Long Blonde Hair, Sky Blue Eyes Pt. 03

He was looking down at her with an amused grin; she was looking up guilelessly, but with the tiniest hint of challenge in the dark pools of her eyes. It would have gotten awkward quickly had Abbie, Paula, and Lucy not been summoned to join the boys they had been discussing when he walked up. They joined the boys on the slab, where they were loudly offered the opportunity to pick some good dancing music from the digital jukebox.

"Aren't you going to join your friends?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"And leave your charming company? Not until your blonde goddess sees us, quits flirting with Lukas, and hurries over here. You seem to like my looks, but I'm not getting in a competition with her!"

Erik laughed. "You might want to play up to me. The last girl who did got a modeling contract out of it."

That got the first honest smile he'd seen from her. "So how far do I get to go with you to get a contract? Just flirting, or a nice make-out session, or maybe a night or two in bed? At what point will she pick you over Lukas the Lover and run me off?"

"Who knows - maybe never. But how do you know Lukas the Lover?"

"I don't know him that well personally, but my friends say he scored points with each of them. He and his brothers have some contest going on in which they..."

"I'm aware, but I thought he had gotten out of that game."

"It would be a recent development - he was on campus hustling one of the cheerleaders when school started. Aden was there too, but he was after a sorority sister who won Miss Idaho this summer."

"Those two are hustling pussy on campus and they ignore YOU?" he said with disbelief, while looking her up and down lustfully.

"I might have mentioned that my dad is the head of the California Highway Patrol, and protective enough to send a hitman if someone messes with me," she replied seriously, and then giggled.

Erik took a big step backward and held his hands up in surrender. She giggled, took his arm, and said, "Come on; they are about to put the dance music on, and I want to get at least one or two with you before you get recaptured."

The boob she was holding his arm against was big and soft; maybe a C or even D, which on her petite body would look huge. This was supposed to be a lark; a chance to teach Annika a lesson about flirting while apart, but this curvier version of Natalie Portman was beginning to strongly appeal to him.

When the violins faded and Etta James' incomparable voice blasted "At last..."she plastered herself to him, and it got real. This wasn't a lark anymore: he wanted to lick her curvaceous body all over, eat her to a screaming orgasm, and set her on top of his cock so she could fuck him while he slobbered on those big tits and explored that bodacious butt.

Her response to his rapidly inflating cock was to rub her belly against it harder, look up at him with hooded eyes, and whimper. Those enchanting dark eyes in that beautiful face promised pleasures he'd never experienced, and it took all his willpower to keep from grabbing her by the ass, raising her up, and biting that pouty bottom lip - as prelude to a game of Around the World.

She laid her head back on his chest, and he saw the slab had filled with dancers of every age. The Cornhole players were still at it down by the water, but they had taken notice of the dancing and were eyeing the dance floor. Or maybe they were finally wondering what happened to Erik; after all, he'd been gone for at least forty-five minutes.

"I'll regret this, but what is your phone number?" Alicia asked. "I'm willing to be your side piece, or your fuck bunny, or your friend with benefits, as long as I reap some of the benefits I'm feeling against my tummy."

He knew he shouldn't, but caught in the minute he whispered it, and she whispered, "Thanks, and no, I won't forget. I have a photographic memory, and It's burned right beside the memory of your big cock."

The next song was a rocker, and he got to experience her shaking that lavish booty and those big boobies. That ended and another slow song came on; she wrapped herself around him and gave him a big smile. "She's nearly here, so get ready."

He gave her the same smile and asked, "Who?"

She giggled, and he heard, "Aren't you going to introduce us to your new friend?"

Without turning her loose, he looked over his shoulder and asked, "Cornholing over? Looked like y'all were having too much fun to interrupt."

Annika had a sickly smile on her face, but a hard set to her jaw; Hanna looked anxious; Johnny wasn't trying to hide a knowing smile; and Lukas was clearly amused.

Alicia unwrapped herself, extended her hand, and said, "We were actually introduced this afternoon; I'm Alicia Haskins. I'm from California, I'm a senior at Michigan, and I start law school in the spring at Yale. You're Annika the model, if I remember correctly."

