Mars Hill Ch. 02

"Yeah?"

"I love the surprise you got me. It's totally fantastic. I.... Well... I have a surprise for you too. I hope it's OK."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out an envelope which I handed to her, with a slight tremble in my hand. A puzzled look came over her face as she opened it and read the papers inside. Then she looked up at me in shock, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Jeremy I...." She stammered as the tears began to fall down her cheek. I reached out to her and cupped her face in my hands, my thumbs wiping her tears away.

"Is this for real?" She asked, her voice hoarse with emotion.

"Yeah it is."

"We're going home?"

I smiled at her.

"Yes. We're going. I checked your schedule and booked the flights according to your end of term exams and marking. And of course I cleared it with Aunt G."

My aunt was still technically Becca's boss until the end of the year, when Becca would get her PhD.

When my Aunt Gillian and her partner Aunt Sam found out that I was planning on booking tickets us to go to Australia they damn near lost their minds. They gushed about how romantic I was and how cute it would be for Becca and me to travel and for me to meet her family. Aunt Gillian grabbed the reservation that I had made out of my hand and was on her cellphone before I could even register what she had done.

"Yes Hello?" She had said "I am calling about a reservation that I would like to upgrade to First Class." She said putting on a pair of reading glasses.

"Aunt G! What are you doing?" I whisper yelled.

"Shut up. I'm making this even better." She whispered back with her hand blocking the mic. "Yes for Jeremy and Rebecca.... No... Yes that's fine I will pay for it... One minute for the credit card."

"Aunt Sam are you really..." I started

"Jeremy Shut up. Let us do this for you." My normally mild mannered and even keeled aunt whispered with the most mischievous smile stretching from ear to ear.

"Yeah Jer. Listen to Sam." Aunt Gillian whispered.

"But really, I can't..." I started, trying to grab the paper back.

"Jeremy if you don't let us do this for you I swear I will never let you forget it." Aunt Gillian whispered. "Yes" she said in a normal voice back into the phone "You can bill that on my AMEX."

And that's how I was brow beaten into letting my aunts pay for our upgrade.

"But First Class? How ever do you..." Becca started to stammer again until I once again cut her off with a kiss.

"I bought the tickets. Aunt G and Sam paid for the upgrade. And I won't ruin Aunt G's story about how they pressured me into letting them pay for that. I'm sure she can't wait to tell you, it's exactly her kind of story. "

Becca laughed with the tears still flowing. Since she worked with my aunt she knew EXACTLY what kind of story I was talking about.

"Jer this is... too much." Becca said.

"Is it not ok?" I asked stomach falling.

"I love you. I can't believe I have someone in my life who would do this with me. Who would surprise me with international travel. But I can't be this much in your debt. I'll think of a way to repay you." She said.

"I don't need you to repay me." I said. " I love you. That's enough for me."

"I know you do. Jeremy when one partner in a relationship does something... well something like this for their partner... it kind of puts an unfair power balance in the relationship. So I will match this somehow." She said.

"Really it's no big deal" I said.

She kissed me.

"Jer, just listen to me on this one. You did something deep and meaningful for me by giving me a chance to go home. And your Aunts spent a ton of money on this too. So I will find a way to do something for you guys as well. I know you guys don't expect anything in return for this, but it will make me feel better about it because this is such a big gift."

"Ok." I said, a bit baffled.

"Ok." She said. "This is a super special gift Jeremy. I love you so much. I can't believe I have a boyfriend who would do this for me."

My heart swelled.

I joked "I can't believe that I have a girlfriend."

She laughed with only a hint of ironic pity. We walked back to the hotel together hand in hand, both a little tired from the emotion of the day, and one of us with a sore arm. Not long after we got back to the hotel we fell asleep in each others arms again, with Becca falling asleep first. As I watched her sleep I wondered how I could be so lucky. I still felt the passionate sexual attraction that I felt for her from the minute I saw her. I felt a deep and profound love too. The kind of love that made me want to rip open my chest and show my glowing heart to everyone. As her chest rose and fell slowly with her breath I wondered at the beauty of her, the soft curves of her face, the slim body that she kept in excellent shape, the warmth that she made me feel. When she looked at me it was like there was no one else in the world. Having never felt that before I wanted like nothing else to keep feeling this way for the rest of my life. I pictured us retired, hair grey, sitting on a cruise ship or at a cottage. Or sailing on our own sailboat, or just enjoying tea on our front porch. I thought about what it would be like to travel to Australia with her. Maybe we would see a kangaroo. Or go to an Opera at the Opera house. Or dive on the reef. I pictured Becca in her swimsuit. And then I pictured taking it off of her, and smiled as I dozed off, lost in my fantasy.

