Me and my Mates

Late in the afternoon I dragged out my best jeans and shirt, gave the RM's a polish before heading for the shower. After scrubbing myself I got dressed for the first time in almost formal attire, checked the mirror to make sure that I wouldn't scare her, and climbed into my Defender (Land Rover) and headed to the address that she'd given me. I was in for a shock.

Her work truck was parked in the carport but there was another car in the driveway. Minor panic attack.

I rang the doorbell.

"Pete, can you get that?" I heard from the back of the house.

Pete. Who was Pete? Was he her husband, or boyfriend?

The door opened and a bloke who had a family resemblance to Julie stood there. "You must be Steve, good to meet ya." He held out a hand so I shook it. "I've been hearing all about this amazing bloke that she met, and what you've done with your patch of scrub. Come on in." He stood aside to let me in. "You're on your own Jules, if his truck's still here when I get back I'll slide over to Lou's place for the night."

"Since when did you need an excuse to go to see her?" Julie said as she emerged from the kitchen wiping her hands on a cloth. From this, I assumed, whether I'm right or not remains to be seen, that he fully expects that I will be invited to stay the night. "My, you scrub up well." She said just before she kissed me. "Come on through, dinners ready."

I followed her into a large kitchen come dining room to find a table set for two, a bottle of white wine and two glasses. I picked it up and read the label. "This isn't too shabby."

"Don't just stand there, pour us a glass."

I did as I was told.

Bloody hell, this was cordon bleu I thought to myself as she set the plates down. "Wow, is that lobster?"

"Nah, this is better. You've got a creek running through your place, don't tell me that you haven't got yabbies in there."

"I wouldn't know, I don't have the patience to sit on the bank with meat on a string to catch them."

"What? Who told you that you can catch yabbies that way?"

"I just thought, I've seen kids in the movies catching them that way."

"Dig in before it gets cold."

I'll give her this when she puts her mind to something the results are spectacular. The sauce that went with the yabby was not that overpowering that it killed the subtle flavour, the vegies were still a little crunchy, this was real food, and the chilled Sauvignon Blanc was perfect with it.

"If the dessert is half as good as this, the painting's yours."

"I should bloody well hope so, after slaving all afternoon over a hot stove I'd expect nothing less."

"Yeah right, five minutes on the stovetop would have done all this."

"There's no fooling you, is there?" She got up to clear the plates. As she leant over to collect mine she kissed me. When I moved to prolong the moment she slipped away. "Later."

The dessert was simplicity itself, a blackberry ganache over what appeared to be homemade ice-cream.

"This is perfect," I commented. "How are we going to top this?"

"That's your problem, I've done my bit."

I helped her clear the table and, as she rinsed the plates in the sink, I stood behind her and put my arms around her, pulling her in to me. I released her after thirty seconds or so.

"Where do you think you're going?" She grabbed my hands and placed them around her body, she pushed back against me. "He's interested." She said after we'd been together for less than a minute.

Interested? If he had fingers he would have dragged the zipper down and burst free of the restraint of my jocks.

Julie spun around in my arms and for the first time in I don't know how long, I was up close and personal with a very attractive young woman. "Mmm . . ." I whispered to her lips. "Do you think that we should be doing this?"

"We aren't doing anything . . . yet, but when the time comes don't let me stop you."

The time came and she was good to her word. We came and we were feeling good. "Apart from talking to the animals and slapping paint on a piece of canvas, what do you do, where have you come from and what makes you tick?"

"I will if you will, okay"

"Okay, I've got nothing to hide."

"Are you inferring that I do?"

"What you did before we met all that long time ago is of no concern to me. However . . ."

"Well, I was born a long time ago, in a land far away, Sydney. I am an architect by profession, and I had a good job that I enjoyed. I chucked it all in and moved up here to get away from the world. That's pretty much it."

"Something happened to make you leave it all behind you, you didn't just up and leave for no reason."

"You're right, you'll find it all out eventually. I think I have a wife, and she was the reason for my move. She was cheating on me and I felt betrayed, so I left. I didn't tell her where I was going or whether I'd be back. She may have tried to file for divorce, yes we've been separated for that long, longer in fact, but she wouldn't know where to send the papers."