The claws came out then, but Lukas quickly stepped between them and said, "If I may, I'd love to dance with the lovely Alicia, and you two lovebirds can either dance or perhaps go have a discussion." Alicia stepped into his arms, but kept her body well away from his body, and Erik took a step toward Annika. Before he did, Lukas whispered, "Well played."

Erik asked Annika, "Want to dance, or are you too tired from all the Cornholing?"

She gave him a death stare with hands on hips, pivoted, and stormed away. Hanna gave him the evil eye and hurried after her friend, and Johnny broke out laughing, which was going to cost him dearly later. "You're such an ass! But that was epic - pure Predator!"

Innocence covered Erik's face, and he held his hands out with palms up, in bewilderment. Alicia and Lukas were still there, in dance position, but laughing rather than moving. "You really are an ass! I'm glad she came when she did! I might have fallen for your BS," Alicia said when she caught her breath.

"He may be, but that was epic by any measure! The Predator, huh?" Lukas interjected.

A grin replaced the bewilderment. "Hey, I was inspired when I saw Lukas the Lover at work - well played yourself! And as for you, Miss Sacramento 2022, that wasn't the Predator. What you were rubbing against was real, so don't forget that number."

"I already erased it!" she chuckled, "But how did you know?"

"Saw you on TV in the Miss California contest. I called in to vote for you, but they picked the 6'1" volleyball player anyway. Those judges had no taste, or were bought out; none of the other contestants held a candle to you!"

"You're as full of shit as a Christmas turkey, but thanks, if you really did call in. I felt like a munchkin in the Valley of the Giants from the moment I arrived."

"Believe me, if they scored like Boone and Crockett, you'd have won easily with all those curves. I'm sure you're at least an eighteen on the Andersson Scale, right Lukas."

"A nineteen at first glance, but I may have to rescore upward after being this close."

"Felt like a Unicorn to me," Erik said with a wink to Alicia.

"Come on, let's get the dancing started," Lukas proposed, "I want to learn what he already knows!"

"Just remember: Daddy's hit man is only a phone call away, so keep your willy off my belly and your hands where they belong!"

"She may have the finest ass here, but you're the biggest ass in history! Do you have any idea how much trouble you've gotten me in this time?" Johnny asked as they walked away toward the house, and the hostile women.

"Don't give me that shit. You saw her in action, and even Hanna was appalled. I expected Lukas to take her to see the boatshed at any moment. She got what she had coming; the goose/gander thing."

"She might have been trying to make you a little bit jealous, but I didn't see anything that led me to believe she was serious. You and Natalie Portman, on the other hand... damn - she really is hot!

"I wish I'd recorded Annika's face when she saw you with Alicia. She was flicking her hair around, touching Lukas, and flirting like mad, and then she saw you with fuckbunny! Fun and games all ended, her face hardened, and she took off like she'd been shot out of a cannon!"

They walked toward the kitchen door, but were confronted by an angry Hanna before they entered - "What did you think you were doing, Erik," she hissed. "Annika is heartbroken by the way you were acting with that little tramp!"

Hanna didn't like the broad smile or the cold eyes on Erik's face, immediately regretting her decision to intervene on her friend's behalf. Erik had a way of always being a step or two ahead, and she knew she wasn't going to like what he said.

"Really, Hanna? So, in your world, she can all but beg Lukas to fuck her, but if I dance with someone, I'm the bad guy? Ha! And don't try to lie - I saw the look on your face just as clearly as we both saw her outrageous flirtation and body language.

"Maybe you need to go back in there and tell her one simple thing: I'm not some willing cuck who will allow her to have her cake and eat it too. We're not engaged, so she can do what she wants with whomever she wants to do it with, but she shouldn't expect me to stand there in a cock cage and watch! She may be a supermodel, but I can get as much high-quality pussy as she can get cock!

"In my world, what's good for the goose is good for the gander! If you two need help interpreting that, ask Johnny what it means."

Annika was and had been listening from just inside the screen door, and Erik knew it; her reflection was on the glass of the open door. He was addressing Hanna, but speaking to Annika. Finally, she stepped into the doorway, opened the screen door, and addressed Erik.

"So all that was about teaching me a lesson?" she asked contritely. "I thought I'd lost you to that gorgeous little thing."