Our time in Vegas was over so quickly, and then we were back at school. Becca had a calendar of Hubble Space Telescope pictures that she kept on the wall of our kitchen, where we would see it as we turned toward the sink to do our dishes or make food. As soon as we got home she wrote in the number of days until we set out to Australia. Each day she would tick off another day on our calendar before we went to bed. Before we knew it it was exam time and the two of us barely had time to sleep and eat. We struggled through our exam work load and final paper writing, easily distracted by the thought of what was to come.

Becca had a warning though, about her mother.

"My mum can be somewhat off putting to strangers. She may say things or ask questions that you might not think are appropriate. She has trust issues and is a bit unstable. Just keep it in mind. If she says stuff she probably doesn't mean it, and either way I am on your side. I mean, I love my mom, but loving her means accepting her quirks and her baggage."

"Um Ok, thanks," I said.

"Just keep it in mind when you are thinking about what you are expecting," She said.

I imagined beaches, and all of the sights of Australia that I had see in popular culture like the opera house, kangaroos, the outback, koalas and blue water covered reefs. I tried like hell NOT to imagine sharks, snakes, spiders, and perhaps the scariest of all, the Aussie men with mullets and short shorts that Becca told me was the stereotype of someone called a "Bogan." She then had to explain that Bogan was slang for what we would call a Hick in America.

Then our exams were finally over. We threw some clothes into duffel bags, made sure we packed shorts and swimsuits and lots of sun screen. Since the original flights I booked were the cheapest possible, we had to wake up stupid early for our flight from Flagstaff down to Phoenix. From there we would go away from Australia to New York. After a few hours there we head back west to Los Angeles and finally over to Sydney. It had promised to be a miserably long day especially backtracking all over the continent, but hey it was cheap. Now that my Aunts had booked us into First Class, I was actually looking forward to all the flying. Becca was especially excited since she had never been to New York.

It was totally dark our when our alarm went off at 3 AM. I almost didn't wake up until Becca shook my shoulder.

"Wake up Jer, time to get moving," she said softly, barely awake herself.

"Uuhhhgghhhhhhhhhhhhhh," I groaned, my brain slowly starting to boot up. Then the memory of what we were about to do bubbled out of my subconscious and into my brain, and I just about hit the ceiling from jumping out of bed so quickly.

"STRAYA!" I shouted in excitement, using the slang term for the country. "Straya, indeed" Becca said with a grin.

We each quickly showered and threw on our traveling clothes, and grabbed our bags. Then we waited for the Taxi. And Waited. And waited.

"Jer we're gonna be late," Becca said nervously, as I frantically tried to get through to the taxi company, without any luck. In a bit of a panic I called my Aunts. Luckily Sam was just coming home from her night shift at the hospital, and she swung by and grabbed us and took us to the airport. After a quick hug goodbye, we rushed through bag drop and the theatre that is airport security, and made the plane just as they were making the final boarding call. We wouldn't have made it if Flagstaff hadn't been such a small airport, and our first class tickets hadn't given us access to the express line through security. There was a small first class cabin in the little regional jet that we took to Phoenix. Only about half an hour after takeoff we were back on the ground. Since it was such a short flight neither of us slept, and the only service was a small glass of water before we touched down. We ran from gate to gate in Phoenix before getting on our larger plane to New York. When we boarded we got the first two seats on the right hand side of the plane, with Becca taking the window seat. The flight attendant soon came around with Orange Juice and water. I grabbed a water and Becca an OJ, all the while holding my hand.

"Is this your honeymoon?" The flight attendant asked with a smile.

Becca and I trade a look. I smiled at her and started to reply in the negative, when Becca squeezed my hand and nodded saying "Yes."

I raised an eyebrow at her and she smiled back at me.

