Page 16 of Bearing North
“Do you want company?” he offered.
Her experience with sharing showers was that they were always smaller than they should be. There was a lot of elbowing each other accidentally and not being able to bend down to get the soap when it was inevitably dropped. But Orson was still naked, and gorgeous, and she wasn’t tired of his skin yet.
Alex shrugged one shoulder suggestively, and he scrambled off the bed with an undignified whoop to follow her into the bathroom.
It was a small shower, not a full-sized tub, with tiny hotel shampoo and conditioner in one corner caddy. Orson unwrapped the sliver of soap and lathered it up before he touched her, smoothing bubbles over everything from her neck down. There wasn’t room for him to bend over, so he knelt to soap her hips and legs, worshiping her slowly to her toes.
Alex returned the favor, frothing the soap in his chest hair before caressing his arms and shoulders and down his sides, lingering over his sexy hipbones and his taut ass. His cock, soft from use, stirred under her fingers, and she dallied there, stroking him and making him groan and clutch the safety bars. Alex knelt and soaped his thighs, tickling his knees, and washed his feet one at a time. This had her at just the right height to take his penis in her mouth and she couldn’t resist. It had rinsed clear, and tasted slightly rusty from the well water.
Orson tangled his fingers in her hair, clutching but not controlling, and she sucked and teased with her tongue as he swelled in her mouth. She dragged her teeth gently on the sensitive skin and took him deeper, reaching to squeeze his testicles and scratch his thighs.
He was hard now and seemed impossible to hold in her mouth. Alex released him with one last lick. He drew her up and pressed her against the tile wall of the shower as he found her pussy and drove in.
He held her there effortlessly, pumping slowly into her, kissing and gently biting her neck. She didn’t think she could ever tire of his steady rhythm, holding her right at a crest of excitement, even while she craved a little more, a little faster, a little deeper. Instead, he pulled out.
“Orson…” she begged, even though she never begged. “Please…”
He shut the water off, but Alex didn’t care. She was already overheated, and clawing at him with new need. He opened the shower door, turned to bend her down on the rug, and entered her from behind. This new angle had her coming at once, clenching and biting back her cries. He rocked her through that orgasm, and another, before he became frantic himself and spilled into her, hot and hard and erratic.
They laughed together afterward, lying on the floor soaking wet and spent.
“This isn’t me,” Alex protested. “I don’t have fun like this.”
“I think this is entirely you,” Orson countered, kissing her. “And you’re absolutely perfect.”
But Alex had a stab of doubt. Would she regret this in the morning?
13
ORSON
They slept so late that housekeeping banging on the door finally woke Orson.
Alex came awake with a start and scrambled out of his embrace. “We’re up!” she called, rolling off the far side of the bed. “We’ll be out soon!” Orson made a note to practice that voice. It wasn’t rude, precisely, but it was full of confidence and not a hint of apology.
“How soon?” he asked, eyeing her curves hopefully as she jiggled her pants up.
She stooped and threw a pillow at him. “We’re on a schedule. Snap to!”
Orson obedientlysnapped to, and they swiftly packed and loaded their luggage into the truck. Alex checked them out and drove them to Fast Eddy’s for breakfast. It was a brief meal, but not light. His biscuits and gravy were rich and filling, and served with a bowl of cubed melons with halved strawberries.
“Can you grow these things here?” Orson wanted to know.
Alex looked up from the phone she was tapping messages on. “Yes, but those aren’t. Local strawberries are much smaller and sweeter. Melons are enormous and wouldn’t be ripe yet.”
She knows everything,Orson thought in admiration.
“We’ve got a hotel tonight in downtown Fairbanks,” Alex said. She’d picked an omelet with reindeer sausage and had already eaten it efficiently. “Tworooms, I confirmed with Sandra.”
“We don’t have to use them both,” Orson suggested with a waggle of his eyebrows.
She rewarded him with a glimpse of an answering smirk, quickly smothered. “Tworooms,” she repeated. “We’ll stop at the Tok project and then drive to the Fairbanks office and get going early tomorrow morning for Coldfoot, where we again havetworooms.”
Orson had the Milepost open on the table beside him. “It’s only five hundred miles to Prudhoe Bay from Fairbanks. Why aren’t we driving straight through? Isn’t that only about eight hours?”
“The Haul Road isn’t paved,” Alex said patiently. “It’s eleven or twelve hours of driving if we don’t stop. We could do it, but it would be a long, miserable day. It’s better to break it up, since we can. And there are no amenities. If you need something for the trip, get it in Fairbanks.”
“I can think of something I’ll need,” Orson said, grinning at her.