"And you haven't thought of divorcing her?"

"Oh, believe me, I've thought about it but, the bastard inside has told me to put it off for as long as possible, knowing that if she wants to marry her lover, she can't, and with her religious upbringing that's going to hurt."

"It seems strange to me for a religion to allow people to cheat on their husbands but frown on divorce."

"They don't actually allow infidelity, but it's a lesser sin in their eyes than divorce. Go figure, I never had any time for her religion. We decided early on that when it comes to religion, I'd go my way and she could go hers."

"On the matter of religion, what are your views?"

"We're getting into the heavy stuff early on. Okay, I classify myself as a non-denominational Christian. I follow the teachings of JC, but I will not tie myself to the rules of the church. While my father never went to church, he was to me, a better Christian than my mother who went all the time."

"I can live with that."

"Okay, it's your turn."

"Well, I was born some time after you, I think, and I grew up in this town. I ventured into the big smoke and got a degree in Business Management with the view to making it big in the corporate world. I was progressing quite nicely along my career path until three events derailed my ambitions. The first involved a brief foray into the world of matrimony. I married my boss' son. The second was the spectacular collapse of that brief foray. The boss' son claimed that I had been unfaithful to him. What my boss didn't know that his golden-haired little boy had been shagging someone else. I was fired and the word was put about that I was unreliable as an employee, so no-one was interested in hiring me. The final straw was a month later when there was a bushfire in this district and Mum and Dad were both killed trying to get help. Dad was driving, very fast, when they were engulfed in a dense cloud of smoke. Dad ran off the road and hit a tree. By the time the smoke cleared and fire trucks began to find their way along the roads. it was too late. The car was engulfed in flames. We don't know whether it was the bush fire itself or whether the car catching fire that started a secondary bushfire. Because of that, I have devoted any spare time to working with the fire service on bushfire prevention and protection."

"We're both sad specimens of humanity, what are we going to do about that?"

"Come to me, come with me, I want to feel you inside me forever, but for the next hour or so will do to go on with."

"Only an hour? I would have thought that someone as insatiable as you've shown yourself to be, would want at least an all-nighter."

"Christ, what have I let myself in for?"

She didn't object until much later. Some time while we were at it, there was the sound of a car horn. "Pete letting us know that he knows what we are up to."

"What are we up to?"

"I think that you're up to your balls inside me, and I love it."

Nothing more was said for some time. "Steve."

"Yes, Julie."

"I don't want to spoil your enjoyment of the moment, but I have to get some beauty sleep. I have a job to go to in the morning."

"It is the morning."

"Just come, will you."

So I came, Julie joined the party about halfway through my coming inside her. She kicked me out with the promise that we would get together again tomorrow, or today, depending on whether the day begins at midnight or dawn.

I don't remember much about the drive home, my mind was in total chaos trying to get my head around what is happening to me. The only sense that I gained from all of this was that I was in love for the first time in a long time.

I was a little late with the morning greet and feed and Fred let me know that he was not pleased. The kookaburras had laughed themselves hoarse before I manage to drag myself out to feed them, they ignored me until the food arrived and then all was forgiven. I put more seed out for the other birds who flocked in numbers with no discernable pecking order and a lot of squabbling.

I made the decision that I would have to come home earlier, or later, depending on whether I was to feed my mates before I went to bed or after I got out of bed.

My thoughts of last night with Julie morphed into a painting from memory of her in all her glory, spread out on her bed waiting in anticipation for the arrival of my cock into her pussy.

I was putting the finishing touches to it when I heard a car pull up next to the steps up to my front door. I was wiping my brush when she came in. "Jeesus, I hope you're not going to sell that."

"What, don't you like it?"

"Like it, I love it, but if you think that I'm going to let you show me in the nude, you've got another think coming. I can't believe that you can paint something that doesn't look like me but is me. You've managed to scrape away the exterior and capture the inner me. If memory serves, you've never seen me naked in daylight or even with a light on."

