Under the Perseids

The fire burned with a fierce determination against the hot humid air. It had managed to capture some of the colors of the spectacular setting August sun with its yellow and orange flames. William Duplessis shared his line of sight between the dancing flames and the ever expanding night sky. He hoped to be able to witness the Perseid meteor showers the way he did every summer when he was a kid.

So now, 20 years after the last time he ever paid attention to the night sky, he found the old stretch of lonely beach he used to harass when he was a wee lad and now sat and waited and meditated on the fate of fallen stars and fallen dreams. He smiled when he looked down at his lap -- his old childhood friends were replaced by a new friend and occasional demon: bourbon

He took a deep swill of the smooth liquor and looked up at the nascent, blinking stars. He was back in his home town after receiving an email from his uncle that Greg Rayburn, city councilman, varsity wide receiver and all around too nice of a guy, had perished in a motorcycle accident on his way to work the morning of August 10th. He was 39.

Will was the same age. But as he had driven down to the old homestead, he had begun to feel strangely older -- the familiar road still had the same curves, but the houses had changed. Old trees had come down while and others had taken root where once there was nothing. There was change, evolution and stagnation by the side of each stretch of road, crystallizing for him that all he'd known for over a decade was immobility.

So after Greg's funeral and the standard exchange of life summaries with other so called mourners, Will bought a bottle of Jim Beam and decided to go looking for forgotten stars.

*****

The fire had died down a bit and Will was now gazing at the dark sky -- a third of the bourbon had gone down his gullet and he had enjoyed the distorted seizures of the flames as they refracted through the bottle and the liquor. But he had put the bottle aside after having counted the first five shooting stars -- 10 minutes later he was up to 15 streakers.

Will shifted on the old blanket he used to keep his ass off the sand and pulled off his shirt, offering his bare chest to the stars, hoping one might actually make it through the atmosphere and knock him back a few decades. To know then what I know now, he mused as he stretched out on the blanket and watched the stars wink back at him before shooting away.

A few minutes passed when Will felt an odd, rhythmic rumble through the beach floor. The sound was familiar but it didn't register right away until the audible but muffled tha-thump echoed to his ears. He sat up and took a quick sip of bourbon and turned to his left and saw a shadowy bouncing figure coming his way. He quickly understood that someone was horseback riding, probably looking for falling stars like he was.

The horse slowed its gallop to a trot when it broke the hazy edge of the light given off by the dying embers of his campfire. It was a beautiful black mare -- one of those animals that embodied grace and power and appreciation for its innate force could condone love for it. As the mare approached him its rider became cast in the firelight: a woman of medium stature with long dark hair.

As Will rose to meet them he frowned when the firelight glinted off something metallic she was holding.

"Howdy stranger," she plainly said as the barrel of the rifle she carried came into view. Her voice was like a salty sea breeze, cool and refreshing but potentially vengeful -- her posture was one of guarded menace: she held the rifle by its stock while it rested in the crease of her right thigh. Will didn't move when she spoke, aware the she was perfectly positioned to drop the rifle into a firing stance quickly enough to target and take him down no matter which direction he took. He felt that she was particularly able at that.

"Hey," will said as he waived to her with his bottle. Three stars shot overhead. "Nice Horse. Nice gun."

"Much obliged."

"Your welcome. She's a mare, right?"

The unknown rider simply nodded while the mare bucked lightly and snorted.

"Is that an m1917?" Will asked, gesturing at her rifle. She just made a tsk sound. "Ah. P14 chambered for British .303 ammo, right?"

Will saw the shadows of her face shift and realized her brow furrowed. "You know your guns, sir," she said with a slight twang. The mare trotted a few steps and its rider came into his full view when the horse turned away from the fire. The rider was a beautiful but petite young woman -- her 2 piece black bathing suit was cut high on her thigh and displayed her graceful but toned legs while her top tied at the base of her neck, accentuating her slight shoulders and elegant arms. Despite her fragile looking frame, she carried the heft of the old rifle with ease. Her skin glowed amber in the firelight -- when he tried to look beyond her, the ample silhouette of her C-cup bosom blotted out the falling stars.

