I just knew she’d taste amazing. Her juices were like a sweet, intoxicating nectar to me.

I gave her pussy one last, slow lick, savoring the delicious taste. I could still feel her trembling against my tongue. The smile on her face confirmed that she was one beautiful, satisfied babe. I kissed each of her thighs one last time before closing her legs and kissing her knees. I leaned over them, kissing her once on the lips and then on the forehead.

“Time to go,” I said.

“Yeah. It’s late. I should get back to the motel.”

“Oh, you don’t escape me that easily. Not after what we just did.”

She looked at me curiously. “What?”

“Let’s go to the Pier,” I said, not giving her any chance to say no.

“That sounds nice,” she said shyly as I handed her back her clothes and she threw them on. I climbed down the ladder and jumped to the ground.

“How will I get down?” Meadow said, peering over the edge of the landing.

“Just climb down the ladder and I’ll take care of the rest.”

I watched as she slowly crawled on all fours and stuck her left foot out. She moved it around trying to find the bar of the ladder. The sound of laughter echoed down the alley and I turned to look. Paul and Sandra were stumbling out of the brewery together. I didn’t think they’d seen me, but I took a step back against the wall just in case. I watched as they walked by the alley and stepped back out to help Meadow.

“Was that them?” Meadow asked.

She’d retreated back onto the landing, obviously trying to avoid the climb down. “Yeah. They didn’t see us. Your foot was so close. Just a little further down and you’ll be on the bar,” I said, preparing my stance below her.

She slowly crawled backwards again, but as soon as she knew she was at the edge, she paused. Her foot was shaking when she finally started to reach it back out. It was cute.

“You’ve got this, Meadow.”

She looked down at me, uncertain how I could be so sure. She glanced at the ladder and then faced forward. Her hands gripped onto the metal of the landing as she lowered her body down. Her foot struggled desperately to locate the bar. Her toes finally made contact, and she put her foot down all the way. She was now in an awkward position with her left leg fully stretched out and her right still fully bent on the landing. She froze and her grip tightened. She took a deep breath and started to fidget, unsure what to do next. I kept encouraging her. “Keep going, you’re making it harder.”

“That’s what he said,” she blurted out. I let out a loud laugh. I swore I was the only one who still made that joke, but before I could, she stole the words right out of my mouth. Her timing was perfect, and she knew it. She was laughing too.

Still laughing, I turned to check we weren’t drawing any attention to ourselves. Before I turned back, her laugh turned to a yelp and she lost her grip on the ladder.

Just in time, I leapt forward and caught her in my arms. It was quite a distance but my arms broke her fall perfectly. She clung to me so tightly I could hardly breathe. With her arms wrapped around my shoulders, she buried her face into my neck.

“I’ve got you,” I said, soothingly. “I was under you the whole time.”

She looked up into my eyes. She was so beautiful. I thought she was going to kiss me, and her kiss would rock me to my core.

But instead, she spoke.

“That’s what she said,” she blurted out.

I burst out laughing even harder.

“Oh, damn, you got me again!” I said.

I squeezed her even tighter. She was funny. Beautiful and funny.

I loved the way she laughed. The joke was funny, but I could tell her laugh was more from nerves. She’d just orgasmed in my face on a fire escape and then fallen off it! Of course she was nervous!

But her laughter kept me laughing. It was nice to be laughing so freely after all this time. I didn’t want to let her go. As our laughter quietened, I leaned in and kissed her as I held her in my arms.

“You ready to go for a walk?” I said, after we’d been kissing for a few minutes.

She smiled and nodded. I lowered her to the ground and we started walking back toward the brewery.

“Wait,” I said, stopping her. “Let’s go out this way. We’ll be less likely to run into people.”

I lead her out the other end of the alley. We cut through the parking lot. It only had a few cars left in it. On the other side, there was a path leading between two houses to the quieter residential streets. I was glad for the privacy. For a little town, the main downtown area was pretty busy at that time of night and I wasn’t too keen on running into anyone I knew. The last thing I needed was my town gossiping about seeing me out late with an unknown woman.

There’d been enough gossip about me two years ago.

Meadow was quiet as we walked, street lamps lighting our way. She was checking out the homes as we passed them, trying to get a feel for the town.

“Have you been over here yet?” I asked her.

“No. I haven’t had time to do much exploring. This seems like a cute area,” she said, still looking at the homes.

“Yeah, this is a nice part of town. Although, there’s really no bad part of town.”

“I love walking at this time of night when people are home and still have their lights on. I can peek in and see how they’ve decorated their spaces. Everyone has such unique styles,” she said. “Where are you staying now?” I asked her.

“Well, I checked in at the Rolling Wave motel last night. I thought I’d be here for a night, but today I booked it for a few more nights. Despite your earlier suggestion for me to go back to where I came from,” she said without looking at me. Her voice got quiet and trailed off. I felt like such an ass. Especially because she was obviously still hurt by what I’d said.

“I’m sorry about that,” I said.

“It’s okay.”

“If it’s any consolation, I’ve completely changed my mind about that. Now I want you to stay.”

She looked up at me cautiously.

“You really mean that?”

I nodded.

“Because you don’t have to say it just to be nice.”

“I mean it,” I said.

I gave her a playful nudge and put my arm around her. She gave me a bashful smile, leaning into my body and wrapping her arm around my lower back.

“Anyways, I guess I’ll just stay at the motel for now,” she said. “It’s pretty nice. I hope that apartment Paul mentioned works out though.”

A strange feeling came over me. I felt possessive of her, protective. Like she was already mine, even though we still had only known each other such a short time.

I didn’t like that she was staying at a motel. It didn’t feel right. It was a decent motel, but she deserved better. It seemed like such a waste for her to be paying for a place by the night. Especially if the place Paul mentioned wasn’t even available for another month. I had a whole house to myself with plenty of rooms to spare, but I held back from mentioning it to her.

“Do you know where the place Paul was talking about is?” she asked.

“Oh. If it’s the one I think it is, it’s just a five minute drive that way. Up around those homes on the hill. It’s nice up there.”

I looked at her. I thought how nice it would be to have her around. And how much sense it made to save her from paying for the motel for the rest of the month, but I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her about my place.

I couldn’t.

The last time I tried to help someone, it ended in tragedy. I was convinced I was cursed. When people got close to me, they got hurt. I could spare Meadow that pain.

“Do you live nearby?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said without looking up.

I didn’t say more.

We cut across the street to a new road with a new row of houses with their lights still on. She looked in the windows and made comments about different color choices or pieces of art that she saw. We got to the boardwalk and I pointed to the lifeguard post down the beach.

“Let’s go sit up there,” I said, taking her hand.

“Really? Up there? You think that getting me to climb up stairs will get me to take off my pants again?” she said with a nervous laugh.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “There’s a ramp on the front. I promise there’s no ladders!”

She laughed and I felt her body relax as we walked through the sand.