"I closed my eyes and opened my heart and the image emerged." Julie had reached me and was standing close, taking in the whole painting. "Have you done this sort of thing before?"

I knew she wanted to know if I had painted a portrait of Sonia. I hadn't and told her so.

Her lips met mine. "Darling Steve, you are the most amazing man I have ever met and, if this feeling galloping through my body is telling me anything, it's that I'm in love with you. What are we going to do about this?"

"Let's just see where it takes us. If you must know I have had similar feelings for you."

"I'm glad of that. The thought of me throwing myself on someone who was unreceptive scared the hell out of me."

"Next question, are you staying the night here?"

"Yes, that was my intention." Another kiss. "Stay right there." She ran out the door and down the steps to her car, returning with a carrier bag. I expected to see a change of clothes, instead, she produced a range of food supplies. "We are going to cook up a feast in celebration of our newfound status as an item." She unpacked the food and, from the bottom of the bag, she produced a pair of knickers. "For the morning, I can't be expected to rock up to work in soiled knickers, can I?"

"I guess not. There is one thing that you'll have to get used to."

"And what is that?"

"The early morning ritual in this place. It begins with the kooka alarm, followed by the feeding of the masses, all of which takes place before I have my breakfast."

"How early is the alarm?"

"Daybreak. Will that be a problem for you?"

"Nah, I'll expect that we'll be awake before daybreak. Maybe not out of bed, but awake."

I chose to 'ignore' the implications of that statement. "Good, you can give me a hand with the feeding. My mates gave me a hard time this morning because I was late, plus, you'll get to meet all of my mates."

"I think that I'll like that."

The meal that we prepared, using a mixture of my produce and her goodies, was simple and tasty. It was accompanied by a pleasant red wine.

What followed was equally pleasant and simple. We went where our feelings for each other took us and some two hours after getting into bed we both drifted off to a contented sleep.

I was running my fingers up the inside of her thighs when a smile lit up her face. "Mmm, that's the way that I want to be woken every morning."

"Well, how about this then?" I asked as I straddled her and led my cock to her.

"Yes, how about that. I'll never get enough of this." She whispered. "I'll need a shower now." I handed her a towel and showed her the shower. "This is unusual." She said, pointing to the round shower cubicle.

"It started life as the end of a large pressure vessel. I cut it off, cleaned it up, sealed it and lined it with small tiles. The shower curtain hangs on a circular rail and into the cubicle. The taps (Faucets) are on the pole, there."

She had a very good singing voice, not the same high falsetto as the Gibb brothers, as she belted out 'To love somebody' for my benefit. I hope that I don't have to learn to sing, it'll scare my mates away.

We had beaten the Kooka alarm, but not the assembly. My mates were assembled on the lawn as we came down the steps to feed them. Fred got the message quickly, hopping over to Julie as she held out her hand with his food. He didn't even pause before taking it, telling the others that there was a new player on the paddock.

Next was the filling of the bird feeders. I allowed Julie to do this and several rosellas landed on her shoulders as she poured the seed into the hopper. There was a lot of chattering and squawking while the feeding went on.

Eventually, an almost eerie stillness settled over the place.

It was time for a breakfast of muesli with fruit and coffee.

Breakfast over and the dishes stacked in the sink. "This is nice." Julie was hugging me, "I would love to stay with you, but I have to go to work."

"I know that. I would love for you to stay with me, but I have to think of you, you have your obligations."

We kissed and she left, but not before promising to return this evening.

It was the middle of the next week and Julie had just arrived from work. We had kissed but there was something on her mind. "What is it?"

"Have you become a mind-reader or something?"

"So, there is something bothering you?"

"No, it's not bothering me, unless you don't agree with what I'm about to suggest."

"So, no pressure then?"

"Darling, what would you say if I was to suggest that I move in with you, permanently?"

"I would say . . ." I was going to stretch this out for as long as I could. "How quickly can you move in?"

"Help me." She led the way to her car that was crammed to the roof with her clothes. The move, or at least the first part of it, didn't take long at all.