"My stars!" she suddenly exclaimed, dropping the rifle while the sky seemingly exploded with shooting stars. Before it hit the sand Will had already thrown himself to the ground in case the rifle went off. But as he landed with a heavy oomph he couldn't help but notice the sincere joy she showed before the beauty of the Perseid's.

"Look at those!" she gleefully exclaimed. Will rolled onto his back and managed to look in the direction she pointed to and a rapid fire shower of falling stars streaked though the sky. Enthralled by the display, he made his way to his feet and threaded the sand to join her to better see the shower. When the mare shifted nervously he calmed her by offering her his open hand. After a few sniffs and an agreeable snort, he patted her where her neck met her withers and she bobbed her head happily and pushed against his hand and he changed his pat to a pleasant scratch.

"You apparently are familiar with horses, sir," the rider said. "But I fear I am not familiar with you."

Will stepped back from her and, gripped with a sudden urge, he kneeled before her, his arms spread wide. "My Lady, I am William Duplessis. Late 20 years of this little burg and a fan of staring at the night sky while it rains its little dreams."

She laughed wholeheartedly as Will stood, brushing the sand from his knees and stretching to his full height. He felt her eyes roam across his lightly haired chest as the crackling campfire cast dancing shadows across his skin. Will had once been a heavyset man -- 230 lbs on a barrel chested, 5'7 inch frame, till a heart scare sent him on a path to better health. Two years and 40 lbs later he proudly presented her with a trim and fit body -- he could swear he heard her smack her lips together.

She hopped off the horse with deer-like agility and almost floated to the ground and chewed on her lower lip for a second while appraising him like she might a stallion. Tossing her long mane of dark hair with a flick of her delicate wrist, Will found something familiar about the gesture.

"William Duplessis. You're not what I remembered -- and yet you are."

*****

The summer night lay quiet as the stars rested and Will's blue eyes met with those of the younger woman he had just met. And yet, as he observed her more closely, he remembered a impish nose and pouty lips and those hazel eyes that always looked sadder than they should be.

"Tessa?" he suddenly asked as she flashed him a mischievous smirk. "I don't believe it -- Tessa Holden?"

"That's right, Will," she coolly cooed and picked up her rifle and winked at him before strolling to her mare and slipping the weapon into a sheath on the back of the saddle. She gave the animal a sudden slap on its haunches and it galloped back towards it stables.

"You've grown up," he whispered as she took a slow, sashaying walk around him. Will remembered that Tessa had been in her early teens when he'd left town after a failed romance with Tessa's sister, Tina. He felt his face flush when Tessa touched his arm before relieving him of the bottle of bourbon.

"Yes I have -- I'm not the little girl you used to make laugh with your weird voices and fiendish tickles." Tessa took a good wallop of bourbon before deftly tossing him the bottle.

"Obviously not," Will said as he took a gulp and was pleasantly surprised with the taste of her cherry lipstick. "But I thought you'd grow up and be a pharmacist or something -- not a gun toting amazon."

"I'm kinda small to be an amazon, don't you think?"

Tessa stood before him and put her hands on her curvaceous hips, challenging him to appraise her like the woman she was. And Will did -- he remembered a chunky but spunky 12 year old girl who gave him a farewell card -- she hoped to watch the stars fall with him again. He had said goodbye to Tina -- rejected because of the way he rejected himself. He had not even felt worthy of the love of an awkward teenager. But 20 summers later, they were both dissociated from those past persona and he realized they had somehow become each other's fantasy.

"Don't I have a boob too many to be an amazon?" Tessa asked as his eyes drank in the cleavage of her bosom.

"You're beautiful, Tessa," Will said. The sky erupted and five shooting stars streaked by as she smiled, her innate mischief replaced by genuine joy. "Even if you do have the extra tit."

Tessa laughed again -- it was like the laugh Will remembered from his youth, but tempered with the grave sensuality of a woman who had seen a bit too much.

"Always a charmer, eh Will?" Tessa teased, her sarcasm surrendering to a lighthearted tease.

"There was a time, that's all I was," he said as he stared up at the stars. "What're you doing here, anyway?"

"Surely you haven't forgotten that this is a private stretch of beach," Tessa said as she slid up against him and hooked her slim arm in his leanly muscled one and led him to the blanket he had laid on the ground. "I was home for the funeral an I realized the Perseid's were peaking tonight so I thought: What the hell? I haven't stargazed in years."

