Rocky Mountain High Ch. 02

"When I got to McGill I went a little crazy. I lost my virginity the second day in residence, and, well, there were lots of parties and some other boys. My midterm grades were bad. Katie sat me down and asked me if I was acting the way I was because it was good for me or because it would make my parents angry. I realized she was right, quit fooling around, got to work and got good grades the rest of university. I still didn't understand boys, though. I was friendly to anyone who was friendly to me, and didn't realize that most of them wanted to be more than friends. We had too many boys hanging around. Not that I did anything bad, but she thinks I flirt too much back then."

I shifted uncomfortably, and she looked up at me.

"Mike! Why the scowl? You think I am un vette? Slutty? Oh, I am stupid to tell you these things!"

I got my arms around her as she started to get up and run off.

"Hold on there, sweetheart. Of course I don't think you're slutty or a corvette, whatever that means. I don't expect any cute young lady your age to be a virgin. Tell you the truth, I tried to do my share to make sure there were no virgins left at Colorado State when I was there, but I wasn't all that good at it. That doesn't mean I like the image of you with another man."

She looked at me, and I kissed the tears away from those beautiful green eyes.

"I'm sorry. My parents think I am a bad girl because I live alone, go out with men, and miss Sunday Mass sometimes. It hurts. I can't imagine myself with another man either after you, Mike."

"You're not just saying that?"

"You are incredible. You know when to be gentle and when to be rough, you like to make me feel good, and this is just the right size for me. I never had a man make me feel like you do."

She leaned over and kissed my quickly growing cock.

"Now I am dry on the outside and wet on the inside. Come here."

She laid back on the blanket and wrapped her legs around me as I moved on top of her. Taking her there, under the open sky next to that mountain lake, was about the most erotic experience of my life. From the noises she made, she sure liked it too. I was really hoping that no one was in hearing range to investigate her screams of ecstasy as she came, and came, and came.

Eventually the sun got close to the mountaintops above us and we sorted out our clothing, got dressed, and headed back to the ranch house. I got a knowing look from Mrs. Lopez when I carried her picnic dishes back into the kitchen after unsaddling the horses. I guess Laura did have something of a tired but satisfied look as she sat there chatting with her, and I had a smile on my face too.

"Enjoy the ride, Miguelito?"

"I sure did, Tia Carmen."

"Good. You should go again tomorrow. Just don't wear yourself out, si?"

Before I could reply the ranch crew trooped in for dinner along with the bridesmaids. Three of the younger hands had gotten the day off to take them riding on the far side of the ranch, and it had only cost them a couple weeks of extra graveyard shifts in the dead of the coming winter. They still seemed to think they had gotten the better of the deal. Laura gave me a quick hug in an out of the way corner before heading to one of their rooms to chatter and giggle. She whispered.

"Don't lock your door when you go to bed tonight."

I generally don't- the Ruger .357 in the nightstand makes it irrelevant- but I made sure not to that night. About 12: 30 the door opened and Laura slipped in, carefully locking it behind her. In the faint glow of my reading light she pulled off her light, short silk wrapper and slid into bed wearing nothing but a lacy green spaghetti strap camisole and matching thong. She curled up to me and put her head on my chest.

"How are the girls doing? Enjoying the visit?"

"Oh, very much, very much. I think you are not the only cowboy who is going to get laid tonight."

"Really? I don't know what this place is turning into."

"Every girl has had a fantasy about being swept off their feet by a handsome cowboy. They are a long way from home. They can act it out, and when they go home no rumors, no complications, just good memories on both sides."

I grinned and then felt a chill as a thought struck me.

"Is that what we're doing here? Acting out a fantasy and when you go home it's over?"

"That is what Katie was so worried about. I promised her that I would not act out this fantasy unless I was serious about you."

"You want to be swept off your feet?"