"Not completely; I was as attracted to her as you were to Lukas. But as I said, the lesson is that I'm not going to sit back and watch you flirt and flaunt your charms to seduce someone. You want to play around, I won't try to stop you, but I will play around too, and at some point I'll write our faux commitment off and try to find someone who won't play around."

"I have no idea what I was doing," Annika exclaimed. "The afternoon was such a high - confronting Aden and Elias, having Lukas turn on them and become our friend, the party, the beer, the game, the competition... you disappeared, and our friend, this good looking lawyer-to-be, is teasing and flirting with me, and I just kind of fell into it! I teased back, he flirted more openly, and I did the same.

"It didn't seem wrong at the time because I knew nothing would come of it. The death stare Hanna was giving me should have been a warning, but I was caught up in the playfulness, and... well, I never thought about how it would look to you.

"When the music started it registered that I hadn't seen you in a long time, so I moved away and looked for you. I spotted your head, but there were a lot of dancers between us, it was my toss, and Lukas was threatening to tickle me again, so I got distracted. When I looked up again after the toss, I saw you with her and my blood ran cold.

"You've held me like that before while we were dancing, so I know how she was feeling. My heart almost stopped, and then I got furious and went charging up there to confront you! Instead, she confronts me with her femininity, her intelligence and degrees, and I felt gawky, stupid, and ignorant, so I ran away. While I was running, it also hit me that you must have felt the same way when you saw the videos of me cozied up to Afton, and I felt even worse."

She sighed, gave him her best heartbroken puppy look, and asked, "Now that I've made a fool out of myself, can we go back to the house and talk? There are a lot of things I want to say without an audience, even an audience of our best friends."

****

Lying in bed holding her - 'No sex, just snuggling tonight, please Honey' - as she slept, he had to confront something that had been floating around in the back of his mind for some time: as beautiful and famous and seemingly worldly as she is, she's stunted. She's never 'grew up,' in the way that is normally construed. She can have seem to have adult relationships, but when the water is stirred, she doesn't have the life experiences to react the way you anticipate a young adult will.

As she said, she never had to face the casting couch because her momma intercepted every dick aimed at her. She wasn't allowed to date outside her tight little circle, and even then, the dates were 'chaperoned' by one or more parents, a publicist, or a manager. Not even real dates, in Erik's mind, because there was no chance this was going beyond first base, and they were arranged, not based on attraction and lust.

It's hard to learn to read intentions, much less fend off seduction, when someone else will make that decision for the two of you. In response to the warnings, cautions, and instructions, Annika put up electrified fences to keep everyone at bay, except her established friends. Earlier in the afternoon when Lukas was a seducer, he had no chance with her; when he became one of their friends, though, he got past the charged fence, and was able to tease and flirt with impunity.

Would that have bagged him a Unicorn? Very unlikely, at least not in the immediate future; but down the road? Who knows? Would his experience, charm, and looks overcome her naïveté and end up in her bed? Impossible to guess, without an interruption / intervention like the one he provided tonight.

So there's that: her lack of experience in human relations. But, there's more: she's highly skilled at presenting herself in the best light, physically, but insecure about her intelligence and her education. Being tall since she was in her early teen years, she doubtlessly endured the 'crane' and 'giraffe' insults, if not on her jobs, then in social settings from jealous girls/women and mean boys/men.

When confronted with a 'normal-sized' beauty like Kerri or Alicia, those insecurities jump to the forefront. Add their academic accomplishments, and being a 'supermodel' fades into shallow insignificance in her mind.

She may be larger than life and one of the top poster girls in history, but her childhood and teenhood retarded her growth. Just as she never learned to ride a bike or swim, she never learned how to look beyond herself, to engage in an adult, 50-50 relationship that requires you to think of your partner's response before acting.

Still, she had a good heart...

Erik always wanted a houseful of kids to raise, but trying to 'raise' an internationally known woman like Annika was a challenge he'd never considered. He suspected they would both need counseling if they were going to succeed as a couple, much less as parents.

He also suspected he needed to go to her next big photo shoot. It's hard to imagine her world when all you see is the finished product - the sausage, so to speak, without having seen the sausage-making. He would give Johnny and Oliver advance notice as soon as Annika gave him the exact dates and times, but he was going to the Virgin Islands with her.