Will was keenly aware of his skin touching Tessa's -- a heat as seizing as the season's coursed through his body, flushing to his cock that suddenly twitched and seemed to sniff about like a bear awakening from a long slumber.

"What about the whole Annie Oakley routine?" he asked when they arrived at the blanket and Tessa guided them to the ground.

"Well, even if this beach belongs to my family, I couldn't very well just leave the safety of my home without some form of protection now, could I? And I surely couldn't foresee I'd come across a childhood friend."

Will was seated, one knee propped up against his chest while the other was resting on the ground. He was facing the beach and the summer night sky. Tessa was on her knees, her back to the water and her upper body turned towards him. Her tits brushed against his arm and despite the heat, goosebumps rippled across his flesh. Her nipples were ripe and poking against the sheer fabric of her bikini top.

"I guess not," he said as he felt his heart beat faster. He knew his voice was hoarser and his body felt racked with desire for Tessa.

She smiled and touched his face -- her skin was like silk against his stubbled cheek. "The beard is new -- and your hair is a lot shorter than I remembered. I like it."

"Thanks," Will whispered as she turned his face to hers. "I don't think we'll be looking at stars much tonight."

"Not unless that's code," Tessa whispered back, her lips a hair's breadth away from his.

"For what?"

"Guess."

Will leaned forward and a kiss 20 years in the making sparkled against a backdrop of falling stars.

*****

For an endless instant, they forgot the sand, the sea, the stars -- there was only the shared moisture of their mouthes as tongue and lips joined in an ancient ritual that has for millenia characterized human intimacy.

Will was on his back and Tessa was on top of him -- they occasionally broke for air before returning to the kiss. As their tongues sought to merge and connect, their arms and legs joined the litany to a passion they had once been too young to explore. His hands found the small curvature where her back met her buttocks -- his fingers slipped past the fabric of her bikini bottom and he explored the firm flesh of her ass. Tessa giggled through their kiss and pressed her pelvis against the increasing bulge his cock was making in his slacks.

Tessa suddenly gasped -- Will had maneuvered his hand from her ass to her mons and she had been surprised to feel his fingers press against the trimmed tuft of pubic hair that decorated her pussy.

"Shit that feels good," she moaned as Will used his palm to cup her pussy. He moved his hand slowly against her increasingly moist sex and used his deft fingers to spread her labia and find the sensitive opening of her willing pussy.

Tessa darted her tongue in and out of Will's mouth -- a sympathetic motion imitating the action of his middle finger as it entered her. Will slipped his other hand around her waist and gently pushed her down so she could better ride his finger.

"Oooohhhh," Tessa cooed as her juices flowed like a rushing stream across his wiggling finger and down her thighs. Despite the odd angle his hand was bent at, he inserted his middle finger as deeply as he could, hoping it was on or at least near her G-spot.

"Aaaaahhhh Will!" Tessa exclaimed. Her arms rested on the blanket on each side of Will's body, stabilizing her while she wildly bucked her pelvis, raking the pliant inner flesh of her pussy against his finger like it was his cock. He felt her body tense and then she began to tremble uncontrollably as she came with a ferocious snarl. As her orgasm slowly subsided, Tessa rested her head against Will's chest, her ear over his hear -- Will gently stroked her silky mane of black hair and planted a soft kiss atop her head.

"Well," he said when Tessa turned her head and he felt her soft lips touch his nipple and she sucked it greedily. "That was the most fun I've had with that finger since I stopped playing bass." He licked his finger dry, savoring the tang of her juices. Tessa gave his nipple a little bite and raised her head to look him in the eyes.

"Will, I ..." Tessa started but she had a moment of hesitation. "It feels like I am dreaming. Of all the people to find here -- I found you."

"That's serendipity for ya," he concurred. "Tonight, it's just us. No past, no future ... just two shadows passing underneath the falling stars."

"Only us," Tessa said and nodded. The campfire seemed to regain some strength and lit anew as she straddled Will -- the summer night's humidity took an upward turn and sweat started to bead on their electrified skin. Will propped himself on his elbows and watched with awe as Tessa reached behind her neck and undid her bikini top. She let the straps fall and her magnificent tits popped into view. A drop of sweat slide down to slope of her right tit and hung at her pointy, rose colored nipple.

