means she’s also ready for more. This time I’m going to take it slower; I want to enjoy every curve. Ana picks up our pads and sleeping bags and throws them in the tent. I grab each of our packs and bring them into the tent.

She kicks off her boots and leaves them outside of the tent. She crawls inside. With the flap open, I get a great shot of her ass. My dick answers what I’m thinking by twitching again. I watch as she pulls her tranquilizer gun out of its pouch and places it along the inside of the wall of the tent.

“Always know where your gun is when you’re in the wilderness,” she explains with a wink.

She unzips my sleeping bag and lays it on top of our pads. She opens her sleeping bag and layers it on top of mine. “The temperature should be nice tonight, not too cool. Are you up for sharing body heat?”

My dick twitches an answer definitely, while I answer with a nod. I watch her fold down her sleeping bag, pull off her hoodie and recline alluringly on her side obviously waiting for me. She curls a finger to draw me close.

“Are you going to join me or watch me?”

I don’t need any more of an invitation. I quick comply. I pull off my shirt and throw it where my pillow would be and I kick off my boots. I move over to her and my hands run along all her soft curves as I lower my head to kiss her beautiful pink lips. Today has been wonderful. I got to spend it walking through my type of cathedral and now I get to pray at my kind of altar. Reluctantly I release our kiss and I slowly move down her body. In the pale moonlight, I’m going to learn all about it. My lips move farther down the smooth skin of her neck. Then down to her breasts. Now I’ll take my time. With pleasure, I lick and suck each of her nipples. At each move, she moans and her back slightly arcs. The sound of her desire goes right down through me.

Since I’ve already gotten off one time tonight, I can take my time enjoying her body. Slowly, I take in her skin. Not only her skin, but how she responds to my touch. I’m in bliss, spending the time to touch her all over, relishing in the taste and feel of her. Slowly, deliberately, I bring her to the peak and listen to her supplicate. I worship her body. It’s my temple and I’m in the need of a lot of prayers.

As the night progresses, we slowly experience each other. I bring her higher, enjoying every sound and taste. By the time we have sex again, it’s pitch black inside the tent. I know the night sky is clear and the moon and stars are out, but here, in our tent, under the trees, it’s dark and quiet. After sex, Ana lies in my arms quaking. I’ve never been one for cuddling, but I like the feeling of her in my embrace.

As she starts to relax I pull her sleeping bag over her and tuck her in. The cool night air feels good on my overheated skin. Ana snuggles in deep on her side, barely touching me. Using my shirt as my pillow, I listen to the sound of her deep breaths. Then my ears reach out past the sounds in our tent as the forest awakens and the nocturnal animals come out. I can hear animals sniffing the ground near us. They can probably smell the little bits of food we discarded. I lie awake, identifying each of the night sounds, and this brings me comfort.

My mind flashes to work, but this time, I reign it in; tonight is my vacation. I dedicate it to Ana and the pleasures her skin brings.

I must have drifted off because an unexpected sound wakes me up. I can feel the warmth radiating off Ana. Quietly I move to the end of my pad and listen. The rustling noise sounds like it might be a human noise. I stretch over Ana and take hold of her tranquilizer gun, then I unzip the tent door. The moonlight in the clearing is bright enough to give me the light I need. I stuff my feet into my boots and slip out of the tent.

A hand on my arm startles me and I’m about ready to take the person out.

“What’s going on?” Ana’s whispers.

“I heard something.”

“You’ve got my gun.”

“It sounded like humans.”

“How so? Were they talking? No one but me is authorized to use that gun.”

“They were...they werebreathing like humans. And they shouldn’t be here.”

“If it’s humans, they aren’t expecting us. If it’s a large predator, let it be. I don’t need the paperwork that comes with shooting my gun especially if you’re the one that fired it.”

“There could be a problem and you’re going to argue over a technicality?”

“My gun, my responsibility. If the gun’s going to be fired, it better be by me.”

“Stay where you are. I’ll check the perimeter.”

“Are you having a flashback to war or are you ignoring me?”

“I’m experienced in this kind of scenario.”