"I am not on my feet, am I? I am in your bed, near naked, and in a few minutes I will be totally naked on top of you. But seriously, this is more than acting out a fantasy and then forgetting it. You are the kind of good, honest, sexy man I have been wishing for. I don't know what we will do about the distance but I cannot just walk away after this week."

"To be honest, I have often wished that I had a sweet, pretty, sexually liberated girl sharing my house. I hadn't considered a French-Canadian with a taste for fancy lingerie specifically, but having met you I'm sold. We are definitely going to find a way to keep this going after you leave. By the way, do you have a French maid outfit?"

"A what? What is that? I do not want to be your maid!"

"Never mind, just a joke."

"Don't you make jokes about French-Canadians. I wear this stuff because I have it and I know you like it. At work I wear white cotton under my scrubs. Do not think I am a bad girl!"

"Laura, I think you're an incredibly wonderful girl. I don't think like your parents. A girl as fun and pretty as you should enjoy it all she can."

"Maybe I am a little too sensitive?"

"We all have histories. Just trust me that I will never think less of you for enjoying your sexuality. Hell, I'm getting all the benefit of it!"

"Not all, I get the benefit too. Now come here and benefit me again."

An hour later she was fast asleep, spooned up against me with her head on one arm and my other hand under her chin. I was still deep in thought. I knew that I was at least fascinated with this girl, and well on the way to being in love with her. I also knew that, having done nothing but work and raise Katie for the last eight years, I would be a sucker for any girl as sweet and smart and pretty and sexy as Laura. But really, how many girls like that are out there? More to the point, are any out there in rural Colorado? The only girl I had ever seen from around here who could hold a candle to her was Katie. And what the hell more did I want than Laura? I squeezed her a little tighter and kissed her neck.

"Mnph. Enough for one night, Mike. Let's get some sleep."

"I know. I just like kissing you."

She turned over.

"I like you kissing me too."

She demonstrated and then laid her head on my shoulder.

"Now go to sleep."

I did. I would worry about the rest of it tomorrow if I needed to.

The next day we got up early for Tia Carmen's standard breakfast time. Afterwards Laura said she wanted to go check on the runt puppy, and I went with the hands to check the cattle that were still out on the ranges. When I got back Laura was in the kitchen with Tia Carmen learning to make tamales with gales of laughter from both of them in the process. The hands knew better than to criticize the results when they got them for dinner.

After dinner that last night we wandered out to the gazebo on the rimrock overlooking the ranch to watch the sunset.

"This place is so beautiful. Part of me is sad to leave here."

That broke my last restraint.

"Then damn it, Laura, don't. The rest of our lives could be like this last week."

I started to get down on one knee, but Laura stood up and stepped back.

"Don't, Mike. We've known each other for a week."

"The best week of my life. I love you, Laura."

"Please, Mike, don't say that."

"I'm tired of fighting how I feel. Are you asking me to believe that you don't feel something too?"

"You are a wonderful, strong, handsome man and an incredible lover. I can't deny that I am way down the road to falling in love with you too. Think, though. Je suis Quebecoise. Does anyone around here even speak French? You are asking me to give up my career, my home, even my country to be with you. I could do that for the right man, and you may be the right man. I can't make a decision like that after knowing you for a week."

"Hell, Laura..."

"This last week is not real life. I work at the Montreal Children's Hospital, and I love those brave little kids. I do not spend my days riding horses and playing with puppies and skinny dipping in mountain lakes with a handsome cowboy. You don't spend your days playing either. Would you move to Montreal to be with me?"

"For you, yes. But the fact is that I was three years into a degree in Ag Management when Mom and Dad's Cessna crashed in a storm and I had to drop out to run the ranch and raise Katie. What kind of career opportunities does a resume like that open in Montreal? What would become of the Skyline Ranch?"

"Likewise, what would I do here?"

"This area needs more medical care desperately. You would qualify as an ARNP here. I could set you up an office in town and you would have all the work you want within a month. That's if you want to work in medicine instead of here on the ranch."