****

The vibe at the breakfast table was off - way off! Annika and Erik were quieter; Hanna and Johnny weren't handholding lovebirds; Carl seemed angry at Mary, who looked cowed; Elle was avoiding eye contact with her parents, and Axel seemed distracted.

Maja poked Oliver under the table, and he subtly nodded. Knowing they had a situation, or situations, at hand was the first thing, but now what to do? They tried to draw each couple out, and failing that, tried to draw each person out. They had little luck, and breakfast was uncomfortably stilted.

After breakfast, while the others were cleaning up the table and washing dishes, the grandparents schemed. Odds of getting someone from each couple alone and getting them to talk were slim, so they decided on an adventure for their last day of vacation. Oliver made phone calls, and Maja looked at places to visit.

After calling everyone into the living area thirty minutes later, Oliver announced, "Today we've planned an adventure to a place none of us has been before! We want to drive down to the marina and take the larger lake boat up the coast and across to the Apostle Islands, beginning with Sand and Madeline. There are parks on each where we can eat, so we're having a meal prepared by the restaurant next door to the marina, but don't expect anything fancy - it's Labor Day."

Maja addressed them next. "It's going to be in the 70s on the North Shore today, so dress accordingly. There will definitely be hikes, but remember we'll be in the boat for an hour going and coming, and the breeze off the water will be chilly.

"You have 56 minutes to be sitting in the van, wearing a smile on your face. Leave the bad attitudes, drama, and long faces here - this is an Olsson family outing; you can quarrel and pout on your own time!"

The boat was fueled and ready at the dock when they arrived, with food and drinks properly stowed in chests. Oliver directed Carl to pilot, and also to teach Johnny and Erik how to use the electronics and charts to pilot safely on the massive lake. Maja called her grandchildren, Mary, and Hanna to the bow, and had them sit on the starboard side, where she and Oliver bookended them.

"By the time we arrive you will know more about the North Shore, Northern Wisconsin, and the Apostle Islands than you want to know, but all this is part of your heritage. Both the Olssons and Winquists have owned land up here for many generations."

Carl opened the throttles to get the big boat on plane, and then pulled the throttle back to maintain cruising speed. The lake was calm, the skies were clear, the temperature was 84, and the forecast mentioned only a slight chance of afternoon storms. It was a great day to be alive and a great day to be on an adventure with family and friends.

"Johnny, I hear you're an experienced boatman, even if your experience is on those ponds down in Texas. Think you can keep this thing on the course shown on the screen for a few minutes?"

Johnny laughed and took the wheel. Carl guided Erik to the bow and took a seat behind the wheelhouse. "I hear I have you to thank for Mary coming clean about the two Andersson boys, and Sven too, for that matter."

"I happened to be in position to see her when they were in line, and she didn't respond to seeing Aden and Elias like she normally responds to people. I caught her alone and asked, and she told me. I think Elle and Axel's report on their 'competition' was the predicate cause, but I had a little more information to share that opened her up to talking about it."

"Any thoughts on why you and not me?"

"I'll answer that if I can ask you one; is that okay?" After a nod, Erik responded. "Most likely because I asked, had a story that verified your son and daughter's story, and explained Mary's remembrance of sudden, overwhelming horniness and/or momentary lapse of marital rectitude - namely, drugs.

"As to Sven, there is a lot of flirting at these and all parties, but there's no doubt he's a ladies man. The game Aden and Elias play with women, however, is a whole other matter, and using drugs to score means they need either a serious beating or a little time in jail to think it through, or both. I'm leaning toward both, but I'm planning to start with the beatings."

Carl laughed. "Aden's bigger than you, but I have a feeling he won't like what's coming. Now, what question do you have for me?"

"Describe Annika's childhood, or maybe compare and contrast it to Elle's. Was her mother abusive, or..."

"Yes and no. For the first four years, she fell within the range of 'normal,' as did our daughter's childhood. By age 4 though, Annika's angelic beauty was undeniable, and Desiree became fixated on developing her natural artistic talents and physical gifts. I didn't have any idea what she was planning to do with all the music, dance, and voice lessons, but when she started applying makeup to my four-year-old, I became concerned and tried to intervene.