“There aren’t terrorists in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I’m more experienced with four-legged predators. If they’re humans, they didn’t see us. If it’s our lion, she’ll do anything to avoid us.”

“With all this talking, we’re broadcasting our location.”

“Brody, who do you think is up here in these mountains?”

“Whoever poisoned our lion.”

“And you think they’re going to what? Take us out?”

We’re both out of the tent. Ana is naked. Her hair is down and it flows around her shoulders. She looks sexy as shit.

She holds out her hand. “We can do a survey of what’s around, but I get the gun.”

“I trust my skill over yours.”

“Stop being a dick.”

I look down at my dick, which is standing at attention. Man, she can turn me on even arguing. As I look up I see she’s looking at my dick, too.

“Is this some kind of game—a turn on?” she asks.

“No...no,” I stutter. “But it’s hot, anyway.”

“Somehow I think anything would turn you on. Now hand me back my gun. It’s not a prop.”

“I think we scared them off.” I hand her the gun.

“If you want to work that off, you’d better come inside.”

She doesn’t have to tell me twice.

***

I wake up with the sun, which is sleeping in for me. My gaze moves to where Ana should be, but she’s gone, and I smell coffee. I throw on my pants and scoot to the end of the tent to get my feet in my boots. Ana is sitting cross-legged in front of her little stove.

“That smells like real coffee.”

“Is there any other kind?” She looks at me.

As I head toward her I pull on my shirt. I relish in the smell of the forest and the cool morning air on my skin. Ana hands me the coffeepot.

“I have sugar, but no milk. And only one mug, sorry, you’ll have to drink from the pot. But I do have oatmeal. When you give me back my pot, I’ll make some up.”

I grab one of my empty water bottles and pour the coffee in it. Then I hand her back the empty pot.

“I didn’t hear you get up,” I say.

“I’m sneaky like that.”

My mind is full, remembering the scent of her body and the feel of her skin as I silently drink my coffee. It need a few moments of reminiscing about last night before I’m ready to start a conversation about our day.

“What’s the plan for today?” I question as I watch her stir the oatmeal.

“Dried fruit?” she asks. I nod and watch her add the dried fruit and stir some more. “I’d like to follow the dry creek bed along the bottom of the canyon. We were down there two weekends ago. Our cat follows this canyon often.” She pulls a paper topo map out of her pack.

“Old school.”

“You always need backup. Batteries die, you lose your cell connection, your GPS drops off the satellites.” She points to where we are and drags her finger along the river bed. "If we head this way, we can reach the canyon by lunch then walk out from this point. It’s a big hike. But it will get us to an old road that will lead us back to my truck. It will be a long day, late when we get back. Are you up for that?”

“Too bad we won’t be by the lake.”

“Did you think that this weekend you’d get me to go skinny dipping with you?”

I nod as my dick twitches at the thought. How much fun would it be to swim naked with Ana.

***

By eleven in the morning the sun is baking down on us as we follow the dry riverbed. “Will you be coming back this week to scout out other areas?” I ask her.

“I’m planning on spending the first half of the week in the lab. Hopefully, I can get more data before doing more field work.”

After we walk for another forty-five minutes, Ana stops and pulls out her map. “I’m getting hungry. Do you want to find a place to sit down?”

I spot some rocks ahead on a bit of rise. “Let’s hike over there. It’s raised just enough to give us a bit of a view.”

“We should stay on the riverbed, this area is teaming with Poison Oak and ticks.”

“Come on, show a little adventure.”

“You’re going to peer pressure me off the trail?”

“Will it work?”

“Just this time.”

 

For lunch I share the cookies, crackers, and bars I took from the break room at work. Ana sets out some more of the good stuff she’s made.

“It’s a good thing I brought enough for two.” she comments.

“I’m sharing.”

“But you’re only eating the stuff I brought.”

“It’s really good.”

Once my stomach is full, my mind moves to the next thing. I look around for a spot that would be even remotely comfortable for having sex.

“Do you want to have sex?” she questions.

Damn, I like a woman who’s direct.

“Do you?”

“Did you bring enough condoms?”