"First I have to get a US license, which is not simple. And what Canadian wants to work in the US health care system? As an immigrant?"

"It's one thing to come here from Canada with a degree, needed skills and an engagement to an American and another to come here as a third world refugee. I know both of Colorado's senators from the Cattlemen's Association and they owe me favors. It would go through faster than shit through a goose."

"Tres elegant."

"Sorry. But seriously, this would work."

"I am not saying no, Mike. If ever a man could get me to do this it would be you. I cannot take such a step in such a short time, though. I will be back here, believe me, and maybe you come to Montreal to see me? But if you still want to ask me in a year maybe you will get a better answer."

Katie set me up with Skype so that I could talk to Laura in Montreal. It was a poor substitute for having her sleeping in my bed, but seeing and talking to her was the best part of my day.

One night she looked like she had been crying when the camera came on.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?"

She sniffled.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"Don't shut me out, Laura. If something's bothering you I want to know about it."

"My parents got a copy of that lingerie catalog. Some connard must have sent it to them. They say I run around with men and am not married. My mother said that I am un putain and should not come to their house any more."

I swallowed a wave of anger. How dare they hurt this charming girl that I loved so much?

"That's silly, Laura, and you know it. You didn't do anything wrong by posing for those pictures. As far as not coming to their house, who cares? Christmas on the Skyline is a hell of a lot of fun. Katie and Paul will be here. Come down here and spend it with people who really love you. Speaking of which, you know that you're one word away from being married if you want to be."

"I will be there, Mike. The rest we talk about when I get there."

I was ready to jump out of my skin as I waited for Laura to come up the jetway that December 21. The happy, brave smile she gave me when she appearedmelted me. She walked straight into my arms and stood hugging me until the gate agent tapped me on the shoulder and asked me, with a smile, to clear the way.

"I have missed you so much, Mike."

"Not as much as I missed you. Come on, let's get out of here."

When I got her out to my truck she jumped in and then squealed as she got a lap full of wiggling Corgi with a Christmas bow around his neck, frantically trying to lick her face. She laughed.

"Tripode! You got so big! And you remember me!"

She looked at me with her eyes shining.

"You took care of him, Mike. Thank you."

"For keeping a promise? What else was I going to do? I gotta like the little guy. He can't move as fast as the others but he's all heart and works as hard as they do. I haven't had a rat in the barns in months."

It felt like we hadn't missed a day together as we chatted on the drive to the Skyline. When we arrived she and Katie did the usual hugs and kisses as they collided.

"Uh, gals, I'm going to put Laura's luggage in her room..."

Laura grinned at me.

"Who do you think you are fooling, Mike? Put my stuff in your room. We all know where I will be sleeping."

That night I found her in my bed, wearing a Christmas bow in her hair and nothing else I could see.

"I hope you like your present, Mike."

"Eh?"

Smooth move, Ex-Lax.

"Me. You said I am one word away from being married? That word is 'yes', right? Well, YES!"

"Uhh..."

"My friends from school are all drifting away from Montreal. I can stay in touch with them from anywhere. Katie and I could set up a clinic in town and stay as busy as we want to be. Of course, that leaves me time to take care of you and the ranch. Do you still want to marry me?"

"Hell, yes. I love you, Laura."

"I love you too, Mike. Ask me to marry you again."

"Laura, will you marry me?"

"YES! I can't wait to marry you!"

So she did. I found room for Paul and Katie to build a home of their own on our land, and Katie and Laura started a clinic in town offering primary care and any other services the community needed. The appointment book was full the first month and every other month after that. Tia Carmen was thrilled when Katie popped up pregnant, and eagerly assumed the role of grandma to her babies. I'm working on a couple from me and Laura, but haven't had much luck lately. Whatever, it's fun to try. Lord knows that I'm in Heaven one way or the other being married to Laura.