We were just finishing dinner when she said. "I had two reasons for wanting to move in with you. The first is that I love you so much that I do not want to be separated from you for even a day."

"And, what is the second?"

"Pete wants me out of the house so that Louise can move in. He told me that they would be okay if I was still there but, from the way that he said it, I knew that they would be happier if I weren't. It's a win/win situation as far as I'm concerned."

"Looks to me like everyone's a winner. I was on the verge of asking you to move in."

"I've got other news for you."

"Is it good news or bad?"

"Hopefully it's good news. I've got to go to Sydney tomorrow for a meeting. The Rural Fire Service was alerted by one of the fire bomber pilots about this place. They wanted to get more information and I have been invited to speak with them."

"Am I to expect a whole bunch of people to come here, tramping all over my property and scaring my mates?"

"I will not allow them to disturb our property." The way that she emphasised the 'our' would suggest that she was taking some ownership of this place.

"I'll hold you to that."

It took a little while, and some manual stimulation on her part, for me to put the thoughts that I was having far enough out of my mind before I could really appreciate the change to my fortunes.

We were late getting to sleep and were not awake before the kooka alarm, so it was a bit of a scramble to feed the mates and ourselves before my wonderful Julie had to leave for her meeting. "Don't worry my love, it will be okay." She whispered before kissing me good-bye.

It was a mixed bag of news that she returned with. The bosses were suitably impressed with her description of my fireproofing of the property and wanted to see it first hand. "I don't think that Steve would be too pleased with that idea. He has managed to make friends with the wildlife and, if you look closely at the video from that plane, you will see a large mob of wallabies and other assorted wildlife congregating on the property. That is because they're smart and realised that they would be safe there. If we have a whole bunch of people tramping around the place, they will most likely be scared off. We can't have that."

"You said 'we' a couple of times, is there any significance in that or is it a Freudian slip?"

"I have fallen in love with him and we are living together. I wouldn't like it either."

"What does he do for a living?"

"For the moment he is an artist and a very good one. But before he moved to the area he was an Architect, and the ideas that he has used in our house would suggest that he was a very good one."

"I might have a proposal that could interest you, both of you."

"Run it by me, I might not like it."

"If he's as good as you say he is, my proposal is that we, the Rural Fire Service, employ him as a Consultant Architect who can provide design inspiration to other Architects in the field of house and property fire-proofing. Do you think he'll be interested?"

"I'll ask him."

I heard her car coming up the road and was waiting at the bottom of the steps for her. It wasn't that I was anxious about her meeting or anything. "Well, how did you go?" I managed to hold the question until after our kiss, long after.

"Darling, I have good news."

"Later." I had just removed him from her. "I've been thinking," I was stroking her clit, "of calling this place DD."

"DD, what does DD stand for?"

"Dick Dock. I have a dick and that is his docking station."

"But you dock more than your dick in there. I seem to recall a finger or two, and even a tongue in there."

"I thought about that but DFTD is a bit of a mouthful don't you think?"

"Speaking of Mouthful, I seem to recall that he docks in my mouth from time to time. Realistically I have two DDs. Now, back to what I was going to tell you. Will you get your finger out of there and pay attention?"

"I have a feeling that I might not like what you're going to tell me, so I'm trying to distract you."

"How will you know if you don't listen?"

"Okay, I'm all ears."

"How would you like to work for the Rural Fire Service as a Consultant?"

"A Consultant what?"

"Architect. I described your setup here, they were suitably impressed, and want you to consult with them and Architects on best practice for fire-proofing rural properties."

"Tell me more."

"I don't know more at this stage. My boss came up with the idea at the meeting and wants to send it up the ladder, if you're agreeable that is, to see if it has any traction with Management."

"You can tell your boss to go ahead and fly his kite, and if and when he has some sort of concrete proposal to put to me, we'll discuss it. In the meantime, I have something better to do with my time." Dinner was quite late.

I never expected the wheels to move quite so quickly. A week later, Julie and I were seated at a table that contained three other men and a recorder.

"Mister Jackson, Julie has given us some information about the improvements that you have made to your property to make it fireproof. Do you have plans for these works?"