Will greedily opened his mouth and Tessa offered him her studded nipple. He held it between his teeth and rubbed his tongue against the tip, making her squeal and she wrapped her arms around his head. He took the invitation and started to suck her nippled with abandon -- his tongue flicked, poked and prodded her willing flesh and when he sucked hard, he felt her nipple and almost part of her tit jump into his throat. Tessa moaned and grabbed fists full of his hair as her tit pulsated in his mouth. He hummed as he sucked and Tessa answered by grinding her wet pussy against the rock hard bulge of his cock.

"I want you now!" Tessa suddenly screamed. In a amazingly fluid motion Will flipped Tessa onto her back and it was his turn to be between her waiting thighs. He grabbed the sides of her bikini bottom and unceremoniously yanked it off. Tessa yelped with glee at his roughhouse way. She assisted him as he attacked his belt and undid his slacks and slid them down, exposing his gorged cock.

"Now now now!" Tessa exclaimed when she felt the length of his cock touch her inner thigh. "I want it now! Fuck me!"

Will grunted and leaned back a bit and reached between them to guide head of his cock to the sloppy, wet entrance of her pussy. Tessa was wantonly beckoning him with her pelvis when he pushed the first inch of his length into her.

"You're so tight!" he wondered as he slowly parted the walls of her pussy. Tessa answered by wrapping her legs around his waist and pulling him deep into her folds. She gasped and moaned as his girth spread her pussy wide. He fell on her and savagely kissed and licked her neck while he started to pump his cock madly in an out of her. Carnal need throbbed as they fucked -- the night seemed to echo with their moans and groans and the sound of his thighs crashing against hers.

Tessa released her hold and Will eased back a little and grabbed her knees and pushed them up almost to her shoulders -- resting on his knees, he slowed his pace, pulling his cock out till only the glans was inside her and he observed her body. Tessa looked up at him with hungry expectation as her hips gyrated invitingly. Locking his eyes onto her, he pushed slowly in to her for an inch and then pulled out before going in deeper on the second stroke. After three painstakingly slow strokes, his crotch was pressed against hers, his trimmed pubic hair tickling her sensitive clit.

"Don't stop," she whispered when he started to rotate his hips. His pubes brushed against her clit, triggering waves of pleasure up her spine, arching her back -- his rotation also caused his cock to spread her pussy in every direction as he started to fuck her and roll his hips at the same time. He felt her pussy fight against his gyrations, trying to hold his cock in its tight embrace.

Tessa turned each breath in to a gasp as Will plowed in and out of her with his slow rotations -- that was till he stopped rotating his hips and started to fuck her with ever increasing speed till he matched his previous pace.

"YES! YES!" Tessa moaned loudly as Will's pounding cock pushed her closer to orgasm. "There! Right there!"

Her juices flowed madly as she came -- Will slowed his pace, his sweat dripping down onto Tessa stomach. She smiled up at him when the disorientation of bliss subsided and she placed a hand on his chest, ushering him out of her oversensitive pussy.

"Will," she said, pointing up while a series of stars shot across the dome of the sky, but the Perseid's were slowly fading from sight as clouds began to roll in. The breeze blowing in from the water was a bit cooler than the air around them.

*****

"Storm's coming," Will said as he moved from between Tessa's legs and sat next to her. His cock stood up against his stomach, glistening with Tessa's come.

"I can smell it," she said. She then went to her knees and proceeded to pull Will's shoes and socks off and then she slid his pants from around his ankles. He watched her as she added elusive grace to the simple task of undressing him.

"How could you move like that with your pants around your ankles?" Tessa mused as she crawled up between his thighs and started to kiss her way from his navel to his lips, all the while holding his rigid cock in her hand. "And how come you're still hard?"

"Humm ... Motivation and experience."

"I see," Tessa said. She then kissed the tip of his cock -- a shiver of pleasure rushed over him. "Do you think it'll rain soon?" Her hand slid up and down his slick tool.

"Don't care," Will said, gulping hard when Tessa parted her lips and slipped the head of his cock into her willing mouth. A new wetness met his tool as Tessa rolled her tongue around his glans, making him groan with pleasure. She then released him and he laid back on the blanket and spread his legs wider to give her better access to his cock.