"Well then, I know it's a bit early but we will have to break out the champagne!" The flight attendant said with an even bigger smile. "Congratulations!"

He went and opened the champagne in the front galley.

"Becca what are you doing?" I whispered leaning over toward her.

"Well technically we've been living together for 6 months in a committed relationship." She whispered back. "So technically we could say we are common law married. And since this is our first big trip after that 6 month date we can technically call it a honeymoon if it gets us free champagne."

"Becca you know we get free champagne anyway because we are in first class right?" I whispered back with a chuckle.

"Um... Yeah I totally knew that," she fibbed. Her face flushed a bit.

"God you're adorable," I said with a smile.

"Good because if we ARE going to get married some day, I want it to be a bit more official than we just happened to be living together," She said giving me a light punch on the shoulder.

We chuckled. We had discussed marriage and kids early on in our relationship, and we both decided that we didn't want kids, but did want to get married someday. We even agreed that either of us could propose when we felt ready, because we were equal partners in this relationship. Other people thought this was a bit weird, but we didn't care because it worked for us.

During the 4 hour flight up to New York, and after several glasses of champagne, Becca managed to get some sleep. I, as usual, found it challenging to sleep on the plane so I just dozed and read my book. I reached over and woke Becca up so she could see the Manhattan skyline come into view out of our window. We wound around the city for a while before finally landing at JFK. We chatted about this and that as we took the inter terminal transfer over to Terminal 8 and got to the plane that would take us back to LA. This time it was a jumbo jet, with a giant Kangaroo on the tail. When we got on the plane the flight attendant who checked our boarding passes and showed us to our seats said "Welcome home," in a full on Australian accent.

"Thanks," said Becca with tears beginning to well again.

"Are you OK?" I asked.

"It's been so long since I've been home. I don't know. It's just emotional for me to hear our accent again from someone other than my sister. And the thought that I'm heading home again... Thank you for this Jer." She said leaning over for a kiss.

This flight, even though longer seemed to go by much faster. We set our seats into bed mode and just relaxed drinking Australian wine and holding hands in silence. Becca fell asleep for a while, resting her head against my arm. It seemed like no time before we were on the ground in LA and transferring to the airplane that would take us to Sydney. This one was a full double decker, with four engines and a massive wing. When we got onboard they gave us champagne and a little kit full of lip balm and soap and a toothbrush and other stuff. At our seats there were a set of slippers for us to wear, along with a set of PJs that we could keep.

The engines were quieter than I had expected, and soon we were smoothly lifting off and heading across the Pacific Ocean. When we climbed higher the seatbelt sign came off and Becca and I took turns heading to the washroom to change into the PJs. The food was fantastic and the wine was flowing. Once that was all over we folded our seats into beds, and they brought us an extra pillow and a duvet and soon we were both sleeping.

I woke up to Becca's quiet laughter about 5 hours from landing. It was still dark outside and in the cabin. Becca was watching a TV show that I didn't recognize. Becca saw that I was awake and leaned over and whispered "Hey I have an idea".

She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the back of the top deck.

"What are you..."

"Shhh," she whispered as she pulled me into a washroom.

Just as the door was closing a flight attendant saw us, winked and held his finger to his lips. I smiled and nodded.

Joining the mile high club is really awkward. The washroom we were in was bigger than one you would find in economy, but it was still small. Becca got down on her knees and after quickly doing away with my belt and fly, took me into her mouth. Her tongue worked magic on me as I sighed, leaning back on the sink closing my eyes. After a few seconds I was fully hard and ready to go. I pulled Becca up and we traded spots with her leaning over the sink. I pulled down her sweatpants and entered her from behind.

I don't know much about sex, but every time seemed to feel better than the last. The taboo of doing this in a public space at 38000 feet made me even more excited. I was cumming in her in no time. Since she hadn't gotten off yet, I flipped her so she was sitting on the sink and went to work on her with my tongue. She was moaning in no time and I shot my hand up to cover her mouth to muffle the sound. She dug her fingernails into the back of my neck as she climaxed. We cleaned up a bit and snuck back to our seats.

"I can't believe we just did that," Becca said.

I just smiled at her, and I'm sure it was as dopey a smile as ever.

Soon the sun began to rise on the other side of the cabin and eventually the lights came on and breakfast was served.

