Page 30 of The Stars in the Sky
"Sounds good."
Amelia walked up and I introduced her to Will and she shook his hand. She seemed to tremble in his presence, and I didn't blame her.
We agreed on a time to meet up for dinner. Ryan unstrapped his surfboard, saying that he was going to explore a secret surf break that was supposed to be around here. Amelia, who was already dressed for riding, and I headed over to the horses. Jimmy got us saddled up, me on Happy, Amelia on Astrix, and we headed out on one of the well-worn trails.
Once we were out of earshot of everyone at the ranch, Amelia started. "Marie, he's mesmerizing. No wonder you wanted to tap that. I’d want to, too."
"I know. He's stunning. I feel this overwhelming attraction to him, but also this repulsion because of his backwards politics. It's like we're both magnets, and if we get the sides right, there's no separating us, but if we turn the magnet around, there's no getting us together."
Our horses walked past sagebrush on the hills, which scented the air. The sun overhead warmed us.
"So is the issue that you may want to be with him for more than just the summer?"
"That's part of it. Part of it is that I feel like I’m a hypocrite. Like on the outside I’m all green and on the inside I’m not.”
“But does he respect you?”
“I don’t know. His politics tell me he doesn’t, but his actions tell me he does.” I paused. “Isn't it crazy? He's not my type. I mean, remember Jeremy?"
We rode on, through a lemon orchard and out to the rangeland where cattle gathered under the oak trees.
She laughed. "Man Bun. He wasn't enough of a challenge for you. What does your heart say?"
"My heart says that if I don't protect it, I could fall in love with him," I said, admitting and articulating thoughts that were buried really deep. "And then what would I do? I'm only supposed to be here for the summer. I can't be with him, I have to finish my school. I'm the girl who always moves on. I don't stay still."
"I think you're getting ahead of yourself and you have to trust what you feel," said Amelia gently, "and not worry about the consequences yet. There are ways of still going to school and seeing him, if that's what you want to do. This isn't all that far away from home."
"No. But what about this feeling that I'm turning into a cavewoman if I hang out with him. Is he going to start ordering me around and making me eat dinosaur?"
Amelia laughed. "Well, a certain amount of being bossed around is hot. There's a balance. If he respects you, and despite what you think, I think he does, then you'll work it out. You wouldn't be attracted to him if he treated you shitty. I think you guys just argue because you like each other. And cavewomen didn't eat dinosaur."
"I still feel the need to remind him that I am a modern woman. He's only two years older than us, but some of his attitudes are from a different generation."
She smiled.
"But he's fucking hot in bed."
Amelia laughed, a full-on laugh, and said, "Girl, now you must spill."
So I told her. I went into detail about Will's immensely huge junk, which made her eyes flash. I continued with a discussion about the way he went down on me at the beach, how he had me riding reverse cowgirl in his bed the first time we did it, how I then sucked him off in the bathroom, then he nailed me in his shower, and then he made gentle love to me first thing that morning.
"All of this since yesterday?"
"Yes."
"Ohmigod."
She needed time to recover.
Once she had been fully briefed on the situation, she said, "I have an idea."
"Yeah?"
"I think we need to throw these guys off their game. Ryan can be very take-charge too. After dinner, we need to do something that they wouldn't expect. Makethembe along for the ride instead of us, for a change."
"Will likes to drive."
"So does Ryan. Okay, here's what I'm thinking," she said in a rush. "I'm thinking we take them to a strip club and see how they act with modern females getting lap dances from strippers."