Then the coastline came into sight. From that point on Becca was glued to the window. We turned and followed the coast northward for a bit before turning over the coastline and over the suburbs of North Sydney. We turned again and soon the Opera House and Harbour Bridge came into view, with down town Sydney behind them. We got lower and lower, and I got more and more excited. Finally we were over the runway and then we were on the ground. The airplane slowly came to the gate. The flight attendants thanked us for flying with them as we got off the plane, the heat of the Aussie morning hitting us through the jetway. Customs formalities completed, including an Australian stamp for me and another "Welcome home," for Becca and we were officially in Australia.

Becca lead the way to the train towards downtown. We were staying at a new hostel in an area called The Rocks. We got off the train at Circular Quay, and when we got out of the train station there was the famous Opera House and dominating the skyline was the bridge. Right in front of us were a bunch of ferry docks and to the left was a cruise ship tied up alongside. There were buskers playing the didgeridoo and the smells of food from the cafe patio outside. Announcements were made announcing departures to places like "Parametta" and "Manley". The first thing I did was take a bunch of selfies, as one does, and even managed to get a laughing Becca in some of them with me. We walked up to our hostel which was half way up the hill toward the bridge. It was sitting over top of an archeological dig. I quickly checked us in and when we got into our private room we saw that we had a view of the Opera House just outside our window.

"Wow. This is incredible. I can't believe we are really here." I said.

"I know." Becca said. "Let's go for a walk."

We stepped out of the hostel and walked down to the water. The first thing we did was get local SIM cards for our phones so we could make calls and text and use the Internet while in Australia. It was so different to have escalators and foot and vehicle traffic on the opposite side from what I was used to. It was also neat listening to Australians talking with their accent and realizing that to them I am the one with the accent.

We walked around the Opera House and through the botanical garden. For lunch we ate some meat pies. After an hour or two of walking around Sydney, Becca announced that she was going to a beach and that I was welcome to come if I wanted. It sounded like a good idea to me.

We jumped on the ferry over to Manley and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon on the beach and swimming in the warm ocean. The sun was radiating and hot, and the smell of the ocean permeated the air with each crashing wave against the beach. Becca looked so beautiful as she frolicked in the waves. Her smile was radiant and her skin started to glow as it got some much needed sun. Throughout the course of the day her accent grew thicker and thicker until she was speaking like the born and bread Australian she was. The sun was almost fully set by the time we took the ferry back into town. The city was lit up, and the sails of the opera house glowed white against a dark blue background as the ferry pulled into circular quay.

We got back to the hostel and showered. When Becca came out all done up in towels I slowly unwrapped her like a Christmas present. I took in her beauty as she stood there naked.

"My goodness. However did I get the most beautiful girl in the world to agree to date me." I said.

She just smiled at me and started pulling my clothes off too. Soon we were both naked and I pulled her onto the bed. I kissed her, tasking the salt and the sand from the ocean. When she opened her mouth to allow our tongues to touch I reached down and started playing with her clit. I didn't waste any time getting my face down there, aside from a quick stop to kiss and nibble her small breasts. My tongue lapped at her clit and worked its way inside her lips, which opened up like a tulip flower blooming. Her juices coated my chin as she began to climax, encouraged by my tongue and my fingers dancing on her breasts. As she crested she pulled at my hair holding my face against her mound. She let me up for air after a few seconds and I crawled back up over her and as I kissed her I penetrated deeply. She let out a gasp at the sudden invasion and opened her legs wider for me to have deeper access. I thrust slowly and gently at first, and then built up speed. It felt like I could feel each ridge and ripple of her vagina as it expanded to fit me. I tried to not go too deeply into her small belly since, I had learned, if I accidentally thrust too deep too hard and hit her cervix it really hurt her. So I was as careful as I could be before slowly burying myself as deeply into her as I could go, the tip of my penis just touching her cervix as I exploded inside her. We lay there like that for a while, with me growing soft inside her, just making out. She flipped me onto my back and rode me as I moved so that I was still inside her but she was lying on my chest. We just breathed. When my penis finally popped out of her I could feel a dribble of cum mixed with her fluids fall out onto my pubic hair. We smiled at each other and fell asleep.